Mike Allen:
LESSONS LEARNED -- "Koch World reboots,"
by Kenneth P. Vogel, with Maggie Haberman :
"The Koch brothers' political network spent hundreds of millions to win the White House and the Senate - and came up empty. So they did what any smart business executives would do: ordered up an audit. ... Americans for Prosperity, the Kochs' main political outlet, parted ways with its chief operating officer, most of its 100-plus-employee field staff and several fundraisers. Generation Opportunity, a Koch-backed youth mobilization effort, recently replaced its president. Charles and David Koch's network also is withholding cash from some groups pending the full audit results, and it has postponed both of its signature donor conferences this year. The pressure isn't just coming from the inside. California regulators are issuing subpoenas and demanding phone and business records in an investigation that could reveal the secret donors funding some Koch-linked groups or even result in those donors becoming targets themselves. And David Koch has told friends he is weary of being pilloried ... as the personification of the corrupting influence of money in politics. ...
"Top Koch operative Kevin Gentry emailed associates after the election about 'a growing belief that one of the Obama campaign's competitive advantages was their analytical approach to almost all of their messaging' while others in Koch World have hinted at a more decentralized and below-the-radar strategy. ... They've blessed the formation of a new secret money non-profit group, the Association for American Innovation, POLITICO has learned. It will be run by former top AfP strategist Alan Cobb and will wage a behind-the-scenes push in state capitols for reforms consistent with the brothers' small government, free enterprise philosophy, including possibly curbing union power and abolishing income taxes.
"Americans for Prosperity is moving forward with a new initiative to block the implementation of Obamacare, and has hinted it may get involved in congressional primaries for the first time in 2014, which could pit it directly against Rove's effort. The brothers' operation also has signaled continued commitment to a host of non-profit groups established in the last few years under a section of the tax code - 501(c)4 - that allows donors to remain anonymous. There's a voter data-mining effort called Themis, a Hispanic voter targeting outfit called Libre Initiative and a fiscal watchdog called Public Notice." |
