David and Charles Koch plan to steer nearly $400 million to conservatives this cycle. Left targets Kochs with $500K buy

A liberal nonprofit group linked to Harry Reid is launching what it says will be a long-term multimillion-dollar advertising campaign targeting the conservative Koch brothers.

The campaign, which is funded by Patriot Majority, kicks off Tuesday with a $500,000 cable television ad buy accusing Charles and David Koch of trying “to buy this year’s elections and advance their agenda.”


It marks perhaps the most concerted — and certainly the best-funded — effort by Democrats to make an election issue of the Kochs, or any of the emergent class of conservative megadonors. The brothers intend to steer nearly $400 million in the run-up to Election Day to a linked network of conservative groups, including some that have aired among the most aggressive attack ads against President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress.

The brothers’ primary political vehicle, Americans for Prosperity, last week announced a $25 million ad campaign in which people who say they voted for Obama in 2008 express disappointment with the president.

Patriot Majority’s ads, which will air nationally on CNN and MSNBC, are part of a campaign called “ Stop The Greed Agenda,” which will be supplemented by a website, direct mail and online ads — all directed at the Kochs, for now.

“We’re going to take them on,” said Craig Varoga, president of Patriot Majority. His group, which spent more than $10 million boosting Reid during his tough 2010 Senate reelection campaign in Nevada, is the nonprofit arm of Majority PAC, the super PAC assisted by Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, and other Senate Democrats.

Unlike super PACs, though, Patriot Majority is registered under a section of the Tax Code — 501(c)4 — that allows it to keep its donors anonymous. Varoga wouldn’t reveal the funders behind the new campaign, but he said “we already have several million on hand to launch” the Greed Agenda, which he said would continue after Election Day. He wouldn’t rule out the possibility of eventually targeting other conservative donors, explaining “the Koch brothers are leading examples, but they’re not the only example.”

Democrats have increasingly tried to make the Kochs into poster children for the corrupting influence of money in politics. The attacks — which are not dissimilar to those conservatives have levied against liberal billionaire donor George Soros — were a central theme of the Democratic closing case in the run-up to the 2010 midterm elections. But the argument seemed to flop; Republicans, buoyed by big outside spending, including many millions funded by the Koch’s network, recaptured the House of Representatives.

Varoga acknowledged that, in a national poll commissioned by Patriot Majority, “the Koch brothers have remarkably low name ID.” But he said “we believe that the more people learn about the Koch brothers and their agenda, that there is going to be a very positive response. Instead of complaining about the money that they’re spending, we’re going to focus on the policies that their front groups are actually pursuing and that is a significant difference from what has been done in the past.”

The ads make the case that the Kochs’ political activity is motivated by a desire to pad their wallets at the expense of regular folks.

A male narrator intones over ominous piano chords “The oil billionaire Koch brothers and their special interest friends are spending their billions on false attacks and TV smear campaigns to try to buy our elections and advance their greed agenda.” The brothers’ photos flash across a screen featuring a check made out to “The Greed Agenda” from Americans for Prosperity and ALEC, another conservative group linked to the Kochs. The brothers’ “payback,” according to the ad, will come from “politicians who will pass laws that benefit special interests, but hurt the middle class. More tax cuts for the rich. Eliminate the minimum wage. Big cuts to our schools, but big subsidies for oil companies. Tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.”

The Kochs did not respond to a request for comment.

But their allies argue that their activism is animated by a desire to boost the economy by removing government obstacles to free enterprise, rather than any financial interest. The brothers are worth an estimated $25 billion each thanks to their stakes in Koch Industries, their privately owned oil, chemical and consumer products company.

This article tagged under: Harry Reid

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