SourceWatch

Koch Party Wins Big, Planet in Peril

by Mary Bottari

But the result is no joke. These folks are not your run-of-the-mill billionaires, they are billionaires advancing a business model "that has declared war on life," suggests author Naomi Klein.

With seven new seats in the U.S. Senate and 12 in the House, with four new Republican governors and a significant number of wins in state houses across the country, the Kochs are on a roll.

"The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they've cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly attempting to buy Congress and the White House," Tim Dickinson recently wrote in Rolling Stone.

Read the rest of this item here.

Rick Berman Exposed in New Audio

by Lisa Graves

Rick Berman

As noted in a new story by Eric Lipton at The New York Times, Berman met with energy company executives at the posh Broadmoor Hotel earlier this year to raise money from them to attack groups representing citizens concerned about clean water, clean air, and the future of the planet. But Berman's "win ugly" tactics apparently did not persuade all of his prospective clients for his lucrative business of creating tax-exempt non-profit front groups that then contract with his for-profit PR firm to give corporations cover for his attacks on their opponents. The way Berman profits from this arrangement has spawned a legal complaint to the IRS.

Read the rest of this item here.

ALEC Corporate Board Chair Quits Over Climate Change, Renewables and Voting Rights

by Nick Surgey

Facing increased criticism of its role opposing action to tackle climate change and for teaching climate change denial, ALEC has lost numerous major corporate funders in recent months, with tech firms Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Yelp all leaving. Most high profile was Google, with Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt telling the Diane Rehm show on NPR that it made a mistake in funding ALEC. "We should not be aligned with such people. They are just literally lying," Schmidt said in reference to ALEC's teaching climate change denial. "The company has a very strong view that we should make decisions in politics based on fact," said Schmidt. Read the rest of this item here.

Direct Democracy Brings Economic Justice Wins, But Watch Out for ALEC

by Brendan Fischer

Minimum wage and paid sick day measures have been gaining momentum in the past year -- but keep an eye out for bills promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) designed to crush that momentum and limit local control.

Read the rest of this item here.

"You Will Be Amazed at How Much Influence You Can Have," Billionaire Pours $9.5M Into MO Elections

by Brendan Fischer

"If you get involved at the local level with the route I described, you will be amazed at how much influence you can have," Sinquefield told his business school alumni earlier this year.

The $9.5 million spent by Sinquefield puts him in the top tier of donors nationally. Yet what makes his 2014 spending so astounding is that it is all focused on Missouri.

Read the rest of this item here.

CMD Asks for Federal Criminal Investigation of Wisconsin Club for Growth

"We believe the evidence shows that WiCFG lied on its tax returns when it claimed to have spent $0 on political campaign activity in 2011 and 2012, when its own internal emails and financial documents clearly show it spending tens of millions influencing Wisconsin elections," said Brendan Fischer, General Counsel of the Center for Media and Democracy. Read the rest of this item here.

Direct Democracy Tackles Fracking, GMOs, Pesticides on Election Day

by Rebekah Wilce

Voters in cities and states across the United States voted on a number of ballot propositions affecting the environment on Tuesday, November 4.

Citizens voted on banning or suspending fracking -- the controversial process for extracting methane gas from shale deposits -- and how to address water use in cities and counties in California, Ohio, and Texas.

Colorado and Oregon both considered mandating the labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Josephine County, Oregon passed a GMO ban in May 2014. On November 4, voters in that county considered but failed to approve the nation's first Community Bills of Rights citizens' initiative banning heavy pesticide use.

Read the rest of this item here.

Megadonations Follow Randa Ruling in Wisconsin

by Brendan Fischer

A hole in Wisconsin's campaign finance laws opened by federal judge Rudolph Randa in September is being exploited by out-of-state billionaires like Sheldon Adelson, blowing open the floodgates to huge checks for the state's gubernatorial candidates in the final weeks and days of this hotly-contested race.

