David Koch
Several GOP candidates will be joining the Koch brothers in early August at a swanky conference in Southern California where they will make their case to a particularly high-end GOP donor class. Jeb! Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker and Carly Fiorina are all attending, though Rand Paul is not (he apparently wore
the wrong pants to the last gathering). Kenneth Vogel
reports:
Freedom Partners’ annual summer conference is set for August 1 through August 3, and is expected to draw 450 of the biggest financiers of the right for sessions about the fiscally conservative policies and politics that animate the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch and many of the donors in their network. Most have the capability to write seven- or even eight-figure checks to the super PACs fueling the GOP presidential primary, and a significant proportion have yet to settle on a 2016 choice, or are considering supporting multiple candidates. That includes Charles and David Koch, as well as Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, both of whom will be represented at the conference by advisers, and a number of other attendees of past conferences whose 2016 leanings are being closely watched.
The Kochs already held one of these forums in January and Rubio apparently aced it, while Rand Paul flunked—which has reportedly had a dire impact on his campaign coffers. Cruz was also at that event. But now Scott Walker and Jeb!, who typically rank among the top three candidates alongside Donald Trump in most national polls will have the opportunity to draw tens of millions to their campaigns.
Reporters will also be milling about at parts of the conference, so we can expect some entertaining reports.