by Jane Mayer
Politico’s Kenneth Vogel: See Vogel, Big Money, 19.
No previous year: For statistics on the increasing concentration of donations, see Lee Drutman, “The Political 1% of the 1% in 2012,” Sunlight Foundation, June 24, 2013.
“the financial engine”: Hayley Peterson, “Internal Memo: Romney Courting Kochs, Tea Party,” Washington Examiner, Nov. 2, 2011.
There he delivered a keynote: For details of Romney’s budget speech, see Donovan Slack, “Romney Proposes Wide Cuts to Budget,” Boston Globe, Nov. 5, 2011.
“They’re the ones that suffer”: “Quotes from Charles Koch,” Wichita Eagle, Oct. 13, 2012.
“These guys all talk”: Dan Pfeiffer, interview with author.
“confident glow”: Schulman, Sons of Wichita, 341.
“Why is it fair”: For George W. Bush’s comment about Adelson, and Adelson’s comment on income taxes, see the groundbreaking piece by Connie Bruck, “The Brass Ring,” New Yorker, June 30, 2008.
The odd couple had been friends: See Vogel, Big Money, 79.
“a bias in favor”: Jewish Channel, Dec. 9, 2011.
Within weeks, Adelson donated: Sheldon Adelson said of Gingrich’s statement, “Read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people.” By the time Adelson’s money arrived, Gingrich had finished fourth in Iowa, and he was about to be buried in New Hampshire. Adelson later pressed Romney to switch his position on Pollard, but Romney resisted. Romney did, however, sit next to Adelson at a fund-raiser in Israel at which he suggested that Palestinians were culturally inferior to Israelis.
“delusional and fabricated”: Chris McGreal, “Sheldon Adelson Lectures Court After Tales of Triads and Money Laundering,” Guardian, May 1, 2015.
“We were killing them”: Jim Messina, interview with author.
“an ideologically driven”: Steve Schmidt, interview with author.
“There are five or six people”: Obama spoke in February 2012 at the home of the Costco co-founder Jeff Brotman according to Vogel, Big Money, vii.
“in a bind”: Arnold Hiatt, interview with author.
In an early 2012 meeting: Messina’s conversation with Obama as described in Halperin and Heilemann, Double Down, 314.
Experts ranging: Summers and Fukuyama expressed their concerns in a fascinating essay by Thomas Edsall, “Is This the End of Market Democracy?,” New York Times, Feb. 19, 2012.
“Bill can’t do that”: Hillary’s private disapproval is recounted in Halperin and Heilemann, Double Down, 381.
“under most circumstances”: Gilens, Affluence and Influence, 1.
“new orthodoxy”: Jonathan Weisman, “Huntsman Fires at Perry from the Middle,” Wall Street Journal, Aug. 21, 2011.
“Republicans have finally found”: Dave Weigel, “Republicans Have Finally Found a Group They Want to Tax: Poor People,” Slate, Aug. 22, 2011.
“They did it wrong”: Koch Industries adviser who asked not to have his name disclosed because he continues to work with the company. Interview with author.
“some donors who were part”: Deposition of Tony Russo, State of California Fair Political Practices Commission Investigative Report, Aug. 16, 2013.
“There is not a Koch network”: Vogel, Big Money, 201.
This was more than $1: See Barker and Meyer, “Dark Money Man.”
“My first thought”: Teresa Sharp, interview with author.
“I don’t want everybody to vote”: Ari Berman, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), 260.
Spakovsky’s most recent book: Encounter Books was founded in 1998 with a $3.5 million grant from the Bradley Foundation to publish “serious non-fiction.” In an interview with the author, Hans von Spakovsky denied that he was motivated either by racial discrimination or by partisan gain. “I believe in having fair elections,” he said. “My interest is in making sure that the person who people vote for the most wins.” See Jane Mayer, “The Voter-Fraud Myth,” New Yorker, Oct. 29, 2012.
True the Vote, meanwhile: True the Vote was forced to return the funds it received from the Bradley Foundation after the IRS had not yet granted the organization tax-exempt status.
“What the president’s campaign”: Romney’s November 14, 2012, call to his contributors is described in Halperin and Heilemann, Double Down, 468.
