Chamber of Commerce to endorse Sen. Baucus

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will be endorsed Thursday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been criticized recently for being too partisan in its support of Republicans. 

Baucus is getting the endorsement even though he is one of 46 Senate sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act, which is backed by labor groups and would make it easier to form unions.

{mosads}The Chamber has paid for advertisements against the bill, highlighting that the so-called card-check legislation would eliminate secret-ballot votes for forming unions. It has also run an advertisement criticizing Minnesota Senate candidate Al Franken for supporting the bill.

Chamber spokesman J.P. Fielder said the group considered Baucus’s support for the card-check bill in making its endorsement, as well as a number of other issues.

“We weigh a variety of options,” Fielder said of the Chamber’s endorsements. “It is not based on a single issue.”

“Sen. Baucus, as chairman of the Finance Committee, has been a leader on tax and trade issues,” Fielder said. “Partisanship doesn’t matter with a leader like Sen. Baucus. He’s one of our strongest allies.”

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) criticized the Chamber in early October, saying the group had “turned themselves into a wing” of the GOP.

The Chamber and its affiliates have spent $16.3 million on behalf of Republican candidates compared to $320,000 for Democrats this election, according to the DSCC. The group has also endorsed a host of GOP candidates in the Senate and House. They include vulnerable GOP Sens. John Sununu (N.H.) and Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), and Rep. Steve Pearce (N.M.), the GOP Senate candidate in New Mexico.

In addition to Baucus, the Chamber has endorsed two other Democrats for the Senate: Sen. Mary Landrieu (La.) and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who is expected to win the seat of retiring Sen. John Warner (R-Va.).