Guinta, F

Guinta NH

 why target by aegis?!

regional climate law oppsed by koch

afp

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Guinta">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Guinta</a>==
vogel

 Ernst was surprised to receive an invitation in the summer of 2013

that she later credited with starting her meteoric rise to the U.S.

Senate.

Ernst was then a little-known Iowa state senator and lieutenant

colonel in the National Guard who was considering a long-shot campaign

for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate. <a href="http://www.quinnipiac.edu/images/polling/ia/ia07222013.pdf" target="_blank">Polls showed</a>

more than 90 percent of her state’s voters had no opinion of her. At

least a half-dozen other Republicans ― some with better funding and

connections and stronger establishment support ― also were positioning

themselves to run against the presumptive Democratic nominee, Rep. Bruce

Braley.

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But Ernst was being watched closely by allies of the billionaire

brothers Charles and David Koch, who saw in her an advocate for their

brand of free-market, libertarian-infused conservatism. Operatives

affiliated with the Kochs’ political network invited Ernst to the

network’s <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/eric-cantor-paul-ryan-koch-brothers-095294" target="_blank">August 2013 gathering</a> of wealthy conservative donors at a posh resort in Albuquerque’s Santa Ana Pueblo.

Ernst later told POLITICO she had no idea "how my name came through

those channels." But her appearance at the event impressed donors and

was followed by an infusion of support that helped Ernst win the GOP

nomination and, eventually, a Senate seat. It also represented a new

phase in the rapid expansion of the Koch-backed political network ― its

willingness to become involved in primary fights among GOP candidates —

potentially putting it on a collision course with the official

Republican Party.

Until now, little has been known about the secretive role played by

the Kochs' donors and operatives in boosting Ernst. The Koch network has

focused primarily on policy fights, mostly leaving the spadework of

recruiting and nurturing candidates to the party.

But the network's financial support for Ernst ― detailed here for the

first time ― offers the first signs of a move into GOP primaries. 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.

The ambitious effort, spearheaded partly by a for-profit consulting

firm called Aegis Strategic that’s backed by the Koch network, is one of

several ways in which the brothers and their allies are seeking to

influence the types of candidates who carry the GOP banner. The network

has taken on a vetting role in the GOP presidential primary, offering

favored candidates <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/koch-brothers-wealthy-donors-gop-2016-freedom-partners-seminar-california-120663" target="_blank">access to its donors</a>

and activists. And some within the network have even advocated

targeting from six to 12 GOP House members who have run afoul of the

Koch orthodoxy on fiscal issues and who are facing 2016 primary

challenges, sources told POLITICO.

Tim Phillips, president of the most aggressive Koch-backed group,

Americans for Prosperity, declined to comment on whether his group had

any plans to spend money in GOP primaries. “We have not taken any

options off the table. That’s the best way to put it,” he said. “We have

not precluded the possibility of it. We’re looking at every option.”

In the Ernst race, the Koch support included hundreds of thousands of

dollars' worth of television ads funded by undisclosed donors and tens

of thousands of dollars in direct campaign contributions. The spending

would have been difficult to trace back to the Koch network during

Ernst's campaign, but details are expected to emerge this week when the

central Koch nonprofit, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, files its

tax disclosures.

To date, the Koch network’s election-season spending has almost

exclusively benefited Republicans. It has overwhelmingly targeted

Democrats ― a trend that’s likely to continue in the run-up to 2016,

when the network is planning to spend as much as <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/koch-2016-spending-goal-114604" target="_blank">$889 million</a>.

But the GOP establishment has been nervously watching the Kochs’

evolution from wonky libertarian think tank funders to political

kingmakers, which comes as money and power are <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2011/10/the-partys-over-067046" target="_blank">migrating away from the Republican Party</a>.

There is a widespread, if mostly unspoken, concern that the brothers'

network is gradually encroaching on some of the party’s core functions,

like candidate recruitment, voter registration and data.

