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Koch Brothers Machine Much Bigger Than GOP

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“The political machine that Charles Koch launched a dozen years ago in a Chicago hotel conference room with 16 other rich conservatives has exploded in size and influence in the past few elections and now eclipses the official GOP in key areas,” Politico reports.

“Koch and his brother David Koch have quietly assembled, piece by piece, a privatized political and policy advocacy operation like no other in American history that today includes hundreds of donors and employs 1,200 full-time, year-round staffers in 107 offices nationwide. That’s about 3½ times as many employees as the Republican National Committee and its congressional campaign arms had on their main payrolls last month.”

David Koch Says He’s a Social Liberal

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Billionaire David Koch, a powerful donor in American conservative politics, tells ABC News that he’s a “social liberal” on issues like abortion and gay marriage even though most of the candidates he supports are not.

Said Koch: “I’m basically a libertarian, and I’m a conservative on economic matters, and I’m a social liberal. What I want these candidates to do is to support a balanced budget. I’m very worried that if the budget is not balanced that inflation could occur and the economy of our country could suffer terribly.”

How to Run Against the Koch Brothers?

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“One clear lesson emerged from last week’s midterms: running against big money in politics is hard to do,” the Washington Post reports.

“Democrats and their allies made the topic one of their central lines of attack this year, featuring the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch in nearly 100 different political spots that ran in states from Alaska to Florida. But the issue failed to gain traction, and most of those Democrats lost. The difficulty they encountered in transforming the public’s disgust with rich donors into political action speaks to how hard it is move voters who view both parties as captives of wealthy patrons.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Wonk Wire, Political Job Hunt and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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