Tom Cotton (R-Kochlandia)
A couple of months ago, the Republican Senate candidate from Arkansas, Tom Cotton, was getting
bad press for having skipped out of the 58th Annual Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival, a political tradition in those parts. Instead of celebrating the state's agricultural tradition along with all the other politicos in the state, Cotton decided he needed to be spending his time schmoozing with and kowtowing to the Koch brothers and their rich buddies.
Now that the recording of that Koch retreat has been leaked, we know why he made that choice.
A willingness to go against the prevailing winds at home has endeared Cotton to the Koch brothers' crowd, however. At the California retreat, [Americans for Prosperity's president Tim] Phillips praised the congressman for voting against the congressional farm bill (on grounds that it was loaded up with corporate giveaways) even though it was popular in Arkansas.
"There are times when the candidate is running and, frankly, it's just someone that you know that there's no better alternative, right? That's not the case in Arkansas. Tom Cotton is a champion," said Phillips. "He has a 100 percent AFP voting record. ... This guy is running for the Senate [while] actually voting with 61 Republicans in the House to vote against the farm bill—in Arkansas."
The crowd applauded. [emphasis added]
The crowd probably also cut a few checks to Cotton, to supplement the $5.3 million (and counting) the Koch network has invested in ads in this race. Just to be clear here, Cotton is being applauded by the Koch crowd for voting against his state's interests and in favor of the extremist agenda of the Kochs. Cotton doesn't want to be the next senator from Arkansas. He wants to be the next senator from the Kochs.