New Campaign-Finance Law Plays to Union Strength

By Bess Keller

Under the new federal law that tightens regulations on campaign spending, the two largest teachers' unions may gain political clout from the numbers of people they can call on, rather than in the dollars they are accustomed to spending.

In recent years, the 2.6 million-member National Education Association and the 1.2 million-member American Federation of Teachers have markedly upped their "soft money" contributions to political parties, mostly to the Democrats. The unions also buy broadcast airtime for "issue" ads that target federal candidates just before elections. ( "Unions Pull Out Stops for Elections," Nov. 1, 2000.)

Both of those forms of electioneering—soon to be covered by the legislation passed by Congress last month—have been largely unregulated and increasingly popular with political players. Total soft-money spending in the 2000 federal election cycle, for instance, was eight times what it was eight years earlier, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, an independent...