Approximately $15 million: Peter Stone first revealed the size of the Adelsons’ contributions to Americans for Prosperity in his piece “Watch Out, Dems: Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers Are Closer Than Ever,” Huffington Post, June 14, 2015.
“Our goal of advancing”: According to Robert Costa, “Kochs Postpone Postelection Meeting,” National Review Online, Dec. 11, 2012, Charles Koch’s e-mail to his donor network said, “We are working hard to understand the election results, and, based on that analysis, to re-examine our vision and the strategies and capabilities required for success.”
David Koch, in fact: Charles Koch continued to maintain, “I’m neither Republican nor Democrat,” even though his political operation was fused with that of his brother.
“One ten-thousandth”: Drutman, “Political 1% of the 1% in 2012.”
“I’m an incumbent president”: Vogel, Big Money, viii.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE STATES
The same pattern was repeated: This mathematically odd outcome had only occurred twice before in the past century.
“A few years ago”: Tarini Parti, “GOP, Koch Brothers Find There’s Nothing Finer Than Carolina,” Politico, May 11, 2013.
Phillips declined to say: Nationally, the Koch network’s main bank, Freedom Partners, poured $32.3 million into Americans for Prosperity in 2012. But how much of this went into North Carolina remained undisclosed.
For his services: The State of North Carolina paid Hofeller an additional $77,000 as well.
“We worked together”: Raupe is quoted in an excellent ProPublica investigative piece by Pierce, Elliott, and Meyer, “How Dark Money Helped Republicans Hold the House and Hurt Voters.”
“The Kochs were instrumental”: David Axelrod, interview with author.
According to a report: Pierce, Elliott, and Meyer, “How Dark Money Helped Republicans Hold the House and Hurt Voters.”
“Make sure your security”: See Robert Draper, “The League of Dangerous Mapmakers,” Atlantic, Oct. 2012.
In reality, however: Hofeller’s failure to read the public hearing transcripts was attributed by ProPublica to court documents, and ProPublica noted that Hofeller declined to comment further.
But before that could happen: The Democratic challenger was Sam Ervin IV, a rising star who shared the name of his famous grandfather, a former North Carolina senator who won national acclaim during the Watergate hearings.
The money trail: ProPublica traced over $1 million back to Gillespie’s Republican State Leadership Committee. Pope’s company, Variety Wholesalers, contributed some of this cash. The RSLC’s role was hidden behind a new group that sprang up, calling itself Justice for All NC. This group in turn donated $1.5 million to a super PAC called the North Carolina Judicial Coalition.
Successive midterm losses: Nicholas Confessore, Jonathan Martin, and Maggie Haberman, “Democrats See No Choice but Hillary Clinton in 2016,” New York Times, March 11, 2015.
Almost as soon: Pat McCrory attended events for Americans for Prosperity before declaring his candidacy for governor in 2012, and once he did declare, AFP spent $130,000 in mailers benefiting his campaign.
“my way, or everyone else”: Richard Morgan, interview with author, which first appeared in Mayer, “State for Sale.”
“When he was done”: Ibid.
It is unusual: Winters, Oligarchy, xi.
“conservative government in exile”: Matea Gold, “In NC Conservative Donor Sits at the Heart of the Government He Helped Transform,” Washington Post, July 19, 2014.
Yet the lines
: Jack Hawke, a Republican political operative, for instance, moved back and forth between the presidency of the Civitas Institute and the campaigns of the Republican governor Pat McCrory.
“the Koch brothers lite”: Scott Place, interview with author.
“I’ve never seen”: Lynn Bonner, David Perlmutt, and Anne Blythe, “Elections Bill Headed to McCrory,” Charlotte Observer, July 27, 2013.
“No, it’s worse”: Dan T. Carter, “State of Shock,” Southern Spaces, Sept. 24, 2013.
So for savings: See ibid.
The assault was systematic: Spending on public schools in North Carolina was reduced to $7.5 billion in 2012–2013 from $7.9 billion in 2007–2008, despite the state’s rapidly growing population, according to Rob Christiansen, “NC GOP Rolls Back Era of Democratic Laws,” News Observer, June 16, 2013.
“What are you doing”: Bill Friday, interview with author, which first appeared in Mayer, “State for Sale.”
“I’m pretty sure”: Stephen Margolis (the former chair of NC State’s economics department), interview with author. See ibid.
