The last time we checked in on the Kochs, they were promising to spend
$125 million in the 2014 cycle. Since what they've spent so far has
netted them bupkis, they've decided to more than double their money. At a major donor meeting of Koch supporters this weekend, they announced they are upping their game and creating a new Super PAC. The Freedom Partners Action Fund will spend more than $15 million this cycle, and the Kochs are now
aiming to spend $290 million to buy a Congress that will better do their bidding.
There's a bit of a difference with this Super PAC than with previous efforts. Mostly their massive network of nonprofit groups spends on issue ads rather than direct support of candidates. Now they'll give directly to candidates, like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) who keynoted this weekend's gathering.
“The Freedom Partners Action Fund will support candidates who share our vision of free markets and a free society and oppose candidates who support intrusive government policies that push the American Dream out of reach for the American people,” Short told POLITICO after a presentation to donors at the St. Regis Monarch Beach resort in Dana Point, California. […]
The new super PAC, by contrast, will be obligated to disclose its donors, which makes it unique in Koch World and seems to be part of a move by Freedom Partners to introduce some transparency into the network’s activities.
The
money laundering finance network the Kochs have set up is remarkably complex, all the better to hide its donors. That's what makes the latest "Freedom Partners" initiative interesting—the degree of transparency it will have to have as a Super PAC. This might be a move to counter some of the criticism leveled at the extraordinarily shadowy organization. All that secrecy certainly aids Democrats in their attacks on the Kochs. Or perhaps they see it just as a more efficient way to direct their millions to the people who will do their bidding.