Aspen/KOCH

this link refers to attendees, speakers and funders of mtgs:

basically the koch network, prolly neglected 3/21 see Donors trust

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see koch network bak 4 23 KOCHADEMIA

SEE STEPHEN MOORE THOS PYLE STOSSEL

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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S037887332030054X

Social Networks

:{Volume 64:(style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border-bottom:2px solid transparent;transition:border-bottom-color 0.3s ease 0s"):}:, January 2021, Pages 148-157

hubs and Authorities in the Koch Brothers Network

Author links open overlay panel

Patrick Doreian a b, Andrej Mrvar a

aUniversity of Ljubljana, SloveniabUniversity of Pittsburgh, United States

Highlights

•:{

An analysis of hubs and authorities in the Koch Brothers network.

•:{

A discussion of roles in directed networks.

•:{

An analysis of the key interests of the allies of the Koch Brothers.

Abstract

The empirical focus is centered on the large social movement network created by the Koch Brothers to further their aims of transforming the US. The network was obtained by using the VOSON web crawler given a starting set of known allies of the Koch Brothers. This produced a large directed network with links between units. We propose using the idea of hubs and authorities as another way of considering the roles played by the units within this network. These roles may be more complex than has been realized. We have included an analysis of the core interests for the members of this network

Introduction
2. Studies of the Koch Brothers network
3. Hubs and Authorities
4. Hubs and authorities in the Koch Brothers network
5. The core interests of the KB allies
6. Summary, limitations and future work

https://deepclimate.org/2012/09/17/richard-muller-radio-rambles-part-1-kochs-very-deep-very-thoughtful-and-properly-skeptical/#more-5138

Richard Muller Radio Rambles, part 1: Kochs “very deep”, “very thoughtful” and “properly skeptical”

Posted on September 17, 2012

A recent Canadian radio appearance by Berkeley Earth founder Richard Muller has shed additional light on the role of Charles Koch, a major funder of the Berkeley Earth effort (and arguably the top funder of climate contrarians over the last several years). In the interview on CBC’s Sunday Edition, Muller mounted his most spirited and detailed defence of Koch yet, describing the oil billionaire as “very thoughtful” and “properly skeptical” of climate science. And the Berkeley Earth website goes even further, linking to an official Koch statement that makes the preposterous claim that the Charles Koch Foundation supports “sound, nonpartisan, scientific research”. That rings especially hollow this election season, given the current massive pro-Republican and anti-regulation push by fossil fuel interests, led as usual by Koch Industries.

The Berkeley Earth project is of mild scientific interest, but its leadership has proven adept at garnering intense media interest with each update (one can only imagine the media explosion once actual scientific publication is achieved). In the wake of the latest Berkeley Earth release, self-proclaimed “converted skeptic” Richard Muller has once again made the media rounds. Thus it came to be that the CBC brought Muller into my home, and I’ve since taken in a lot of his notions about climate science from a number of sources. Those range from his 2009 “Naked Copenhagen” WSJ op-ed piece and the 2010 head-exploding i4energy presentation (where the dubious rationale for the Berkeley Earth project was first made public), to his recent New York Times op-ed, and his interviews with Diane Rehm and Amy Goodman.

But for now I’ll concentrate on the first part of Muller’s interview with CBC host Kevin Sylvester (of which I’ve prepared a partial transcript).

Out of the gate, Muller’s appalling self-congratulation and arrogance are on display, as he hopes the Berkeley Earth team papers – none of which had even been accepted yet by a peer-reviewed journal – will “settle the science” about global warming. And why has this task fallen to Muller and the Berkeley Earth team, after thousands of papers and four comprehensive IPCC reports carefully documenting anthropogenic climate change? Well, it turns out “valid issues raised by thoughtful skeptics” had not been “clearly answered”. Those issues included station quality, data adjustments and selection of a “tiny fraction” of temperature stations.

If this were just more of Muller’s self-aggrandizement accompanied by his usual dismissal of real climate scientists, one could simply roll one’s eyes and tune out. At least this time out, Muller did not accuse other scientists of misconduct and “data hiding”, as he has done in the past.

But then Sylvester asked about Koch involvement, and things got really bizarre. Unbelievably, Charles Koch turns out to be one of those “thoughtful skeptics”. And not just “thoughtful”, but “very deep” as well.

Q: I guess a lot of surprise for a number of people as well as was that the funding for this was from the Koch brothers. … Was there ever any influence … Was there anything that surprised them and maybe angered them about your results?

A: No not at all. I mean, they’re made caricatures in the media. They’re actually very thoughtful people. You should read some of the books that Charles Koch has written. He’s very thoughtful, very deep. And from the beginning, he and I shared a concern there were issues that had not been addressed in a clearly transparent and objective way. And he wanted those answered. And no he never gave any hint whatsoever what answer he was hoping for, if any.

However, there is little evidence that Charles Koch has accepted the Berkeley Earth findings, especially regarding anthropogenic genesis of global warming. After the release of the Berkeley Earth findings in October 2011, the Charles Koch Foundation gave this decidedly lukewarm comment on the Berkeley Earth results.

The research examined recent global surface temperature trends. It did not examine ocean temperature data or the cause of warming on our climate, as some have claimed.

That statement is still linked from the Berkeley Earth website FAQ entry on funding. But now that Berkeley Earth has gone even beyond the IPCC in attributing warming to human greenhouse gas emissions, the Koch Foundation has issued a second, truncated statement avoiding any discussion of the most recent findings. Even more telling is the apparent absence of Koch Foundation support in the second phase of Berkeley Earth (presuming that the Anonymous Foundation donating $250,000 is not associated with the Kochs).

In the CBC interview, Muller went on to defend Charles Koch against accusations of being a climate change “denier”.

He knew that the science was in trouble, there were things wrong with it. People called him a denier because he was being properly skeptical about things that hadn’t been answered. That was silly. And from the beginning he made it absolutely clear all he wanted to do was good science.

No, despite Muller’s protestations, the Kochs have been labeled deniers, not because they are “properly skeptical”, but because they have poured tens of millions into supporting contrarian think tanks and politicians who deny the primacy of anthropogenic influences, chiefly greenhouse gas emissions, in current and future global warming. And the Kochs will reportedly raise up to $400 million to support a Republican Party that has increasingly committed itself to inaction on climate change, among a whole set of extreme Tea Party inspired policies.

It’s understandable that Berkeley Earth would defend its own acceptance of Koch money. And it should be emphasized that there is absolutely no hint of improper influence on the project, from Koch or anyone else.

But by linking to an official Koch statement, Berkeley Earth implicitly endorses this deceitful description of Koch funding policy (as presented in both Koch statements).

The Charles Koch Foundation has long supported and will continue to support sound, nonpartisan, scientific research.

This simply can not be squared with the Koch record, from the establishment of the Cato Institute through to Koch funding for the Heartland Institute and the Fraser Institute, to name just three examples. None of the $60 million that the Kochs have poured into such organizations over the years can conceivably be termed support for “scientific research”, let alone sound scientific research. As for the laughable claim that the “research” is non-partisan, all of the supported organizations are allied with Republican policies and politicians (or Conservative ones in the case of the Canadian Fraser Institute).

A more realistic self-assessment (and rationale) for Koch activities can be found behind closed doors. For years, the Kochs have convened secretive biannual seminars that bring together like-minded Republican patrons with politicians and media boosters, as first reported by the New York Times in 2010. Audio tapes of the January 2011 seminar in Palm Springs, obtained by Mother Jones, feature Charles Koch in full rhetorical flight, with an oblique reference to Saddam Hussein and a warning that the 2012 election would be “the mother of all wars.”

But the most revealing insights into the Koch mind set come from a ThinkProgress package containing the letter of invitation for the 2011 Palm Springs meeting, along with the agenda for the previous 2010 meeting held in Vail, Colorado.

Here are a couple of tidbits from theVail agenda.

Small group dinner:

Energy and Climate: What drives the regulatory assault on energy? What are the economic and political consequences of this? How discredited is the climate change argument? What effect does this have on the electorate, especially in key states? [p. 6]

That makes the real Koch agenda very clear: climate science (or the “climate change argument” in Koch speak) must be “discredited” in order to blunt the “regulatory assault on energy”.

Another session focused on a familiar litany of “significant threats” from the Obama administration.

Understanding the Persistent Threats We Face

The current administration swept into office with a promise to “fundamentally transform America.” From the nationalization of health care to the rising power of unions, as well as a push for major new climate and energy regulations, financial regulation, and even more government spending, there is no lack of significant threats for us to understand and address. [p. 7] [Emphasis added]

The program summary for the “action oriented” 2011 meeting refers to past efforts to “counter” such “critical threats” as “climate change alarmism”.

This action-oriented program brings together top experts and leaders to discuss – and offer solutions to counter – the most critical threats to our free society. Recent sessions have focused on addressing rapid government growth, countering climate change alarmism and the move toward socialized healthcare, developing strategies to advance liberty on college campuses, strengthening our state-based capabilities, and promoting judicial reform. Past meetings have featured such notable leaders as Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas; Governors Bobby Jindal and Haley Barbour; commentators John Stossel, Charles Krauthammer, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh; Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn; and Representatives Paul Ryan, Mike Pence, and Torn Price. [Emphasis added]

The featured presence of right-wing media stars like Beck and Limbaugh is fairly predictable, but the attendance of two sitting Supreme Court Justices is frankly shocking. And look who made a surprise appearance towards the end of that list: none other than then vice-presidential candidate in training (and climate change contrarian) Paul Ryan.

So much for “non-partisan scientific research”.

But just because Muller doesn’t accept that Koch is a “denier”, doesn’t mean “deniers” don’t exist – far from it.

If we take the standard, the consensus prior to our work as being what the IPCC had reported, then there are deniers who say: “There’s no global warming it’s all political”. And there are also deniers who say: “Oh, the IPCC is completely wrong – the situation is much, much worse than they say”. If they are denying the IPCC by saying it’s worse, they should be called deniers too. And that includes Al Gore and Tom Freidman as people who deny the IPCC report.

It’s a good thing we have Muller and the Kochs to occupy the middle ground between the “deniers” on both sides.

As I’ve said before, Muller’s belated “conversion” to scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change is positive, albeit woefully late. But he clings to many of his previous fallacious positions on a range of issues, beyond his absurd characterization of the Koch Brothers. Proper treatment of these could keep an assiduous blogger busy for a long time, so I’ll just summarize some of Muller’s most problematic points briefly.

At the top of the list is Muller’s repeated insistence that “climategate” revealed gross scientific misconduct on the part of scientists at East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. Those accusations are completely unjustified, and based on a faulty grasp of the facts to boot. Berkeley Earth team member Zeke Hausfather has repudiated accusations of scientific malfeasance against CRU’s Phil Jones and Keith Briffa from the beginning. And even Chip Knappenberger rejected Steve McIntyre’s “analysis” of the Climategate email exchange concerning the IPCC TAR chart that showed reconstructions by Briffa and Jones, along with the MBH99 “hockey stick”, terming it “normal scientific discourse”. (I’ve discussed this particular aspect of “climategate” and the “hide-the-decline” controversy several times, notably here and here).

Of course, it should also be pointed out that misinformation about “climategate” was assiduously promulgated by several groups funded by the Koch Brothers, notably Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute.

Climategate aside, though, here are some of the other gaffes and questionable “facts” that may occasion more detailed commentary. According to Muller:

Hansen’s recent work on seasonal temperature extremes is “not correct” (and Hansen “predicts” his findings in Gistemp “ahead of time” which makes Muller “very uncomfortable”). [Sources: CBC, i4energy.]

“Is the Arctic melting due to global warming? You know, the evidence for that is very, very flimsy. I’m not even sure it’s true.” Enough said – for now. [Source: Diane Rehm show]

China’s greenhouse gas emissions will increase more than five-fold by 2040, even with a 4% reduction in carbon intensity each and every year. [Sources: Wall Street Journal and many others]

And, last but not least, we have an oldie but goodie (again via the CBC).

“[T]he globe isn’t warming, at least not in recent years”.

I don’t see anything in that list to which Charles Koch would take the slightest exception.

---

new 10 23 email

no lnx

‘Get the Right Cases to the Supreme Court’: Inside Charles Koch’s Network

Billionaire’s web of rightwing groups works to bring cases to court that could undermine core functionings of the US government

ED PILKINGTON AND NICK SURGEY

OCT 26

This article was produced in partnership with The Guardian

The Koch network, a web of rightwing groups cultivated by billionaire businessman Charles Koch and his late brother David Koch, is spearheading the attack on federal agencies and government regulations that dominates the US supreme court agenda this term.

The network has been working behind the scenes to bring cases before the court that, if successful, could undermine many of the core functionings of the US government. At least two of the biggest cases to be considered by the justices this term have been spurred by groups bankrolled and coordinated within the Koch universe.

Footage of an internal panel discussion between senior operatives from Koch entities held in the summer of 2022 reveals that the network has been quietly planning the current assault on the “administrative state”. The groups are seeking to exploit the supreme court’s new six-to-three rightwing majority secured by Donald Trump to dismantle vital executive powers.

Regulatory controls in their sights include environmental standards to combat pollution and the climate crisis, consumer protections against predatory lenders, and safeguards for workers’ rights. At stake is what the Strict Scrutiny podcast has called “the future of government as we know it”.

The footage, which is made public here for the first time, was obtained by the investigative watchdog Documented and shared with the Guardian. During the 37-minute panel discussion, legal strategists with several Koch-related groups expressed excitement that the new hard-right supreme court supermajority has created the potential for a concerted attack on the functions of federal agencies.

Jorge Lima, an economic policy strategist at the Koch network’s central coordinating group, Stand Together, said that the new composition of the court amounted to a huge “landscape opportunity, particularly on the administrative state. We’re doubling down on this strategy.”

Lima added: “Every dog has its day, and it’s a big day for the administrative state.”

Casey Mattox, a legal strategist at the main Koch advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, argued that the supreme court was now “primed for a real change in the law” on federal regulations which he said amounted to a “paradigm shift”. Mattox said: “That’s why we are partnering with organizations that can get the right cases to the supreme court.”

The effort appears to have born fruit. Two of the most significant cases before the court in the 2023-24 term, brought with the backing of Koch-linked organizations, attempt to rein back the government’s power to impose regulations on corporations.

The prominence of the cases underlines how the libertarian empire created by the Kochs is still a force to be reckoned with within US politics. Since David Koch’s death in 2019, and the Koch network’s decision to come out in opposition to Trump ahead of next year’s presidential election, the network has receded from public attention.

But the scope of Charles Koch’s reach remains formidable, as was demonstrated earlier this month when the 87-year-old told Forbes that he had given $4.3bn of his Koch Industries stock to Believe in People, a newly-created group named after his book of the same title. He has transferred a further $975m to another new entity, CCKc4, which carries the initials of his son Chase Koch.

The massive combined $5.3bn in donations, one of the largest acts of giving to non-profits in US history, will ensure that the Koch influence will continue to push the US to the right for years to come. Undermining government regulations is central to those ambitions.

Lisa Graves, the executive director of the progressive watchdog True North Research who is a long-time Koch watcher, said that Charles Koch has shown a “fundamental hostility to government regulation” since his early political writings in the 1960s. “This is the through-line of his career. His business operations have a substantial self-interest in assailing regulations that impede his profits.”

Koch Industries is a conglomerate of energy and chemicals companies that stand to benefit if controls on pollution, workers’ rights and other aspects of public governance are rolled back. The firm is the second largest privately-owned company in the US.

Among the big administrative state cases that the justices will be considering this term is Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo, which seeks to overturn a 40-year precedent set by the supreme court itself. Known as Chevron, the ruling allows federal agencies the flexibility to reasonably interpret laws without interference from the courts as they regulate critical parts of public life, such as the environment and public safety.

Experts have warned that if Chevron is struck down, it could be a recipe for legal and administrative chaos. “We are talking about rules that protect us in so many ways – truckers who are too tired to drive on the highway, unsafe workplaces, and pollution of our water and the air we breathe,” Graves said.

The case was nominally brought by a New Jersey herring fishing company that objected to being charged by a federal agency that monitors its catch to prevent over-fishing. Behind the challenge is a conservative group called Cause of Action, which is intricately tied to the Koch network.

The chair of Cause of Action’s board, Brian Menckes, is general counsel of the Charles Koch Foundation. Cause of Action’s executive director, James Valvo, who is acting as one of the fishing company’s lawyers in the case, is the former head of policy of Americans for Prosperity.

A second lawyer representing the company, Eric Bolinder, holds dual roles as a counsel for Cause of Action and Americans for Prosperity.

In 2021 Cause of Action’s entire income of $375,000 came from Stand Together, the Koch network’s coordinating group, Bloomberg reported. The groups are also physically close: Cause of Action and Americans for Prosperity not only share the same address in Arlington, Virginia, they occupy the same office – suite 700.

Bolinder was one of the panel speakers at the 2022 Koch discussion on the administrative state. He framed the plan to use the supreme court to launch a legal attack on regulatory government as a states’ rights issue.

“As the federal government grabs more and more power, particularly to the regulatory state, the states become less and less important,” he said.

The Guardian contacted Stand Together and Cause of Action for comment. Cause of Action did not immediately reply.

Gretchen Reiter, Stand Together spokesman, said that the Loper Bright case was seeking “to restore one of the core tenets of our democracy: that Congress, not the administrative agency, makes the laws. Cause of Action Institute – which filed the lawsuit in 2020 – is representing family-run fishing companies that the federal government is forcing to pay a tax that Congress never authorized, and that violates our constitution’s separation of powers.”