“It’s sad and blatant”: Mayer, “State for Sale.”
“constitutional limitations”: David Edwards, “NC GOP Bills Would Require Teaching Koch Principles While Banning Teachers’ Political Views in Class,” Raw Story, April 29, 2011.
“I was a Republican”: Jim Goodmon, interview with author, which first appeared in Mayer, “State for Sale.”
opposition to minimum wage laws: In an interview with the author, Roy Cordato, a vice president at the John Locke Foundation, argued that “the minimum wage hurts low-skilled workers, by pricing them out of the market,” and that concern about worker exploitation was “the kind of thinking that comes from Karl Marx.” In Cordato’s view, “any freely made contracts among consenting adults should be legal,” including those involving prostitution and the sale of dangerous drugs. He said he supported child-labor laws but opposed what he called “compulsory education” for minors.
“a plantation mentality”: Dean Debnam, interview with author, which first appeared in Mayer, “State for Sale.”
“wealth creation and wealth destruction”: Ibid.
“He had his checkbook”: Scott Place, interview with author.
David Parker: interview with author, which first appeared in Mayer, “State for Sale.”
“You capture the Soviet Union”: Ed Pilkington and Suzanne Goldenberg, “State Conservative Groups Plan US-Wide Assault on Education, Health, and Tax,” Guardian, Dec. 5, 2013.
“Pick what you need”: See Jane Mayer, “Is Ikea the New Model for the Conservative Movement?,” New Yorker, Nov. 15, 2013.
In 2011, the State Policy Network’s budget: See “Exposed: The State Policy Network,” Center for Media and Democracy, Nov. 2013. The report is thorough and well documented and makes the point on page 3 that the organization helped to spread the Kochtopus’s “financial tentacles across the states.”
On average, ALEC produced: For ALEC’s track record on introducing bills, see Cray and Montague, “Kingpins of Carbon and Their War on Democracy,” 37.
“Nowhere else can you get”: The quotations from the ALEC members’ newsletter and from Thompson appear in Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, “Who Passes Businesses’ ‘Model Bills’? Policy Capacity and Corporate Influence in U.S. State Politics,” Perspectives in Politics 12, no. 3 (Sept. 2014).
Two years later: For more on ALEC, see ALECExposed.org, produced by the Center for Media and Democracy.
“a wolf in disguise”: Dave Zweifel, “Plain Talk: ‘News Service’ Just a Wolf in Disguise,” Madison.com.
“legacy media”: Jason Stverak spoke about the “vacuum” at a Heritage Foundation conference, “From Tea Parties to Taking Charge,” April 22–23, 2010.
Much of the money went through: For one of the best analyses of the finances of DonorsTrust, see Abowd, “Donors Use Charity to Push Free-Market Policies in States.”
The big backers: See “Exposed: The State Policy Network,” 18.
“a better opportunity”: Abowd, “Donors Use Charity to Push Free-Market Policies in States.” According to “Exposed: The State Policy Network,” 19–20, inadvertent disclosures by just two State Policy Network think tanks, in Massachusetts and Texas, revealed major deposits from Koch Industries and the Koch family foundations. David Koch’s personal contribution of $125,000 in 2007 to the Massachusetts-based member of the State Policy Network, the Pioneer Institute, showed that he was the single largest donor to the group that year. A similar mistaken disclosure by the Texas Public Policy Foundation revealed that Koch Industries contributed over $159,000 to the think tank in 2010, while one of the Koch family foundations contributed over $69,000.
“historical oddity”: See Ryan Lizza, “Where the G.O.P.’s Suicide Caucus Lives,” New Yorker, Sept. 26, 2013.
Big outside money: Kenneth Vogel, in Big Money, 211, makes much the same point, writing, “Nearly eleven months after the biggest of the big-money mostly failed to get its way at the ballot box, the shutdown battle was proof that the 2010 and 2012 spending sprees were having more impact than ever on the way American government functioned.”
A galaxy of conservative: Todd Purdum, “The Obamacare Sabotage Campaign,” Politico, Nov. 1, 2013.
“This bastard has to be killed”: Linda Greenhouse, “By Any Means Necessary,” New York Times, Aug. 20, 2014.
“loose-knit coalition”: Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Mike McIntire, “A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning,” New York Times, Oct. 5, 2013.
