Information on "Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce"

A grassroots operation modeled on the successful tactics of the Obama campaign in 2008, this group is targeting at least 40 congressional districts (a loss of 40 Democratic seats would shift the majority to the GOP) and plans to spend at least $50 million on political races, which is nearly twice as much as the Chamber spent in 2008. The Chamber spent $1 million last year to help engineer the upset victory by Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts, which nearly doomed health care legislation. The Chamber claims 6 million members and has 6,000 affiliates. While it's not a secretive front group, the Chamber presents itself as an independent promoter of business interests, but its actions and spending line up behind Republicans at least 80% of the time. In 2009 it spent more than any other group to oppose President Obama.