[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/19/art.afl.cio.mailer.jpg caption="The AFL-CIO will send a two page mailer out Monday."]
(CNN)—In the face of growing economic concerns, the AFL-CIO will being sending out a new mailer Monday taking direct aim at Sen. John McCain’s recent comment that the fundamentals of the U.S. economy are “strong.”
“John McCain says the economy is fundamentally strong,” the mailer reads. “John McCain is fundamentally wrong.”
McCain made the comments at a campaign event in Florida hours after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy last Monday.
"You know, there's been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street," McCain said in Jacksonville. “Our economy, I think, still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times."
The Obama campaign has used the comment to attack the Republican nominee, calling him “disturbingly out of touch.”
The mailer, which the AFL-CIO calls their “broadest yet,” is set to reach more than one million union households in the swing states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The mailer will coincide with an e-mail reaching 500,000 people, phone calls and door to door visits from volunteers.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/20/art.aflcio.mccain.china.jpg caption="The AFL-CIO is sending this mailer to 50,000 voters"]
(CNN)—In part of a greater effort to reach out to critical swing state voters, the AFL-CIO is targeting John McCain’s support of trade with China in a new mailer.
“Beijing 2008 America’s athletes are coming home,” the mailer reads. “But thanks to John McCain, 2.3 million jobs aren’t.”
50,000 union swing voters throughout Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania will receive the latest mailer which cites McCain’s 1993 and 2000 Senate votes to implement and establish framework for trade with China.
“2.3 million jobs outsourced to China? That’s not a world record I would be proud of,” union member Dennis Philippi says on the mailer.
The mailer coincides with face-to-face efforts on the ground, according to AFL-CIO spokesman Steve Smith. Voters who receive the mailer are also getting phone calls from the group and knocks at their doors to ensure they hear the message “consecutively” in a number of ways.
Thus far the mailers have been “very well received” according to Smith.
This is the AFL-CIO’s second mailer taking aim at McCain in the past two weeks.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/14/art.mailer.cnn.jpg caption= "This mailer is expected to reach 50,000 seniors Friday."]
WASHINGTON (CNN)—The AFL-CIO launched a new offensive on Thursday, the 73rd anniversary of Social Security, looking to paint John McCain as a wealthy elitist who is unconcerned with the needs of senior citizens.
In a mailer expected to reach 50,000 seniors Friday in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, the labor organization focuses in on McCain’s plans to privatize social security and increase the minimum age for eligibility above 65 years old.
“John McCain started receiving Social Security when he turned 65,” the mailer says. “But now he has a risky scheme to privatize Social Security—threatening our benefits.
“McCain’s worth over $100 million...,” the mailer also says. “He walks around in $520 Italian loafers. If John McCain lost his Social Security, he’d get by just fine. Would you?”
In 2006 the Arizona senator earned $3.9 million and has a net worth of $40.4 million, which Democrats have noted in an effort to paint McCain as out-of-touch with the average voter.
McCain’s net worth far succeeds Obama’s $1.3 million. In 2006, the presumptive Democratic nominee earned $991,000.
The presumptive Republican nominee has said that he supports a partial privatization of Social Security — which the AFL-CIO is using to try to tie his positions to President Bush’s unpopular 2005 attempt to overhaul the system.
According to the AFL-CIO, their efforts will be expanding over the coming weeks to reach a larger number of voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan—with the potential of extending outside those swing states.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/03/12/art.afl-cio.cnn.jpg caption="The AFL-CIO is launching a major effort against John McCain."](CNN) - John McCain better get used to seeing AFL-CIO members at his campaign events.
The major labor organization launched a $53 million campaign Wednesday that takes direct aim at presumptive Republican presidential nominee and includes union protesters following him every step of the way as he campaigns for the White House.
"Everywhere John McCain goes in the coming months, union activists will be there to confront him on his economic positions and plans and demand that he speaks to working families' concerns," Karen Ackerman, the AFL-CIO's political director, said during a conference call.
The protests are part of a wide-ranging and unprecedented grassroots effort that will include mobilization efforts, direct mailings, e-mail, and a just-launched anti-McCain Web site.
The effort, called "McCain Revealed," aims to educate voters on the Arizona Republican senator's record, which the labor group says has been consistently anti-working families. It will consist of activity in 23 states and reach 13 million voters, Ackerman said.
“It’s clear that John McCain hopes to conduct his campaign without ever having to explain his economic priorities to working people,” Ackerman also said. “Public opinion polls show the economy is the top concern of voters, yet Sen. McCain has said very little about his economic positions and, as a result, working families know very little about where he stands on pocketbook concerns. That all changes today.”
A Republican National Committee spokesman called on both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to denounce the AFL-CIO's efforts, saying it would be consistent with both senators' denunciations of special interest groubs.
“The AFL-CIO’s campaign against John McCain clearly demonstrates their priorities lie in attack politics as opposed to focusing on American families," RNC spokesman Alex Conant said. "Voters looking for something new will find it in John McCain’s campaign to help working families – not the AFL-CIO’s partisan attacks"
The labor organization - consisting of 56 member unions - could not agree on a presidential candidate to endorse this cycle and has allowed each of its members to make individual endorsements. So far, Clinton edges out Obama among endorsements from AFL-CIO members.
- CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
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