USA Today: Independent groups push across Pa.

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-04-10-outsidegroups_N.htm?csp=34

By Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Independent political groups are blanketing Pennsylvania with volunteers and campaign mailers, as they try to help Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in the hotly contested battle for their party's presidential nomination.

Hundreds of volunteers from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are going door-to-door to turn out the vote for Obama. EMILY's List, which supports female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, is mailing brochures to the homes of 150,000 women in the Philadelphia area to promote Clinton.

List of top donors at link.

CAMPAIGN: Outside groups spend heavily on races

The spending by independent groups since January 2007 is less than 1% of the nearly $350 million spent by Clinton, Obama and John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee. But outside groups, led by some of the nation's largest labor unions, will step up their activity before Pennsylvania's primary April 22 and the elections in November.

"All these outside groups will be very important in the presidential race," said Stephen Weissman of the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute.

Outside political groups, which legally cannot coordinate their expenditures with candidates, emerged as big players in the last presidential campaign. They included the MoveOn.org Voter Fund and labor unions, which have deep pockets and vast volunteer resources, to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a small organization aided by a handful of wealthy GOP donors that ran television ads challenging the Vietnam War record of the 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry.

Outside political groups, which legally cannot coordinate their expenditures with candidates, emerged as big players in the last presidential campaign. They included the MoveOn.org Voter Fund and labor unions, which have deep pockets and vast volunteer resources, to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a small organization aided by a handful of wealthy GOP donors that ran television ads challenging the Vietnam War record of the 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry.

Fewer groups are pumping money into independent expenditures than they did at this point in the 2004 race, but they are spending more, campaign-finance records show.

FULL story at link.