(MCT)

WASHINGTON — The AFL-CIO pledged $40 million Wednesday for labor's largest-ever get-out-the-vote drive in a midterm election, hoping to counter the GOP's vaunted ground game and take back Congress for the Democrats.

"This Labor Day, it appears that a perfect storm is gathering that may well sweep away Republican control of the Congress this fall," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney predicted.

The money would go to phone banks, door knockers, leafleting and TV ads — not to individual candidates. The labor federation plans to focus on pocketbook issues, rather than the war in Iraq, in hopes of rallying voters.

Despite the desertion last year of seven major unions from the AFL-CIO, "We will play the largest role we've ever played in electing the candidates we've endorsed," Sweeney said.

The organization will concentrate on 56 House, 10 Senate and 14 gubernatorial races.

The split between the AFL-CIO and the new Change to Win labor federation, including the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union, "is certainly not helping American workers and their issues, especially at a time like this," Sweeney said.

Nonetheless, Sweeney and Change to Win Executive Director Greg Tarpinian said the two union groups had agreed to cooperate in mobilizing voters and sharing mailing lists.

The Democrats, backed by labor, traditionally held sway in get-out-the-vote efforts, but the GOP in recent election cycles has erased the

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edge through last-minute programs using volunteers to get specially targeted voters to the polls.

The National Republican Campaign Committee, the GOP umbrella group for House races, recently turned over its get-out-the-vote efforts to the Republican National Committee and its vast databases, run by Chairman Ken Mehlman.

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