July 21, 2014
By Brendan Fisher and Nick Surgery
Newly-obtained documents (click here) show that the billionaire Koch brothers' political giving is much more expansive than has previously been known.
In addition to the hundreds of millions flowing into politics by way of the Kochs' network of foundations and funding vehicles like Freedom Partners, David Koch writes millions of dollars in personal checks to political organizations every year, and funds from the Koch Industries corporate treasury are used to bankroll the right-wing infrastructure the Kochs have developed. Koch Industries, the company David runs with his brother Charles, is the second-largest privately-held company in the country.
In some cases, Koch giving through largely untraceable personal or corporate checks outstrips the known donations made through the Koch family foundations and secretive pass-through groups like Freedom Partners.
Overall, the size of the Koch-funded political universe is vaster than has ever been reported....
...Known donations from David Koch himself include:
- $850,000 to Americans for (Koch) Prosperity in 2003 (making him the top donor that year), $1 million to AFP in 2001, and $1 million to AFP's predecessor Citizens for a Sound Economy in 2000
- $100,000 to the Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2009
- $125,000 to the Massachusetts-based State Policy Network member think tank Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research in 2007 (making Koch the largest single donor that year), and $100,000 to the Pioneer Institute in 2005
- $25,000 to the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom in 2009
- $150,000 to the Bill of RIghts Institute in 2011
- $400,000 to the Institute for Humane Studies in 2007...
By Dana Tims
The conversation blew up Friday (click here) after we posted a story looking at two national stories detailing major media ad buys in Oregon by a group affiliated with the conservative Koch brothers.
The stories, which ran in The Washington Post and Politico, said Freedom Partners, on behalf of Oregon Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Monica Wehby, has purchased upward of $2 million worth of ads in at least four Oregon markets -- Portland, Eugene, Bend and Medford.
We called a television station in Medford and talked to the general sales manager, who confirmed that Freedom Partners has bought 13 weeks worth of ads. They'll start running Aug. 8.
Within an hour of our post going up on OregonLive, readers had weighed in with more than 150 comments. As we're preparing this roundup, that number has now nearly doubled....
