Obama Allies Gear Up For Budget Fight

Obama Allies Gear Up For Budget Fight

A group of progressive organizations and high-profile unions will announce on Wednesday a multifaceted campaign to drum up support and help pass President Obama's budget.

The effort, which will be spearheaded by a coalition including the League of Conservation Voters, USAction, AFSCME, SEIU and Americans United for Change, will include a variety of grassroots organizing and political tools. Planning to spend, in one official's estimation, five to seven million dollars, the coalition will run ads and use other campaign tools in an effort to put pressure on -- or draw attention to -- key members of Congress.

The goal is "to mobilize groups across the country to pass the budget. It'll be a similar coalition to the groups that worked to pass the economic recovery plan -- ranging from grassroots to human needs to labor and beyond," said the official. "This budget represents major investments in many of the groups' priorities."

At this point in time, the official added, the group had not decided which districts of members of Congress it would target. The campaign is aided by the fact that the budget cannot be filibustered, and therefore only needs 51 votes in the Senate for passage. The goal in the end will be to keep the Democratic caucus together while "seeing if we can grab some Republicans."

During the analogous stimulus fight, much of the advertising focus and dollars was geared towards attacking Republican leaders in the House and Senate for their "just-say-no" philosophy on the economic recovery package.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot