As humorist Andy Borowitz predicted, billionaires retained control of the U.S. government.
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.
Rick Berman, the king of corporate front groups and propaganda, has been caught on tape detailing his attacks on public interest groups in the labor and environmental movements, including on efforts to increase the minimum wage for workers.
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.
The corporate board chair of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the software company SAP America, has quit the group, telling CMD that it has made the decision to "immediately disassociate itself from ALEC" because of the group's position on climate change, opposition to renewable energy, its position on gun safety and its attacks on voter rights.
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.
Despite big Republican wins in many states, voters in four states approved minimum wage increases, and voters in three states enacted paid sick day laws on Tuesday, giving a boost to progressive policy initiatives even in conservative parts of the country.
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.
Rex Sinquefield, who has been described as a "new American oligarch," has reported spending almost $9.5 million on Missouri state politics in 2014 alone, bringing Sinquefield's total spending in the state to nearly $41 million since 2006.
"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.
The Center for Media and Democracy has asked Wisconsin's U.S. Attorneys to investigate Wisconsin Club for Growth for allegedly making false statements on tax filings and conspiring to defraud the United States, federal crimes arising from WiCFG claiming to spend $0 in political activity in 2011 and 2012 while spending almost $20 million influencing elections.
"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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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At least twenty American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) member state legislators and alumni ran for higher office in the midterm election, in races from U.S. House and Senate to governor and other executive branch state positions. How did they fare? The short answer is that most won their elections with the support of Koch-tied groups.
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.
In 2007, Philly rolled out the red carpet for state legislators and lobbyists attending the annual “State and Nation” policy summit of the American Legislative Exchange Council. Pennsylvania legislators appropriated a whopping $50,000 of taxpayer money to help pay for the event, including $3,000 for cheesecake lollipops.
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.
The Center for Media and Democracy, publisher of ALEC Exposed, brings you this unique wiki resource on the billionaire industrialists and the power and influence of the Koch cadre and Koch cash.
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.
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 CharlesKoch, 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]
Untruthful advertisement from Americans for Prosperity that aired in Colorado
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]
The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), publishers of the award-winning ALECexposed.org, launched OutsourcingAmericaExposed.org, a web resource devoted to helping taxpayers identify the corporations seeking to privatize public assets and services in their communities: including their schools, roads, prisons, drinking water, court systems, and more.
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.
"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.
"The folks at the Center for Media and Democracy have done incredible work documenting fake grassroots ("astroturf") groups. Here, they're helping protect the rights of all Americans to exercise their right to vote. They are completely non-partisan. These guys are the real deal."
—Craig Newmark, Craig's List
"A truly impressive project based on cutting edge web technology."
—David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.
"The troublemakers at the Center for Media and Democracy, for example, point to dozens of examples of "greenwashing," which they defined as the "unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, an industry, a government or even a non-government organization to sell a product, a policy" or rehabilitate an image. In the center's view, many enterprises labeled green don't deserve the name.
—Jack Shafer, "Green Is the New Yellow: On the excesses of 'green' journalism," Slate.
"As a journalist frequently on the receiving end of various PR campaigns, some of them based on disinformation, others front groups for undisclosed interests, [CMD's SourceWatch] is an invaluable resource."
—Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire
"Thanks for all your help. There's no way I could have done my piece on big PR and global warming without CMD [the Center for Media and Democracy] and your fabulous websites."
—Zoe Cormier, journalist, Canada
"The dearth of information on the [U.S.] government [lobbying] disclosure forms about the other business-backed coalitions comes in stark contrast to the data about them culled from media reports, websites, press releases and Internal Revenue Service documents and posted by SourceWatch, a website that tracks advocacy groups."
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