Despite the Koch brothers’ best efforts, Karl Kessel was this week elected mayor of Alaska’s Fairbanks North Star Borough, drawing from “a broad base of support involving liberals, moderates and conservatives,” according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Americans for Prosperity ran an aggressive anti-Kassel TV ad campaign, notably the first Outside group to target a local candidate in Fairbanks, but their spending backfired, angering voters upset by the spending: The ads catalyzed a near-immediate fundraising boost for Kassel, who finished his campaign with triple the sum of opponents’ fundraising, the News-Miner reports.
“I’m going to send [Americans for Prosperity] a thank you note,” Kassel reportedly said.
Charles and David Koch may have lost this battle, but they haven’t given up the war. What they lack in integrity and altruism they more than compensate for in self-interest and dedication.
AFP Alaska yesterday vowed to keep fighting: “Our organization has worked to educate borough residents on where Karl Kassel has been on the issues…AFP will continue to educate residents across the state on the importance of economic freedom,” AFP’s state director, Jeremy Price, said in a released statement.Yeah, because that worked so well for them.
This isn’t the first time that AFP’s come up embarrassingly short and found Alaskans to be hostile to the Kochs’ Outsider and self-interested agenda. When President Obama visited the state in August, AFP intended to protest his visit but “were unable to organize in time,” according to the Alaska Dispatch news — tough to build a crowd when voters recognize your priorities are in direct conflict with their interests.