Public employees union heaps cash into GOP ad attacks on Romney

An unlikely combatant has jumped into the big-money battle between independent groups running ads weighing in on the Republican presidential primary: a national union representing public employees. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) spent $1 million Friday on an ad accusing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney of greed, Federal Election Commission records show.

The liberal group’s intent is to sway the outcome of the Republican primary in Florida, with ads running there before the state’s party elections Jan. 31. The strategy seems to indicate that the union views Mr. Romney as the most realistic threat to President Obama and would much prefer to see Republicans field another candidate, such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, against Mr. Obama in the general election.

The piling-on of a liberal group on top of the Republican organizations attacking Mr. Romney highlights an irony to the 2010 Supreme Court decision that injected massive independent expenditures into politics with a ruling cheered by many conservatives: The majority of the spending thus far has been used to demonize Republicans.

When the high court held that long-standing rules barring unlimited political contributions deprived unions and corporations of free speech, it may have envisioned broad ideological spending: pro-Democratic advocacy from unions, pro-Republican spending from corporations. The existing groups, which are more likely to have only generic policy agendas, are unlikely to risk alienating members by choosing a candidate early in a nominating process and running blistering ads against his same-party opponents.

Instead of the ruling providing long-standing components of the American landscape with the ability to advocate politically, nearly all spending has come from bare-bones groups that sprout up for no purpose other than to collect and spend money to oppose or support a single candidate. Groups with such a narrow focus that they are tantamount to adjunct campaign committees — a person can donate up to $2,300 per election to a specific campaign — have created scorched-earth intraparty battles. ...

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