ALecKoch-alypse

ALecKoch-alypse

somewhat neglected till Flint

SEE WALKER, LIE POWER ANY MEANSwhen did this start? is there a blueprint/smoking gun?<strong times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" widows="widows" background="background" transparent="transparent" border="border" px="px" margin="margin" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" style="">key swing states alec-kochalypse, pence? recount MI WI and penni missed Pence?  trump added belatedly, but now confluence clearsee Cronon ---four alec/koch midwest governors?  look at their record?  4? horsemen? ALecKoch-alypse?   CFG?walker  2010 ; bailed on 2016; john doe? --> POST TRUMP PENSION PLANsnyder termed out, back to VC, raga schuette beat why woman whitmer ~ xlkasich 2010  hanging in, got home state, trumped; sxsw coy on trump flank 2020, AGW?!Brownback FAILPENCE 2013 --> TRUMP VP (tho Kochs not initially keen of djt, not really a republican, held liberal views eg abortion/gay rights [that kochs do not care about?][Born and raised in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus,Indiana" title="Columbus, Indiana" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Columbus, Indiana</a>, Pence graduated from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanover_College" title="Hanover College" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Hanover College</a> and earned a law degree from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_University_Robert_H.McKinney_School_of_Law" title="Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law</a> before entering private practice. After losing two bids for a U.S. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_of_Congress" title="Member of Congress" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">congressional seat</a> in 1988 and 1990, he became a conservative radio and television talk show host from 1994 to 1999. Pence was elected to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress" title="United States Congress" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">United States Congress</a> in 2000 and represented <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana%27s_2nd_congressional_district" title="Indiana's 2nd congressional district" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Indiana's 2nd congressional district</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana%27s_6th_congressional_district" title="Indiana's 6th congressional district" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Indiana's 6th congressional district</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="United States House of Representatives" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">United States House of Representatives</a>from 2001 to 2013. He served as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Conference_Chairman_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="Republican Conference Chairman of the United States House of Representatives" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">chairman</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Republican_Conference" class="mw-redirect" title="House Republican Conference" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">House Republican Conference</a> from 2009 to 2011.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pence#cite_note-Republican_conference-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a> Pence positioned himself as a principled conservative and supporter of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement" title="Tea Party movement" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tea Party movement</a>, stating that he was "a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pence#cite_note-McFarlanKimberly-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a>]
AZ brewer ?==

<div>---</div><div>These are privatization, financialization, militarization, and criminalization, which together are producing a steadily creeping authoritarianism—a new authoritarianism—to fit our times. Let’s call them the Four Plagues, or if we wish, “The Four Horsemen of Our Apocalypse,” from the Book of Revelations.
aha: w/ trump pvtiztion and dereg go together, eg infrastructure
==<a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2022/10/28/how_wisconsin_became_gops_laboratory_dismantling">https://www.democracynow.org/2022/10/28/how_wisconsin_became_gops_laboratory_dismantling</a><div class="story_summary" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 27px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">with Republicans set to make major gains in the November midterms, we speak with reporter Ari Berman, who says Republican control of the Legislature in Wisconsin is a preview of the damage the party could do if empowered in Washington. Berman’s latest piece for Mother Jones is titled “How Wisconsin Became the GOP’s Laboratory for Dismantling Democracy.” It looks at how severely gerrymandered districts there give Republicans nearly two-thirds of the seats in the statehouse with less than 50% of the popular vote, and how they have used those inflated majorities to undermine Democratic Governor Tony Evers by stripping his powers, refusing to confirm his nominees and ignoring his legislative proposals. Berman says the takeover of the Wisconsin Legislature is part of a larger GOP plan to empower swing state officials to assist former President Trump in staging a coup in 2024.