Deborah Senn was a candidate for state attorney-general of Washington. A $1.5 million advertising campaign from a group called the VEC (Voters Education Committee) was launched against her, and now she's suing the organization that was behind VEC: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

A complaint filed to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission this week containing testimony from officials at the chamber alleges that the group conspired to oppose Ms Senn's candidacy by using a "front organisation", the VEC, in order to conceal its funding of the campaign. It also alleges that the chamber failed to register its activities and concealed its expenditures.

The secret funding of shell organisations like the VEC was, the complaint also alleges, part of a systematic campaign by the chamber to inject millions of corporate dollars in state attorneys-general and Supreme Court races to further the group's pro-business agenda.

Rob Engstrom, senior vice-president for political affairs at the Institute for Legal Reform, a subsidiary of the chamber, said in testimony that the chamber had targeted 43 Supreme Court and attorney-general races since 2000, much of which had been done through "third party partner organisations". Mr Engstrom also said the chamber had spent $100m on legal reform in targeted states and that the anti-Senn effort was the first time the group had been identified as a partner in a state race.

The chamber has, in the meantime, been caught up in a similar case in Texas, where one of its members, the Texas Association of Business, has been criminally charged with breaking Texas campaign finance rules by using corporate funds to finance a cam-paign to advocate Republican candidates for the state legislature in 2002.

The indictment alleges that the chamber donated $131,573 to the TAB as one of a slew of business donors. The indictment against the TAB, which was brought by Ronnie Earle, district attorney, is loosely connected to the indictments of former House majority leader Tom DeLay and Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), Mr DeLay's political committee.

Mr Earle contends that TAB used the funds in collaboration with TRMPAC, which has been charged with illegally funnelling corporate donations into Texas campaigns. Mr DeLay has vigorously denied the charges.

In blog-specific news, the USCofC is also on the board of the National Immigration Forum. They're identified as part of the Cheap Labor Lobby. And, the AZ Chamber was one of the leading opponents of Arizona's Proposition 200, although I don't know if the USCofC itself got involved. I have no idea whether the USCofC has used any groups as "fronts" to support illegal immigration, but perhaps we'll get more information as the case progresses.