Last week, the supreme court accepted a second case also challenging the Chevron precedent, which has now been consolidated with the fishermen’s petition. Relentless v Department of Commerce was also filed by a group with intimate connections to the Koch network, the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA).

The organization, which claims to “protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the administrative state”, was founded in 2017 with seed money from the Charles Koch Foundation. Over five years, it has received more than $5m from the Koch network.

NCLA’s president, Mark Chenoweth, previously served as in-house counsel for Koch Industries.

NCLA submitted an amicus brief last week supporting another major challenge to regulatory agencies that will be heard by the supreme court this term. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) v Jarkesy threatens to gut the enforcement power of the SEC by curtailing its ability to fast-track cases of securities fraud through its own in-house administrative law judges.

A ruling against the SEC could drastically reduce the ability of numerous government agencies to enforce environmental and other standards.

The footage of the Koch panel discussion obtained by Documented reveals that the NCLA has been secretly lobbying for the Jarkesy case to reach the supreme court. Mattox said that “NCLA brought a lot of value to that case”.

He went on: “You won’t see them actually directly litigating on that case, but they’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes, and that speaks to the way that our community adds value here, because when we partner with people we look for results, not necessarily for headlines and attention-grabbing.”

There is a further twist to the issue of Koch influence on the supreme court’s docket this term. Last month, ProPublica revealed as part of its expose of ethical breaches by some justices, that the right-leaning Clarence Thomas had attended at least two Koch donor events where funds were raised to forward the Koch network’s mission – which includes bringing cases before the court.

The attack on the administrative state is central to the work of Americans for Prosperity, which boasts of its years-long campaign to challenge what it calls the “out-of-control regulatory environment imposed by Washington”. It organizes bus tours around the country, directly relating “red tape” on energy infrastructure projects to the high cost of fuel at the pump.

This has taken place while oil and gas giants such as Exxon, BP and Shell have posted record profits, and the world has increasingly felt the impact of climate change. Americans for Prosperity calls itself “the nation’s premier grassroots organization”, but according to an independent audit report from 2021, 94% of the $112m in cash it received that year came from just two donors.

---

https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/billionaire-elections/

A newly surfaced recording shows a senior adviser to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell conspiring with the Koch brothers' network and other conservative groups to torpedo sweeping voting rights legislation.

The Jan. 8 recording obtained by *The New Yorker* reveals leading conservative activists are alarmed by public support for House Resolution 1 and Senate Bill 1, commonly known as the For The People Act, and they privately admitted they had no effective way to counter the argument that billionaires should be able to buy elections.

"When presented with a very neutral description" of the bill, "people were generally supportive,"Kyle McKenzie, the research director for the Koch-run advocacy group Stand Together."The most worrisome part . . . is that conservatives were actually as supportive as the general public was when they read the neutral description."

"There's a large, very large, chunk of conservatives who are supportive of these types of efforts," he added.

The election reform bill, which would ban large, anonymous political donations, enjoys broad public support, and McKenzie told participants that Senate Republicans would need to use "under-the-dome" legislative tactics to stop the bill because generally everyone but them agreed billionaires should not be able to buy elections behind the scenes.

"Unfortunately, we've found that that is a winning message, for both the general public and also conservatives," McKenzie said.

The Koch-funded group had spent a lot of money to find persuasive arguments against the bill, but found that even claiming it would allow Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to hold Trump administration officials accountable wasn't particularly effective.

"Sadly," he said, conservatives weren't even persuaded when the phrase "cancel culture" was tied to the bill.

"It really ranked at the bottom," McKenzie said. "That was definitely a little concerning for us."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Koch Donor Summits and Known Attendees

"Unprecedented" Spending Plans for 2016 Election Cycle

At the January 2015 Koch network meeting, it was revealed that the network planned to spend $889 million on the 2016 election campaign, a goal the New York Times called "unprecedented" and which "would put it on track to spend nearly as much as the campaigns of each party’s presidential nominee."^[4]

In October 2015, the network had reportedly "raised and ha[d] commitments for about $600m," and donors associated with the network had contributed at least $20 million to Super PACs supporting Republican candidates, The Guardian reported, including:

"Arizonan Randy Kendrick, a wealthy conservative who has donated $100,000 to a pro-Rubio Super Pac and is also a leading fundraiser for his campaign committee in her home state of Maryland. Kendrick is a regular attendee at the Kochs’s semiannual retreats."Ken Griffin, who runs Citadel, a large Chicago hedge fund, and has donated to Koch network projects. Griffin also chipped in $100,000 to the pro-Rubio Super Pac, and $100,000 to the pro-Jeb Bush super Pac, Right to Rise USA."Hedge-fund mogul Robert Mercer, a big donor to the Koch network, who poured $11m into the pro-Cruz Pac, Keep the Promise I, of which $500,000 was shipped to the Fiorina-supporting Super Pac, Carly for America."Helen Schwab, the wife of investor Charles Schwab, a longtime donor to the Koch network, who gave $1.5m to the Jeb Bush-supporting Super Pac, Right to Rise USA."^[5]

August 2015, Dana Point, California

The Koch network held its 2015 summer meeting July 31-August 2 at the St. Regis Monarch Beach luxury resort in Dana Point, California. According to Politico, about 450 donors attended. Attendees included several Republican candidates for President: former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.^[6]

Politico also reported that several elected officials in attendance spoke about the influence of the Koch's donor network. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey "recalled that he attended a previous conference as a donor before being elected to his state’s top office last year. 'Every time I’ve been invited to this conference, I’ve benefited from this conference,' he said." Senators Ben Sasse (R-NE), Tim Scott (R-SC), and Dan Sullivan (R-AK), all first elected in 2014, "credited Koch network donors for helping the GOP take control of the Senate that year. 'Your help over the last election cycle produced the numbers that we have today,. Scott said [...] 'The major contributions and investments that you have made have played a major role."

Click here for a transcript of Charles Koch's speech.

Others reportedly in attendance included:

Art Pope, "longtime Koch network donor," CEO of Variety Wholesalers,^[6] director of the Pope Foundation
Kellie Peters, "major Ohio donor focused on education reform"^[6]
Nancy Pfotenhauer, board member of Americans for Prosperity^[6]
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO)^[7]
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)^[7]
Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels^[8]

Politico also reported that New York hedge fund tycoon Robert Mercer was a Koch network donor.^[6]

Controversy Over "Strings Attached" to Media Access

This was the first summit that allowed major newsmedia to attend, but only after reporters agreed to certain conditions. Nine media organizations reportedly agreed: Associated Press, Bloomberg News, CNN, Politico, Time Magazine, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Washington Times.^[9]

Politico reported that it attended the summit "on the condition that donors spotted there not be named unless they agreed to be identified." One of its staff members, Mike Allen, also conducted a set of on-stage interviews with presidential candidates during the summit.^[6]

Michael Calderone of The Huffington Post raised concerns about the restrictions: "The problem is that the ground rules could restrict journalists from reporting what's right in front of their eyes... So it’s possible journalists end up reporting largely what the event sponsors want, such as fiery speeches and candidate remarks criticizing Democrats, but less on the power brokers attending who play key behind-the-scenes roles in the 2016 election."^[10]

The Undercurrent, which was also at the resort but "was not granted any special access," criticized media for agreeing to the restrictions, writing, "The presence of major media companies at the retreat lends the Koch operation the appearance of transparency, essentially white-washing activities that are corrosive to American democracy."^[9]

January 2015, Palm Springs, California

According to Politico, the Koch network planned to hold its winter meeting the weekend of January 23 at a hotel in Palm Springs, California. Sources told Politico that Republican politicians including "Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida, and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin received coveted invitations to speak to the vaunted network assembled by the billionaire industrialist megadonors Charles and David Koch."^[11] Walker's plans to attend were confirmed by a campaign spokesperson.^[12]

At the meeting, it was revealed that the network planned to spend $889 million on the 2016 election campaign, a goal the New York Times called "unprecedented" and which "would put it on track to spend nearly as much as the campaigns of each party’s presidential nominee."^[4]

“It’s no wonder the candidates show up when the Koch brothers call,” said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama. “That’s exponentially more money than any party organization will spend. In many ways, they have superseded the party.”^[4]

June 2014, Dana Point, California

The June 2014 Koch conference appears to have been held at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, near San Diego, California. The entire hotel was reserved under the name "T&R Sales Meeting" for the weekend of June 14-17, and "guests who weren’t part of the conference [...] were escorted out of the hotel by security on Saturday afternoon."^[13] Reporters who were among those escorted out reported that the conference theme was "American Courage, Our Commitment to a Free Society" and attendees appeared to be discussing new Common Core education standards and the IRS investigation of political non-profits.^[13] A new super PAC, Freedom Partners Action Fund, was also announced at the summit, according to Politico. It "aims to spend more than $15 million in the 2014 midterm campaigns."^[14]

Reportedly present at the summit were "James Davis, former communications director and chief spokesman for the 2012 Republican National Convention" and affiliated with Freedom Partners, "Carl Anderson, former chairman and CEO of Arrow International Inc. and current board member and independent director at Carpenter Technology Corp," David Koch, and Charles Koch.^[13] The speaker list was reported to include Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Dr. Charles Murray, author of The Bell Curve.^[15]

Groups reported to be in attendance included:^[16]

Audio of Koch Politicians

Audio recordings of some portions of the meeting were obtained by The Undercurrent, Huffington Post, and The Nation. The recordings included speeches by three Republican Senate candidates: Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst, Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton, and Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner,^[17] and remarks by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).^[18]

Ernst credited the Koch network with advancing his career, saying "But the exposure to this group and to this network and the opportunity to meet so many of you, that really started my trajectory." Cotton highlighted the role of Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity: ""Americans for Prosperity in Arkansas has played a critical role in turning our state from a one-party Democratic state [inaudible] building the kind of constant engagement to get people in the state involved in their communities."^[17]

McConnell attacked campaign finance limits, saying that "The worst day of my political life was when President George W. Bush signed McCain-Feingold into law in the early part of his first administration." He also described plans to "go after" Democrats by using attaching riders to spending bills. "No money can be spent to do this or to do that. We’re going to go after them on healthcare, on financial services, on the Environmental Protection Agency, across the board [inaudible]. All across the federal government, we’re going to go after it."^[18]

The recordings and transcripts are available here: McConnell's remarks, Senate candidates, Koch operatives.

List of Attendees

According to conference documents obtained by The Nation, the following people participated in the June 2014 summit:^[19][20]

Attendees| Name(s) | Industry | Notes |

Charles Koch		Koch Industries
David Koch		Koch Industries
Rep. Tom Cotton		Republican, Arkansas
Rep. Cory Gardner		Republican, Colorado
Rep. Jim Jordan		Republican, Ohio
Sen. Mitch McConnell		Republican, Kentucky
Sen. Marco Rubio		Republican, Florida
State Sen. [Joni Ernst]]		Republican, Iowa
Rich DeVos		co-founder of Amway, owner of the Orlando Magic
Gavin Herberg	pharmaceuticals	founder, Allergan; major funder of ALEC
Mark Holden	law	senior vice president, general counsel for Koch Industries
Nancy Pfotenhauer		president, MediaSpeak Strategies; former director Koch Industries Washington office
Karen Steward		director of research, Freedom Partners
Hubbel Relat		former associate director, Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation
Amity Shlaes	writer
Charles Murray	political scientist	author, The Bell Curve
Michael Lomax		president and CEO, United Negro College Fund
Jeff Crank	media	radio host, formerly Americans for Prosperity, Aegis Strategic
Dale Gibbens		vice president, Koch Industries
Philip Ellender		president and COO, Koch Companies Public Sector
John Hardin		Charles G. Koch Foundation
Marc Short		Freedom Partners
Norman Reimer	law	National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Daniel Turner		Generation Opportunity
Jose Mallea		The Libre Initiative
Teresa Oelke		Americans for Prosperity
Michael Palmer		leading session on "Voter Turnout:Using Data to Target, Persuade, and Get-out-the vote"
Emily Seidel		leading session on "Voter Turnout:Using Data to Target, Persuade, and Get-out-the vote"
Brian Hooks		Mercatus Center, executive director
Chad Thevenot		Institute for Humane Studies, COO
Derek Johnson		Charles G. Koch Foundation, program manager for higher education
Dr. Victor Davis Hanson		American military historian, writer for National Review
Dr. Will Ruger		Mercatus Center
Steve Lombardo		Koch Industries
Adam Millsap		possibly: former Koch Intern, intern at Reason Foundation
Diana Thomas		Mercatus Center
Jim Otteson		Fund for American Studies, BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism at Wake Forest
Ryan Stowers		Charles G. Koch Foundation, director of higher education programs
Evan Feinberg		Generation Opportunity
Rachel Campos-Duffy		The Libre Initiative
Marty Zupan		Institute for Humane Studies
Tim Phillips		Americans for Prosperity, president
Phil Cox		possibly: Republican Governors Association
Jeff Frazee		Young Americans for Liberty
Derrick Sontag		Americans for Prosperity
Doug Ducey		State Treasurer, Arizona
Pete Hegseth		Concerned Veterans for America, CEO
Peter Schweizer		Hoover Institution, Government Accountability Institute
Kevin Gentry		Charles G. Koch Foundation
Justine Fink		Americans for Prosperity
Jennifer Stefano		Americans for Prosperity

February 2014, Palm Springs, California

This is a list of attendees at the Koch brothers' semiannual conference held in Palm Springs in February of 2014.^[21] The list was discovered by a hotel guest who provided it to Mother Jones. The document not only lists prominent attendees of the conference, but also executives of Koch Industries, Americans for Prosperity, and Freedom Partners with whom they were scheduled to meet in one-on-one conversations. According to Mother Jones, "the meeting list illustrates the interwoven nature of the Koch brothers' corporate, political, and philanthropic activities" and "suggests a close collaboration between officials of Koch Industries, AFP, and Freedom Partners, whose staff and board are stacked with numerous current and former Koch Industries employees."^[21]

List of Attendees

The February 2014 Koch semiannual conference attendees were:^[21]

Attendees| Name(s) | Industry | Notes |

Carl Berg	Real estate
Ronnie Cameron		Mountaire Corporation
Charles Chandler	Banking	CEO of Intrust Bank
John Childs	Finance	J.W. Childs & Associates
Steve Clark
Jamie Coulter
Bob Fettig		Tankcraft
Steve Fettig		Tankcraft
Paul Foster
George Gibbs
Leslie Gilliam
Richard Gilliam	Mining	Cumberland Resources Corporation, Endurance Gold
Ken Griffin		Citadel
John Griffin		Blue Ridge Capital
Dick Haworth		Haworth
Jerry Hayden		former head of Peacock Engineering
George Jenkins
Richard Kayne		Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors
Dan Kirby		Kirby Financial
Fred Klipsch		Klipsch Group
Frank Kozel		Keystone Energy Oil & Gas Inc.
Francis "Franc" Lee		First Tower, LLC.
Robert Luddy		CativeAire Systems Inc.
Hugh Maclellan		Maclellan Foundation
Kent McCarthy
Andrew Miller
Cecil O'Brate		Palmer Manufacturing & Tank
Verl Purdy		AGDATA Inc.
Tom Rastin		Ariel Corporation
George Records		Hoover Institution
Robert Rowling		TRT Holdings
Ted Saunders
John Schnatter		Papa John's International
Tom Smith
Craig Snider
Jaime Snider
Tina Snider
Dian Stai		Owen Healthcare Inc.
Jim Stephenson		Yancey Bros. Co., Americans for Prosperity board member
Jim Von Ehr		Zyvex Labs
Debra Waller		Jockey International Inc.
Lew Ward		Ward Petroleum Corporation
Dick Weiss		Wells Capital Management
Dean Williams
Karen Wright		Ariel Corporation

List of Koch "players"

These are the Koch "players" who were scheduled to meet with the above attendees.

Koch "players"| Name(s) | Organization |

Charles Koch	Koch Industries
David Koch	Koch Industries
Michael Lanzara	Freedom Partners
Steve Feilmeier	Koch Industries
Kevin Gentry	Freedom Partners
Jeff Noble	Freedom Partners
Tim Phillips	Americans for Prosperity
Chris Fink	Americans for Prosperity
Teresa Oelke	Americans for Prosperity
David Fladeboe	Americans for Prosperity
Brett Hinkey	Freedom Partners
Daniel Garza	The Libre Initiative
Chase Koch	Koch Fertilizer
Richard Fink	Koch Industries
Ryan Stowers	Charles G. Koch Foundation
Brian Hooks	Mercatus Center
Marc Short	Freedom Partners
Scott Hagerstrom	Americans for Prosperity Michigan
Jennifer Stefano	Americans for Prosperity Pennsylvania
Tommy Von der Heydt	Americans for Prosperity
Corey Lewandowski	Americans for Prosperity
Slade O'Brien	Americans for Prosperity Florida
John Hardin	Charles G. Koch Foundation
Michael Palmer	i360
Derek Johnson	Charles G. Koch Foundation
Nathan Nascimento	Freedom Partners
James Davis	Freedom Partners
Luke Hilgemann	Americans for Prosperity

August 2013, Albuquerque, New Mexico

...

1/16

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-windsor/i-tried-to-cover-the-secr_b_9126876.html

he Koch brothers' donor retreats are notoriously secretive affairs, but after my publishing of several hours of audio from their 2014 summer confab, the network began to bring select journalists behind its closed doors. With strings attached. Six media outlets gained access this year under the condition of not disclosing donor identities, while the Kochs enlisted hotel security staff and police officers to intimidate this reporter from exercising her First Amendment rights.

