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Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) has been in the crosshairs of the Koch brothers and their SuperPAC, Americans for Prosperity, for the past few months. Obviously, the Kochs feel that Begich is vulnerable in this election cycle as he represents a state that went for Mitt Romney by a fairly sizable margin in the 2012 Presidential election. Of the $30 million that AFP has spent on ads so far this election cycle, nearly a million dollars has gone towards attack ads against Begich.

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One ad that AFP ran came under fire not just for twisting the truth (a Koch specialty) but by using a paid actress from Maryland and portraying her as a legitimate Alaskan resident and voter. After AFP ran another attack ad, this time falsely claiming that Begich supported a carbon tax, Begich had enough with the Koch brothers’ interference in his reelection campaign and decided to fight fire with fire. On Monday, a new ad was released by Begich hitting the Kochs for lying to the Alaskan people, killing jobs in Alaska and interfering with the state’s political process.

It is about time that Democrats stood up to these shadowy billionaires who are trying to pervert the democratic process of this country. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has already made his feelings known about the Kochs, recently taking to the Senate floor and calling them out for spending millions of dollars to spread lies. With this ad, Begich is stating that he isn’t scared of a couple of men who don’t have the guts to speak publicly on their views, instead using their billions to cynically influence elections and funnel money to the candidates who will do their bidding.

Hopefully, more Dems will follow Reid and Begich and speak out against these secretive lie-peddlers who want nothing more than to have a rubber-stamp Congress at their disposal. All the Kochs want are paid-for Republicans in office that will push through laws that will kill any and all regulations, allowing more money to inevitably find its way into the Kochs’ pockets. That’s all they care about. They don’t care about this country or democracy.