Monthly Archives: August 2012

Huffington Post: RNC 2012: GOP Shadow Groups Eclipsing Party In Tampa

-By Peter H. Stone

August 28, 2012- TAMPA, Fla. — A shift of power from the official Republican party apparatus to an informal coalition of megadonors, super PACs and nonprofit advocacy groups is underway here, as a rising shadow party increasingly drives GOP politics.

Mel Sembler, a Florida shopping mall magnate and a key member of the Romney campaign's finance team, is planning to open his home Tuesday for a few hours to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future to let the group's leaders chat up potential donors on their plans, according to GOP fundraisers who requested anonymity to preserve their relationship with the groups.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday afternoon, top strategists for three powerhouse GOP allies — the Karl Rove-founded Crossroads groups; billionaires Charles and David Koch, who founded Americans for Prosperity; and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — are planning to huddle at a local hotel to coordinate efforts to spend tens of millions more on television ads and voter turnout, according to sources close to the groups, who were not authorized to speak on their behalf.

Patriot Majority: Payback

CNN: Group targets Koch brothers on cable ads

August 21, 2012- (CNN) – The liberal group Patriot Majority launched a cable television ad campaign Tuesday going after the Koch brothers, who are major supporters of conservative and libertarian causes.

Patriot Majority said it was initially spending $500,000 to air the ads, and expects to spend more than a million dollars by the end of 2012.

"Billionaire oil tycoons Charles and David Koch and their special interest friends are $400 million to buy this year's elections and advance their agenda. What's their payback? Politicians who will pass laws that benefit special interests but hurt the middle class," a narrator in the minute-long spot says.

The ad claims the Koch brothers' donations to politicians are prompted by a desire for policies that would help them financially, including lowering tax rates for the wealthy and changing Medicare to allow private insurers to compete with the government-funded health program on an exchange.

The ad says those policies would hurt the middle class while lining wealthy people's pockets.

The National Memo: GOP Consultant: Koch Brothers Bought Ryan’s Nomination With $100 Million Promise

-By Joe Conason

August 18, 2012- Veteran Republican political consultant, unrepentant dirty trickster, and recently reborn libertarian Roger Stone yesterday published a startling accusation against Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney on his personal website, The Stone Zone. According to Stone, the billionaire Koch brothers purchased the Republican vice presidential nomination for Ryan from Romney in late July by promising to fork over an additional $100 million toward “independent expenditure” campaigning for the GOP ticket.

Pro Publica: How Nonprofits Spend Millions on Elections and Call it Public Welfare

-by Kim Barker

August 18, 2012- Matt Brooks describes the mission of the Republican Jewish Coalition as educating the Jewish community about critical domestic and foreign policy issues.

But the well-dressed crowd that gathered in May for a luncheon on the 24th floor of a New York law firm easily could have figured that the group had a different purpose: Helping Mitt Romney win the presidency.

Brooks, the group's executive director, showed the 100 or so attendees two coalition-funded ads taking aim at President Barack Obama. Then Brooks made a pitch for a $6.5 million plan to help Romney in battleground states, reminding guests that their donations would not be publicly disclosed by the tax-exempt group.

Huffington Post: Not Voting? The Koch Brothers Thank You

-By Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm

August 16, 2012- I don't know what's worse: Is it that a party would deliberately seek to deny American citizens the right to vote knowing full well the extraordinary sacrifices that went into securing those rights? Or is it that there are so many Americans who - with that same knowledge of sacrifice and for whatever unsatisfactory reason — decide to give in to apathy and simply choose not to vote?

I do know this: our history demands we do better.

A new USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll found that an estimated 90 million people won't vote this fall. That's more than a quarter of the population of the United States.

You — or someone you know — may be one of those 90 million choosing not to vote. Voting is not compulsory. America is a free country. A free country honored by 1.3 million soldiers who've died since 1775 defending our nation and our precious right to vote.

Huffington Post: ‘Koch Brothers Fire Back At Zach Galifianakis’ Is Definitely Not A Headline I Ever Imagined Writing

-By Jason Linkins

August 7, 2012- One would sort of imagine that seeing yourself lampooned in a big feature-film satire about contemporary politics would be something of an honor, or at the very least an indication of your real-world political clout, but apparently the industrialist/political fixer Koch Brothers are unhappy that they've been depicted as less-than-utterly awesome in the new Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis movie "The Campaign." So, now this movie is now something that's forcing "spokespersons" to issue "statements."

Huffington Post: Koch Brothers, GOP Mega Donors, Help Bankroll Religious Conservative’s 2012 Efforts

-By Peter H. Stone

August 7, 2012- A conservative group led by longtime political activist Ralph Reed has budgeted $10 million for a major 2012 election push to turn out the religious right and block a second term for President Barack Obama, a top executive with his organization told the Huffington Post.