“What they’ve been able to do in terms of technology, in terms of

creating infrastructure for the use of that technology is impressive and

important. But it should also be concerning to the party,” said Michael

Steele, who was chairman of the Republican National Committee during

the 2010 midterm election, when the Koch network first began publicly

flexing its political muscles. “This is the new universe that the

current and the future chairmen of the party have to live with. And if

they don’t find a way to adapt to it, there won’t be much for future

chairmen to deal with in two cycles.”

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who chaired the RNC when party

committees were dominant forces in American politics, said "it would be

very counterproductive" if the Kochs were to take on the Republican

Party. "But I don’t see that as the case," he said. "One thing that I’m

pleased of is, as far as I can tell, they don’t use their money to try

to defeat Republicans in Republican primaries,” he said.

But that’s precisely the type of direct challenge to the GOP being planned by Aegis Strategic, which was <a href="http://images.politico.com/global/2014/01/22/aegis_delawareincorporation_061013.html" target="_blank">established in 2013</a>

with the Kochs’ blessing after an analysis concluded that their

network’s efforts in the run-up to the 2012 election suffered from <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/11/rape-comments-bring-down-mourdock-akin-148730" target="_blank">flawed GOP candidates</a>.

Aegis, which is owned by a former Koch operative named Jeff Crank and

staffed by fellow Koch network veterans, has an ongoing consulting

contract with Freedom Partners and also has worked with other

Koch-backed groups, network sources tell POLITICO.

While the Kochs and their allies bristle at the suggestion that the

network is a reliable part of the Republican establishment, they mostly

try to project harmony with the organized GOP. “We're not in competition

with the RNC, we're focused on advancing a free society and policies

that help people improve their lives,” said Marc Short, president of

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the nonprofit group that oversees

the network.

But those close to the network say the Kochs view their mission as

transforming American politics from a present dominated by stifling

over-regulation to a future of free-market prosperity ― and that means

changing the Republican Party, which they believe has been guilty too

often of growing government. To achieve that goal, the Kochs have

increasingly concluded, it’s not enough to merely fund free enterprise

research. Instead, they’re building a muscular political machine capable

of electing the right politicians and ensuring they implement the right

policies.

A POLITICO investigation found they’re well on their way to achieving that goal.

Growing Trees of Liberty

About seven months after Ernst won over Koch allies during her

appearance in Albuquerque ― with the candidate struggling to raise money

and still <a href="http://www.quinnipiac.edu/images/polling/ia/ia03132014_azrp47q.pdf" target="_blank">barely registering in polls</a> ― the Koch network sent in the cavalry, albeit stealthily.

A low-profile operative named Karl Crow, who’d worked for years in

the Koch network, created a nonprofit group called Trees of Liberty.

Within weeks, the group launched an advertising blitz that included a

$257,000 statewide <a href="https://youtu.be/qQ_ztDvjijI" target="_blank">television ad buy</a>

and a complementary Web campaign attacking Ernst’s most competitive GOP

rival, Mark Jacobs, a retired energy executive. The ads swiped at

Jacobs for supporting a proposal to limit carbon emissions years

earlier. The measure was bitterly opposed by the Koch public policy

network, as well as the brothers’ multinational industrial conglomerate,

Koch Industries, which would have been adversely affected by the

proposal.

Little has been known about where Trees of Liberty got its cash or

how it spent it. That’s because the group, like many in the Koch

network, was created under a section of the tax code ― 501(c) ― that

allows groups to shield donor identities and requires the disclosure of

only limited information about spending to the Internal Revenue Service

many months after an election in which the spending occurred.

But sources tell POLITICO that Trees of Liberty got its cash from

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce. That grant likely will be revealed

in Freedom Partners 2014 tax form, due to be filed with the IRS in

coming days ― more than 1½ years after Trees aired ads in the Iowa

Senate primary. According to a source who reviewed Trees of Liberty’s

2014 tax documents, they show that it spent $347,000 ― about 80 percent

of all the cash it brought in ― on “advertising,” all of which went

through i360, a data analytics and ad buying company owned by Freedom

Partners.

