A closer look at the ‘Kochtopus’ front group, The LIBRE Initiative

You have probably seen on your tee-vee machine in recent days political attack ads from the “Kochtopus” front group, The Libre Initiative. Oh, I’m sorry, that would be a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization “issue” ads. Excuuuse me.

The Arizona Daily Star provided a sketchy report, CD1/CD2 Watch: New ad target Barber, Kirkpatrick over their support for Obamacare:

A new round of ads attacking Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick and Ron Barber over their support for the Affordable Healthcare Act are expected to air later this week.

Daniel Garza, the executive director for The LIBRE Initiative, said his group is expected to spend $700,000 on the series of issue ads focusing on the economic toll Obamacare will have on Hispanic community.

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The Arlington, VA-based nonprofit has previously spent $1.2 million on ads in the 12 months focusing on immigration issues in 10 states.

Garza said his group is focused on various economic issues facing the U.S. Hispanic community. The 501(c)(4) nonprofit was founded in 2011.

When asked on Wednesday, Garza declined to discuss how his group is funded.

The Libre Initiative Trust has received roughly $3.8 million in the last campaign cycle from TC4 and Freedom Partners,  both affiliated with the Koch brothers, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

[Most of the funds originated with two groups, the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce and TC4 Trust, both of which routed some of the money through Sean Noble’s Phoenix-based nonprofit group called the Center to Protect Patient Rights (CPPR) in 2012. The players in the Koch-backed political donor network.]

The Star does not report the odd connection between former George W. Bush staffers and “Kochtopus” front groups like The Libre Initiative.

Daniel Garza is a former White House aide to President George W. Bush. He currently serves as Executive Director of the LIBRE Initiative and resides in Mission, Texas. Garza is former president of Televisa’s HISPANIC PODER Group, and is former host & co-producer of Univision’s “Agenda Washington,” a weekly Spanish-language news talk show covering the U.S. Hispanic community.

Chris Moody of Yahoo News reported on The Libre Initiative back in January. Koch-Affiliated Group Ramps Up Hispanic Outreach:

This push by the LIBRE Initiative includes a seven-figure ad buy against Democratic lawmakers who supported the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, and the opening of field offices in as many as a dozen states with large Hispanic populations. And in a novel move, the group is even providing social services to Hispanic communities while it sells its message.

LIBRE is not a new group—it was founded in 2011 and conducted similar programs on a smaller scale around last year’s presidential elections—but it is currently implementing a wide-ranging outreach initiative that began late last year. The organization has funding ties to Charles and David Koch’s donor network and is led by Daniel Garza, a former White House aide to President George W. Bush. Garza sees 2014 as an opportunity for conservatives to gain a foothold among Hispanics, which voted overwhelmingly for a President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.

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On policy issues, LIBRE espouses the typical range of conservative ideas: lower taxes, an overhaul of the welfare system, school choice and restricting regulation. On immigration, the group supports comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to legalization for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. (In 2012, the group spent nearly $1 million promoting immigration reform, Garza said.)

But most recently, no issue has taken more of LIBRE’s resources than opposing Obama’s health care overhaul. In recent months, Garza and LIBRE staff have penned multiple anti-Obamacare op-eds that have appeared in USA Today, the Tampa Tribune, Fox News Latino and Forbes.

On Thursday, LIBRE launched a media broadside against Rep. Pete Gallego, the second in a series of ads against the Texas Democrat. The ad criticizes Gallego for his support of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, and LIBRE says it’s spending about half a million dollars for a two-week run in his district on network TV. The push is part of a broader ad campaign aimed at Democrats in Hispanic-heavy districts, particularly Gallego and Florida Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia. LIBRE has previously spent about $700,000 on issue ads targeting the two lawmakers in both English and Spanish, and it plans to spend more closer to the November midterm election.

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LIBRE is also coordinating a political ground game that dispatches volunteers to conduct door-to-door outreach, canvass on issues and make calls to Hispanic voters in support of conservative causes. The group also hosts policy forums around issues that affect Hispanics, and members regularly turn up at Hispanic community events to spread their message and gather email address, phone numbers and voter data.

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The organization is part of a sprawling network of advocacy groups coordinated in part by the Koch brothers, who support a variety of philanthropic and political causes. Through the vast web of conservative and libertarian donor programs, which received a thorough examination recently by the Washington Post and the Center for Responsive Politics, LIBRE has received $3.8 million in funding from the Koch-affiliated Freedom Partners and TC4 Trust, which provide grants to free-market nonprofit groups. LIBRE’s Arlington, Va., headquarters also shares a floor in the same office building as Freedom Partners.

LIBRE’s staff is comprised of veteran conservative Hispanic operatives, including National Strategic Director Jose Mallea, formerly the campaign manager for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; Policy Director Jorge Lima, once an adviser to former Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno; and Chief of Staff Andeliz Castillo, who led outreach to Hispanic media for the Republican National Committee during the 2008 presidential election. The 35-member staff is spread out among eight states, with plans to expand to a dozen by year’s end. LIBRE has brought on Rachel Campos-Duffy, a writer and wife of Wisconsin Republican Rep. Sean Duffy, who both made their public debut in the 1990s as a characters on MTV’s “The Real World.”

A subsequent report in the El Paso Times adds more details, Libre Initiative targets Obama’s Affordable Care Act – El Paso Times:

El Paso businessman Paul Foster was scheduled to meet last month with billionaire political activist Charles Koch and a man who leads a Texas-based national group [offices in Arlington, Virginia, like most right-wing organizations] that fiercely opposes the Affordable Care Act, according to documents obtained by the investigative reporting magazine Mother Jones.

