Real Koch Facts: Michigan

Kochs (Yet Again) Caught Placing A Generic, Misleading Op-ed

March 2, 2016

Not for the first time, the Kochs just got caught placing the same misleading and formulaic op-ed in multiple papers, across multiple states.

A formulaic opinion column, (most commonly titled) “[X state] Should Put Carbon Regulation On Ice,” by American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle has appeared in 10 outlets across 7 states over the last week-and-a-half. The Kochs opted for 35+ states last time this happened, but they’re being understandably cautious after getting caught and called out.

American Energy Alliance’s Koch connection comes in the form of a whopping $5 million that Koch front groups sent the organization between 2010 and 2014. But that’s not all: Thomas Pyle, the group’s president and op-ed’s author, is also a former lobbyist for Koch Industries.

It isn’t surprising that the Kochs are trying to impose their selfish policy agenda at the state level. That’s what they do with ALEC and their policy campaigns executed through Americans For Prosperity and […]

Koch Industries’ Plant Closure Will Leave Most Workers Unemployed

May 11, 2015

Most of the workers at a shuttering Georgia-Pacific plant are facing unemployment at the end of the year due to Koch Industries most recent cuts. Koch subsidiary, Georgia-Pacific, announced the closure of its Dixie Plant in Parchment, Michigan on Friday. The Kochs’ move is a devastating loss to the city as it was the last remaining paper producer in the town nick-named “Paper City” for the many paper companies it once was home to. Parchment Mayor Rob Heasley said he was shocked by the move since he believed the plant was doing well.

The impending closure is a stark reminder — while the Koch brothers gear up to spend nearly $900 million picking a conservative Republican and try to buy the White House, they have a long history of destroying livelihoods and families. The historic closing is just the Kochs’ latest maneuver to increase Georgia-Pacific’s profits. In Michigan, the Kochs’ Americans for Prosperity is

AFP Michigan sponsors event featuring racist speaker

January 13, 2015

On the eve of the Republican National Committee’s annual winter meeting, Chairman Reince Priebus and RNC leaders find themselves dealing with the fallout from yet another inappropriate, racist remark by a Republican official. According to a report from Slate, Michigan RNC Committeeman and former State Rep. Dave Agema has become an “embarrassment for much of the party,” thanks to his long history of posting racist material on Facebook.

“Much” is the operative word here. Prominent GOP members are calling for Agema’s ouster after his most recent Facebook post, which quoted a white supremacist magazine. Further, according to Slate, two sponsors — the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Heritage Action — backed out of an event Agema recently spoke at in Michigan, “The Powwow.” Yet a handful of organizations remained listed as sponsors despite Agema’s racist rants, including Americans for Prosperity Michigan, the Koch brothers’ political arm in the state. […]

Closing Argument: Kochs Fight To Save Candidate Cronies In Critical Election

October 30, 2014

The midterms are around the corner and the Koch brothers and their vast political network have gone to unprecedented lengths to elect extreme Tea Party candidates who support their self-serving agenda. The Kochs have bought and paid for these candidates (both senate and gubernatorial), and are clearly hoping for an Election night wave to secure support for their anti-working families agenda.

Unparalleled Spending

The billionaire brothers began their dirty campaign early this cycle. By January of 2014, the Kochs’ chief political arm, Americans For Prosperity (AFP), had already poured $22 million in dark money into TV ads smearing Democratic senators up for reelection. AFP did not stop there. They have continued to spend so heavily on television ads, which range from misleading to patently false, that AFP has accounted for one out of every sixteen Senate ads this cycle as of August 2014.

But Americans For Prosperity’s spending is just one cog […]

Closing Argument: Terri Lynn Land’s Failed Koch Candidacy

October 30, 2014

The billionaire Koch brothers know a thing or two about making economic investments, and so ahead of the 2014 election cycle, they sought to invest in candidates that would push their extreme self-serving agenda in races in that could help expand the senate map for Republicans. In Michigan, they have gone zero for one with Republican Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land.

The wealthy brothers couldn’t have asked for a candidate who would better toe the Koch line than Terri Lynn Land, unfortunately that agenda turned out to be anathema to Michigan voters. Whether she was opposing a minimum wage hike, gushing over unlimited dark money in campaigns, or promising to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act, Land’s positions on the trail have been everything the Koch brothers could hope for. And on top of all that, she had millions of dollars to fund her own campaign.

