The Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity has ended its "issue" ads phase in key Senate races, the generic attack ads that allow them to keep some of its spending secret. Now they'll be spending directly and openly
with direct attacks and with a field operation that will include tactics like the bogus voter registrations it sent out to hundreds of thousands of North Carolina voters.
Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity, said the group was making the change "reluctantly."
"Over the past 10 years, our focus has always been on free-market issues, and urging lawmakers to be responsive to the public," Mr. Phillips said. "But many Democrat politicians have made it abundantly clear that they are working for Harry Reid and President Obama–not the people they represent. Their policies are wreaking havoc on the lives of millions, and it's time for them to go."
It would almost be believable, had AFP and the Kochs
ever been remotely nonpartisan, had they not been focused in the past 10 years on buying the Republican Party. This move isn't really news, but it might be the first time AFP has acknowledged with a statement that it's officially made the shift to baldly partisan attacks, and mobilizing its paid staff of 500 into the field.
So look out, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa and North Carolina. The Kochs voter suppression efforts are going to be really heating up there.
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