As Koch grand strategist Richard Fink sat in the Glo Lounge of the posh Renaissance Esmeralda Indian Wells resort in Palm Springson Thursday, I heard his communications staff report to him that Fredreka Schouten of USA Today was "prepped." Sure enough, just hours later, at 5 AM on Jan. 29, her piece went live on the USA Today site: "Koch brothers' new group will take on poverty, education."

That piece dutifully relayed Koch talking points about the $15 million the group, "Stand Together," is trying "to raise." The exclusive "first interview" about this new operation was just the kind of uncritical "earned media" the Koch team wanted by launching the group's website just as the Kochs gather with their billionaire buddies to discuss spending another nearly half a billion dollars in the 2016 election.

Schouten even adopted Koch rhetoric that the billionaires' money-raising effort to achieve their political ambitions was a "seminar." The story accepted all manner of Koch assertions and gloss as true and without acknowledging key facts to the contrary in many instances.

For example, it noted that the Kochs have been pushing for criminal justice reform, without noting that a key component of their agenda is to make it harder to prosecute corporate crimes, as Koch Industries and some of its employees had been charged with breaking environmental laws in the 1990s. Their general counsel, Mark Holden, admitted their interest in this reform stemmed from that prosecution over leaking tons of cancer-causing benzene.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on that part of the Koch agenda just two weeks ago in which some Members expressed deep concerns about the effort to use the need to address the disproportionate mass incarceration of African Americans as a vehicle to let white-collar criminals off the hook.

It also favorably mentioned the Kochs' recent funding of the United Negro College Fund, without noting the strings the Kochs put on the scholarships and the role of Koch Industries in determining who is sufficiently supportive of their ideology to get the money.

It noted that the Kochs' Libre Initiative, which basically markets Koch kool-aid to Latinos, gave out holiday turkeys to some families--without noting how the group has come under wide criticism for peddling policies that hurt many Latino families like opposing increasing the minimum wage, opposing access to affordable health care, and undermining workers' rights.

It also portrayed concerns about the Kochs' secretive but enormous role in elections as partisan--saying they "face deep skepticism from Democrats"--even though polling consistently shows that Americans fromboth major political parties and independents are deeply concerned about the influence of special interests on our elections and super-majorities oppose the Citizens United decision that has helped unleash the Koch election machine.

It also uncritically quoted Bob Woodson, a black conservative who was an architect of George W. Bush's faith-based initiative, and who is working with the new group. He claimed the Koch brothers and the right-wing CEOs and trust-fund babies they gather are just "grass-roots rich people" and "not the kind of corporate elitists who boast all the time about their vacations in France." And it comes from a guy who claims the Kochs' "philosophy and operating principles [are] ... 100% compatible with the way we help the poor." That's some nice spin.

Meanwhile, the Koch family fortune is the biggest funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council and for more than twenty years Koch Industries has been a leader of ALEC, as it pushed bills to make it harder for Americans to vote (legislation that disproportionately affects impoverished Americans who rely on public transit), to repeal the minimum wage and stop any increase to it, to pre-empt local rent control laws, to oppose limits on ATM fees and interest charges on credit cards and payday loans, to impose a panoply of restrictions on food stamps and welfare aid, to privatize Medicaid in favor of Health Savings Accounts that cannot possibly cover costs for serious accidents or illnesses, and many more bills that hurt the poor.

The story also noted that David Koch's Americans for Prosperity group has been giving poor folks lessons on coupon cutting, without noting AFP's role in pushing other policies like ALEC bills that hurt poor Americans.

USA Today also put the story in its weekend edition, as the top story above the fold with a new, even more positive headline: "Kochs' new group aims to 'revitalize' society." This messaging is consistent with Richard Fink's stated goal to rebrand their free-market ideology as a "movement for well-being." For Fink, the man called "Charles Koch's brain," the prepping of USA Today by his team certainly paid dividends in positive press for the Koch operation.

While selecting a handful of reporters to come to their gathering on the condition that they not tell the American people which billionaires are there funding the Kochs' unprecedented amount of spending in the 2016 election cycle, Charles Koch claimed that they are not "some secret cabal." This the day after the Kochs deployed hotel security and local police officers to pressure this reporter to stop taking photos of the incoming conference attendees from a public sidewalk, despite my First Amendment right to do so. I asserted that right and asked for a clarification of the property line, so that I could comply with the full letter of the law.

After falsely claiming the sidewalk was private property and sending local police to intervene, the security team was forced to allow me to stand right next to the guest checkpoint and continue to photograph attendees. Soon thereafter, staffers moved the checkpoint 50 yards or so further into the property, where it is harder for a camera to see into stopped cars. (Video of this below.)

Meanwhile, inside the luxury resort, on that very same day the Kochs held a panel on the First Amendment featuring legal commentator Jeff Rosen, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, and a staff writer for the conservative National Review, David French.

Apparently the constitutional rights of the Kochs and their secretive billionaire cabal are the only ones that matter.

Disclosure: Lauren Windsor is also the executive director of American Family Voices, a non-profit organization that works on middle class economic issues, with a particular focus on Wall Street reform, money-in-politics, and climate change.

lists

http://littlesis.org/groups/kochu/lists

8/15

koch conf:

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/why-jeb-bushs-pitch-koch-brothers-should-scare-you

At the Koch brothers’ big California confabulation last weekend, each of the invited candidates who submitted to questioning on the main stage by *Politico*’s Mike Allen made pointed pitches to ideological proclivities of both the multi-billionaire brothers and their deep-pocketed fellow travelers. But the winner of the pitching contest may turn out to be the one least expected to win himself some Koch-love.

When she wasn’t offering to “throw a punch” at Hillary Clinton, Carly Fiorina applauded the “patriotism” of Charles and David Koch, implying that their neo-libertarian ideology of self-enrichment was a boon to the nation.

Marco Rubio, in a smooth performance that likely persuaded some of his electability, took aim at the Obama administration’s new EPA “clean energy” regulations, suggesting they would benefit “some billionaire somewhere who is a pro-environmental cap-and-trade person” at the expense of “a single mom in Tampa.”

Reminding those assembled that he had actually rolled back environmental regulations in Wisconsin, Scott Walker also brayed about having damaged union rights there.

And Ted Cruz flat-out denied the very existence of climate change due to global warming, claiming that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was “cooking the books” when it came to measuring the earth’s temperature.

But for all the preening and posturing of the candidates whose interviews preceded his on the conference schedule, the one presidential hopeful who was by far the most awkward—and the most unnatural fit for the neo-libertarian audience at the St. Regis Hotel in Dana Point—was also the one who displayed a superior understanding the Koch network’s donor base. He is widely seen as the “establishment candidate,” a low-charisma campaigner whose views align less closely with those of the Kochs than, say, Walker or Cruz. His name is Jeb Bush.

In every campaign, liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, there’s a bullet point on the candidate’s position page that is a gimmick—something that no president can guarantee, but any candidate can promise. In Jeb’s case, the promise is a near-doubling of the economic growth rate to 4 percent.

When asked by Allen how he would make that happen, Jeb seemed almost to forget to ring the Koch bell, but when he remembered, he cleverly did so at a frequency that could be heard only by the brothers and their pals. The media, mainstream and progressive alike, missed it entirely.

Bush’s answer to Allen’s question was that he would take better advantage of what he called the energy revolution in fracking and crude-oil excavation. That answer was cheerful enough, one presumes, to a pair of siblings whose conglomerate was founded on a gusher of fossil fuel. But the real money quote came next, when Bush went on to list the reasons why the recent natural-gas and crude-oil boom happened.

“The one that is unique to America? Private property rights,” Bush said. “Private property rights. … And you know what the second was? Private business. Not a public company—a private business. Because a private business, by the way, through trial and error, they can do what they want. They don’t have to worry about the quarterly returns, and get on the call to listen to shareholders or analysts say why it’s stupid to be spending money on something that may be out of the ordinary.”

Koch Industries is the second-largest privately held corporation in the United States. That means that when it acquires publicly traded companies, as it did with Georgia-Pacific in 2005, the earnings and activities of those companies, too, become shielded from public view. That makes the Koch network far more threatening to democracy than the cartels of defense contractors and big pharmaceutical companies and their ilk that have traditionally held sway over Congress.

Like the Kochs themselves, most of the donors who take part in Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce—the Koch-founded umbrella group that sponsored last weekend’s conference—represent private capital and private companies. And they’re close to having total control over one of the nation’s two major political parties—in a political system that makes the emergence of a significant third party virtually impossible.

Take, for instance, the fight inside the Republican Party for control of voter data. A company funded by the Kochs built a voter-data targeting and collection system that many GOP candidates find to be superior to the one available to them through the Republican National Committee. So they use the Koch system, and the data stay with the Koch network, which in itself is a constellation of political and policy-focused nonprofit organizations that are shielded from disclosing the identities of their donors, thanks to the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case.

With a House of Representatives elected with Koch money, and likely to stay that way far into the future, the election of a president who is ready to make life easier for the biggest hoarders of private capital could be devastating to any shred of democracy left in our political system.

A loosening of our already poorly-enforced antitrust laws could allow the wholesale gobbling-up of large, publicly traded companies by privately held corporations. The appointment of Supreme Court justices by a president who holds the shrouded workings of private capital in such high esteem promises future decisions that will make Citizens United look like a ray of sunlight.

In his bid to become the third in his family’s dynasty of mediocrity to occupy the White House, Jeb Bush is ready to sell the nation to the most secretive corner of the 1 percent.

With masses of private capital to back him—routed through the Kochs’ opaquely funded nonprofits—he could actually win.

8/15

Nine news outlets, including Politico and the Washington Post, have been given access to the Koch brothers' donor fest on the condition that they not report on the identities of donors without their permission.

Notes Huffington Post's Michael Calderone:

The problem is that the ground rules could restrict journalists from reporting what's right in front of their eyes. If, say, Rupert Murdoch, or even a lesser-known billionaire, walked by, they couldn't report the person's attendance without permission. So it's possible journalists end up reporting largely what the event sponsors want, such as fiery speeches and candidate remarks criticizing Democrats, but less on the power brokers attending who play key behind-the-scenes roles in the 2016 election.

Calderone is on the money, but there is a further, perhaps bigger danger. The presence of major media companies at the retreat lends the Koch operation the appearance of transparency, essentially whitewashing activities that are corrosive to American democracy.

The Undercurrent has been on the ground in Dana Point covering the retreat, and was not granted any special access. In fact, this reporter was stalked by the Koch security team and manhandled by top Koch operative Kevin Gentry. (More on that debacle to come.) Additionally, one of Undercurrent's photographers was threatened by a guest who did not like having his picture taken. This man got out of his car and shouted angrily, "You don't know who you're f*cking with!"

To his point, no, we don't, and we need your help. The Undercurrent and its sponsor, American Family Voices, are committed to doing what the mainstream media won't: exposing Koch donors. If you know the identity of the aforementioned man below, please let us know in the comments section, and stay tuned for more -- we have well over 1,000 pictures to mine, so it will take some time to identify everyone.

Lauren Windsor is executive producer and host, The Undercurrent, part of Lady Libertine Media.

2014

The Nation

Published on The Nation (http://www.thenation.com)

Exclusive: Inside the Koch Brothers’ Secret Billionaire Summit

Lauren Windsor | June 17, 2014

Charles and David Koch wrapped up their annual summer seminar on June 16 in Dana Point, California, at the St. Regis Monarch Bay resort—a fitting location for two men whose combined net worth is more than $100 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index [1]. The highly secretive mega-donor conference, called “American Courage: Our Commitment to a Free Society,” featured a who’s who of Republican political elites. According to conference documents obtained through a source who was in attendance, Representatives Tom Cotton (AR), Cory Gardner (CO) and Jim Jordan (OH) were present, as were Senators Mitch McConnell (KY) and Marco Rubio (FL). Cotton, Gardner and McConnell are all running for the Senate this year; Jordan for re-election in the House. Rubio is widely considered a major contender for a 2016 presidential run. According to the documents, the conference attendees discussed strategy on campaign finance, climate change, healthcare, higher education and opportunities for taking control of the Senate. (The draft agenda is available for viewing here [2].)

According to another source who also attended the conference,300 individuals—worth at least a billion each—were present. This source said that the explicit goal was to raise $500 million to take the Senate in the 2014 midterms and another $500 million “to make sure Hillary Clinton is never president.” Three hundred billionaires in attendance is likely an exaggeration; to put that figure in perspective, there are 492 total billionaires in the United States by Forbes’s count [3]. The Koch network raised an estimated $407 million in the 2012 presidential election, according to an analysis by The Washington Post and the Center for Responsive Politics [4].

The official conference lasted two days, Sunday and Monday, but several events for top donors occurred on Saturday. According to conference documents, Representatives Tom Cotton and Jim Jordan were to join a group of top donors for a post-golf lunch discussion. A special dinner was scheduled at La Casa Pacifica—the former home of President Richard Nixon that has come to be known as “The Western White House”—with Rich DeVos, the Amway co-founder, owner of the Orlando Magic and frequent Koch collaborator. The menu offered “oven roasted Angus natural filet mignon served in a fresh green peppercorn sauce served with braised fennel with truffle, asparagus tips, vegetable and mint quinoa” among other dishes prepared by Master Chef Maurice Brazier.

La Casa Pacifica is currently owned by Gavin Herbert, the founder of the pharmaceutical company Allergan and a Republican heavyweight. Herbert is a GOP donor and former Nixon confidant, and Allergan is a major funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council [5], the conservative powerhouse behind model legislation that would bust unions, repeal environmental protections, require voter ID and increase access to guns and justify their use in Stand Your Ground cases.

On Sunday, Representative Jordan, Senate minority leader McConnell and Koch legal operative Mark Holden held a strategy discussion titled “Free Speech: Defending First-Amendment Rights” for a small, invite-only group. McConnell was slated to address the full crowd in a talk by the same name later in the afternoon. Earlier this month, McConnell clashed with Senate majority leader Harry Reid in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Reid’s proposed constitutional amendment to get big money out of politics. The billionaire Koch brothers have been popular targets for Reid’s ire.

On the issue of campaign finance reform, Republicans argue that money equals speech and therefore regulating money in elections abridges first amendment free speech rights. The Democratic framework is that in a world where money equals speech, the rich are able to silence the poor and corrupt the political process. (Disclosure: I cover campaign finance reform extensively and work with Money Out/Voters In, a coalition of grassroots activists seeking to overturn Citizens United.)

Intriguing in its ambiguity was the “Energy: Changing the Narrative” session, presumably meant to change the narrative of climate change to one of energy independence. Panelists listed include Nancy Pfotenhauer, the president of MediaSpeak Strategies and former director of the Washington office of Koch Industries; Hubbel Relat, a former associate director of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation; and Karen Steward, the Director of Research at Freedom Partners—none of whom are scientists. According to The Daily Beast [6], the Kochs are investing large sums in “a new energy initiative with what looks like a deregulatory, pro-consumer spin” to combat President Obama’s new regulations on carbon dioxide emissions and liberal billionaire Tom Steyer’s $100 million commitment to fight climate change. It is not hard to see why the Kochs, as the owners of a large carbon-based energy conglomerate with interests in oil, natural gas and coal, are some of the most vocal climate deniers. In 2013, Forbes [7] listed Koch Industries as the second largest privately held company in the country.

Also on Sunday, conservative columnist Amity Shlaes was interviewed about her recent biography of Calvin Coolidge. Charles Murray, the libertarian political scientist and author of the controversial book The Bell Curve,gave dinner remarks. Other highlights included“Collectivism: Exploring Its Nature and Consequences” and “The Foundation for Progress,” which was broken down into several sessions, including “Part One: Drive the National Conversation,” “Part Two: Leverage Science and the Universities,” “Part Three: Advance in the States,” concluding with the aforementioned McConnell talk. Part One featured Michael Lomax, the president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund, which recently received a $25 million donation from the Kochs to create a special “Koch Scholars” program emphasizing entrepreneurialism and free markets. Lomax has faced a storm of criticism for taking the money, given the history of attacks [8] by Koch-funded organizations on voting rights, which do the most harm to underprivileged minorities who typically vote Democratic.

On Monday morning, conservative radio host and former Koch operative Jeff Crank was to interview Representatives Cotton and Gardner in a session titled “The Senate: A Window of Policy Opportunity for Principled Leaders.” Senator Rubio was to hold a small group discussion on an unnamed topic that afternoon and headline what was called internally “The Immigrant Experience” dinner, closing out the conference. Some interesting entries include “Texas: Sustaining a Culture of Freedom in the Lone Star State” and “Well-Being: What It Is and Why It’s Important.”

A special invitation-only, small group strategy discussion called “Employee Outreach: Engaging Your Workforce in the Cause of Freedom” was also scheduled for Monday, led by Koch insiders Dale Gibbens and Philip Ellender. A previous Nation story has documented [9] how Koch Industries politically pressured as many as 50,000 workers in the run-up to the 2010 elections.

All of this took place in the idyllic backdrop of Monarch Bay and the luxurious St. Regis resort, which boasts rooms ranging from $495 a night to unlisted amounts for its very best accommodations. Room rates offered to the conference ranged from $199 for staff to $2,000 for the Presidential Suites. Freedom Partners, the Kochs’ financing arm, coordinated the event with the cover name “T & R Annual Sales Conference” and bought out the hotel from noon on Saturday to noon on Tuesday. According to a source in attendance, Freedom Partners spent more than $870,000, which included large fees to shut down public access to the golf course, the Michael Mina restaurant Stonehill Tavern and Motif Restaurant. Attendees were responsible for their own room charges.

Security was tight from noon on Saturday throughout the remainder of the conference, with checkpoints at every entrance to the resort. At the front gate, security guards and multiple Koch employees brandishing iPads greeted incoming cars. Even more Koch employees, acting as escorts, met guests at the front door. Guests were asked to abide by a no-cell phone policy, and security was in place to enforce that policy at events.

