Charles Koch: We're just getting started

Charles Koch on Saturday signaled to hundreds of donors, operatives and conservative leaders gathered in the California desert that the political operation he and his brother David created was just getting started.

“Americans have taken an important step in slowing down the march toward collectivism,” Charles Koch said in his speech, seemingly in reference to the Republican takeover of the Senate during the 2014 midterm elections.


“But as many of you know, we don’t rest on our laurels. We are already back at work and hard at it! In fact, the work never really ends. Because the struggle for freedom never ends,” Koch said, according to excerpts provided by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit outfit that oversees the vast political and policy network created by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers.

The Kochs and their allies, who for years had a reputation for extreme secrecy, in recent months have taken steps towards increased transparency. While the Palm Springs session – like previous “seminars” as the gatherings are known in Koch World – is closed to the press, the release of even selected excerpts (which totaled fewer than 250 words) from a speech by the intensely private Charles Koch is a departure.

So, too, is Freedom Partners’ public acknowledgement of the seminar’s dates and approximate location, as well as the group’s plan to provide a live stream of a Sunday night forum featuring leading prospective GOP presidential candidates Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida.

Charles Koch’s speech, delivered at luxury hotel in Palm Springs, marked the kick-off of a three-day big-money strategy session organized by Freedom Partners. The group raises money from donors who attend twice-a-year sessions like the one in Palm Springs, and spends it – both directly and through grants to other linked non-profits – on a combination of small government advocacy and partisan electioneering.

The groups combined to spend about $290 million in the run-up to the 2014 midterm elections, including on hard-hitting ads that were credited with softening up vulnerable Democratic senators who ultimately lost to Republican challengers.

But Charles Koch, in his speech, cast the network’s efforts as “largely defensive to slow down a government that continues to swell and become more intrusive – causing our culture to deteriorate.”

Speaking loftily about the value of “individual and property rights” and “free speech and free markets,” Koch urged on his fellow donors – most of whom are older industrialists like the Kochs themselves – declaring, “It is up to us. Making this vision a reality will require more than a financial commitment. It requires making it a central part of our lives.”

The Koch brothers and their operation have become leading bogeymen of Democrats up to and including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who has accused the brothers of trying to buy American democracy while avoiding scrutiny.