Engaging in more than 400 election races, millions of mail pieces sent, nearly $6 million spent.
(October 23, 2014) -- Spending more money than ever before in any election cycle in its history in support of the election of credit union supporters to Congress, and sending millions of mail pieces directly to credit union members, CUNA has joined an elite group of financial sector campaign contributors during the 2014 midterm elections.
About $5.6 million has been spent to date, with additional contributions to be disclosed before the midterm election. CUNA and its federal PAC, CULAC, have deployed direct mail, as well as television, radio and online advertisements for candidates on a bipartisan basis. $3 million has been spent on direct PAC contributions, $1.2 million on independent expenditures and $1.4M on partisan communications.
More than 80 separate pieces of direct mail, resulting in more than 2.1 million individual mailings, have been sent to more than 417,000 credit union members – all of which are registered voters. Messages varied by election race and individual mailers, but the overall focus was on educating credit union members as to which candidate was supported by and of the credit union movement. In stark contrast to several other groups, all of CUNA and CULAC’s campaign communications were positive and focused solely on the candidate being supported.
“This is the largest effort that CUNA and the leagues have ever deployed on behalf of credit union candidates across the country through contributions, independent expenditures and partisan communications,” said Jim Nussle, CUNA’s president and CEO. “CUNA and the leagues support candidates running for Congress who support credit unions. There are many candidates and members on both sides of the aisle who are friends of credit unions; the bipartisan makeup of our support demonstrates the strengths of the credit union movement.”
Nussle pointed out that the CUNA political program is one of the most bipartisan, with support for candidates split nearly equally by party.
Endorsements by credit unions have been shown to be highly valuable. CUNA research shows that 65% of credit union members are interested in where their credit union stands on the candidates.
Candidates that have received support during the general election include: Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO); Sen. Mitch McConnell (R, KY), Senate Minority Leader; Rep. Bruce Braley (D-, IA), running for Senate; Pete Aguilar (D, CA-31), a former credit union employee; Rep. Steve Southerland (R,-FL-2); Rep. Ami Bera (D, CA-7); Rep. Cheri Bustos (D, IL-17); Rep. Rodney Davis (R, IL-13); Rep. Rick Nolan (D, MN-8); Rep. Joe Heck (R, NV-3); Rep. Tom Reed (R, NY-23); and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D, OR-5).