St. Regis Monarch Bay also has residences in adjacent properties as part of the Monarch Bay Club. Owners normally have access to the hotel, but according to one, he was denied access under the pretense that the hotel had been bought out by a group of Obama supporters. (The president had delivered a commencement speech at nearby UC Irvine on Saturday).

The level of security leads one to wonder—why such secrecy if the Koch’s initiatives really are in the best interest of the public at large? Wouldn’t everyday Americans heartily embrace new proposals to improve the economy and their government? Maybe protecting the business interests of billionaires doesn’t quite square with an American public that is still under siege by high unemployment, stagnant wages and ongoing foreclosures. This conclave of billionaires is determined to roll back Obamacare and carbon restrictions and to render the remainder of the Obama presidency ineffectual. In an America where money equals speech, Koch is king.

The offices of Representatives Tom Cotton, Cory Gardner and Jim Jordan; Senators Mitch McConnell and Marco Rubio; and United Negro College Fund’s Michael Lomax did not respond to requests for comment.

Source URL: http://www.thenation.com/article/180267/exclusive-behind-koch-brothers-secret-billionaire-summit

Links:

[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-16/koch-brothers-worth-100-billion-buying-printers-to-ads.html

[2] http://www.scribd.com/doc/230108736/The-Koch-Brothers-Secret-Billionaire-Summit

[3] http://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2014/03/03/inside-the-2014-forbes-billionaires-list-facts-and-figures/

[4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-backed-political-network-built-to-shield-donors-raised-400-million-in-2012-elections/2014/01/05/9e7cfd9a-719b-11e3-9389-09ef9944065e_story.html

[5] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Corporations#cite_note-HHSNOLA-15

[6] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/13/koch-brothers-make-climate-activists-new-target.html

[7] http://www.forbes.com/companies/koch-industries/

[8] http://www.thenation.com/blog/164453/why-koch-brothers-and-alec-dont-want-you-vote

[9] http://www.thenation.com/article/160062/big-brothers-thought-control-koch

[10] http://donate.thenation.com/nb-donation-pages/donation-pages-2014/content-asks/5_062414_koch_articlelink

Last October, at an AFP summit attended by David Koch, the assembled Tea Partiers screened a climate-denial film that accused advocates like Al Gore of wanting to take civilization "back to the Dark Ages and the Black Plague." Such events, Koch proclaimed, "bring to reality the vision" of "fighting for the economic freedoms that made our nation the most prosperous society in history." Last year, seeking to defend its own prosperity against a carbon-capped future, Koch Industries spent more than $8.5 million on lobbying.

Koch strategy retreat, 2011

See also Koch network.

On October 19, 2010, the New York Times reported on a personalized invitation signed by Charles Koch to prospective members to “develop strategies to counter the most severe threats facing our free society and outline a vision of how we can foster a renewal of American free enterprise and prosperity.” The invitation discussed meetings called “Understanding and Addressing Threats to American Free Enterprise and Prosperity” that he hosts twice a year to plan and expand its efforts “to review strategies for combating the multitude of public policies that threaten to destroy America as we know it.” Those efforts, the letter makes clear, include countering “climate change alarmism and the move to socialized health care,” as well as “the regulatory assault on energy,” and making donations to higher education and philanthropic organizations to advance the Koch agenda. The goals for the twice-yearly meetings include attracting more investors to the cause, and building institutions “to identify, educate and mobilize citizens” and “re-establish widespread belief in the benefits of a free and prosperous society.”^[55]

Attendees

June 2010 participants

See Koch Event 2010-06 Attendees for the names and affiliations of roughly 200 participants from the June 2010 meeting in Aspen Colorado, including hedge fund executives, Republican donors, and free-market evangelists^[55] - and for the actions some have taken.

Earlier guests included politicians and Supreme Court justices (Scalia & Thomas)

The letter from Charles Koch also noted that previous guests have included politicians and Supreme Court justices.

The politicians included Governors Haley Barbour and Bobby Jindal; Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn and Representatives Mike Pence, Tom Price andPaul Ryan. ^[55]

Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas have attended these events. (According to Salon,"Thomas claimed he just made "a brief drop-by" at the Koch brothers' January 2008 Palm Springs political retreat to give a talk; in fact he was reimbursed for four days of “transportation, meals and accommodations” by the Federalist Society.^[56]"). The attendance of Thomas and Scalia has sparked debate over judicial ethics and the 2010Citizens United decision.^[57] Common Cause filed a petition with the Justice Department in January 2011 alleging a conflict of interest for these Justices, as David and Charles Koch operate foundations that contribute to political groups, which might benefit from relaxed campaign finance rules. ^[58] Common Cause has also noted that the Cato Institute, which Charles Koch founded, filed an amicus brief in Citizens United opposing campaign finance. ^[59] The Center for Competitive Politics also filed a brief in the case; the Center is headed by Bradley Smith, who is affiliated with the Institute for Humane Studies where Charles Koch is Chair of the board and funder. ^[60]

Defending the American Dream Summit is AFP: ted cruz 2013 aei, malkin, rubio,

SENATOR RON JOHNSON; past INGRAM, MARK LEVIN,

cucc, demint, ky bob mcddonald

2012 pgm:

Progressive Practices: Exposing & Combating the Left's tactics

John Fund (Senior Editor, The American Spectator)

Anita Moncrief (Editor-in-Chief, Emerging Corruption)

James O’Keefe

(President, Project Veritas)

Moderator: Slade O’Brien (State Director,AFP Foundation – FL

Shuttle Buses to Hands Off My Health Care: Rally to Repeal Sponsored by Americans For Prosperity;bag lunch provided at destinationHands O? My Health Care: Rally to RepealHosted by Americans ?or Prosperity Featuring

?im Phillips, Congressman Jim Jordan,Congressman Paul Ryan, Jim Martin, Penny Nance & Phil Valentine

Shuttle Buses to Washington Hilton Sponsored by Americans ?or Prosperity

Reporter’s Toolbox: Practical ?ips and ?ools ?or Citizen Journalists

Dan Epstein (Executive Director, Cause of Action

Pro-Energy Policy is Crucial ?or Prosperity

Myron Ebell(Director o? Energy and Global Warming Policy,Competitive Enterprise Institute)

Dan Simmons(Director o? Regulatory and State A?airs,Institute for Energy Research)

Dave Banks(Sta? Director, Senator Inhofe on the Committee ?or Environment and Public Works)Moderator:

James Valvo(Director o? Policy,Americans ?or Prosperity Foundation)

Property Rights are Essential for Prosperity

Elizabeth Fox(Pro?essional Sta? Member, Senate Committee?or Environment and Public Works Committee)

Ken Ivory (Founder and President, American Lands Council)Moderator:

James O’Keee

(President, Project Veritas)Moderator:

Slade O’Brien

(State Director,AFP Foundation – FL

EXCLUSIVE: Read the Koch Brothers' Plans for Their Upcoming GOP Donor Retreat

Mother Jones has obtained a copy of the billionaires' agenda for their next confab.

By Andy Kroll | TueApr. 23, 2013 8:00 AM PDT

Next week, hundreds of business executives and wealthy conservative donors will arrive in Palm Springs, California [1], at the behest of Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist and older half of the Koch brothers duo [2]. The occasion is the latest Koch donor retreat [3], dubbed [4] the "billionaires caucus" by some [5], an exclusive, two-day confab with a speaker list that features governors, senators, and members of the House Republican leadership. It is the first Koch retreat since the 2012 elections.

According to a previously unpublished preview of the April 28-29 gathering, the Kochs will unveil a new plan to recruit and train political candidates who will advance their free-market worldview. Another priority is improving the conservative movement's outreach to "growing demographics" such as Latinos, young people, and women. The preview, obtained by Mother Jones,was emailed to attendees in March byKevin Gentry, a top Koch aide. (A Koch spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment about Gentry's email.)

Another big item on the Kochs' agenda is a long-awaited post-mortem on last year's elections. Charles Koch announced in December [6] that he was pushing back the winter retreat from January to late April so that an internal review of his circle's election strategies could be completed. Despite raising hundreds of millions of dollars, the Kochs, their allies, and groups they bankrolled failed to defeat President Obama, retake control of the Senate, or increase the Republican majority in the House. In his email, Gentry promises a "rigorous post-election assessment" that "must be geared toward productive next steps."

Here's Gentry's email to donors: 2

he Kochs held [7] their first retreat in 2003, and the size and scale of the event has grown in recent years, as the Kochs became better known and raised more money to combat the Obama administration [8]. As Mother Jones [9]has reported [9], attendees include some of the wealthiest conservative donors in the country. At the Kochs' June 2011 retreat in Vail, Colorado, private equity executives Ken Griffin and John Childs, Amway cofounder Richard DeVos, Cintas Corporation founder Dick Farmer, and North Carolina multimillionaire Art Pope [10] all showed up. Held over two or three days, these retreats feature panels with columnists, academics, think tank types, and activists; cocktail and dessert receptions; and usually remarks by Charles Koch. Those who attend are urged to pledge big money to fund the groups fighting to advance the Kochs' free-market mission.

EXCLUSIVE: Read the Koch Brothers' Plans for Their Upcoming GOP Donor Retreat [11]Spying on the Koch Brothers [12]Audio: Chris Christie Lets Loose at Secret Koch Brothers Confab [13]Exclusive Audio: Inside the Koch Brothers' Secret Seminar [3]Charts: How Much Have the Kochs Spent on the 2012 Election? [14]Here's Why the Koch Brothers Would Buy the LA Times and Chicago Tribune [15]

The Kochs and their acolytes believe it is their duty to stop what Charles Koch calls "the greatest assault on American freedom and prosperity in our lifetimes." He began a September 2010 letter [16] (PDF) outlining plans for an upcoming donor retreat by asking, "If not us, who? If not now, when?" At the Vail retreat, Koch said [3] the 2012 elections will be "the mother of all wars."The Kochs lost that war. Romney blew [17] his opportunity, and gaffe-prone Republican candidates like Todd Akin of Missouri [18] and Richard Mourdock of Indiana [19] stumbled in states where the GOP was poised to gain new Senate seats. That may explain why the Kochs want to develop their own recruiting and training operation for potential political candidates. In his email, Gentry says the Kochs are looking for "principled and effective advocates of free enterprise to run for office."

Currently, there are several conservative organizations such as American Majority [20] and FreedomWorks [21] that look to groom candidates for elected office at the local, state, and national levels. The Palm Springs preview suggests the Kochs are moving into this field, and a turf battle could ensue.

Ramping up outreach to Latinos, young people, and women is a no-brainer. Obama trounced [22] Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at the voting booth [23] in these demographics [24]. The most diehard conservatives recognize [25] that the Republican Party needs fresh blood and a bigger tent if the party is to survive, let alone thrive. "In not too many years, Texas could switch from being all Republican to all Democrat," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told [25] The New Yorkerlast year. "If that happens, no Republican will ever again win the White House." At the Palm Springs retreat, Gentry writes, Koch allies will discuss how "to more effectively communicate to these growing demographics, all of which play a critical role in advancing free enterprise."

Gentry's email also hints at what may have been the Kochs' biggest failing in 2012: They put a boatload of money behind a mediocre message that didn't reach the right people. He writes, "Understanding key customer segments—and more importantly the issues that matter to them—will be crucial to educating and mobilizing key constituencies in future educational and political battles."

Quietly, some conservative activists have complained [26] that the Kochs' big data operation, Themis [27], didn't work that well—and that their message didn't get to the right people (read: the right voters). So it's no surprise that Koch Industries, the privately-held conglomerate run by Charles Koch, is reportedly mulling a bid [15] to buy eight major newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. Those outlets would give the Kochs an audience of tens of millions of readers in the United States and abroad.

With little to show for after the 2012 elections, the Kochs have been retooling parts of their political operation. Their flagship organization, Americans for Prosperity, parted ways [28] with more than 100 field organizers and its chief operating officer, Tracy Henke. Generation Opportunity, another Koch outfit with a youth focus, got a new president as well. Clearly, the Koch brothers are thinking long and hard about what went wrong in 2012. Next week's retreat will focus on the changes they want to see in the conservative movement as it forges onward.

Source URL: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/koch-brothers-donor-retreat-agenda-hispanic-candidate-recruiting

Links:

[1] http://www.mydesert.com/article/20130422/NEWS01/304220010/Koch-brothers-conference-Palm-Springs-area-2013?nclick_check=1

[2] http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/02/koch-brothers-meeting-palm-springs

[3] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/exclusive-audio-koch-brothers-seminar-tapes

[4] http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/01/30/thousands-converge-on-koch-brothers-billionaires-caucus-25-arrested/

[5] http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2011/01/31/inside-todays-koch-brothers-billionaires-caucus/

[6] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/11/koch-brothers-_n_2277700.html

[7] http://www.kochfacts.com/kf/koch_seminars/

[8] http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer

[9] http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/koch-brothers-million-dollar-donor-club

[10] http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_mayer

[11] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/koch-brothers-donor-retreat-agenda-hispanic-candidate-recruiting

[12] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/03/spying-koch-brothers

[13] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/audio-chris-christie-koch-brothers-seminar

[14] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/charts-map-koch-brothers-2012-spending

[15] http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/04/koch-brothers-newspaper-los-angeles-times-chicago-tribune

[16] http://images2.americanprogressaction.org/ThinkProgress/secretkochmeeting.pdf

[17] http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2012/president/2012/12/23/the-story-behind-mitt-romney-loss-the-presidential-campaign-president-obama/2QWkUB9pJgVIi1mAcIhQjL/story.html

[18] http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/09/todd-akin-american-bridge-oppo

[19] http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/11/indiana-senate-donnelly-mourdock

[20] http://americanmajority.org/training/candidate-training/

[21] https://twitter.com/FreedomWorks/status/310005765870067713

[22] http://www.people-press.org/2012/11/26/young-voters-supported-obama-less-but-may-have-mattered-more/

[23] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/gender-gap-2012-election-obama_n_2086004.html

[24] http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/09/politics/latino-vote-key-election

[25] http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/11/19/121119fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=2

[26] http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B35DD05E-DE71-4E60-84C7-0557EFE18B8C

[27] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/07/koch-brothers-database-2012-election

[28] http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/02/koch-brothers-americans-for-prosperity-makeover-2012-election

politico:

update

The Koch brothers’ political operation has increasingly come to resemble its own political party — and later this month in San Diego, it will hold what amounts to its most ambitious convention to date.

Many of the dozens of rich conservative invitees are expected to write huge checks to a pool of cash distributed among Koch-approved groups, potentially boosting the Kochs’ 2012 spending plan beyond their historic $395 million goal. And it’s also a chance for the Kochs to show off their increasingly robust political machine, including a growing voter database project called Themis that played a major role in conservatives’ recent efforts in Wisconsin and in which POLITICO has learned Koch operatives have discussed investing $20 million.

(Also on POLITICO: Losing faith on campaign finance)

It’s part of an ambitious expansion of the billionaire brothers’ political operation that includes the recruitment of new donors and fundraisers into their network by a development team led by summit emcee Kevin Gentry, and their recent hiring of in-house political operative Marc Short to oversee the spending of funds raised at the summits.

The expansion is also reflected in Charles and David Kochs’ bid to take over the libertarian Cato Institute as well as their operations steering cash to groups that aren’t commonly thought of as Koch affiliated. The 60 Plus Association, American Energy Alliance, American Future Fund, Americans for Limited Government and National Right to Life have all received funds through the Koch donor network...

But at last year’s summer conference, Gentry seemed to assure the donors they wouldn’t catch flak for their donations. “There is anonymity that we can protect,” he said in remarks that were surreptitiously recorded and leaked to Mother Jones.

Secrecy is the name of the game at the summits, much like at the Democracy Alliance gatherings of big liberal donors: Koch donors are required to wear name tags at all times, and security officers wearing gold lapel pins bearing Koch Industries’ “K” logo, roamed the halls at last year’s winter meeting, **removing**a POLITICO reporter under threat of arrest.

Attendees are warned not to “post updates or information about the meeting on blogs, social media such as Facebook and Twitter, or in traditional media articles,” according to a packet distributed to participants at the June 2010 session that was obtained and posted by the liberal blog ThinkProgress.

The summits had gone off without a peep of publicity until that packet, which included an invitation to the winter 2011 meeting in Rancho Mirage, Calif., leaked to The New York Times and ThinkProgress, paving the way for raucous protests outside the Rancho Mirage resort hosting the conference.

...

