Charles Koch's big public relations campaign to try to show America that he and his brother have perfectly benign reasons for wanting to become the new owners of our government continues. Charles has been making the traditional media rounds lately, and this time it's with USA Today, where he tells reporter Fredreka Schouten that really, they're not interested in owning the eventual Republican nominee.
"I have no plans to support anybody in the primary now," Koch told USA TODAY during a wide-ranging interview that touched on politics, his management theories and what he views as increasing threats to free speech at universities.
Asked what he wants to hear from Republican contenders vying for his support, Koch said, "It's not only what they say.
"If they start saying things we think are beneficial overall and will change the trajectory of the country, then that would be good, but we have to believe also they'll follow through on it, and by and large, candidates don't do that."
In other words, Rubio and Cruz better damned well stick to their guns on Obamacare repeal or they can kiss that sweet Koch money goodbye. And speaking of that money, he's been trying to downplay what they intend to spend on their 2016 acquisition efforts, "saying his network of about 450 donors might raise $750 million, down from an earlier estimate of $889 million over two years." But he admitted to Schouten that it's possible they'll hit that earlier target. He wants the world to know, though, that only $300 million of it would actually go toward the 2016 state and federal elections.
He insists, however, that "he's not focused on politics," and that "he has not spoken to any presidential contenders since August," when Jeb! Bush, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina attended the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce seminar in Southern California. He's far more concerned, he says with "shar[ing] 'the principles and values' that have transformed his life." That would be growing up filthy rich with a father who insisted that he still do manual labor like dig post holes so he'd know the "value" of hard work. Not the necessity of hard work, mind you, since he grew up filthy rich.
Meanwhile, the Koch network powers on, ready to repeat the success it had with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) after pumping in "hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of television ads funded by undisclosed donors and tens of thousands of dollars in direct campaign contributions."
The Kochs and their allies are investing in a pipeline to identify, cultivate and finance business-oriented candidates from the local school board all the way to the White House, and Koch operatives are already looking for opportunities to challenge GOP incumbents deemed insufficiently hard-line in their opposition to government spending and corporate subsidies.
But they're not really interested in politics, no. Just sharing the "principles and values" of a free market society.