The Service Employees International Union has spent nearly $70 million in campaign dollars this election cycle, making the union the top outside spender for Democrats, reports the Wall Street Journal:
SEIU, like other large entities that spend money on elections, doesn’t have to disclose all of its expenditures to the Federal Election Commission. But according to disclosures it has made so far this year, the union has funded almost $70 million of campaign donations, television ads and get-out-the-vote efforts for Mr. Obama and other Democrats. […]
That’s more than the nearly $54 million spent by Priorities USA, the main Democratic super PAC working to re-elect Mr. Obama.
So far this election, SEIU campaign hands have knocked on more than 2.5 million doors in eight presidential battleground states, including 400,000 in Ohio. In a development made possible by recent changes in election law, the union has spent millions of dollars trying to persuade non-union workers to vote for Democrats.
In July, the Journal reported political spending by unions exceeded previous estimates by a factor of four: Unions spent $4.4 billion on political pursuits between 2005 and 2011.