Koch is a cancer in the American body politic

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

McClatchy News has the latest reporting on the billionaire bastard Koch brothers, who are a cancer in the American body politic. Center's activities provide glimpse into network of conservative advocacy groups | McClatchy:

The financial firepower that fueled the rise of a network of conservative advocacy groups now pummeling Democrats with television ads can be traced, in part, to Box 72465 in the Boulder Hills post office, on a desert road on the northern outskirts of Phoenix.

That's the address for the Center to Protect Patient Rights, an organization with ties to Charles and David H. Koch, the billionaire brothers who bankroll a number of conservative organizations.

During the 2010 midterm election, the center sent more than $55 million to 26 GOP-allied groups, tax filings show, funding opaque outfits such as American Future Fund, 60 Plus and Americans for Job Security that were behind a coordinated campaign against Democratic congressional candidates.

The money from the center provided a sizable share of the war chest for those attacks, which included mailers in California, robo-calls in Florida and TV ads that inundated a pocket of northeastern Iowa. The organizations it financed poured at least $46 million into election-related communications in the 2010 cycle, among other expenditures.

In that campaign, outside groups – the vast majority backing Republicans – reported spending a record $304 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Because these nonprofit groups are under no obligation to reveal their donors, the sources of their funding have remained a mystery.

The Koch brothers, with a combined net worth estimated by Forbes at $50 billion, are thought to be among the most generous backers of the efforts on the right. They have supported Americans for Prosperity, which, together with its sister foundation, plans to spend $151 million in the 2012 election.

The Kochs have several ties to the center. It is run by Sean Noble, a Phoenix-based GOP consultant who is a key operative in the Kochs' political activities, as first noted by the investigative blog Republic Report. One of the center's original directors, Heather Higgins, is chairwoman of the Independent Women's Forum, which has received funding from a Koch-controlled foundation.

And Cheryl Hillen, a Connecticut-based consultant who raised $2.6 million for the center, was director of fundraising for the Koch-backed Citizens for a Sound Economy.

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The center was largely used as a vehicle to pass millions to other organizations, which also zealously guard the anonymity of their donors. Some campaign finance experts suggested the center could have been set up to pool money from various sources. "Rather than have to make the decision yourself, you would entrust them to spread it around," said Ellen P. Aprill, a tax law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

The center's plans for 2012 are unknown. But in March, Noble filed paperwork expanding its advocacy beyond patient rights to include "limited government and free enterprise."

Aside from its ties to the Kochs, there is scant evidence of who is behind the group.

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Noble did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails. Courtney Koshar, a Phoenix anesthesiologist and the organization's only other director, did not respond to requests for comment. And a Phoenix doctor who once sat on its board said he couldn't remember who asked him to join.

"I honestly played very little role," said Dr. Eric Novack, who headed an organization called the US Health Freedom Coalition that received nearly its entire budget – $1.7 million – from the center to help pass a state ballot measure that aimed to block Obama's health care overhaul.

"This is a classic example of how our campaign finance system has entirely fallen apart," said Craig Holman, lobbyist for Public Citizen, which advocates stricter campaign finance rules. "We really don't know where this money originated from."

The Center to Protect Patient Rights was created in April 2009, just as the debate over the health care bill was heating up. The group's mission was to "protect the rights of patients to choose and use medical care providers," according to its corporate paperwork, filed in Maryland.

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The center's influence extended beyond the health care debate, tax filings show. Money also went to anti-abortion groups such as the Susan B. Anthony List and to Americans for Tax Reform, led by Grover Norquist. In Florida, the center backed Protect Your Vote, a Republican effort to defeat two redistricting measures.

The largest share of the center's money went to American Future Fund, a Des Moines-based group started by onetime GOP congressional aide Nick Ryan. The fund, which ran campaigns against two dozen Democrats in the 2010 election cycle, spent $23 million that period, tax filings show, with nearly $13 million coming from the center.

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The center appears closely linked with DCI Group, a Washington-based consulting firm that specializes in under-the-radar corporate campaigns.

At least five groups that received large grants from the center paid more than $9 million in services to DCI Group or Direct Response, a mail and phone-bank company. The two companies share a suite in a Phoenix office building, but a spokesman said they were no longer legally affiliated.

For example, the center gave more than $2 million to the similarly named Coalition to Protect Patients' Rights, a Virginia-based nonprofit formed in spring 2009, five weeks after the center. The two organizations share the same Phoenix accountant and records custodian – both former DCI employees, according to their online resumes.

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The center provided 80 percent of the coalition's budget; nearly all went to DCI and Direct Response for consulting and voter contact.

DCI Group spokesman Craig Stevens said the firm did not set up the center or know where the coalition got its money.

New Orleans surgeon Donald Palmisano, former president of the American Medical Association and the public face of the coalition, also said he did not know the source of funding.

"I'm just the spokesperson," Palmisano said.

Matea Gold and Joseph Tanfani write for the Tribune Washington Bureau. (Special correspondent Matthew Trotter in Phoenix contributed to this report.)

The Center for American Progress Action Fund issued a report in April 2011, "The Koch Brothers: What You Need to Know About The Financiers of The Radical Right." http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2011/04/pdf/koch_brothers.pdf (excerpt):

Charles and David Koch are not newcomers to the right-wing ideological movement. Their father, Fred Koch, was an original member of the ultra-conservative John Birch Society. For decades, the vast Koch wealth financed and built the rightwing movement in America. In 1977, Charles Koch co-founded the Cato Institute. David Koch was the 1980 vice presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party. In 1984, David Koch created Citizens for a Sound Economy, an advocacy group established to pursue the Koch agenda.

In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into two entities: FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity Foundation. The Kochs remain active with Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Americans for Prosperity Foundation, along with its sister organization, Americans for Prosperity, pursues the right-wing ideological agenda through education efforts, and holds rallies and events across the states as well as runs television ads and other voter mobilization efforts. FreedomWorks is a similar organization that is now headed by former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX).

But the Cato Institute and Americans for Prosperity are not the Koch brothers’ only avenues to pursue their ideological agenda. Not by a long shot. Indeed, the Koch contributions read like a “who’s who” of the right-wing movement (see table on pages 9-10). An examination of the Koch nonprofit organizations records show they have given at least $85.9 million to more than 85 different right-wing organizations over the past decade and a half.1 These donations are a conservative estimate and just the tip of the iceberg, but the number of groups reflect the vast reach of the Koch money.

Source Watch also reminds us that Koch Industries is a long-time member and funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and a long-time member of the ALEC corporate Private Enterprise board. Koch Industries – SourceWatch. Here is a helpful chart.

For more on the American legislative Exchange Council see ALEC Exposed.