dark money

Gov. Ducey attends ‘Kochtopus’ Coachella 2015

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It turns out that Doug Ducey, the ice cream man hired by Koch Industries to run their Southwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Arizona, is attending ‘Kochtopus’ Coachella 2015 this weekend for billionaires looking to buy a GOP candidate. The Arizona Republic reported, Doug Ducey to attend Koch network summit:

Cartoon_07Gov. Doug Ducey, whose campaign benefited from the spending of “dark money” non-profits linked to the billionaire Koch brothers, will attend an exclusive gathering this weekend hosted by a Koch umbrella group.

The Republican governor will travel to a Southern California resort to attend one day of the conference hosted by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce. The gathering is expected to draw hundreds of wealthy conservatives.

During his 2014 gubernatorial campaign, Ducey touted his candidacy at a retreat hosted by the prominent financiers and applauded “the power of organizations” backed by the Koch brothers.

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‘Kochtopus’ Coachella 2015 this weekend for billionaires looking to buy a GOP candidate

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There are many reasons to despise POLITICO Tiger Beat on the Potomac, and this is yet another one. Politico’s Mike Allen To Emcee Koch Bros. Q&A With 2016 GOPers:

Politico’s chief White House correspondent Mike Allen has been booked to emcee part of an event set up by a group funded by the Koch brothers designed to connect Republican presidential candidates with wealthy donors, according to Politico.

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At the annual Freedom Partners conference, the candidates will appear in individual Q&A sessions, which will be moderated by Allen and streamed online to media outlets, according to Politico.

So what does Tiger Beat on the Potomac have to say about its exclusive gig, “Coachella 2015” for “Kochtopus” candidates, GOP Presidential Hopefuls Coming to Private Coachella Valley Event, themed “Unleashing A Free Society: Expanding Opportunity for All Americans,” moderated by Politico’s chief White House correspondent, Mike Allen? Koch brothers summon Bush, Cruz, Walker, Rubio to SoCal confab:

KochClownsFour leading GOP presidential candidates – Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker – are traveling to a Southern California luxury hotel in coming days to make their cases directly to the Koch brothers and hundreds of other wealthy conservatives planning to spend close to $1 billion in the run-up to the 2016 election.

The gathering – which also will include former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, but notably not Sen. Rand Paul — is hosted by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the umbrella group in the Kochs’ increasingly influential network of political and public policy outfits. It represents a major opportunity for the candidates at a pivotal moment in the presidential primary.

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Stockholder protest of APS Wednesday morning

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

aps protest

I meant to post this earlier in the week but better late than never. If you are available tomorrow morning at 9:30 (Wednesday May 20) please join some folks at the Heard Museum as they let stockholders at the state’s largest utility company, Arizona Public Service (APS), know how they feel about the company’s underhanded electioneering tactics.

In 2013, APS and its parent company, Pinnacle West first denied and then admitted to using dark money sources to try to convince you that solar energy home installations where bad for Arizona –a charge that is questionable, at best.

Then in 2014, Pinnacle West is thought to have spent, over $3 million of rate-payer-derived funds to elect Corporation Commission candidates that it backed.

The Corporation Commission is the very body that regulates Pinnacle West and, specifically, what it can charge you for electricity. The conflict of interest here is staggering.

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Wisconsin Supreme Court to decide ‘John Doe’ investigations of Gov. Scott Walker

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The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a petition Monday morning from conservative groups seeking to throw out a multi-year “John Doe” probe into Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s 2012 recall campaign, leaving the dispute to be sorted out in state court.

Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports, Court bypasses Wisconsin political fray:

TotalRecallThe denial of review in O’Keefe v. Chisholm, without comment, turned aside a plea by a conservative political activist to revive a civil rights lawsuit against a special prosecutor over an investigation of supporters for the governor’s anti-union efforts.

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 The Court’s refusal to get into the middle of a bitter, mostly partisan feud in Wisconsin was not a surprise, because the case is still undergoing review in the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the groups complaining about the prosecutor have already been able to stop a series of investigations that had run on nearly five years.

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APS cannot sanitize its shameful dark money legacy with strategic philanthropy and Anderson Cooper

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

aps logo
Dark money has the power to make a lot happen!

Last Saturday the ASU Center for the Study of Race and Democracy hosted an event, “Delivering Democracy Lecture 2015”, headlined by Anderson Cooper. I know many people who attended it and, from what I understand, it was a fine presentation. One of the main sponsors was Arizona Public Services (commonly known as APS, the state’s largest private utility company), which was apparently lauded several times during the event for its generosity. Which is interesting because it was only a few months ago, during the 2014 midterms, that APS (under the rubric of “independent expenditure” Save Our Future Now) dumped an astounding amount of dark money into Corporation Commission races to defeat Republican candidate Vernon Parker in the GOP primary and Democratic candidate Sandra Kennedy. What the aforementioned people have in common is that they are both African-American and also that the hit pieces and ads run against both were crudely obvious Willie Horton-style racist characterizations as far as many people (myself included) were concerned.

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