.http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=2D316FDA-68AB-4826-A61A-20A870506921

The Kochs fight back By: Kenneth P. Vogel February 2, 2011 04:38 AM EDT
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Faced with an avalanche of bad publicity after years of funding conservative causes in relative anonymity, the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers, Charles and David, are fighting back. They’ve hired a team of PR pros with experience working for top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Arnold Schwarzenegger to quietly engage reporters to try to shape their Koch coverage, and commissioned sophisticated polling to monitor any collateral damage to the image of their company, Koch Industries. At the same time, through their high-priced lawyers,private security detail and influential allies in conservative politics and media, the Kochs have played hard ball with critics and suspected foes. Young environmental activists who pranked them have been hit with a lawsuit seeking more than $100,000 in damages, and the leak of an internal document describing their political activities resulted in an investigation – complete with document analysis and interviews of suspects – that eventually identified the mole. Both their new openness and their aggressive – and sometimes secretive – tactics were on display before and during the Kochs’ closed-door, invitation-only four-day annual winter meetingof conservative donors and leaders that concluded Tuesday with a breakfast at the pricey resort that hosted it here in the Palm Springs suburbs. On the one hand, the Kochs asked a handful of participants to talk to POLITICO about the conference, marking the first time the company has waived the strict confidentiality rules surrounding its donor meetings, which have been taking place twice a year since 2003, but had attracted almost no attention until this year’s. “You know why they’re being scrutinized, don’t you?” asked Herman Cain, a former pizza company CEO and long-shot 2012 GOP presidential candidate who has attended four Koch conferences, including the one that concluded today. “Because they’re not liberal. That’s all that’s about,” said Cain. And, in another shift, Koch’s PR representatives reached out to reporters, largely in response to a raucous rally outside the resort gates that vilified the Kochs as personifying a corrupt political system – and that resulted in the arrestsof 25 protesters. On the other hand, the Kochs retained a heavy private security detail, which tracked resort guests deemed “suspicious,”erected a blockadeSaturday to block a documentary camera crew from filming arriving guests, and removed a POLITICO reporter from the resort café under threat of arrest. The pushback began in earnest last summer, when the brothers, longtime supporters of libertarian think tanks, started coming under intense scrutiny for their role in helping start and fund some of the deepest-pocketed groups involved in organizing the tea party movement, and for steering cash towards efforts to target President Barack Obama, his health care overhaul, and congressional Democrats in the run-up to the 2010 election. Democrats – led by Obama, his political adviser David Axelrod and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) – singled out political spending by non-profit groups funded by the Koch brothers, namely Americans for Prosperity, as a campaign issue.

The Kochs fight back

By: Kenneth P. Vogel

February 2, 2011 04:38 AM EDT

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Faced with an avalanche of bad publicity after years of funding conservative causes in relative anonymity, the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers, Charles and David, are fighting back.

They’ve hired a team of PR pros with experience working for top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Arnold Schwarzenegger to quietly engage reporters to try to shape their Koch coverage, and commissioned sophisticated polling to monitor any collateral damage to the image of their company, Koch Industries.

At the same time, through their high-priced lawyers,private security detail and influential allies in conservative politics and media, the Kochs have played hard ball with critics and suspected foes.

Young environmental activists who pranked them have been hit with a lawsuit seeking more than $100,000 in damages, and the leak of an internal document describing their political activities resulted in an investigation – complete with document analysis and interviews of suspects – that eventually identified the mole.

Both their new openness and their aggressive – and sometimes secretive – tactics were on display before and during the Kochs’ closed-door, invitation-only four-day annual winter meetingof conservative donors and leaders that concluded Tuesday with a breakfast at the pricey resort that hosted it here in the Palm Springs suburbs.

On the one hand, the Kochs asked a handful of participants to talk to POLITICO about the conference, marking the first time the company has waived the strict confidentiality rules surrounding its donor meetings, which have been taking place twice a year since 2003, but had attracted almost no attention until this year’s.

“You know why they’re being scrutinized, don’t you?” asked Herman Cain, a former pizza company CEO and long-shot 2012 GOP presidential candidate who has attended four Koch conferences, including the one that concluded today.

“Because they’re not liberal. That’s all that’s about,” said Cain.

And, in another shift, Koch’s PR representatives reached out to reporters, largely in response to a raucous rally outside the resort gates that vilified the Kochs as personifying a corrupt political system – and that resulted in **the arrests**of 25 protesters.

On the other hand, the Kochs retained a heavy private security detail, which tracked resort guests deemed “suspicious,”**erected a blockade**Saturday to block a documentary camera crew from filming arriving guests, and removed a POLITICO reporter from the resort café under threat of arrest.

The pushback began in earnest last summer, when the brothers, longtime supporters of libertarian think tanks, started coming under intense scrutiny for their role in helping start and fund some of the deepest-pocketed groups involved in organizing the tea party movement, and for steering cash towards efforts to target President Barack Obama, his health care overhaul, and congressional Democrats in the run-up to the 2010 election.

Democrats – led by Obama, his political adviser David Axelrod and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) – singled out political spending by non-profit groups funded by the Koch brothers, namely Americans for Prosperity, as a campaign issue.

The American Tradition Institute -- a global-warming denier group that's :{using the Freedom of Information Act:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: in controversial ways to discredit climate scientists -- suffered a legal loss this week when a judge allowed one of the scientists to intervene in a lawsuit against the University of Virginia.

But ATI's director of litigation is not letting that setback slow his crusade against environmental regulation.

Christopher Horner is one of the featured speakers at this weekend's :{Defending the American Dream Summit:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: sponsored by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the nonprofit sister group of Americans for Prosperity, a corporate-interest advocacy group. AFP was founded and is heavily funded by the Koch brothers, the billionaire owners of the Koch Industries oil and chemical conglomerate.

Horner is also a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market advocacy group that has been one of the main organizers in the effort to block regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. CEI has received generous funding from ExxonMobil, Texaco and the Koch Family Foundations.

Horner is :{scheduled to speak:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: at 3:15 p.m. today on a panel titled "Extreme Power Abuse: The EPA's Job-Crushing Regulatory Assault." He will be joined on the panel by U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), who has close ties to Koch Industries, which is located in his district. Pompeo's chief of staff is a former lawyer for the company, and Pompeo has proposed legislation that would benefit many of Koch's business interests, according to the Washington Post. A political science professor at the University of Kansas has characterized Pompeo as "the congressman from Koch."

Also speaking on today's panel with Horner are Kathleen Hartnett White of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank that is funded by the Koch Family Foundations, and Ann McElhinney, maker of the film "Not Evil, Just Wrong: The True Cost of Global Warming Hysteria."

Another featured speaker at the conference is Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli(R), who's also involved in an ongoing legal action against U.Va. seeking the emails of former professor Michael Mann, one of the scientists targeted by ATI who this week was allowed to intervene in the group's FOIA suit against the school. However, Cuccinelli is not speaking about that action or his effort to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency's finding that greenhouse gas pollution endangers human health. Instead, he is speaking about his effort to challenge President Obama's health care reform law on a panel titled "Critical Care: Your Health Care After the Takeover."

The summit kicked off last evening with screenings of the documentary films "The Cartel," which attacks teachers' unions and supports vouchers, and "Free or Equal," an update of the 1980 film "Free to Choose" that featured free-market economist Milton Friedman. The gathering continues tomorrow with a "Cut Spending Now" rally and sessions on tax policy, grassroots mobilization, promoting school choice, killing collective bargaining, and how to "pimp" (their word) one's website.

In recent years, Charles and David Koch have organized semiannual seminars to promote their political beliefs. InJune 2010,for example, the event was held in Aspen, Colorado, and titled "Understanding and Addressing Threats to American Free Enterprise and Prosperity". The invitation stated that "[our] prosperity is under attack by the current Administration and many of our elected officials" and "we cannot rely on politicians to [defend our free society], so it is up to us to combat what is now the greatest assault on American freedom and prosperity in our lifetimes".^[31] The seminar program mentioned that "past meetings have featured such notable leaders as Supreme Court Justices **Antonin Scalia**and**Clarence Thomas**; Governors**Bobby Jindal**and**Haley Barbour**; commentators John Stossel, Charles Krauthammer, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh; Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn; and Representatives Paul Ryan, Mike Pence, and Tom Price."^[38]

media:

Koch Industries describes its semiannual shindigs, which began in 2003, as an "opportunity for attendees and presenters to discuss ways of preserving and advancing economic freedom in the United States and to share ideas about the free-market principles that have made our country great." The guest list for last weekend's meeting is still under wraps, but the June 2010 event in Aspen drew a who's who of conservative media stars; Besides Beck, there were Philip Anschutz, owner of the Examiner newspapers and the Weekly Standard; Charles Krauthammer, syndicated columnist and Weekly Standard contributor; Stephen Moore, Wall Street Journal editorial board member; and Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor for The National Review.

Andrew Breitbart, the mastermind behind the conservative news sites Breitbart.com and Breitbart.tv, made his presence at the meeting known by rollerblading out to heckle some of the 1,500 protestors who'd gathered outside of the gate.

===

Exclusive: The Koch Brothers' Million-Dollar Donor Club

The anonymous patrons who have given $1 million or more to the Koch dark-money machine.

By Gavin Aronsen | Tue Sep. 6, 2011 3:00 AM PDT

Read our***inside account*** [1]of the Koch brothers' Vail seminar, and listen to the exclusive audio.

Twice a year, the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch host secretive retreats for an exclusive list of corporate America's rich and powerful to strategize and raise money for their right-wing political agenda. Mother Jones has obtained exclusive audio recordings [1] that shed some light on the brothers' latest retreat, held at a resort near Vail, Colorado, in late June.

In a speech that is part of these recordings, Charles Koch thanks donors who gave more than $1 million to the cause. We checked the audio against a list of participants at the Kochs' 2010 seminar in Aspen that was obtained by *ThinkProgress.org* [2] and did additional research on these individuals. Below are the names Koch read that appeared on the previous guest list.

John Childs:Childs is the founder and CEO [3] of private equity firm JW Childs Associates. In 2006, *Boston Magazine* [4] placed the "notoriously media-shy" magnate—a.k.a. "the Republican ATM"—among the city's wealthiest residents, reportedly worth $1.2 billion. Childs donated $750,000 [5] to outside political expenditure groups in 2010. He's also been involved in Florida wetlands conservation [6] efforts.

The Cortopassis:Dean "Dino" Cortopassi and his wife, Joan, hail from Stockton, California. This article [7], which identifies the pair as philanthroposts, calls Dino a "wealthy self-made agribusinessman who is Stocktonian of the Year for 2005." He is suing [8] the state of California for its failure to dredge streams in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.[selenium?]

Joe Craft:Joseph Craft [9] is president, CEO, and chairman of Alliance Resource Partners [10], a coal company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that gave $2.4 million [11] to outside political expenditure groups in 2010. His family is reportedly [12] worth $1.9 billion.

Richard DeVosThe DeVoses:Rich and Helen DeVos hail from Michigan. The cofounder of Amway and owner [13] of the NBA's Orlando Magic, Rich DeVos is reportedly [14] worth in the ballpark of $4.2 billion. The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation funds conservative Christian groups [15] such as Focus on the Family. The DeVoses are big enough political donors to have their own profile [16] at OpenSecrets.org.

The Farmers: Dick Farmer is from Ohio. The founder and former CEO of the Cintas Corporation, his story is literally rags-to-riches [17]: He turned his father's Depression-era rag-cleaning business into a $3.5 billion enterprise. Farmer and his wife, Joyce, are longtime Republican boosters; during the 2002 election cycle the couple gave about $1 million [18] to the party.

The Friesses: Foster Friess founded the investment firm Friess Associates [19] in 1974 with his wife, Lynn; in 2001, he sold a majority share [20] for $247 million. Friess is a champion [21] of conservative Christian causes and one of Wyoming's richest men. His son, Steve Friess, helps him run the family's philanthropic foundation [22]. (Steve's wife, Polly, was also on the list of Aspen Koch participants.)

The Fullinwiders:Jerry and Leah Fullinwider [23] hail from Dallas. Jerry has pursued oil exploration and development in the United States, Canada, and Russia. He now serves under Ross Perot's son [24] as vice chairman of Hillwood International Energy, which has operations in Iraq and Jordan as well as the United States and Russia. He also has ties [25] to Hilarion Alfeyev [26], an anti-abortion Russian Orthodox bishop.

The Gilliams: Richard Gilliam and wife, Leslie [27], are natives of southwest Virginia [28]. Richard founded [29] the Cumberland Resources Corporation, which was one of the nation's largest private coal mining companies when Massey Energy [30] bought it for nearly $1 billion in March 2010. He's now a director with the Vancouver-based mining corporation Endurance Gold [31].

The Griffins: Ken and Anne Dias Griffin are a hedge fund power couple from Chicago who wed in 2003 [32]. Ken is the founder and CEO of Citadel [33] and is reportedly [34] worth $2.3 billion. Anne founded one of the nation's largest woman-run hedge funds [35], Aragon Global Management. Ken bundled money [36] for both President Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain during the 2008 election.

The Haworths: Richard "Dick" Haworth is the former CEO and chairman emeritus [37] of Haworth, an international office-interiors manufacturer based in Holland, Michigan, that he took over from his father in 1975. The company reported sales [38] of $1.4 billion in 2005, the year he retired. He is married to Ethie Haworth [39] and has donated more than $100,000 to Republican causes, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Diane HendricksDiane Hendricks: Hendricks is the billionaire former head of the ABC Supply roofing company, which she took over [40] from her husband Kenneth after he died in a construction site accident in 2007. Reportedly [41] worth $2.2 billion, she is the richest businesswoman [42] in Wisconsin and a big Republican Party donor. She recently gave her state's embattled Republican governor, Scott Walker, $10,000 [43] in advance of a potential recall vote next year.

The Humphreys family: Ethelmae Humphreys is the chair of the board of Tamko Building Products [44], one of the country's largest independent roofing manufacturers. She also serves on the board of directors [45] of the Cato Institute, a Koch-funded [46] think tank. Her son David is Tamko's CEO. The two have doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars [47] to Republican candidates. That includes David's $25,000 [48] donation to the successful recount effort this year of conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, who came under fire recently for allegations [49] that he choked a fellow justice. (He wasn't charged.)

The Levys: Kenneth Levy of Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, cofounded [50] the Jacobs Levy equity management firm and has donated about $85,000 to conservative causes, according to FEC records. His wife, Frayda Levin, is a national director [51] at the Koch brothers' advocacy group Americans for Prosperity [52] and sits on the board of the Club for Growth [53]. She also cofounded the Motion Picture Institute, which "promotes liberty through film," according to her AFP bio. FEC records show that she has given well over $100,000 to conservative causes.

The Marshall family: Elaine Marshall of Dallas is the widow of E. Pierce Marshall, a son [54] of oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall who served on the board of Koch Industries before his death. Elaine was involved in a successful effort [55] to prevent the late Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith, who married Howard when he was 89, from inheriting the family's wealth. Before Smith's death, she was investigated by the FBI but never prosecuted in a murder-for-hire plot [56] against Pierce. In the end, Pierce inherited the bulk of his father's wealth because he and his father had previously helped [57] Charles and David Koch thwart a takeover of Koch Industries; Howard's eldest son—also named Howard—sided against his father and was disinherited as a result. Meanwhile, Elaine's son, E. Pierce Marshall Jr. [58], is senior vice president and general counsel at oil exploration company MarOpCo. Another son [59], Preston Marshall of Houston, is the president [60] of MarOpCo.

The Popes: Art Pope is a millionaire Republican booster from Raleigh, North Carolina, who inherited his retail fortune from a family business. According to this article [61], he’s "one of the most trusted members of the Koch's elite circle" and a regular at the Kochs' secret seminars, as well as a "valuable junior partner in many key Koch operations." He's another national director [51] at Americans for Prosperity and is married [62] to Kathy Pope.

The Robertsons: Corbin Robertson is [63] CEO and chairman of the board of Natural Resource Partners, a Houston-based fossil fuels company. He's also been involved with [64] a number of other energy organizations and was listed as the richest US small-business owner in 2007 by CNNMoney [65]. He and wife Barbara have donated to the Baylor College of Medicine [66] and both Democratic and Republican politicians.

Karen Wright: Wright is the founder and CEO of the Ariel Foundation [67], a private philanthropy group based in Mount Vernon, Ohio. She's also CEO of the Ariel Corporation [68], a natural-gas compression company, and on the American Petroleum Institute's board of directors [69]. She has donated more than $100,000 to Republican causes, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Tom Rastin: Rastin shares [70] a Mount Vernon, Ohio, address with Karen Wright. He serves on [67] the board of directors at the Ariel Foundation and is vice president [71] of marketing and engineering at the Ariel Corporation. Last year, he gave $2,400 [72] to the failed congressional campaign of former Democratic Louisiana House Speaker Hunt Downer [73], who switched to the Republican Party after endorsing the Bush-Cheney ticket in 2000.

The principals with the Services Group of America: SGA is [74] a billion-dollar food services wholesaler; its CEO, Peter Smith of Scottsdale, Arizona, appears on the list of 2010 Koch attendees. Smith took over as CEO last year after its former head, GOP heavyweight [75] Thomas J. Stewart, died in a helicopter crash [76]. According to FEC records, Smith has donated $12,500 to Republican congressional candidates. SGA's political action committee donates heavily [77] to Republicans.

At the event, Charles Koch also read off names that did not appear on the 2010 attendees list, but that mirrored those of well-known GOP donors for whom giving $1 million or more to the Kochs would not seem out of character. You'll find these names below. We chose not to offer any details on the handful of names for which we could find no association with Koch business interests or conservative political giving. (Listen to Charles Koch reading [78] the donor list.)

The Camerons:Ron Cameron of Little Rock, Arkansas, runs [79] agribusiness giant Mountaire Corporation, which generated $1.22 billion [80] in revenue in 2009. He has donated at least $175,000 to Republicans in recent years, including $5,000 to Sarah Palin's PAC, according to FEC records. The company itself has given at least $125,000 to outside spending groups [11] over the past decade, according to OpenSecrets.org.

The Hamms:Self-made magnate Harold Hamm of Oklahoma City is reportedly [81] worth $8.2 billion. The son of sharecroppers, Hamm soared up the corporate ladder from gas station attendant [82] to CEO of "America's Oil Champion [83]," Oklahoma-based Continental Resources. According to OpenSecrets.org, he's doled out more than $100,000 to political causes and candidates, mostly Republican. Stricken with diabetes, he and wife Sue Ann founded a center [84] at the Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center to help combat the disease.

