AFL-CIO Has Plenty To Spend

The Politico's Ben Smith has it that AFL-CIO leadership will commit $53 million to "unrestricted 'member-to-member' communication" during this election cycle.

The same pot in 2004 was about $50 million, and those resources go towards mobilization in House and Senate races as well as the presidential contest. This is a big buy-in and a huge resource for Democrats in 2008. I think I particularly like the following point that Marc Ambinder made and Smith alludes to, which I reproduce in part here:

In total, the AFL-CIO unions will spend about $200 million on Election 08 efforts, according to AFl-CIO estimates.

Virtually all of that money will be used to help Democrats.

Republicans have nothing like the AFL-CIO. And for the first presidential cycle in recent memory, the Democratic Party institutions will have a financial edge.