Unite Here Nevada ads are NOT 527 ads - Clinton and Edwards are misleading

The emergence of a labor effort on Obama's behalf touched off a barrage of criticism from both the Clinton camp and aides to Sen. John Edwards, who said they considered it a surprising turn of events given that Obama's campaign was sharply critical of labor organizations that campaigned heavily for Clinton and Edwards in New Hampshire and Iowa.

"He loudly and repeatedly attacked independent ads by unions in Iowa as the product of special interests," said Edwards for President Deputy Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince. "But when a different outside group starts running ads on his behalf in Nevada, there's not a peep from him or his campaign. It must be because he's burning up the phone lines calling the head of UNITE HERE personally to demand he pulls the ads down right away."

Obama press secretary Bill Burton countered that the Illinois senator "has said clearly that campaigns should fund themselves and discourages supporters from spending outside the campaign. But no one should be confused about the effort that was run on behalf of John Edwards in Iowa. In that case, it was not the independent speech of individual union members, each contributing small amounts to amplify their voices. It was a special project of outside donors funding a massive 527 effort run by one of Edwards' top political lieutenants."

The Clinton campaign also took aim at the Obama camp for remaining "strangely silent" now that a labor union is attacking the Clinton campaign.

"In Iowa, Senator Obama and his campaign went out of his way to attack labor unions for independently promoting other candidates. But in Nevada, he's looking the other way as they falsely attack his opponents," said Phil Singer, a Clinton campaign spokesman. "That's wrong. Senator Obama shouldn't be saying one thing about independent groups in Iowa and another in Nevada."

-snip

The ad is running on Spanish radio. Unlike earlier labor efforts undertaken on behalf of Clinton and Edwards in earlier contests, the UNITE HERE commercial is not paid for by an independent "527 group." It is paid for by the union, which is permitted as a means of communicating to its 60,000 members, Bohner said.

"He loudly and repeatedly attacked independent ads by unions in Iowa as the product of special interests," said Edwards for President Deputy Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince. "But when a different outside group starts running ads on his behalf in Nevada, there's not a peep from him or his campaign. It must be because he's burning up the phone lines calling the head of UNITE HERE personally to demand he pulls the ads down right away."