The Haydens: Jerry and Marilyn Hayden of Barrington, Illinois, doled out $400,000 [5] to conservative-leaning outside spending groups in 2010 and about $250,000 [85] to Republicans in 2008. Before retirement, Jerry ran Peacock Engineering [86], a packaging company. As of September 2008 [87], he served on the board of directors at the United Republican Fund of Illinois. The Haydens recently donated $2.5 million [88] toward an alumni center at their alma matter, Bradley University.

Virginia James:James is an investor from New Jersey. She has donated handsomely to right-wing causes, including a $750,000 gift [89] to the Club for Growth in 2008 and another $350,000 last year [90]. This year, she donated $25,000 [48] to the successful recount of Wisconsin's Justice Prosser.

The Menards:John Menard of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is the founder of Menards, the country's third-largest hardware company. He's worth a reported [91] $5.2 billion and has donated about $80,000 to his state's Republican Party and federal candidates, mostly Republicans, according to FEC records. His company backed a recent anti-union program [92] that was linked to the Kochs' Americans for Prosperity and supported by Gov. Scott Walker.

John Moran: Hailing from Palm Springs, Florida, Moran is [93] the former chairman of the Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corporation, an international holding company based in New York City. He also chaired the Republican National Finance Committee from 1993 to 1995. Moran has given more than $900,000 to Republican causes since 1991, according to OpenSecrets.org, and he bundled between $250,000 and $500,000 more [94] for McCain's 2008 presidential bid. In 1997, he warned that the religious right was putting his party's future "in jeopardy [95]."

Charles SchwabThe Schwabs:Charles Schwab of San Francisco is founder and chairman of the Charles Schwab Corporation, the country's largest [96] independent brokerage firm. He is reportedly [97] worth $4.7 billion. Since 1989, Schwab has donated more than $1.6 million to political causes, mostly Republican, according to OpenSecrets.org. Part of that went to his company's lobbying arm, which has given away millions more [98].

Paul Singer:While Singer is not on the list of Aspen participants, the *New York Times* noted [99] that "Annie Dickerson, who also runs a foundation for Paul Singer, a hedge fund executive who like the Kochs is active in promoting libertarian causes," showed up at that seminar. Singer founded the $17 billion hedge fund Elliott Management and recently issued [100] an economic manifesto slamming the Federal Reserve as a "group of inbred academics."

The Templetons:John "Jack" Templeton Jr. and his wife, Josephine, of Pennsylvania, gave $50,000 apiece [48] to Wisconsin Justice Prosser's recount effort this year. Jack, an evangelical Christian, has donated more than $1 million to Republicans, according to state and federal records. He heads the John Templeton Foundation, an organization whose critics [101]—including prominent scientists—say it aims to apply scientific legitimacy [102] to matters of faith. The foundation was started by Jack's late father, Sir [103] John the mutual fund billionaire, and in 2009 reportedly [48] had $1.7 billion in assets.

Be sure to Read Part 1 of our two-part series: "***Exclusive: The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes*** [1]."

And check back tomorrow for Part 2 [104], on the GOP superstar who rocked the Koch crowd on opening night.

Source URL: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/koch-brothers-million-dollar-donor-club**

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/koch-industries/CASE-STUDY-The-Kochtopus-Media-Network/

CASE STUDY: The Kochtopus Media Network

A memo obtained by ThinkProgress.org in October, 2010revealed an extensive guest list of business and political elites who attended Koch Brother’s secretive biannual strategy meeting in Aspen, Colorado.

The Aspen meeting occurred inJune, 2010, four months before the memo was revealed. Many of the elite attendees represented at this meeting alone provide the Koch network with tremendous propaganda power through their ownership positions and ties to major media outlets.

The Koch influence on this sector of media outlets is particularly apparent in their repeated publication of articles defending Koch Industries from increased public scrutiny over the last year, especially following the Aspen meeting.

Some of the attendees with major media influence in Aspen were:

Glenn Beck -- Fox News and talk radio program host.

Beck was a featured speaker at the secret Koch Industries meeting in Aspen. Shortly afterwards, Beck credited Charles Koch during a segment of his show mocking an Al Gore presentation of climate trends. Glenn Beck has also worked in cooperation with Americans for Prosperity (AFP) to coordinate Tea Party rallies and provide material for his broadcasts.

Beck publicly defended AFP on air after President Obama’s characterized the group as a front for “a big oil company.” Americans for Prosperity has received over $5.6 million from Koch foundations in the last five years.

Stephen Moore -- Wall Street Journal editorial board member and senior economics writer and former President of the Club for Growth.

Moore has ties to the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, two of the top Koch beneficiaries, and was a National Review magazine contributing editor.

The Wall Street Journal’s opinion section serves as a podium for prominent skeptics with ties to the Kochtopus, such as Bjorn Lomborg, Richard Lindzen and Patrick Michaels. Michaels, the champion denier of the Cato Institute and other Koch-backed institutions, used the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section to continue pushing “climategate” even after scientists were exonerated by formal investigations. Michaels himself is coming under scrutiny for being dishonest during a 2009 Congressional testimony about the funding he receives from the oil industry.

Between moving to the Wall Street Journal and being forced out of the Club for Growth, Moore founded the Free Enterprise Fund with Arthur Laffer and Mallory Factor, both former Club for Growth directors. Arthur Laffer’s Laffer Center for Global Economic Growth is tied to Koch Industries through its Vice Chairman, Richard Fink, and Executive Director Wayne Gable, both prominent Koch executives, and a $100,000 grant from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation in 2009.

Moore is also a frequent commentator on CNBC’s Kudlow & Co and Fox News' On the Record with Greta van Susteren.

Philip Anschutz -- Owner of the Washington Examiner, the San Francisco Examiner, Examiner.com and the Weekly Standard, via Clarity Media Group.

Philip Anschutz, CEO of the Anschutz Corporation, has served on the boards of both the American Petroleum Institute and the National Petroleum Council and has ties to Union Pacific Railroad and Forest Oil. He owns the Oil & Gas Asset Clearinghouse industry auction house. Anschutz founded telecommunications company Qwest, owns the Regal Entertainment theater chain and NRC broadcasting, which operates a string of radio stations in Colorado.

Anschutz’s Clarity Media Group has played a flagship role in standing up for the billionaire Kochs over the last year. Since the Aspen meeting, pro-Koch publications from both Examiner.com and the Weekly Standard have been featured on Koch Industries’ “Koch Facts” webpage, created to dismiss allegations of Koch’s various unsavory business practices. Clarity’s outlets also published articles attacking Greenpeace after our March, 2010 release of Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Movement.

The Weekly Standard, which published a lengthy defense of the Koch brothers in March, 2011, has also been a promoter of so-called “climategate” emails. The magazine has served as a platform for prominent career climate skeptics Steven Hayward and Kenneth Green of the Koch-funded American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Forbes estimates that Anschutz is the 34th richest American, just above Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with a net worth of seven billion dollars.

Charles Krauthammer -- Washington syndicated columnist Post, pundit and contributor to the Weekly Standard and Town Hall Magazine.

Krauthammer is a fervent climate obstructionist who refers to global warming as a “religion,” and more broadly claims that “scientists are flip floppers, constantly changing their theories.” Krauthammer focuses on vilifying environmentalists and political icon Al Gore,rather than debating actual climate scientists, in attempts to cast doubt upon the science of global warming. His disregard for accurate climate science is demonstrated by his references to Czech President Vaclav Klaus. Klaus, a notorious climate science denier, was a keynote speaker at the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change. This event, run by the Heartland Institute, was a who’s who of career skeptic scientists and pseudo-experts for hire, working for institutions heavily funded by Koch foundations and ExxonMobil, among other polluters and associated foundations.

Michael Barone -- Resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, paid Senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner, and Fox News commentator.

Barone was formerly a senior writer with U.S. News & World Report, an outlet that has come to the Kochs’ defense, and a member of the Washington Post editorial board. Barone is also the principal coauthor of the Almanac of American Politics, published annually by the National Journal Group. The American Enterprise Institute, which has received $150,000 fromKoch foundations and over $2.8 million from ExxonMobil since 1997, has used its American blog since the Aspen meeting to defend Koch Industries.

Timothy Carney -- Lobbying editor and senior political columnist for the Washington Examiner and author of Obamanomics.

Carney has written articles specifically justifying his presence at the Koch meeting in Aspen, using them to defend the private conglomerate. Despite shielding the Koch brothers in his writing, Carney claims to have spoken at the Aspen meeting on, “the evils of corporate welfare and bailouts, and the destructive influence of the Big Business lobby in Washington.” Koch Industries has spent over $49 million on federal lobbying since 2006. Carney also disclosed that he has been paid by the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) for speaking events. The George Mason University-based IHS received over $2.4 million from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation in 2009. Carney’s writing often promotes Senator James DeMint (R-SC), one of the Kochs’ favorite Senators, who has also attended Koch Industries strategy meetings and has received at least $76,000 from the Kochs and company PAC since 2004 (see April 2011 Report, pg. 21). Carney’s columns have passionately discouraged environmentally sound considerations, such as outlawing energy-inefficient incandescent light bulbs.

Ramesh Ponnuru, Senior editor for National Review magazine and contributor to the Weekly Standard, Reason magazine, the New York Times, TIME and other major print and television news outlets.

The National Review Online is host to the “Planet Gore,” blog a space dedicated to climate science misinformation, spin, and slander. Contributors from Koch-funded institutions include but are not limited to:

Chris Horner and Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute

Patrick Michaels and Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute

Jim Manzi of the Manhattan Institute.

Jonathan Adler of the Federalist Society, with ties to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Property and Environment Research Center

Deroy Murdock, who has ties to the Cato and Manhattan Institutes, the Heritage Foundation, and the Institute for Humane Studies

Steven Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute, Pacific Research Foundation, Institute for Energy Research, with ties to the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Reason Foundation and Reason magazine

Tim Phillips and Phil Kerpen of Americans for Prosperity

Nancy Pfotenhauer, President of PR firm MediaSpeak Strategies, TV pundit and former Senior Policy Advisor and spokesperson for the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign. Pfotenhauer was a lobbyist for Koch Industries in its Washington, DC office before becoming the President, CEO and later Vice Chairwoman of the Independent Women’s Forum, which has received almost $500,000 from Koch foundations since 1997. She also was Executive Vice President of Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), which was established by Charles Koch and affiliate Richard Fink, and was propelled by $13 million in grants from Koch foundations. After CSE split into FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity (AFP), Pfotenhauer served as President and CEO of AFP. While studying at George Mason University for a graduate degree in economics, Pfotenhauer served as a research assistant to Walter Williams. Accessed, a substitute host on the Rush Limbaugh Show. Williams is also director of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the Reason Foundation.

Foster Friess -- Billionaire Republican investor who spent $3 million to help launch the Daily Caller.

The Daily Caller abandoned an attempt to accuse the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer of plagiarism, including in her comprehensive expose of Koch Industries. Tucker Carlson, who runs the Daily Caller, is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, which has received over $5.5 million from Koch foundations since 1997. Charles Koch co-founded Cato, and Cato’s directors include David Koch and Kevin Gentry of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.

Arthur Brooks -- President and Director of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Brooks’ influence as the head of AEI leads to frequent media exposure, including through other outlets financed by Koch Foundations (the American Spectator and the Reason Foundation) or tied to Koch through other attendees at the Aspen meeting (Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal editorials, National Review, and Daily Caller). Also on AEI’s Board: former Vice President and ex-Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney.

Cheney’s wife, Lynne, is a senior scholar at the AEI.

Jeff Crank -- Radio pundit and Colorado State Director of Americans for Prosperity.

The Jeff Crank show on Colorado station KVOR AM 720 is promoted as a “weekly respite from socialism.” Crank led AFP Colorado at a tea party rally in early 2010 in cooperation with the Independence Institute, which has received $141,000 from Koch foundations since 1997.

Gretchen Hamel -- Former Bush administration spokesperson, Executive Director of Public Notice and founder of PR firm Endeavour Global Strategies. Through Public Notice., which is currently devoted to an anti-government spending campaign, Hamel has widespread influence through her work with “the editorial boards of all the nation’s leading daily newspapers, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal, and with specialty entertainment and news programs such as Oprah, Lou Dobbs Tonight and 60 Minutes.”

Stan S. Hubbard, chairman and CEO of Hubbard Broadcasting Inc. Hubbard Broadcasting owns a variety of TV and radio stations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Mexico and New York. Through a $505 million purchase of 17 radio stations from Bonneville International, Hubbard is significantly expanding its radio presence in the District of Columbia, Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. This purchase includes WTOP, a major Washington, DC news station with the nation’s second highest 2010 radio station revenue, as well as WFED, which appeals primarily to federal employees and contractors.

Peter Wallison -- American Enterprise Institute scholar and pundit on economic issues.

The Kochs also gave $4,500 to the American Spectator in 2009. The American Spectator includes writing by denier Pat Michaels, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Chris Horner, and Paul Chesser of the John Locke Foundation. The John Locke Foundation is a recipient. of funding from the Kochs and Art Pope. Pope has contributed over $24 million to organizations that deny climate change and is on the boards of Americans for Prosperity and its associated Foundation.

greenpeace

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/koch-industries/CASE-STUDY-The-Kochtopus-Media-Network/

The June 2010 Meeting of the Koch Network - aka Koch Strategy Group was held June 27&28 in Aspen, Colorado.

Contents [hide]

List of participants

Before June 2010 - politicians, Supreme Court justices

On Koch Industries page, see Koch strategy retreat "attendees" section, for information on politicians and Supreme Court justices who've attended earlier meetings.

June 2010

Note: the geographic locations provided below may contain inaccuracies.

The June 2010 Koch strategy meeting attendees were:^[1]

