Can Democrats’ Anti-Koch Attacks Actually Work? [Yes, Here’s Why]

November 19, 2015

Recently, Bridge Project conducted six focus groups with swing voters in swing states on the billionaire Koch brothers as they gear up to spend nearly $900 million pushing their agenda and backing their puppet candidates in 2016. The focus groups revealed that to know the Kochs is to dislike them and that voters are turned off by their harmful, self-enriching agenda also backed by their puppet candidates.

National Journal reviewed the 12 hours of focus group footage, finding: “The voters pro­fessed a strong dis­like of the Koch broth­ers, their money, and the in­flu­ence they wield…. In most cases, by the end of the roughly hour-long ses­sions, the gathered men and wo­men said they would be less likely to back then next Re­pub­lic­an nom­in­ee for pres­id­ent be­cause they feared that as pres­id­ent, he or she would have no choice to im­ple­ment the Koch agenda.” (Those fears are well founded — just a few […]

Brilliant! Guess Who’s Spending $900 Million For “Less Money In Politics”?

November 19, 2015

Charles and David Koch — opponents of campaign finance reform — have a $900-million plan to get money out of politics. In brief, it involves spending $900 million to elect candidates who similarly oppose campaign finance reform — and it doesn’t make any sense.

In an recent interview with Yahoo News, Charles Koch ludicrously claimed that he and his brother are spending big in the name of “less money in politics.” Here‘s how the exchange went down:

Yahoo News: Campaigns have become so expensive now, Charles. Is there too much money in politics, and is it because rich people are putting too much money into politics?

Charles Koch: No, it’s because of corporate welfare. It’s — why are 6 out of the 10 most prosperous counties around Washington, D.C.? The estimates are that, that there are over $5 trillion — out of a $15 trillion economy — that goes to corporate […]

The New Yorker: Do the Kochs Have Their Own Spy Network?

November 19, 2015

Ahead of her new, highly anticipated book on the Koch brothers out in January, don’t miss Jane Mayer’s take on Ken Vogel’s “blockbuster” story from yesterday that exposed the Kochs’ “secretive operation that conducts surveillance and intelligence gathering on its liberal opponents.” Mayer wrote the original piece that pulled the curtain back on the Kochs’ true motivations in building a network that spends millions to push their agenda and her book promises to be equally revealing.

Read more:

The New Yorker: Do the Kochs Have Their Own Spy Network?

Are Charles And David Crazy (Desperate) For Carson?

November 18, 2015

Mounting evidence suggests that Charles and David Koch may be looking to Ben Carson as the GOP’s last best hope to beat out Donald Trump. Yes, Carson, whose own advisers admit that it’s a constant challenge to “make him smart.” Well, desperate times and all that.

It’s no secret that Charles and David Koch have for months been concerned about Donald Trump’s rise and GOP primary dominance. Now, it seems they’re doing what they can to help out Carson, who was just last week floated as a potential Koch-supported nominee by Americans for Prosperity President Tim Philips.

No one’s accusing Carson of having a sophisticated grasp of policy or the salient issues of the day, but that hasn’t stopped the Kochs from giving Carson a boost in the form of access to their voter file data through a Koch-linked corporation, “Demeter Analytics Services, Inc.”

FEC filings show that Carson America, […]

Hand-Picked Koch Candidate In WV Pushes Right-To-Work For Less

November 18, 2015

West Virginia State Senate President and 2016 gubernatorial candidate Bill Cole is following the Koch marching orders and says it’s time for the Mountain State to become a right-to-work for less state.

Cole’s motivation in pushing a top item on the Koch agenda is crystal clear: he wants to please the billionaire Koch brothers so their mega-donor network will funnel more money to his campaign.

Cole has been hand-picked by an arm of the Koch network that bundles Koch cash directly for candidates, Aegis PAC.

Aegis PAC is a part of Aegis Strategic, the shady political consulting firm that received a “blessing” from the Kochs to create a new, secretive nonprofit that spent hundreds of thousands in dark money on strategically timed attack ads to take out a rival of one of the Kochs’ chosen candidates, Joni Ernst, in a Republican primary. After the Kochs’ chosen candidate won the GOP primary, Aegis helped raise hard […]

POLITICO: The Koch Intelligence Agency

November 18, 2015

Another must read, revealing story from Ken Vogel on the Kochs is out this morning, shining light on the Kochs’ “secretive operation that conducts surveillance and intelligence gathering on its liberal opponents.”