Judge Randa, a member of the Milwaukee Federalist Society's board of advisors and a regular attendee at Koch- and Bradley-funded judicial junkets, has single-handedly opened Wisconsin elections to out-of-state billionaires like no judge before him. Thanks to a pair of his recent decisions, millions of dollars in disclosed six-and seven-figure checks have flowed into campaign accounts of the gubernatorial and Attorney General candidates in recent weeks, and an unknown amount of secretly-funded expenditures have been coordinated with candidates. Read the rest of this item here.

Koch-Tied Group Urges Stoners Not to Vote for Mary Burke

by Brendan Fischer

The Koch-backed American Future Fund is running a series of web-only ads urging Wisconsin stoners not to vote for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke, but instead to support the Libertarian Party candidate, Robert Burke.

The nine ads are silent on the candidate that has received millions in outside support from the Koch network, Scott Walker. The American Future Fund has run ads supporting Walker in past elections. Read the rest of this item here.

Dirty Energy Barons Go to Bat for WI AG Candidate Schimel

by Mary Bottari

Wisconsin AG Candidate Brad Schimel has said he wants to sue the EPA to stop new rules limiting coal fired emissions, citing "federal overreach."

Now those who want him to do that are pouring on cash. With polls showing Schimel and his challenger Susan Happ neck and neck, new ads have popped up in Wisconsin from a mystery group called the "Rule of Law Project".

The ads specifically laud Schimel for asserting that he would sue the EPA over the emissions standards. Read the rest of this item here.

ALEC Tampers with Wisconsin Constitution

by Mary Bottari

On November 4, Wisconsin voters decided if the state constitution should be amended to require that "revenues generated by use of the state transportation system be deposited into a transportation fund administered by a department of transportation for the exclusive purpose of funding Wisconsin's transportation systems and to prohibit any transfers or lapses from this fund." The ballot measure reflects model legislation pushed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that is intended to prioritize road funding over all other types of transportation spending. Read the rest of this item here.

CMD Files IRS Complaint Against Wisconsin Club for Growth

The Center for Media and Democracy has filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service alleging that the Wisconsin Club for Growth lied to the IRS in 2011 and 2012, violated its tax-exempt status by operating as a political committee, and operated primarily for the private partisan benefit of the Republican Party, rather than for any sort of “social welfare.”

The problem of politically-active “dark money” nonprofits abusing the tax code is growing, but never before has such extensive evidence of a tax-exempt group’s internal communications about its explicit and extensive role in elections been made publicly available. Newly-public documents contradict WICFG's assertions to the IRS that it operated primarily to advance social welfare and engaged in zero political activity.

Read the rest of this item here.

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ALEC Pols Moving Up in 2014 Midterms

by Rebekah Wilce

ALEC board member Thom Tillis (R-98) engaged in a race against incumbent U.S. Senator Kay Hagan (D) that broke records for money in politics. Colorado U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner (R-4), a prominently claimed ALEC alumnus, challenged incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Udall (D) and won. Iowa state Senator Joni Ernst paid for her ALEC membership with campaign funds, and her ALEC ties became an issue in her race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Tom Harkin (D), according to Mother Jones.

Read the rest of this item here.

Power Players Behind the Corporate Takeover of Pennsylvania Schools

The event apparently had a lasting impact as the ALEC agenda has continued to roll though the hallways of the state capitol in Harrisburg in the years since. After Governor Corbett took office in 2010, ALEC bill after ALEC bill was introduced and signed into law.

With this report the Center for Media and Democracy puts a spotlight on some of the power players behind Corbett’s dramatic moves to reshape state education policy for the benefit of corporate interests. A surprising number of these groups are reportedly under investigation by federal officials or have been charged with wrongdoing.

Read the full report at ALEC Exposed.