Trees of Liberty carefully tailored its ad campaign to avoid

triggering rules that would have required more financial disclosure

during the campaign. It pulled down the television ads just before the

calendar reached the one-month election countdown. Had the ad aired

within that month, Trees of Liberty would have been required to report

its spending ― but not its donors ― to the Federal Election Commission.

Groups registered under section 501(c)4 are required to spend the majority of their money on “social welfare” purposes.

And according to the source who reviewed Trees of Liberty’s 2014 tax

filing, Trees of Liberty indicated that the group did not “engage in

direct or indirect political campaign activities on behalf of or in

opposition to candidates for public office.” It listed a mission

statement that would fit the IRS's social welfare definition — "to

advance the principles of limited government, fiscal solvency and

economic freedom by educating the public."

From a lay perspective ― as opposed to a legal one ― Trees of

Liberty’s anti-Jacobs ads certainly looked like political campaign

activity. And some of the <a href="http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000150-abb4-dc97-a15d-abf56a210000" target="_blank">contracts for advertising buys</a>

placed by the group with local television stations seem to acknowledge

as much, indicating that the anti-Jacobs ads dealt with a “political

matter of national importance.”

Nonetheless, partisan finger-pointing has <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/irs-rewrite-nonprofit-rules-amid-criticism-107015" target="blank">stymied efforts</a> by the IRS and the FEC to more rigorously police groups like Trees of Liberty ― or to update <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2012/10/the-irss-feeble-grip-on-big-political-cash-082387" target="blank">outdated rules</a> governing so-called 501(c) groups ― even as those groups have spent ever-larger sums of cash in recent election cycles.

Around the same time that Trees of Liberty launched its ad campaign

hitting Jacobs, Freedom Partners began a $1 million-plus ad campaign

attacking Braley, the Democrat waiting to take on the winner of the GOP

primary. Ernst ran a savvy campaign, including <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/joni-ernst-iowa-government-spending-105005" target="blank">ads that won plaudits</a> as among the cycle’s <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2014-midterm-elections-7-wackiest-political-ads-year-campaign-season-article-1.1985024" target="blank">most notable</a>,

but she saw the boost from the Koch network as crucial. She cruised to a

lopsided primary victory in the June 2014 primary and headed into the

general election in strong position against Braley.

Two weeks after her primary victory, she paid another visit to the

Koch network, thanking its donors for their help during a closed-door

speech at the network’s summer 2014 summit at the St. Regis in Dana

Point, Calif.

“The first time I was introduced to this group was a year ago,

August, in New Mexico, and I was not known at that time,” she told

donors, according to a <a href="http://ladylibertine.net/2014/08/26/u-s-senate-candidates-speak-at-koch-donor-summit/" target="_blank">secret recording</a>

obtained by a liberal blogger. “The exposure to this group and to this

network and the opportunity to meet so many of you — that really started

my trajectory,” she said during a panel of GOP Senate candidates.

Fellow GOP Senate candidates Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Cory Gardner

of Colorado also sat on the panel, which was moderated by Crank, the

veteran Koch operative who owns Aegis Strategic. He praised each

candidate, and asked them to discuss how “third party groups in this

network” were making “a big difference” in the campaign.

The three left Dana Point with a boost. Each <a href="http://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/388/14978077388/14978077388.pdf" target="_blank">collected about $60,000</a>

or more from a little-noticed fundraising committee, Victory Trust

2014, that hosted a reception to raise money from network donors for <a href="http://politico.com/f/?id=00000150-9675-d18a-a7d2-bef74e1b0000" target="blank">candidates favored</a> by the network, according to documents reviewed by POLITICO. They show that the <a href="http://politico.com/f/?id=00000150-960f-d2a4-aff0-de2f66850000" target="blank">committee and the reception</a> were organized by Aegis Strategic, which employs Crow and shares an address with Trees of Liberty.

