New Orleans      A lot of this is an old story, but there are enough new twists and turns that it settles disturbingly, especially if you care about democracy and understand the subtle things that can become significant in razor close elections with huge consequences. I know the freelance reporter and investigator, Spencer Woodman, who often is published by The Nation, largely as a phone pal. He calls every six months or so when he’s working on a story or to talk about what’s going on in case I might know something or say something that sheds a small light on some big story he’s following.

Months ago when he called he said he was working on a story about something called BIPAC, the Business-Industry Political Action Committee, a political outfit with a huge footprint but a small public profile, funded not surprisingly by business and industries including of course the Koch Brothers. I wasn’t very helpful other than to contribute the information that the name was surprisingly close to the Louisiana-based LABI, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, which had led one fight after another over the last 40 years in Louisiana against unions, most notoriously in their signature victory at forcing through the right-to-work law in the mid-1970’s. Turned out, as Spencer and I talked and searched the web simultaneously, that LABI in fact was directly affiliated with BIPAC, so one could just imagine the mischief and mayhem that such a ruthless outfit could create.

Woodman’s story is now out and that turns out to have been the tip of the iceberg. It’s available now on Slate.com and elsewhere and worth a look, if you worry, like I do about what happens when a company’s so-called “freedom of speech” crosses the line and becomes coercive in these difficult and dangerous economic times for workers.

Speaking of the “tip of the iceberg,” Woodman’s story on BIPAC starts in Alaska and the gang up of three BIPAC affiliated big energy companies Conoco Phillips, British Petroleum, and Exxon Mobil on their workers during a recent initiative vote, which is especially worrisome given the importance of the Alaska Senate in determining who and how the Senate is run for the next two years. Of course BIPAC is everywhere given its base that it claims reaches 25 million workers in the USA. Past any specific contest, Woodman points out that the ambitions of BIPAC are more disturbing, because it’s…

“…primary aim isn’t to help individual candidates win office; rather BIPAC’s goal is to turn as many private employers as possible into “employee political education” machines for business interests. BIPAC urges major companies to transform their workforces into a voting bloc and provides sophisticated tools that show employers how to do it.”

BIPAC, unlike Americans for Prosperity, and other business fronts, specializes more in hiding its hand as it throws the rock, but the directions of the toss aren’t hard to follow. Woodman got to be a fly on the wall in a training session they ran in North Carolina and the message was clear as their representative…

“…reminded the business crowd of the uniquely advantageous position bosses have in influencing their employees’ votes. “Employers are the most credible source of information for employees about this type of material as it affects their jobs, their own prosperity. They’re susceptible to the information. They’re a willing audience.” He advised that political messaging should appeal to employees’ sense of economic insecurity, or as he put it, their “kitchen-table economics.”

You get the drift. It’s worth following this story more closely.

Employers have always tried to sway their workers, who often have very different self-interests, to vote their way, since their own votes are few, and their workers are many. Nothing new there. But the level of bombardment, coercion both direct and implied, and increasingly intrusive pitches meant to capture their votes for the bosses interests are crossing more and more lines and moving towards the point where they are violating the protections workers need to feel for their votes.

This BIPAC business is scary stuff and worth closer attention as its messages come pouring out of the mouths of big businesses over the coming weeks for this election and coming years for many more to come.