Koch-friend Thom Tillis replenishes his stash

July 24, 2014

The Koch brothers’ political arm, Americans for Prosperity, has already spent millions in support of ultra-conservative North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis’ candidacy for the Senate and his anti-working families agenda. According to reports this week, apparently the billionaire Kochs just can’t enough of their favorite Tar Heel, as another of their secretive entities and several Koch family members are dispatching even more cash in their attempt to buy Tillis a Senate seat.

Roll Call has the scoop on Freedom Partners — aka the Kochs’ “secret bank” — snatching up almost $3 million in airtime in North Carolina for next month, all benefiting Thom Tillis’ campaign. Not ones to be left out of a political spending spree, individual members of the Koch family have maxed out personal donations to Tillis’ campaign, per the News & Observer. The N&O’s review of Tillis’ most recent campaign finance report found donations of $2,600 each from Charles Koch, his wife, son and daughter-in-law, for a total of $10,400. These two new revelations are all on top of AFP’s over $8 million spent so far in the race and the millions the Kochs and their allies have previously poured into pushing a drastic conservative agenda in the state.

This latest round of heavy Koch spending for Tillis has us wondering, what came first? The Koch support for Tillis, or the Tillis support for the Koch agenda, including tax cuts for the wealthy and slashing public education funding? If his AFP-induced change of heart on the state’s film tax credit is any indication, it’s likely the former. This is no chicken-or-egg debate, and thus, the money keeps on flowing in exchange for Tillis toeing the Koch line.

Paid for by American Bridge 21st Century Foundation