Asked this month about the support Ernst received from the Koch

network, her spokeswoman pointed out that Ernst had "broad support from

Iowans across the state," and noted that a <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/tom-steyer-ads-election-2014-110056" target="_blank">billionaire-backed liberal group</a>

spent heavily to try to defeat her. “Regardless of the fact that

millions were spent against her, Iowans overwhelming sided with Sen.

Ernst and her message of cutting government spending, ensuring veterans

have the care they deserve and putting Iowans first,” Ernst spokeswoman

Brook Hougesen told POLITICO.

Testing the primary waters

The quiet Koch synergy behind Ernst only hints at the network’s

ability to sway primary elections. The network has made known its

intentions to spend as much as $889 million in the run-up to the 2016

elections. Charles Koch recently reduced the estimate to $750 million, a

downgrade that was seen by some in the network as an effort to manage

expectations. They say the network is still on pace to raise $889

million.

Some network groups― including Freedom Partners, Americans for

Prosperity, Concerned Veterans for America and the LIBRE Initiative ―

have sought to influence the debate in GOP primaries by inviting select

candidates to forums. They’ve <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/koch-brothers-wealthy-donors-gop-2016-freedom-partners-seminar-california-120663" target="blank">hosted several presidential aspirants</a> favored by the Kochs ― such as Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio ― but have <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/kochs-freeze-out-trump-120752" target="blank">conspicuously excluded</a> others deemed big government Republicans, such as Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham.

In their drive for political influence, most of the Koch-backed

groups have been reluctant to wade fully into GOP primaries. That's due

to their preference for policy over politics, the groups' tax status as

social welfare groups and the divided loyalties of the network’s donors,

who have been known to favor competing primary candidates. And Charles

Koch on Wednesday said he had "<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2015/11/11/charles-koch-no-backing-candidate-republican-primary/75576772/" target="_blank">no plans</a>"

to support any of the GOP presidential candidates during the primaries ―

the latest sign that he's not particularly enamored with any of the

contenders.

But Aegis Strategic was created with the Koch network’s blessing

partly to cultivate candidates who share the Kochs’ commitment to

free-market conservatism, and could be in line for the network's support

in GOP primaries.

It’s helping a New Hampshire state legislator named Pam Tucker

explore a potential primary challenge against embattled Republican Rep.

Frank Guinta if he runs for reelection in his swing congressional

district. During a September trip to Washington to prepare for her race,

Tucker received assistance from Aegis in setting up meetings with a

number of different groups, including the Mercatus Center, a Koch-funded

libertarian think tank at George Mason University.

If Tucker decides to run, Aegis Strategic said, it hopes to sign her

as a client. Tucker told POLITICO she had been put in touch with the

firm “through mutual acquaintances," but hadn't decided whether to

contract with it and would not base her decision on its connections to

the Koch network.

Crank said his firm is seeking more candidates to take on big government Republicans.

“I can’t stress enough — we do look for opportunities and we relish

opportunities to find unprincipled incumbents who aren’t adhering to

free market principles who could be challenged and who we could replace

with a better vote,” said Crank. “We’re not going to run in there like

wild-eyed crazies and charge up the hill without guns. We’re going to

pick opportunities that are wise ― candidates who are both principled

and electable. It’s all going to be well thought-out,” said Crank.

“Oftentimes, there are party entities that go in and they try to find

the most electable — or the candidate who can write the biggest check —

and they really don’t care sometimes about principle,” said Crank.

While Aegis Strategic doesn’t have a formal legal relationship with the

Koch network, its consulting contract with Freedom Partners provides

much of its revenue, sources familiar with the arrangement say.

