Paris Hilton Union Busting? Keep Reading...
Remember those full-page ads that ran earlier this week in the WP, NYT and WSJ touting a website called "unionfacts.com?"
Yeah, the ones with the lock on the gate.
We called over to this new outfit, Union Facts, to figure out who was behind them. After all, full-page spreads in such publications don't come cheap.
Their financial patrons, we were told, are private. And as a 501(c) 3, they won't have to file any pesky FEC reports disclosing their sugar daddies.
A union source, though, insisted that their backing comes from the Chamber of Commerce. Our source said that Union Facts's business-connected president, Richard Berman, pitched his new organization at a January meeting in Florida of the state Chambers of Commerce. Following his speech, the story goes, the state chamber officials pledged to back to the group to the tune of $2M per quarter.
We ran this by the nat'l Chamber, and it didn't ring true. State chambers did hear the pitch, we were told, but they have yet to commit to spending much money. If the new group shows some moxie and gets the job done, then the state chambers might part with more of their cash. Still -- a chamber vice president does serve on Union Facts's advisory board, per our source.
Still playing "follow the money," we called another likely suspect -- Wal-Mart.
But their D.C. honcho, Lee Culpepper, said the folks at his "home office" in Arkansas had told him that the retail giant has "not donated money to Union Facts."
So just where are the dollars coming from to support this organization?
Well, keep this in mind. Their second ad ran yesterday. The target? Bruce Raynor, the head of the union that has garnered headlines recently for its nat'l effort, aided by ex-Sen John Edwards and Danny Glover, to organize hotel workers.
So, without a shred of evidence that they may be involved, what say you, Hilton family?
[JONATHAN MARTIN and MARC AMBINDER]
I think it's much more likely to be Harry Reid acting as bagman for the Las Vegas Hotel interests.
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