The Koch network claims to use their “secretive” “intelligence” group as an operation that’s “cloak and dagger – like the CIA” to fight back against groups on the left — groups like American Bridge.

If the Kochs are so desperate that they’re trying to plant spies and maliciously infiltrate groups like American Bridge, our strategy of exposing their motivation in spending hundreds of millions to advance their self-enriching agenda and elect their puppet candidates must be working.

New Freedom Partners Tax Filings Reveal Reach Of The Koch Network

November 17, 2015

With Freedom Partners’ 2014 990 out today, we’re finally getting a glimpse at the $129 million the Koch network spent through shadowy groups to push their self-enriching agenda and elect their puppet candidates in 2014.

Freedom Partners is more than just a coordinator for the secretive mega-donor conferences that candidates of all levels audition at and a pass-through for the usual Koch network groups — Americans for Prosperity, Concerned Veterans for America, Generation Opportunity, the LIBRE Initiative, and others: it’s a way for the Koch network to funnel millions to groups across the far-right that back their agenda and help elect their candidates. 

Check out our five things not to miss in Freedom Partner’s newly released tax filing. As the Kochs’ promise to spend nearly $900 million in 2016, imagine what we’ll learn about what their money bought them in this election, but not until November 2017, of course.

The Koch ATM,” Freedom Partners, says […]

Have The Kochs Earned The Right To Pollute With Impunity?

November 17, 2015

Charles and David Koch’s interest in criminal justice reform began in the 1990s, when they were caught polluting at a Texas refinery. Bridge Project’s report on the Kochs criminal justice reform PR sham gets into the details, but, the main takeaway, is that the Kochs’ push for reform has always been about helping themselves.

The latest evidence comes in the form of a new GOP bill in the House of Representatives which, according to the Huffington Post, “would decriminalize a broad swath of corporate malfeasance, a move that injects white-collar crime issues into the thus-far bipartisan agenda on criminal justice reform.”

More specifically, the legislation would actually go so far as to “eliminate a host of white-collar crimes where the damaging acts are merely reckless, negligent or grossly negligent. If enacted, it would make it more difficult for federal authorities to pursue executive wrongdoing, from financial fraud to environmental pollution.”

In other words, […]

Kochs To Candidates: A Little Less Conversation

November 16, 2015

The Kochs are tired of just being told what they want to hear; they want to see action from their politicians.

The last few weeks have made it abundantly clear: the Koch brothers always expect something in return from the candidates they support. 

Last week, Charles Koch told USA Today that if Republicans don’t vote the way they want, they should expect a primary:

Asked what he wants to hear from Republican contenders vying for his support, Koch said: “It’s not only what they say.”

“If they start saying things we think are beneficial overall and will change the trajectory of the country, then that would be good, but we have to believe also they’ll follow through on it, and by and large, candidates don’t do that.”

Also last week, POLITICO exposed how the Kochs secretly bought the 2014 Iowa Republican primary for Joni Ernst. The Kochs chose Ernst because she would put their self-enriching agenda ahead of Iowa.

In the bombshell […]

Kochs To Kids: We Don’t Care If You Want To Go Outside And Play

November 13, 2015

Longtime polluters and climate change deniers, the Koch brothers’ list of infractions against our planet grows daily. Over the years, Koch Industries has seen employees charged with felonies and accumulated more than $90 million in fines and settlements from environmental violations. So now, logically, Koch Industries is joining an environmental legal battle against… children. Yes, you read that right.

According to MSNBC,

The unusual case began back in August when a group of “youth plaintiffs” (ages 8 to 19) sued the federal government, arguing that weak action on climate change is a violation of their right to life, liberty and property. They demanded that President Obama act more swiftly to slash the emissions that cause global warming. They sued for themselves but also for “future generations,” a group whose “guardian” is listed as James Hansen, the former chief climate scientist for NASA.

On Thursday, representatives of ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Koch Industries, and hundreds of […]

Paid for by American Bridge 21st Century Foundation