The ActBlue of the Koch network

It’s not clear whether Aegis Strategic or other arms of the Koch

network will continue the practice of setting up secretive 501(c)4

groups like Trees of Liberty to knock down rivals of favored candidates.

Aegis officials were involved in another 501(c)4 group called Citizens

for a Sound Government that supported Republicans in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/groups-funded-by-secret-donors-buffeted-two-dozen-house-races-in-2014/2014/11/28/ad0dd774-7584-11e4-bd1b-03009bd3e984_story.html" target="blank">2014 congressional elections</a> and this year waded into Kentucky’s GOP primary for governor, <a href="http://mycn2.com/politics/bluegrass-action-fund-drops-anti-bevin-ad-focusing-on-mit-claims-and-bailouts-bevin-denies-he-ever-listed-mit-graduation-on-linkedin-page" target="blank">funding ads backing</a> a business-friendly candidate who ultimately lost to tea party-backed Gov.-elect Matt Bevin.

Aegis also is exploring other models. In June, it quietly <a href="http://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/716/15971211716/15971211716.pdf" target="_blank">created a political action committee</a>

called Aegis PAC to help raise money for candidates it judges to be

solid on fiscal conservative issues. Crank envisions it as a potential

counterweight to ActBlue, the liberal fundraising juggernaut that has

helped raise $840 million for liberal candidates since 2004.<aside class="story-related">

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The PAC is currently raising money for about 10 handpicked candidates

and prospects ― including several that Aegis is seeking to represent,

such as Tucker. Aegis PAC’s website calls her “a leading voice for

liberty in the New Hampshire House of Representatives since she was

first elected in 2008.” While it’s barely started operations, Aegis PAC

in the third quarter steered $13,200 to one of its endorsed candidates,

Indiana state Sen. Jim Banks, accounting for nearly one-tenth of his

haul in that period. Aegis PAC’s website predicts he would be “an

advocate for freedom in the U.S. House,” though it also notes he “will

have a competitive primary.”

And, while Banks said he’s talked with Aegis Strategic about hiring

them to work on the race, he stressed that the firm’s connections to the

Koch network were “not a consideration of why we would consider working

with them.”

Crank, though, acknowledged that some candidates seek out his firm

“thinking ‘if I can do this, it means that the Koch network is going to

come in and help,’” In fact, he said, Aegis tries to “undersell” its

Koch connections. “If there’s that expectation and a client comes in,

and that doesn’t happen, then that’s a liability to us, because they

came in with an expectation that ‘oh, wow, money is going to rain from

the heavens.’"

Yet, Aegis ― which has only seven employees and a relatively shallow

track record and portfolio ― is attracting interest disproportionate to a

firm of its size and experience precisely because of its Koch

connections.

As Charles Koch was secretly recorded explaining to donors in 2014,

“most of the many, many years and decades I’ve been involved in this

struggle, I thought ‘principled politician’ was an oxymoron. And I still

think that’s largely the case. But we see a few now and then, and when I

think about it, that’s what we’re about: to find and get elected some

politicians with principles.”

While RNC chairman Reince Priebus has expressed misgivings about the

growth of the Koch network to donors, according to sources familiar with

those conversations, RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer last week

rejected the idea of any tension between the Kochs and the party.

But Steele, the former RNC chairman, said the committee would be well

advised to make peace with the Kochs and try to find ways to work

together within their legal confines and philosophical differences.

He pointed out that there are certain roles that legally only a party

can play, including coordinated spending with campaigns, but he said

the Koch network and other deep-pocketed outside groups have found legal

ways to do most of the other things that were once the party’s sole

province.

Ultimately, Steele said, the growth of the Koch network raises

questions about “the relevance of the parties. And a lot of people

answer by saying they’re not relevant anymore, which is why you’re

seeing a lot of this activity outside of them. These organizations have

the ability to raise unlimited money that the parties can’t. And at the

end of the day, the party can’t compete with that.”

Theodoric Meyer contributed to this report.
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