Chamber of Commerce Bleeds Members Over Absurd GOP Campaign Spending

The incredible $75 million the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent on campaign ads during this year's midterms may have bought the group a House full of pro-business Republicans, but it lost them the support of some of its key members around the country.

As Politico reports, dozens of groups distanced themselves from the national Chamber's campaign spending efforts, and a handful even quit in protest.

More than 40 local chambers issued statements during the midterms distancing themselves from the U.S. Chamber’s campaign — including nearly every major local chamber in Iowa and New Hampshire, key states for the presidential campaign.

Other chambers plan to take the extraordinary step of ending their affiliation with the U.S. Chamber, including the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce in Pennsylvania. Its leaders reported being inundated with angry — and sometimes profanity-laced — telephone calls from people objecting to the U.S. Chamber-backed ads.

David Wise, the president of one of the groups considering dropping its national membership (the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County) put it this way:

We were getting pounded. We felt here, in central Pennsylvania, that the ads they were running were not professional ads. This was not a unifying event. It was divisive.

Another local Chamber leader, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce in New Hampshire president Robin Comstock was so offended by the actions of the national group that he not only dropped his group's Chamber membership -- he won't even be seen drinking out of a coffee cup bearing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce logo.