The group, The Libre Initiative, is revving up attacks on vulnerable Democratic congressmen who support the health law, also known as Obamacare, the online magazine Politico reported last month. One of the ads attacked District 23 U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego over his support for the health care law and more are planned, the magazine said.

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Critics of the Libre Initiative’s new push against Obamacare said last week that not only is it a losing political strategy, it’s an attempt by the Kochs, Foster and other billionaires to get Hispanics, who lack health insurance in high numbers, to act against their own interest.

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The meetings in Palm Springs in which Daniel Garza, executive director of the Mission, Texas-based Libre Initiative, participated might provide a particular glimpse into the Kochs’ political operation.

Garza was scheduled to meet with Foster, who is president of Western Refining Inc. and whose wealth is estimated at $1.1 billion. Foster also was scheduled to meet with Koch, the chairman and CEO of Koch Industries whose wealth is estimated at $22 billion.

Foster, who serves as chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regents, last week did not return calls about the meeting. After the Times published a story about it on Thursday, his assistant said he had no comment.

Foster did not respond to a subsequent email again asking for comment.

Also on the schedule of the Palm Springs conference was Bob Rowling, a former UT regent who owns Gold’s Gym and Omni Hotels and whose wealth is estimated at $4.9 billion. He was scheduled to meet with Charles Koch, Garza and Marc Short, whom Mother Jones described as running “Freedom Partners, the centerpiece of the Kochs’ political network, which distributes donor funds to a large web of conservative nonprofit groups.”

Those scheduled to participate in the meetings would not discuss them, but the Libre Initiative was a common thread in the meetings the Texas billionaires had with Charles Koch.

One observer said it could fill an important gap in the Kochs’ network.

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The Libre Initiative was formed in 2011 by Garza, former associate director of the Office of Public Liaison in the George W. Bush White House. Officials at the Mission-based group did not return calls or emails, but Garza gave an interview last month to Yahoo News, which reported that the group offers social services such as English classes, health and wellness checkups and GED classes.

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Much of his group’s activities, however, appear to be geared toward attacking the Affordable Care Act and its supporters. Its website is loaded with articles such as one titled “Obamacare = Ripoff” and its Facebook page also takes frequent swipes at the law.

Garza placed nearly identical opinion columns last month in the San Antonio Express News and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel arguing that Obamacare is bad for Hispanics.

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Garza claims to be speaking in the interest of Hispanics, but in opposing Obamacare, he’s flying in the face of Hispanic opinion, said Matt A. Barreto a political scientist at the University of Washington. Barreto directs the Washington Poll and studies political participation by minorities.

“There’s overwhelming support for a government role in health care among Hispanics — it’s probably the highest of any group,” Barreto said Friday. “It’s also the group with the greatest percentage of uninsured. They have the most to benefit from health care reform.”

The Libre Initiative isn’t the Kochs’ first foray into grass-roots politics. They’re are big funders of tea party backers such as Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works. Billing themselves as populist, the groups oppose labor unions, government regulations and programs for the poor.

Barreto was asked if the Libre Initiative is a Hispanic twist on the tea party groups.

“I would say that it’s definitely something to get people to vote against their own interests,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s the same sort of rhetoric as the tea party — the name calling and the divisiveness — but they’re definitely trying to get people to vote against their self-interests.”

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As it works to raise anti-Obamacare sentiment among Hispanics, the Libre Initiative seems reluctant to disclose its ties with the controversial Kochs.

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The Libre Initiative might claim it’s nonpartisan, but its website and Facebook Page contain many criticisms of Obama.

And there are the ads against Gallego and other Democrats by the Libre Initiative Accountability Project.

Gallego’s district, which stretches from San Antonio through most of El Paso’s Lower Valley, is the most competitive congressional district in Texas. Among the challengers vying for the Republican nomination is Francisco “Quico” Canseco, whom Gallego defeated in 2012.

The Cook Political Report rates the seat as leaning Democratic.

Politico reported that the group also is running ads attacking U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Fla., over his support for Obamacare. Cook rates that seat as Democratic toss up.

Yahoo News reported that the ads are part of a seven-figure campaign by the Libre Initiative.

The Libre Initiative might claim it’s nonpartisan, but its website and Facebook Page contain many criticisms of Obama.

And there are the ads against Gallego and other Democrats by the Libre Initiative Accountability Project.

Gallego’s district, which stretches from San Antonio through most of El Paso’s Lower Valley, is the most competitive congressional district in Texas. Among the challengers vying for the Republican nomination is Francisco “Quico” Canseco, whom Gallego defeated in 2012.

The Cook Political Report rates the seat as leaning Democratic.

Politico reported that the group also is running ads attacking U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Fla., over his support for Obamacare. Cook rates that seat as Democratic toss up.

Yahoo News reported that the ads are part of a seven-figure campaign by the Libre Initiative.

The Democratic official who heads up Texas’ Mexican American Legislative Caucus said that he applauds any group that wants to serve the Hispanic community, but Libre’s Koch ties raise questions.

“It certainly is suspicious,” said state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio. “The Koch brothers are certainly no fans of the Affordable Care Act. Quite frankly, that’s unfortunate for Texas Latinos that the Koch-funded group holds itself out as wanting to work on behalf of Hispanics, but yet it opposes an issue where half of the uninsured are Hispanics. That doesn’t serve the issue of wanting to help the Hispanic community.”

So what we have here is a lot of out-of-state billionaire “Kochtopus” dark money flowing into Arizona in an attempt to impact our election, by a “Kochtopus” front group headed up by a former G.W. Bush staffer.