For months, we’ve seen Charles and David already using their front groups to make big ad buys and bolster their pet candidates in competitive 2016 races, but the brothers are simultaneously using a more direct method to tip the scales: Koch Industries’ corporate super PAC.
October saw KOCHPAC spend heavily in support of Koch favorites in Senate, House, and gubernatorial races across the country. Here’s who the brothers gave big to last month:
- Rep. Joe Heck, who’s running for Senate for Nevada and also receiving support from Karl Rove, pulled in $2,500 from KOCHPAC last month.
- Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Charles and David’s New Hampshire favorite, has already benefited from $1.2 million in support from AFP — and KOCHPAC sent her $4,500 last month.
- Sen. Roy Blunt, the vulnerable, Rove-backed
senator from Missouri, got even more: $5,000 — in October alone.
- North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, mired in controversy over a sketchy contract the state gave to a big donor, is in serious trouble, but the Kochs came through big for him: McCrory got $5,100 from KOCHPAC last month. And that’s not including a six-figure Americans for Prosperity ad buy on McCrory’s behalf.
- And then there’s Speaker Paul Ryan, who pulled in $5,500 from KOCHPAC in October — $1,500 to Ryan personally, and $4,000 to his PAC, Prosperity Action. And Charles and David know how to get their money’s worth: They gave to Ryan just one day after he announced his run for speaker.
Charles and David most often prefer to use the surreptitious, unchecked spending of their front groups to buy influence, so as to create an illusion of distance between themselves and their puppet candidates. But that isn’t the case here. The two brothers are all-in and unafraid to flaunt their influence over a governor, a congressman, two senators, and the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Why do they give so freely? Charles and David expect “something in return.”