Attendees| Name(s) | Industry | Notes |

Jack Anderson and Rose Marie Anderson	Finance	Culver Corporation, Rose-Marie and Jack R. Anderson Foundation - Financial Advisor
Neil Anderson and Amy Fisher-Smith		Runs Rose-Marie and Jack R. Anderson Foundation
Phil Anschutz and Nancy Anschutz	Investment	Industrialist, Owner, Weekly Standard , Examiner newspapers; Denver, CO
Cliff Asness	Investment	AQR Capital Management
Nate Bachman and Lynda Bachman	Finance	The Bachman Group, Cincinnati OH - Financial Advisor
Whitney Ball	Think Tank	Owner of DonorsTrust, a firm that enables anonymous gifts to front groups
Michael Barone	Media	Fox News
Frank Baxter and Kathy Baxter	Banking	Ambassador Frank E. Baxter is Chairman Emeritus of NYC-based Jefferies and Company , Inc., a global investment bank focusing on mid-cap companies. Overseer, Hoover Institution. Los Angeles CA
Steve Bechtel and Betty Bechtel	Engineering	Owns the Bechtel Group (Corporation), Largest engineering company in United States
Glenn Beck	Media	Fox News
E. Bernard Blasingame and Margaret Blasingame	Manufacturing	President and owner of Aqua Dynamics Systems (water purification), Adamsville, TN
Alan Boeckmann and Lisa Boeckmann	Oil/Engineering/Construction	CEO Fluor Corporation, Orange County, CA
Boysie Bollinger	Shipping/Commerce	Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana and Texas (builds vessels for Coast Guard)
Patrick Broe and Paula Broe	Real Estate	Founder and CEO of Denver-based real estate asset management firm, The Broe Group
Arthur Brooks	Think Tank	President, American Enterprise Institute
David Brown and Ann Brown	Think Tank, funder	Heritage Foundation, Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation
John Bryan
Bob Buford and Martha Buford	Oil	C. Robert Buford has been President and owner of Zenith Drilling Corporation, Wichita, KS
Tim Busch		Likely Irvine-based Timothy R. Busch, Pacific Hospitality Group CEO, Catholic University of America trustee, Legatus [1] (Catholic CEOs, Orange County & Napa chapters)
Shelby Bush and Nell Bush	Energy	Vice President, Legal and Administration – Hillwood Energy (a Perot company)
Tim Carney	Media	Political Columnist, Washington Examiner
Charlies Chandler and Marla Chandler		Likely Charles Q. Chandler IV of Wichita KS-based Intrust Bank
David Chavern	Lobbyist	Executive Vice President and COO at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
John Childs	Investment Insurance	Chairman and CEO of J.W. Childs and Associates, Boston MA
Paul Clifton and Lea Clifton		Runs Robert and Marie Hansen Family Foundation
Susie Coelhoe	Media	founder and CEO of Susie Coelho Enterprises Inc.
Bill Cooper and Kristin Tollefson	Finance/Banking	CEO of TCF Financial, Wayzata MI
Dino Cortopassi and Joan Cortopassi		Stockton businessman
Joe Craft	Coal	Joseph W. Craft III is president, chief executive officer and director of Tulsa OK-based Alliance Resource Partners LP
Alex Cranberg	Energy	Denver-based Aspect Holdings , LLC – Chairman; University of Texas regent
Jeff Crank	Americans For Prosperity / Radio Pundit	AFP State Director
Karl Crow	Policy Analyst	Capital Research Center, Washington DC; Themis
Eric Crown and Isabella King	Finance (venture capital) Technology Sales	(?)Sell Technology Equipment Retired CEO, Insight Enterprises, Phoenix AZ
Kevin Crutchfield	Coal	Kevin S. Crutchfield serves as Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Coal Sales Co., LLC, Latrobe PA near Pittsburgh
Ravenell Curry and Beth Curry		Likely Manhattan Institute trustee Ravenel Curry III.
Jim Dannenbaum and Shirley Dannenbaum	Engineering	Mr. Dannenbaum, Chairman of Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation, Houston, TX
Veronique de Rugy	Think Tank	Senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center
Rich DeVos and Helen DeVos	Business	Founder and CEO of Amway, near Grand Rapids, Michigan
Annie Dickerson	Real Estate/Finance	CB Richard Ellis analyst
Ned Diefenthal and Nancy Diefenthal		Metairie, LA-based former owner of Southern Recycling
Jim Patterson and Dorothy Patterson	Oil	Gulf Stream Petroleum
Dan Peters and Kellie Peters	Non-for Profit	Daniel S. Peters is president of the Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation in Cincinnati, Ohio
Tom Petrie	Banking	Co-founder of BofA Merrill Lynch Petrie Divestiture Advisors
Dixon Doll and Carol Doll	Technology	Co-Founder and General Partner of Menlo Park CA-based Doll Capital Management(DCM)
Karl Eller and Stevie Eller	Advertising	The Eller Company billboards
Ron Erickson and Kris Erickson	Retail	Ronald A. Erickson is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Holiday Companies
Melvyn Estrin and Suellen Estrin	Natural Gas	Director of WGL Holdings INC
Dick Farmer		Richard T. "Dick" Farmer is chairman of Cintas
Peter Farrell	Biomed	Founder of Resmed
Jim Ferrell and Zibbie Ferrell	Fuel Oil	Ferrellgas Partners , L.P. engages in the distribution and sale of propane and related equipment primarily in the United States.
Dave Fettig	Natural Gas	Tank Craft, Duracraft Fuel energy
Bob Fettig	Natural Gas	Tank Craft, Duracraft Fuel energy
Steve Fettig	Natural Gas	Tank Craft, Duracraft Fuel energy
Jerry Finger and Nanette Finger	Investment management	Managing Partner, Finger Interests LTD, Houston TX
Richard Fink	Koch Industries	Director of Georgia-Pacific , EVP of Koch Industries
Budd Florkiewicz and Lauri Florkiewicz	Manufacturing	Foam Fabricators, Scottsdale, AZ
Charlie Fote and Kaye Lynn Fote	Finance	Founder and CEO, Fotec Group LLC, Denver, CO
Randy Foutch and Jean Foutch	Oil	Chairman and CEO, Laredo Petroleum , Inc., Tulsa, OK
Foster Friess	Investment	Mr. Foster Stephen Friess is the Founder and Chairman of Friess Associates , LLC; was Executive Committee member for the far right Council for National Policy [2]
Steve Friess and Polly Friess		Son and daughter-in-law of Foster Friess
Jerry Fullinwider and Leah Fullinwider	Energy/Petroleum	Vice Chairman, Hillwood International Energy, a Perot company (Ross Perot Jr. is Chairman) (in Texas, Kurdistan, Moscow, Amman)
Richard Gilliam and Leslie Gilliam	Coal	Richard Gilliam has been President of Norton, VA-based Cumberland Resources Corporation since 1993.
Susan Gore	Think Tank	Founder, Wyoming Liberty Group; her "multibillion dollar family company W.L. Gore & Associates Inc. developed the high performance fabric Gore-Tex... Her brother, David Gore, co-founded a similar think tank organization in Oregon called the Cascade Policy Institute in 1991"^[2]
Oliver Jr. and Carolyn Grace Jr.	Med and Telecom	President and chief executive officer of Anderson Group , Inc.,
Judson Green and Joyce Green	Energy and Med	Mr. Judson C. Green is the President and Chief Executive Officer of NAVTEQ Corp.
Ken Griffin and Anne Griffin	Investment Banking	Founder and CEO of Chicago-based Citadel Investment Group
Gretchen Hamel	Communications	Head of 501(c)(4) Public Notice, founder of PR firm Endeavour Global Strategies; former press assistant for J.C. Watts of Oklahoma
Fred Hamilton and Jane Hamilton	Oil	Mr. Frederic C. Hamilton served as the President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of BHP Petroleum , Hamilton Oil Company and various Hamilton Oil Corporation subsidiaries and affiliates (Denver-based)
Bob Hawk and Mary Sue Hawk	Venture capital CommunicationsTelecommunications, venture capital	President of Hawk Communications (also Venture Partner at Doll Capital Management (DCM); "director of Covad Communications , Centillium Communications, and several private high-technology companies."
Dick Haworth and Ethie Haworth	Retail	Head of Holland, MI-based Haworth Furniture , Multi-national corporation, 3rd largest corporate furniture company in US
Robin Hayes and Barbara Hayes	Government	Former North Carolina Congressman
Dan Heard and Carolyn Heard	Manufacturing	Executive Officer of Louisiana-based John H. Carter Co.,
Diane Hendricks	Manufacturing	Husband of the late Ken Hendricks (ABC Supply Co., building materials)
Steve Hennessy and Regina Hennessy	Auto Sales	Auto Sales, Atlanta, GA
James Higgins and Heather Higgins	Think Tank	James Higgins is a fellow and trustee of the Claremont Institute, and a principal at NY-based investment mgmt firm New Vernon Capital LLC; Heather Higgins is president and CEO of Independent Women's Voice, the 501(c)(4) sister organization of the Independent Women’s Forum
Paul Hill	Oil	Paul J. Hill serves as CEO and has been President of Harvard Developments Inc. since 1978; CEO and President of The Hill Companies; Regina, Saskatchewan
John Hotchkis and Joan Hotchkis	Education, Finance	Board of Directors for Teach for America UC Berkeley; Ramajal LLC, Hotchkis and Wiley
Allan Hubbard and Kathy Hubbard	Chemicals and Manufacturing	Founder and Chief Executive Officer, E & A Industries, Inc., Indianapolis, IN
Stan Hubbard and Karen Hubbard	Communications	Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, St. Paul, MI-based Hubbard Broadcasting , Inc.
Ethelmae Humphreys	Think Tank	Cato Institute
Manley Johnson and Mary Johnson	Political Consultant	Manuel H. "Manley" Johnson served as the vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in the mid-1980s. Co-chairman and senior partner at DC-based financial market advisory firm Johnson Smick International
Merritt Johnson
Gerry O’Shaughnessy and Priscilla O’Shaughnessy	Oil	Gerald Eugene O’Shaughnessy Co-founded Geopark Holding Limited in 2002; Wichita, KS
Michael O’Shaughnessy	Technology	Petters Consumer Brands , LLC develops consumer electronics and appliances.
Tim O’Shaughnessy	Media	Hungry Machine , Inc., doing business as LivingSocial.com, is a social discovery and cataloging network.
Marshall Johnson
Kyle Johnstone and Kirsten Johnstone
Mike Kasser and Beth Kasser	Real Estate	President, Holualoa Inc
Ken Kendrick and Randy Kendrick	Education/Technology	Chairman, Datatel
Phil Kerpen and Joanna Kerpen	Advocacy Group/Think Tank	VP of Policy, Americans for Prosperity
Gerry Kingen and Kathryn Kingen	Restauranteur	Red Robin, Happy Guests International, Seattle WA
Scott Kirkpatrick	Investor	Owner/Partner of Jackson, WY-based Teton Capital Advisors
Charles Koch and Liz Koch	Koch Industries
Chase Koch and Annie Koch	Koch Industries
David Koch and Julia Koch	Koch Industries
Elizabeth Koch	Koch Industries
Bob Koch and Cindy Koch	Koch Industries
Bob Kohlhepp	Manufacturing/Services	Vice Chairman, Cintas Corp.
Dennis Kuester	Banking, Paper	Dennis J. Kuester, retired CEO of Marshall & Ilsley Bank (M&I) in Milwaukee, WI; director of Wausau Paper
Andrew Kupersmith	Consultant	MD, Cardiology Consultants
Andre Lacy	Investment	Chairman, Lacy Diversified Industries, Indianapolis IN; board member, Patterson Companies(vet,dental,rehab)
Ken Langone and Elaine Langone	Retail	Invemed, Home Depot
Jay Lapeyre and Sally Lapeyre	Services	Laitram Corp
Ken Levy and Frayda Levy	Investment	JLM Investment Mgmt
Tom Love	Retail	CEO, President, Love’s Country Stores
Bob Luddy	Manufacturing	President, Captive Aire Systems
Fred Malek and Marlene Malek	Investment Management	Thayer Capital Partners
Elaine Marshall		Homemaker
Pierce Marshall	Administrative Management	MAROPCO
Preston Marshall
Bill Mayer	Health Care	MD, Mayer & Cope Family Practice, NY
Glen Meakem and Diane Meakem	Business Solutions	CEO, Freemarkets Inc.
Ed Meese	Think Tank	Heritage Foundation
Lew Meibergen and Suzy Meibergen	Goods/Services	President, Johnston Enterprises/WG Johnston Grain Co
Don Meyers and Deede Meyers	Attorney	Self Employed
Jerry Milbank and Caroline Milbank	Investment Management	CEO/Principal, Milbank Winthrop & Co.
Jack Miller and Goldie Miller	Retail	CEO/President, Quill Corp.
Mark Mix	Advocacy Group	President, National Right to Work Committee
Joe Moeller and Mary Moeller	Koch Industries	Vice Chairman
Steve Moore	Media	member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board
David Murfin	Energy	President, Murfin Drilling Co.
Walter Negley and Suzette Negley		Director of the Brown Foundation (from George Brown of Houston's Brown & Root construction)
Mina Nguyen
Larry Nichols and Polly Nichols	Energy	Executive Chairman, Devon Energy Corp
Sean Noble	(??)Front Group Political consulting	(??)Americans for Prosperity Noble Associates (specializing in Campaign Management, Crisis Communications, Developing the Message, Grassroots Development & Deployment...), Phoenix AZ; Koch-supported Americans for Limited Government^[3]
Tim Oelke and Teresa Oelke	Advocacy Group/Construction	Teresa – State Director of Americans for Prosperity , Tim – Crossland Construction Corp
Eric O’Keefe	Front Group	Sam Adams Alliance
Kurt Pfotenhauer and Nancy Pfotenhauer	Media	President of MediaSpeak Strategies/former political commentator on Fox News , CNN and MSNBC and former Senior Policy Advisor and National Spokesperson with the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign
Tim Phillips	Advocacy Group	president, Americans for Prosperity
Ramesh Ponnuru	Media	Columnist, National Review (magazine)
Art Pope and Kathy Pope	Goods/Services	Senior Exec, Variety Wholesaler; board member, Americans for Prosperity and John Locke Foundation; Pope Foundation
Russ Roberts	Attorney? (wrong man, I think; Economist.)	Roberts, Ashby & Parrish(if the attorney); George Mason University economics professor
Corbin Robertson and Barbara Robertson	Energy	Coal baron; President, Quintana Minerals Corp and Natural Resource Partners; director of global warming inaction front groups (& media campaign) CO2 Is Green and Plants Need CO2
Richard Roder and Karin Hsu	Construction Management	CEO, Cmt-Construction Management, Addison TX
Gary Rogers and Kathleen Rogers	Goods	Former CEO, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream
Durk Rorie	Manufacturing	United Air Specialists air purification systems, Cincinnati
Chris Rufer	Goods/Manufacturing	Morningstar Company (harvests, processes, cans, and ships most California tomatoes.)
Peter Schiff and Martha O’Brien	Investor	Schiff : Euro Pacific Capital Inc. (son of Irwin Schiff of the United States tax protester movement)
Steve Schwarzman and Christine Schwarzman	Financial Services	CEO/founder, Blackstone Group
Rick Sharp and Sherry Sharp	Retail	Former CEO, Circuit City
Mike Simmonds and Lin Simmonds	Services	CEO, Simmonds Restaurant Mgm
Peter Smith	Services	CEO, Services Group of America, Scottsdale AZ
Dick Strong	Investment Services	Strong/Corneliuson Capital Mgmt
Michael Sullivan	Investment Services (???)	CR Intrinsic Investors or not; since a "Michael Quinn Sullivan is president and CEO of Empower Texans, and its premier project, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility."
Ray Thompson and Ladeline Thompson	Manufacturing	President/CEO, Semitool; Raymon F. Thompson owns the airplane that Tea Party Patriots Jenny-Beth Martin and Mark Meckler flew in to rallies, in 2010^[4]
Lynn Tilton	Investment Management	CEO, Patriarch Partners LLC
Dave True and Melanie True	Oil	Partner, True Oil, LLC
Steve Twist	Services Consultant	VP and General Counsel for Services Group of America, Scottsdale, AZ Rose & Allyn PR Consultants
Jim Ehr and Gayla Von Ehr	Research/Development	CEO, Zyvex Corp
Rick Waller and Debra Waller	Manufacturing	Rick Waller owns Rollmeister Inc in Neenah, WI, serving the paper industry; Debra Waller is CEO of Wisconsin-based underwear maker Jockey International, and spent five years on the Board of Directors for Marshall & Ilsley Bank^[5] in Milwaukee, WI
Peter Wallison	Think Tank	Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Bill Walton and Sarah Walton	Real Estate	Allied Capital Corp
Lew Ward and Myra Ward	Oil	Ward Petroleum Corporation owns and operates wells. It engages in oil and gas exploration and production. The company was founded in 1963 and is based in Enid, Oklahoma.
Dick Weekley	Real Estate	Weekley Properties; chairman, Texans for Lawsuit Reform
Fred Wehba and Susie Wehba	Real Estate	LA-based private real estate investment firm BentleyForbes
Nestor Weigand and Darcy Buehler	Real Estate	JP Weigand & Sons Real Estate, Wichita, KS
Dick Weiss and Mary Beth Weiss	Life Insurance? Investment?	Wells Fargo and Hawthorne Ranch, near Chicago IL
Howard Wilkins and Rhonda Wilkins	(??) Insurance	C. Howard Wilkins Jr. founded Maverick Development Corporation (restaurant management), Wichita KS [3]; earlier, Pizza Hut, and ambassador to Netherlands ?? Diversified Insurance
Don Wills and Sue Wills	Oil, Banking	Partner in Wills Oil Company and Adams-Wills Oil Company, Texas
Larry Winnerman and Lorraine Winnerman	Real Estate	Win Win Enterprises, Aspen CO
Joe Woodford	Manufacturing	Woodford Manufacturing, Woodford Foundation, Colorado Springs
Earl Wright	Finance	AMG National Trust, Alliance for Choice and Education (ACE) trustee, Colorado
Karen Wright and Tom Rastin	Energy/Manufacturing	Tom Rastin, vice president of marketing and engineering, Ariel Corp (natural gas compressors, Ohio) – Karen Wright, Ariel CEO
Cliff Yonce and Susan Yonce	Investment Banking	Goldman Sachs
Fred Young and Sandra Young	Manufacturing Services	Fred Young Jr., Former Owner, Young Radiator Company of Racine, WI ; Cato Institute board member, trustee of the Reason Foundation Diversified Search , LLC provides senior-level executive and corporate board search services in the United States and internationally. It provides recruitment services for various organizations in consumer and industrial, education, not-for-profit, arts and culture, financial and professional services, business, healthcare and human services, life sciences, media and entertainment, sports and leisure, energy and utilities, private equity, retail, and technology and communications industries.

Attendees' actions

Climate confusion - silent directorships

Coal baron attendee Corbin Robertson was a silent partner in a media and web disinformation campaign involving climate disinformation groups Plants Need CO2 and CO2 Is Green.

Tea Party - airplane provided

Tea Party Patriot leaders flew around the country to rallies in an airplane owned by attendee Raymon F. Thompson of Semitool.^[4]

Americans for Prosperity - speech

"...underwear executive Debra Waller -- the Chief Executive Officer of Jockey International, Inc. -- revealed a lot about her opinions at the most recent annual convention of "Americans for Prosperity" (AFP) for its chapter in Wisconsin. ..."^[5]

Campaign contributions - $35+ million

"Invitees to the June 2010* Koch Brothers meeting of conservative donors, media, and political figures have contributed at least $35 million to federal candidates, parties, and political committees over the past 20 years, according to Campaign Money Watch analysis of data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics."^[6]

Articles and Resources

References...

MEMO: Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries Met With Koch, Chamber, Glenn Beck To Plot 2010 Election

In 2006, Koch Industries owner Charles Koch revealed to the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore that he coordinates the funding of the conservative infrastructure of front groups, political campaigns, think tanks, media outlets and other anti-government efforts through a twice annual meeting of wealthy right-wing donors. He also confided to Moore, who is funded through several of Koch’s ventures, that his true goal is to strengthen the “culture of prosperity” by eliminating “90%” of all laws and government regulations. Although it is difficult to quantify the exact amount Koch alone has funneled to right-wing fronts, some studies have pointed toward $50 million he has given alone to anti-environmental groups. Recently, fronts funded by Charles and his brother David have received scrutiny because they have played a pivotal role in the organizing of the anti-Obama Tea Parties and the promotion of virulent far right lawmakers like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). (David Koch praised DeMint and gave him a “Washington Award” shortly after the senator promised to “break” Obama by making health reform his “Waterloo.”)