Follow the Money! Wiki Resource

Read about Koch Funding Vehicles:

• Koch Family Foundations
• Koch Network
• Freedom Partners
• Knowledge and Progress Fund

• American Encore
• DonorsTrust
• Donors Capital
• TC4 Trust

Vist Koch Exposed for more.

Watch the Video!

Watch Lisa Graves talk about her new article, "The Koch Cartel: Their Reach, Their Reactionary Agenda and Their Record."

Read the article here.

SourceWatch.org is an interactive wiki website that depends on readers like you to improve content. If you want to help us grow SourceWatch with well documented research and become a volunteer editor, click here for more information.

Americans for Prosperity

Excerpt from a longer SourceWatch article on Americans for Prosperity:

Americans for Prosperity is a right-wing political advocacy group founded by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, the owners of Koch Industries.^[1] In the 2012 election cycle, it was a key component of the Kochs' $400 million political network, receiving large portions of its money from Koch-linked dark money groups like Freedom Partners, American Encore, and Donors Trust. AFP's budget, which comes from the Koch family foundations and other unknown sources, surged from $7 million in 2007 to $40 million in 2010 to $115 million in 2012. ^[2] According to the Center for Public Integrity, Americans for Prosperity "spent a staggering $122 million (in 2012) as it unsuccessfully attempted to defeat President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats," including $83 million on "communications, ads, and media."^[3]

2014 Campaign Ads

As of May 2014, AFP had already spent $35 million on ads targeting Democrats like Kay Hagan, Mary Landrieu, and Mark Pryor. According to Politico, the "projected budget for Americans for Prosperity would be unprecedented for a private political group in a midterm, and would likely rival even the spending of the Republican and Democratic parties’ congressional campaign arms."^[4]

On March 17, 2014, Americans for Prosperity began airing ads in Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, and North Carolina that make statements about the Affordable Care Act rated as "false" and "misleading" by fact checkers. These ads target Senators Mark Pryor, Mark Udall, Mary Landrieu, and Kay Hagan, all of whom are up for election in November 2014.

According to Americans for Prosperity, "millions are paying more and getting less." The Tampa Bay Times Politifact rated this claim as "FALSE", noting that there was "a slowdown in the increase in health costs during the last four years, including a modest 4 percent increase from 2011 to 2012" and "Americans are getting more benefits under the law in a number of ways -- including, in some cases, being able to buy affordable insurance for the first time."^[5]

Read the entire SourceWatch page on Americans for Prosperity here

References

1. ↑ Peter Overby, "Who's Raising Money For Tea Party Movement?," NPR, February 19, 2010.
2. ↑ Eric Lipton, Billionaire Brothers’ Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute, New York Times, February 21, 2011.
3. ↑ Michael Beckel, "Koch-backed nonprofit spent record cash in 2012," Center for Public Integrity, November 14, 2013.
4. ↑ Kenneth Vogel, "Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity plans $125 million spending spree," Politico, May 9, 2014.
5. ↑ Politifact, "Millions of Americans are "paying more and getting less" under Obamacare," Politifact.com, March 17, 2014.

CMD Launches OutsourcingAmericaExposed.org to "Expose the Private Companies Behind the Corporate Takeover of Public Services"

by PRW Staff

CMD has unveiled corporate profiles of America’s most notorious corporations that are quietly working with state and local lawmakers to take over public services with little accountability, along with in-depth examinations of the CEOs personally profiting from this corporate coup.

Read the profiles on featured privatizers:

Read the rest of this press release here.

Reporters' Guide to Rex Sinquefield and the Show-Me Institute

by Lisa Graves and Brendan Fischer

"Sinquefield is one of the top right-wing political funders in the country, and the single top political spender in Missouri, where he has spent at least $31.5 million since 2006 seeking to reshape Missouri laws, legislators, and policies according to his own ideological mold," said co-author Brendan Fischer of the Center for Media and Democracy/The Progressive. 

Read the full report here. 

Outsourcing America, Privatization Bites Back

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