The meetings produced: In his article “Meet the Evangelical Cabal Orchestrating the Shutdown,” Nation, Oct. 8, 2013, Lee Fang notes that the Conservative Action Project was closely affiliated with the secretive Council on National Policy and had been meeting in Washington since at least 2009.
Freedom Partners: Stolberg and McIntire, “Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning,” suggested that Freedom Partners spent $200 million in the fight against health care, but this figure represents other spending by the group as well.
News reports reflected: Jenna Portnoy, “In Southwest Va., Health Needs, Poverty Collide with Antipathy to the Affordable Care Act,” Washington Post, June 19, 2004.
As part of that effort: The figure of four million uninsured adults blocked by the states refusing to expand Medicaid comes from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Rachel Garfield et al., “The Coverage Gap: Uninsured Poor Adults in States That Do Not Expand Medicaid—an Update,” Kaiser Family Foundation, April 17, 2015.
Meanwhile, the Cato Institute: See Alec MacGillis’s profile of the Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon for a revealing look at the think tank’s behind-the-scenes role. MacGillis, “Obamacare’s Single Most Relentless Antagonist,” New Republic, Nov. 12, 2013.
This nonetheless formed: See Robert Pear, “Four Words That Imperil Health Care Law Were All a Mistake, Writers Now Say,” New York Times, May 25, 2015.
But the NFIB was talked: The NFIB called itself “America’s leading small business association,” and in previous years most of its funding had come from its small-business members. But starting in 2010, the year it agreed to act as the plaintiff in the court challenge, outside money from some very big fortunes started filling its coffers. In 2012, the year the case reached the Supreme Court, as CNN first reported, the NFIB received more money from Freedom Partners than from any other single source. In addition, from 2010 until 2012, DonorsTrust supplied over half of the budget for the NFIB’s legal center. The Bradley Foundation donated funds, too.
The combined millions of dollars in contributions paid for some of the most brilliant litigators in the country to advance arguments that Josh Blackman, a conservative law professor who wrote Unprecedented, a book on the case, admitted seemed “crazy” in the beginning. Yet because of the efforts of a few activists bankrolled by wealthy ideological entrepreneurs, the challenge went from the fringe to one vote short of victory in the Supreme Court. For more, see Blackman, Unpreceden
ted: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare (PublicAffairs, 2013).
“It’s David versus Goliath”: Stolberg and McIntire, “Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning.”
$235 million was spent: For Kantar Media statistics on ad spending, see Purdum, “Obamacare Sabotage Campaign.”
“When else in our history”: Stolberg and McIntire, “Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning.”
“The president was reelected”: Boehner, interview with Diane Sawyer, ABC News, Nov. 8, 2012.
“John, what happened”: See John Bresnahan et al., “Anatomy of a Shutdown,” Politico, Oct. 18, 2013.
“I am not going to”: Art Pope, interview with author.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: SELLING THE NEW KOCH
“maybe it’s also the content”: Matthew Continetti, “The Double Bind: What Stands in the Way of a Republican Revival? Republicans,” Weekly Standard, March 18, 2013.
“Conservative think tanks”: Jeffrey Winters, interview with author.
“We’re going to fight”: Daniel Fisher, “Inside the Koch Empire,” Forbes, Dec. 24, 2012.
Around the time that Reid: See John Mashey, “Koch Industries Hires Tobacco Operative Steve Lombardo to Lead Communications, Marketing,” DeSmogBlog.com, Jan. 10, 2014.
“The current campaign finance”: Republican National Committee, Growth and Opportunity Project, March 13, 2013, 51.
“We consistently see”: See Kenneth Vogel, “Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity Plans $125 Million Spending Spree,” Politico, May 9, 2014.
These political problems: See Annie Lowrey, “Income Inequality May Take Toll on Growth,” New York Times, Oct. 16, 2012.
“The poor, okay”: See Bill Roy and Daniel McCoy, “Charles Koch: Business Giant, Bogeyman, Benefactor, and Elusive (Until Now),” Wichita Business Journal, Feb. 28, 2014.
Michael Sullivan: Asked whether Steven Cohen and Michael Sullivan contributed money to the Kochs’ political efforts, Mark Herr, a spokesman for Point72, Cohen’s new hedge fund, said, “We don’t comment or offer guidance on political donations.”