While the Koch brothers — each worth over $21.5 billion — have certainly underwritten much of the right, their hidden coordination with other big business money has gone largely unnoticed. ThinkProgress has obtained a memo outlining the details of the last Koch gathering held in June of this year. The memo, along with an attendee list of about 210 people, shows the titans of industry — from health insurance companies, oil executives, Wall Street investors, and real estate tycoons — working together with conservative journalists and Republican operatives to plan the 2010 election, as well as ongoing conservative efforts through 2012. According to the memo, David Chavern, the number two at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Fox News hate-talker Glenn Beck also met with these representatives of the corporate elite. In an election season with the most undisclosed secret corporate giving since the Watergate-era, the memo sheds light on the symbiotic relationship between extremely profitable, multi-billion dollar corporations and much of the conservative infrastructure. The memo describes the prospective corporate donors as “investors,” and it makes clear that many of the Republican operatives managing shadowy, undisclosed fronts running attack ads against Democrats were involved in the Koch’s election-planning event:

– Corporate “investors” at the Koch meeting included businesses with a strong profit motive in rolling back President Obama’s enacted reforms. Several companies impacted by health reform, including Allan Hubbard of A & E Industries, a manufacturer of medical devices and Judson Green, a board member of health insurance conglomerate Aon, were present at the meeting. Other businessmen at the meeting, like Omaha Burger King franchiser Mike Simmonds, are owners of fast food stores which have fought efforts to provide health insurance to their employees. Many corporate attendees of the meeting represent the financial industry impacted by Wall Street reform. For instance, attendee Bill Cooper is the CEO of TCF Financial, a corporation involved in the mortgage banking industry. Cooper recently filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Wall Street reform. Other financial industry players in the meeting hail from firms ranging from Bank of America, JLM Investment, Allied Capital Corp, AMG National Trust, the Blackstone Group and Citadel Investment. Annie Dickerson, a representative of Paul Singer, a powerful hedge fund manager who also gives tens of millions to Republican causes, was present. In addition, Koch Industries itself has a hedge fund and other financial derivative products in its portfolio of interests, which include oil pipelines, coal shipping, asphalt, refineries, consumer goods, timber, ranching, and chemicals.

– Corporate “investors” at the Koch meeting included businesses with a strong profit motive in preventing progressive reforms promised by President Obama. Several executives at the meeting have an incentive to stop Democrats and President Obama from addressing climate change and enacting clean energy reform. The meeting included oil executives from Aspect Energy, Murfin Drilling, Anschutz Company, GeoPark Holdings, Smoky Oil, and several members of Koch’s various subsidiaries. The meeting documents explicitly state that funding efforts to curb “climate change alarmism” were discussed.

– Fred Malek, Karl Rove’s top fundraiser for his $56 million attack ad campaign against Democrats, attended the meeting, along with leaders of other secret attack groups. Heather Higgins, who leads the Independent Women’s Forum, a shadowy group that has spent millions of dollars in attack ads on health reform, attended the meeting. So did Gretchen Hamel, a former Bush flak who now runs an attack ad group called “Public Notice,” which denounces spending programs.

– Participants collaborated with infamous consultants who specialize in generating fake grassroots movements, as well as experts on how corporations should take advantage of Citizens United. One session, about how to “mobilize citizens for November,” involved a discussion with Republican strategists Tim Phillips and Sean Noble, anti-union leader Mark Mix, and longtime Koch operative Karl Crow. Phillips — a veteran astroturf lobbyist who previously managed a deceptive grassroots lobbying campaign to help the Hong Kong-based Tan family maintain their forced abortion sweatshops in the Mariana Islands — now leads the day-to-day operations of Americans for Prosperity, the group ThinkProgress first reported to have helped organize many of the initial Tea Party rallies against Obama. Americans for Prosperity, founded and financed by David Koch, has a field team of over 80 campaign staffers spread out around the country, and additionally plans to spend $45 million dollars worth of attack ads against Democrats. Shortly before the planning meeting, Crow authored a campaign finance memo explaining that because of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, he advised specifically that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 501(c)(6) and Americans for Prosperity’s 501(c)(4) can “now use general treasury funds to produce communications materials opposing or supporting specific candidates” and corporations can aggressively pressure their employees to vote a certain way.

The memo notes that participants in the 2010 election planning meeting “committed to an unprecedented level of support.”

Interestingly, the Koch meetings are managed by Kevin Gentry, an executive who doubles as a staffer in the Koch Industries lobbying office in Washington and as the key point person who helps deliver Koch charitable foundation grants. As ThinkProgress has documented, Koch Industries has dramatically boosted its own profits by using conservative front groups to manipulate public policy. The fusion between the “intellectual” conservative movement and big businesses opposed to regulations and accountability has a history in America dating back to the New Deal. During the thirties, the Du Pont family and other wealthy interests organized an assortment of “Liberty League” front groups to try to defeat New Deal agenda items and repeal President Roosevelt’s Social Security program. Now, corporations fund groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute — both had representatives at the Koch meeting — to further their lobbying agenda. The American Enterprise Institute even changed its name from the New Deal-era American Enterprise Association to try to dispel the notion that they were nothing more than a glorified business trade association.

As the memo states, Beck has addressed this regular gathering of conservative corporate executives in previous years. Past Koch meetings have included various Republican lawmakers, including DeMint, and Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia as speakers.

After ThinkProgess published its exclusive investigation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce revealing that the Chamber has been actively fundraising from foreign corporations for its 501(c)(6) account used to run a $75 million attack ad campaign, Chamber lobbyists found common cause with Beck and many of the conservative talking heads. Shortly after our investigation, Beck hosted an on-air fundraiser, asking his audience to give to the Chamber. Casual observers might have been surprised by the Chamber’s swift alliance with Beck (Chamber executives appeared on the Beck radio program and sung Beck’s praises on the Chamber blog), who has compared Obama to Adolf Hitler and called the President a “racist” who has a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” By telling his listeners to give money to the Chamber, Beck, who owns a media company worth more than $32 million dollars and an experimental Mercedes Benz, essentially told his working class viewers to give their wages back to their employers. However, Beck never disclosed his long working history of discussing political strategy with America’s largest corporations. The Koch memo clearly shows that Beck has been collaborating with the Chamber, as well as other titans of industry, for years. In his latest appeal for support to the Chamber’s foreign-funded trade association, which already counts JP Morgan and ExxonMobil as dues-paying members, Beck yesterday told his audience that the Chamber simply .”

Click below to view a letter inviting corporate executives to attend the next Koch meeting in January, along with a list of the sessions held by Koch for the last meeting in June of 2010. An attendee list of the June, 2010 meeting is attached at the bottom of the document:

Koch meeting draws protests :{By: Kenneth P. Vogel January 30, 201111:06 PM EDT}:
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Inside the walled-off resort where the billionaire Koch brothers convened their annual conference of major conservative donors, Washington Examiner columnist Tim Carney on Sunday gave a speech about the corrosive impact of “corporate welfare and bailouts, and the destructive influence of the Big Business lobby in Washington.” Outside, though, hundreds of protesters accused David and Charles Koch and their assembled donors of being poster children for that very problem by funneling huge – and mostly undisclosed – donations into front groups pushing a political agenda intended to boost their profits at the expense of average Americans. As participants in the invitation-only conference watched from behind a heavily guarded gate, protestors pressed towards sheriff’s deputies guarding the entrance, waving signsreading “Koch Kills” and “Uncloak the Kochs,” and chanting “David and Charles Koch: Your corporate greed is making us broke.” The Riverside County Sheriff’s department pegged the protest at between 800 and 1,000 people (though organizers claimed it was twice that) and said they arrested 25 protestors. They were primarily associated with the liberal activist groups Code Pink and Ruckus Society, which had planned the protests and negotiated the arrests ahead of time with authorities, while the Federal Aviation Administration restricted air traffic over the resort - a couple days after the environmental activist group over this tony suburb of Palm Springs that was emblazoned with styliz Greenpeace flew a blimped portraits of David and Charles Koch bracketing the words “Koch Brothers; Dirty Money.” Conservative provocateur and media entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart – who had spoken to last year’s conference but did not attend this weekend’s – rollerbladed through Sunday’s crowd of protesters, gleefully provoking arguments and hecklers. “This is a protest against capitalism, against libertarianism, against the free market,” Breitbart asserted, calling the Koch conference goers “good and decent people … who create jobs.” Through their oil and chemical company Koch Industries, the Koch brothers have been holding the conferences twice a year since 2003, with the winter meetings typically in the Palm Springs area, and the summer meetings in Colorado. But this was the first year the meeting attracted the attention of protesters – or really anyone at all, beyond the attendees. The meetings bring together roughly 200 conservative business titans and dignitaries hand-picked by the Koch brothers to discuss the conservative movement and allocate millions of dollars in contributions to Koch-linked non-profit groups. Those who attend are warned not to mention the meetings publicly, and every previous meeting went off without a word in the press. But in recent months, the Koch brothers have been on the receiving end of a blitz of intense scrutiny for their role in helping start and fund some of the deepest-pocketed groups involved in organizing the tea party movement, such as Americans for Prosperity, and for steering cash toward efforts to target President Barack Obama, his health-care overhaul, and congressional Democrats in the run-up to the 2010 election. And liberal watchdog groups led by Common Cause pounced on the Rancho Mirage meeting as a chance to highlight the flow of corporate money into politics, after the leak of a letter from Charles Koch inviting potential participants to the meeting, which he wrote would “develop strategies to counter the most severe threats facing our free society and outline a vision of how we can foster a renewal of American free enterprise and prosperity.” Despite the publicity, the conference drew a slew of prominent politicians and conservative donors, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Home Depot lead investor Ken Langone, former Attorney General Ed Meese, Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips, long-shot GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain and former Jack Abramoff associate and Bush appointee Patrick Pizzella. Other big donors, including retired Sysco chief John Woodhouse and Amway founder Rich DeVos, were expected to attend, as well. The luxury resort was closed to everyone except Koch conference-goers and those attending a meeting of federal judges from the Ninth Circuit, who coincidentally had scheduled their gathering for the same hotel, and who were expected to bring a significant security presence as well. Various media outlets ran items previewing the Koch conference. Yet the conference itself attracted relatively little national media, with some television news sources explaining that the organizers’ barring the press made it difficult to cover, and also citing the saturation coverage of the unrest in Egypt, as diminishing the bandwidth for stories on a secretive conservative donor conference. NBC News was the only network to send a national camera crew, and its mission was at least partly to get footage to air Monday on the “Rachel Maddow Show,” whose host has repeatedly criticized the Kochs, suggesting they control the tea party and use it for their own interests. Tea Party activists “were essentially instructed to rally against things like climate change legislation by” the Kochs, Maddow said last year, asserting the brothers use “dad’s money” to fund political groups that pursue an agenda “that is hard-core ideological, hard-core conservative” and also serves their bottom line. Russia Today, a state-funded channel that airs English language programming on cable providers in major American markets, also was on the scene Sunday, shooting footage of the protests and an earlier Common Cause panel for an expose on corporate influence in government. That was the narrative offered by speakers at the protest at a Sunday morning Common Cause event in a nearby movie theater, including activist Jim Hightower and former Obama administration official Van Jones. The Kochs are “only interested in their own gain, only interested in their own profit,” charged Jones, “and we are here to put a stop to that kind of treachery against our country … We will not live on an economic plantation run by the Koch brothers. We will not do that. We refuse to do that.” Hightower asserted the Kochs “are out to supplant our democracy with their plutocracy” and said “this is about the very soul of America.” Outside the resort gate, Sophie Korn, a 24-year old teacher who had yelled “arrest Breitbart” at the conservative provocateur, said she drove the two hours from her Los Angeles home to join the protest because the Kochs “are one of the biggest funders of climate change denial and it makes me sick that they’re able to use their private wealth to corrupt our democracy.” Korn is affiliated with the Ruckus Society, which was selling T-shirts depicting David and Charles Koch as two-headed “Kochtopus,” its tentacled arms grasping bags of cash, with the proceeds going to bail out their arrested comrades. But she said “the goal today is not to get a lot of people arrested. It’s to bring attention to the corrosive corporate power that’s had some serious consequences on the well being of Americans.” Carney, who was introduced at the conference by Charles Koch, said his speech, which was closed to the press like the rest of the conference, cautioned the corporate titans at the Koch conference against lobbying the government for special treatment, and instead urged them to support policies that would create an even-playing field on which the free market could play out. "You can’t tell whether they’re listening to you and watching or glaring at you,” he said after his talk, though he added that “a couple people told me they appreciated what I was saying.” endit1

Koch meeting draws protests

:{By: Kenneth P. Vogel

January 30, 201111:06 PM EDT}:

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Inside the walled-off resort where the billionaire Koch brothers convened their annual conference of major conservative donors, Washington Examiner columnist Tim Carney on Sunday gave a speech about the corrosive impact of “corporate welfare and bailouts, and the destructive influence of the Big Business lobby in Washington.”

Outside, though, hundreds of protesters accused David and Charles Koch and their assembled donors of being poster children for that very problem by funneling huge – and mostly undisclosed – donations into front groups pushing a political agenda intended to boost their profits at the expense of average Americans.

As participants in the invitation-only conference watched from behind a heavily guarded gate, protestors pressed towards sheriff’s deputies guarding the entrance, waving signsreading “Koch Kills” and “Uncloak the Kochs,” and chanting “David and Charles Koch: Your corporate greed is making us broke.”

The Riverside County Sheriff’s department pegged the protest at between 800 and 1,000 people (though organizers claimed it was twice that) and said they arrested 25 protestors. They were primarily associated with the liberal activist groups Code Pink and Ruckus Society, which had planned the protests and negotiated the arrests ahead of time with authorities, while the Federal Aviation Administration restricted air traffic over the resort - a couple days after the environmental activist group over this tony suburb of Palm Springs that was emblazoned with styliz Greenpeace flew a blimped portraits of David and Charles Koch bracketing the words “Koch Brothers; Dirty Money.”

Conservative provocateur and media entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart – who had spoken to last year’s conference but did not attend this weekend’s – rollerbladed through Sunday’s crowd of protesters, gleefully provoking arguments and hecklers.

“This is a protest against capitalism, against libertarianism, against the free market,” Breitbart asserted, calling the Koch conference goers “good and decent people … who create jobs.”

Through their oil and chemical company Koch Industries, the Koch brothers have been holding the conferences twice a year since 2003, with the winter meetings typically in the Palm Springs area, and the summer meetings in Colorado. But this was the first year the meeting attracted the attention of protesters – or really anyone at all, beyond the attendees.

The meetings bring together roughly 200 conservative business titans and dignitaries hand-picked by the Koch brothers to discuss the conservative movement and allocate millions of dollars in contributions to Koch-linked non-profit groups. Those who attend are warned not to mention the meetings publicly, and every previous meeting went off without a word in the press.

But in recent months, the Koch brothers have been on the receiving end of a blitz of intense scrutiny for their role in helping start and fund some of the deepest-pocketed groups involved in organizing the tea party movement, such as Americans for Prosperity, and for steering cash toward efforts to target President Barack Obama, his health-care overhaul, and congressional Democrats in the run-up to the 2010 election.

And liberal watchdog groups led by Common Cause pounced on the Rancho Mirage meeting as a chance to highlight the flow of corporate money into politics, after the leak of a letter from Charles Koch inviting potential participants to the meeting, which he wrote would “develop strategies to counter the most severe threats facing our free society and outline a vision of how we can foster a renewal of American free enterprise and prosperity.”

Despite the publicity, the conference drew a slew of prominent politicians and conservative donors, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Home Depot lead investor Ken Langone, former Attorney General Ed Meese, Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips, long-shot GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain and former Jack Abramoff associate and Bush appointee Patrick Pizzella. Other big donors, including retired Sysco chief John Woodhouse and Amway founder Rich DeVos, were expected to attend, as well.

The luxury resort was closed to everyone except Koch conference-goers and those attending a meeting of federal judges from the Ninth Circuit, who coincidentally had scheduled their gathering for the same hotel, and who were expected to bring a significant security presence as well.

Various media outlets ran items previewing the Koch conference. Yet the conference itself attracted relatively little national media, with some television news sources explaining that the organizers’ barring the press made it difficult to cover, and also citing the saturation coverage of the unrest in Egypt, as diminishing the bandwidth for stories on a secretive conservative donor conference.

NBC News was the only network to send a national camera crew, and its mission was at least partly to get footage to air Monday on the “Rachel Maddow Show,” whose host has repeatedly criticized the Kochs, suggesting they control the tea party and use it for their own interests.

Tea Party activists “were essentially instructed to rally against things like climate change legislation by” the Kochs, Maddow said last year, asserting the brothers use “dad’s money” to fund political groups that pursue an agenda “that is hard-core ideological, hard-core conservative” and also serves their bottom line.

Russia Today, a state-funded channel that airs English language programming on cable providers in major American markets, also was on the scene Sunday, shooting footage of the protests and an earlier Common Cause panel for an expose on corporate influence in government.

That was the narrative offered by speakers at the protest at a Sunday morning Common Cause event in a nearby movie theater, including activist Jim Hightower and former Obama administration official Van Jones.

The Kochs are “only interested in their own gain, only interested in their own profit,” charged Jones, “and we are here to put a stop to that kind of treachery against our country … We will not live on an economic plantation run by the Koch brothers. We will not do that. We refuse to do that.”

Hightower asserted the Kochs “are out to supplant our democracy with their plutocracy” and said “this is about the very soul of America.”

Outside the resort gate, Sophie Korn, a 24-year old teacher who had yelled “arrest Breitbart” at the conservative provocateur, said she drove the two hours from her Los Angeles home to join the protest because the Kochs “are one of the biggest funders of climate change denial and it makes me sick that they’re able to use their private wealth to corrupt our democracy.”

Korn is affiliated with the Ruckus Society, which was selling T-shirts depicting David and Charles Koch as two-headed “Kochtopus,” its tentacled arms grasping bags of cash, with the proceeds going to bail out their arrested comrades. But she said “the goal today is not to get a lot of people arrested. It’s to bring attention to the corrosive corporate power that’s had some serious consequences on the well being of Americans.”

Carney, who was introduced at the conference by Charles Koch, said his speech, which was closed to the press like the rest of the conference, cautioned the corporate titans at the Koch conference against lobbying the government for special treatment, and instead urged them to support policies that would create an even-playing field on which the free market could play out.

"You can’t tell whether they’re listening to you and watching or glaring at you,” he said after his talk, though he added that “a couple people told me they appreciated what I was saying.”

endit1