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 they’re not political but spent $107 million more in an election year than in the off year.
On his rebranding tour Charles Koch argues that he doesn’t spend a lot on politics. But as The Hill reports, “The Koch brothers’ powerful donor network spent $129 million in 2014 — more than five times what in did in the previous, non-election year.” For the Koch network, politics is about money — their money — and they spent big in 2014 to buy elections for the GOP candidates who back their self-enriching agenda.
- The Koch network funnels millions to their “constituency” front groups that push the Koch agenda, which hurts the people they claim to help.
Koch front groups claim to work for veterans, Latinos, millennials, and other groups, but they’re really only working for Charles and David Koch. Leaders of the network of Koch front groups including the LIBRE Initiative, Concerned Veterans for America, and Generation Opportunity, admitted behind closed doors at a Koch conference that they’re only interested in GOP politics & advancing the Kochs’ self-interested and self-enriching agenda.
The Koch network is bankrolling the far-right bysending millions to extreme groups at the national, state, and even local level that champion issues from fighting against Wall Street reform and health care reform to a opposing woman’s right to choose, denying climate change, and more.
The Koch network is sending millions to Club for Growth, Susan B. Anthony List, Heritage Action, American Energy Alliance, CitizenLink, the U.S. Chamber, and a slew of other groups that push far-right issues — Koch agenda — at the national, state, and even local level. And Charles Koch doesn’t just “expect something in return” from the candidates he backs but also the groups he pours millions into. 
- It’s confirmed the Kochs are willing to play ball in GOP primary races and spend serious money attacking Republican rivals of their chosen candidates through dark money groups.
Last week, POLITICO reported the Koch brothers gave their “blessing” to a political consulting firm, Aegis Strategic, 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 in a Republican primary.
- The Koch network funneled nearly $5 million to the NRA.
The Kochs claim they’re involved in politics to fight “corporate welfare” — but Freedom Partners funneled nearly $5 million to the NRA?
