Barack Obama receives love and loathing from independent campaign groups

The general election campaign is all about Barack Obama, at least judging from the money being tossed around independent of his and John McCain’s campaigns.

Both candidates decry independent efforts. But both benefit from them, though Obama is most affected.

Since the traditional Labor Day start of the general election campaign, political groups have spent $25.5 million for and against the presidential candidates. The bulk is being spent to help or hurt Obama.

Moneyed interests have spent nearly $12 million in support of Obama’s election, to $901,000 in support of McCain.

Far more has been spent to block Obama's election, too -- $9.5 million since Sept. 1, to $3.2 million to defeat McCain. The money is used for all manner of campaigning, including television ads and mailings. The figures are gleaned from Federal Election Commission filings of independent expenditure reports by various interest groups.

A closer look suggests trouble for McCain. The largest chunk has....

...come from organized labor.

The nation’s biggest union, the Service Employees International Union, has spent no less than $7.7 million directly for Obama and against McCain since Labor Day.

Other union spending has pushed organized labor’s independent expenditures to more than $10 million during the past five-plus weeks. Also assisting Obama is the liberal MoveOn.org, which has spent $2.3 million for him and against McCain since Sept. 1.

Overall, the SEIU has spent $27 million in what the FEC counts as independent presidential campaign expenditures since last year. That’s more than a third of the $73 million spent on independent efforts related to the presidential campaign.

The bulk of the money spent to defeat Obama has come from the Republican National Committee, $5 million since Sept. 1. The RNC is spending heavily because unlike Obama, McCain opted to accept an $84-million check from the federal government for the general election and must rely on assistance from his party.

Other than the RNC, the biggest player on the anti-Obama side is the National Rifle Assn., which has disclosed spending $3.2 million to defeat the Democrat.

Among other figures of note, groups that support abortion rights -- Planned Parenthood and NARAL -- have spent $825,000 for Obama and against McCain.

Groups that oppose abortion -- National Right to Life and the conservative Christian Focus on the Family -- have spent $327,000 since the official start of the general election.

-- Dan Morain

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