Labor is looking at the Keystone State to hold the line against Mitt Romney in 2012. PA will see a significant chunk of the $500K the AFL-CIO Super PAC Workers’ Voice is spending on its national online ad buy.

The ad features the now-famous photo of Romney as a younger man at Bain Capital in the 1980s and says “Willard Romney: President for the 1%”. It will direct viewers to the union’s online grassroots organizing program. The hope is to catch potential activists among casual viewers

“These grassroots ads are just the first step in our efforts to combine old fashioned organizing energy with cutting edge technology,” said AFL-CIO Political Director Michael Podhorzer. “Our activists across the country will be hitting the ground running with the ability to begin taking action later this week.”

Here are some “key facts” about the ads from the AFL-CIO release:

• They will run across all online platforms including websites, Facebook, Twitter & search
• displays.
• They will be targeted to both union and non-union working families.
• They will run nation-wide, with heavier buys in PA, OH, MI, WI, FL and NV.
• 15-25% of the ads will be in Spanish.
• Four versions of the ads can be seen at – http://act.workersvoice.org/page/content/willard/

The AFL-CIO declined to make public the state-by-state breakdown of the buy, but numbers shown to PoliticsPA off the record validate a characterization of PA’s portion as significant.

David Taylor of the Pa. Manufacturers Association said he didn’t think the message would resonate with swing voters in the state – particularly white collar professionals in the Philadelphia suburbs.

“The fact that they refer to ‘Willard’ Romney rather than the name that he actually goes by, it would be like a Republican talking about Barack Hussein Obama,” he said. “It’s not terribly surprising. If I was the Romney campaign, I don’t think that I’d be concerned about this particular ad blitz.”

RNC Social Victory

The AFL-CIO isn’t the only group looking to social media for the inside track on 2012. The Republican National Committee recently launched its new Social Victory Facebook app which offers a rather impressive array of campaign tools.

From the CNN report:

They can fill out and submit absentee ballot applications, see early voting deadlines, donate to the party or inform their friends about upcoming campaign events using Eventbrite – all while never leaving Facebook.

And simply by clicking a button, a user’s phone will ring and automatically re-connect them, via RNC headquarters, to targeted voters in key states.