So the Kochs invested, maxing out to Land’s […]

Koch-backed NFIB endorses GOP Senate candidates

The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) desperately wants you to believe it has the interests of small business owners at heart, as do the eleven GOP Senate candidates the group has endorsed in this fall’s midterm elections. In reality, the group’s biggest patrons are the oil baron Koch brothers and it is firmly in favor of tax cuts that would benefit the wealthy substantially while benefiting the vast majority of small business owners not at all.

NFIB has been issuing endorsements throughout the midterm cycle on behalf of extreme Conservative candidates like Joni Ernst and Terri Lynn Land. The most recent Senate candidate to receive the NFIB’s endorsement is none other than Koch bro Scott Brown, who in 2011 gushed to David Koch that “your support during the election, it meant a ton. It made a difference and I can certainly use it again.” Not […]

Joni Ernst and Terri Lynn Land: Fighting for Small Businesses Like Koch Industries

August 20, 2014

Yesterday, Iowa Republican Joni Ernst announced that she was “proud” to receive the endorsement of the National Federal of Independent Business (NFIB) for her candidacy for U.S. Senate. Michigan Republican Terri Lynn Land was similarly flattered when she received NFIB’s endorsement last month (oh, except for that time she walked away from a question about it). Either way, one thing should be clear: NFIB is not about small business, it’s about the Kochs.

NFIB received more money in 2012 from the billionaire Koch brothers’ Freedom Partners than it did any other source, and has now been shown to have close ties with ALEC, the advocacy group of choice for dozens of multinational corporations like ExxonMobil, AT&T and Altria. NFIB’s advocacy for tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest Americans, like the Koch brothers, is but one example of the group not having the interests […]

Putting the “Fib” in NFIB

August 8, 2014

The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) presents itself as a do-good nonpartisan group that fights for the best interests of small businesses and stays out of politics.

It isn’t.

Dig a litter deeper and you’ll quickly learn that NFIB is another group with Koch-funding working to push their anti-working family agenda and elect politicians who embody it. They purport to lobby for small business, but fight tooth and nail for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans — tax cuts that help people like the Kochs and not people like the local hardware store owner.

And now their claim of being a non-partisan has been even further torn to shreds. The Washington Post reports that NFIB has significant ties to ALEC:

“The American Legislative Exchange Council, which connects state lawmakers with private sector executives to discuss and craft legislation, recently added Steve Woods, NFIB’s senior vice president in charge of state operations, […]

Terri Lynn Land Has A Koch Problem

Terri Lynn Land’s campaign has been floundering as of late. Republican pollster Frank Luntz recently called her “Really?” campaign ad – also known as Land’s desperate attempt to whitewash her abysmal record on women’s issues – the worst spot of the cycle. According to Public Polling Policy, “Land has seen her favorability numbers drop precipitously as the campaign has unfolded.” She has religiously avoided taking positions on key issues (except when she’s been forced to). And she created an infamous mess at the Macinack Conference, stumbling through a few answers from press before declaring, “I can’t do this.”

But luckily, Land has at least two supporters who aren’t going anywhere–Charles and David Koch. The Kochs’ Americans For Prosperity has already poured more than $4 million into her Senate race, and now, Land has been endorsed by the Koch-funded NFIB. In typical Terri-style, Land doesn’t want to answer […]

AFP Heralds Defeat of Michigan Road Funding Proposal

June 16, 2014

Last week, after a tumultuous legislative session, the Michigan Senate could not agree on a proposal that would shift the state’s fuel tax in order to fund sorely needed repairs to the state’s roads and bridges.

According to a report from Michigan Live, Democrats and Republicans alike were frustrated with the Senate’s failure to reach compromise. Yet one group was quick to herald the bill’s defeat: Americans for Prosperity of Michigan, the political arm of the billionaire Koch brothers in the state. AFP’s state director decried the proposal’s impact on “Michigan families,” who in his estimation, would apparently prefer to continue having to drive on roads with potholes and bridges in disrepair.

A component of the proposal was an increase in the tax on diesel fuel – currently 15 cents a gallon – to match that on gasoline, 19 cents. Koch Industries’ subsidiaries own and operate over a half dozen facilities […]