The DNC Convention's Union Push: A Sneaky Workaround to Defeat the Corporate Donation Ban

Corporations are inherently evil, or that seems to be the Democrats’ position. They have banned all corporations from donating to support this fall’s DNC convention in Charlotte.

Sort of.

Bloomberg reports that the president’s political advisers are leaning hard on unions to make up the difference.

Democratic officials gave representatives of the major U.S. unions, including the AFL-CIO, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the United Auto Workers, a tour of the convention sites in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 23 in advance of a request for donations, according to the two people, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss internal strategy.

The three-day convention will culminate in Obama’s re- nomination in Bank of America Stadium on Sept. 6. So far, the host committee in Charlotte is roughly halfway to its $36.6 million goal.

Four years ago, unions contributed more than $8 million to the Democratic convention in Denver, according to financial disclosure reports.

Three years ago, though, President Obama handed ownership of GM and Chrysler to…the UAW. The UAW is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO. Rewind to April 27, 2009.

In cutting major concession deals with General Motors and Chrysler this week, the United Auto Workers are walking a whole new line as it goes from being just a labor union to owners of the companies its members work for.

A deal struck with General Motors exchanges debt owed to the union for 39% of the troubled automaker. A separate deal with Chrysler will give the 74-year old labor organization 55% of the privately held Chrysler.

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The union will in fact own more of GM and Chrysler than the Ford family owns of Ford Motor Co. It will own larger stakes in GM and Chrysler than billionaire financier Kirk Kerkorian was able to accumulate in his runs at both companies in the last 12 years.

So the Democrats’ ban on corporate donations is a convenient political fiction. They’re hoping no one catches it. They’re also hoping no one catches that the unions’ donation four years ago led to corporate ownership by government fiat a year later.