Darth Vader of Boosterism pissing off more members; Almost all major Iowa chapters of Chamber of Commerce distance themselves from Tom Donohue

Recently a string of major corporations have quit the national Chamber of Commerce, citing differences with the organization over the issue of climate change. They included electric utilities PNM and Exelon, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Apple. Nike has stayed but stepped down from the board of directors.

Reaction from President Tom Donohue was that he was "not particularly worried" about the companies' departure, blaming their actions on an "orchestrated pressure campaign" by environmental groups.

Now local chapters are becoming disgusted with Donohue's $75,000,000 campaign to elect Republicans to the House, according to Jeanne Cummings of Politico.

More than 40 local chambers issued statements during the midterms distancing themselves from the U.S. Chamber’s campaign — including nearly every major local chamber in Iowa and New Hampshire, key states for the presidential campaign.

Other chambers plan to take the extraordinary step of ending their affiliation with the U.S. Chamber.

The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce in Pennsylvania was seriously considering dropping its affiliation with the national group after its leaders reported being inundated with angry — and sometimes profanity-laced — telephone calls from people objecting to the U.S. Chamber-backed ads, according to an official familiar with the internal discussions. On Wednesday, the Philadelphia group announced that it has decided to maintain its membership.

Tony Sheridan, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut, said “it all kind of backfired in Connecticut. All of our Democratic congressmen won. Now, we have to deal with the fallout.”

In Iowa, Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley survived an onslaught of U.S. Chamber attack ads in part because he circulated disclaimers issued by his local chambers.

To be sure, local chambers are not abandoning the national office in droves, and some of those complaining don’t belong to the national group, according to POLITICO reporting and information assembled by U.S. Chamber Watch, an anti-Chamber website.

2,600 state and local chambers belong to the national body.