</div></div><div class="mobile_anchor_target" id="transcript" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 27px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Democracynow.org</a>, the War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We continue our conversation with Ari Berman, one of the leading journalists covering voting rights, reporter at Mother Jones, author of Give Us The Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America. His new cover story is headlined <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/10/wisconsin-2022-midterms-gerrymandering-redistricting-evers-michels/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">How Wisconsin Became the GOP’s Laboratory for Dismantling Democracy</a>. Ari, can you lay out what you found?ARI BERMAN: Absolutely, Amy, and thank you for having me on to discuss this. Really Wisconsin is a case study for how Republicans are dismantling democracy in real time. Right now, but also it’s a project that dates back over a decade where Republicans have tried to create a situation where their majorities are voter-proof, that they control the state no matter what happens politically.First it was the election of Scott Walker in 2011 and the union-busting, the voter suppression, the dismantling of the state’s campaign finance system. Then it was the extreme gerrymandering that has basically put Republicans in control of the state legislature for the past decade. They passed the most gerrymandered maps in the country in 2011. Last year in 2021, they passed even more gerrymandered maps. Now Republicans in the state legislature are on the verge of a supermajority in the state which would allow them to be able to override the veto of Democratic Governor Tony Evers if he is reelected.What we have in Wisconsin is a paradox. It’s a 50/50 swing state, but in the state legislature, they are on the verge of a two-thirds Republican supermajority, meaning that the legislature is completely out of step with the rest of the state and they have refused to pass popular policies like expanding Medicaid, like background checks for guns. They refused to repeal an abortion ban from 1849 that makes no exceptions for rape or incest. In the Dobbs decision, Justice Samuel Alito said that we need to return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives, but what Wisconsin has shown is just how disconnected the people’s representatives are from the people themselves.AMY GOODMAN: Talk more about this, what this gerrymandering represents, and how Wisconsin has often been a laboratory for the country from welfare to this kind of gerrymandering and then how this fits into another very closely watched race, the senator race, that could be flipped—not clear—by Mandela Barnes as he challenges Ron Johnson.ARI BERMAN: It’s important to note that Wisconsin has had a long progressive history for many years. It was a state that had the blueprint for policies like Social Security, for collective bargaining rights, for the direct election of U.S. senators back in the early 1900s. Under Scott Walker, it became a laboratory for anti-democratic conservatism. Tons of money from places like the Bradley Foundation to try to privatize schools, to dismantle unions, to dismantle campaign finance laws, to suppress votes. That has accelerated dramatically with the extreme gerrymandering that we are seeing. Basically what Republicans can do in Wisconsin is they can nullify the will of the voters. They don’t have to pass popular policies, they can do extreme things and they feel like there is no accountability.Routinely, Democrats get more votes than Republicans but Republicans have these huge majorities in the state legislature. In 2018, for example, Democrats won all five statewide elections in Wisconsin including for governor. They got 53% of the vote for the state assembly but Democrats only got 36% of seats. Right now there’s a competitive race for governor, there’s a competitive race for the U.S. Senate, but Republicans could be on the verge of getting two thirds majorities in the legislature. That is a really scary situation for democracy because what that means is that essentially the heavily gerrymandered legislature which has no accountability could be in charge of running elections in the state. That poses a grave danger to fair elections in 2024.AMY GOODMAN: You have written about what the Republican plan is for one-party rule this year. Explain.ARI BERMAN: Basically, what Republicans want to do is they want to take control in 2022 in key swing states like Wisconsin so that Trump’s coup will succeed in 2024. You will remember that Trump asked Republican state legislatures in places like Wisconsin to overturn the will of the voters. They didn’t do that because in some cases they didn’t have the power to do that. In Wisconsin the governor certifies the presidential election. What Republicans want to do is they want to get a two-thirds supermajority in Wisconsin so the ultra gerrymandered legislature will instead be in charge of certifying elections. That could potentially mean they could overthrow the popular vote in these states.I think it is really important to note that these state races in 2022, who is elected governor, secretary of state, attorney general, but also who controls the legislatures, is going to have a huge impact on whether we will have a fair election in 2024. I think a lot of people only pay attention to presidential elections but if you overlook these midterms, it is going to be too late. What happens in the states has a huge impact on what happens nationally as well. Wisconsin has become the laboratory for dismantling democracy not just in the state, but nationwide. The voter suppression, the union-busting, the attacks on campaign finance laws, these are things that happened in Wisconsin and then were exported to other states to become not just a state model but a national model as well. So what is happening in places like Wisconsin affects not just Wisconsin, but the whole country as well.AMY GOODMAN: Finally, of course talking about Mandela Barnes, the lieutenant governor could become Wisconsin’s first Black U.S. senator if he defeats Republican incumbent Ron Johnson in November. During the protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020, we spoke to Barnes and asked him what is being done at the state level around police reform.<blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 30px; border-left: 3px solid rgb(241, 242, 243);">MANDELA BARNES: We introduced—or the governor introduced—a legislative package Now, we know that a legislative package is not going to solve the deep problems, but it takes a coordinated effort. We need action at every level of government reimagining what keeping people safe looks like. It goes to making sure that there is funding on the front end to prevent violence from happening in the first place, like violence interrupters, but also having support for community organizations, having support for job training programs, whatever the case may be, to create communities, to create societies where people have an opportunity to thrive, where less or fewer police are actually needed to respond to anything in the first place.</blockquote>AMY GOODMAN: That is Mandela Barnes, who could become the first Black senator from Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate. If you could comment overall on this race, as you traveled through Wisconsin, and what else you are looking at in this pivotal election year?ARI BERMAN: First off, I think it is important to note that criminal justice reform was very popular in Wisconsin, was introduced before the legislature, and the heavily gerrymandered legislature took no action on it. So the lack of criminal justice reform in Wisconsin is also a victim of gerrymandering.But Republicans are absolutely hammering Mandela Barnes on “Defund the police.” When I was there, there were ads over and over by Ron Johnson’s campaign saying Mandela Barnes wanted to defund the police. That’s not true. They’ve twisted his words. But I think the idea is that they’re trying to make the election of the first Black senator in Wisconsin seem like something that’s scary and dangerous and that’s going to lead to more crime. So I think they are absolutely running a very racist campaign against Mandela Barnes there by Ron Johnson. I think it is hurting Mandela Barnes and he has a difficult time to become a U.S. senator to try to counteract these attacks.But it is a very, very close state. And so what I’m looking at is not just the U.S. Senate; I’m looking at whether Tony Evers, the Democratic governor, will get reelected, and I’m looking at whether Republicans will get supermajorities in the legislature or not. So I think there are a lot of races that are really important. I think it is a microcosm of the country writ large where these state races have a tremendous importance, and they have a tremendous importance affecting not just state politics but national politics as well.AMY GOODMAN: Ari Berman, thank you for being with us, senior reporter for Mother Jones. We will link to your piece <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/10/wisconsin-2022-midterms-gerrymandering-redistricting-evers-michels/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">How Wisconsin Became the GOP’s Laboratory for Dismantling Democracy</a>. Ari is author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America. Coming up, we go to Florida, to voting rights activist Desmond Meade on how Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is attempting to scare formerly incarcerated people away from voting by using his newly formed election police force to arrest people on trumped-up voter fraud charges. </div></div>
=<div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/gop-2653811907/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/gop-2653811907/</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small;">"Death Wish" was a hit movie in 1974, starring Charles Bronson as a violent vigilante. Now it's the primary motivation for the Republican Party. As of this week, in 13 states you have a legal right not merely to have a death wish but to inflict it on others by refusing to get vaccinated against COVID. In 21 more states, bills have been introduced that would limit any requirements that individuals produce evidence that they have been vaccinated. In six of those states, the laws specify that schools, including public primary and secondary schools and public colleges, cannot require coronavirus vaccines, even while the same schools continue to require vaccinations against whooping cough, polio, measles and chicken pox."It seems to be kind of a mixed bag of all the things going on here — there's the limiting of requiring proof of vaccine, there's the limiting of requiring the vaccination itself, the prohibition of the mandates. So, there's a lot," Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told CNN.These bills are being called "vaccine freedom laws," as in, you have a right to be free of the vaccines against COVID. What's not a mixed bag is the political leaning of the states. All the states where such laws are in effect are controlled by Republican governors and legislatures: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.You could call them the death wish states, or the Kevorkian states, after the infamous Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who was jailed for eight years after assisting a man to commit suicide who suffered from ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease. So if you want to enjoy your freedom to catch COVID and possibly die, those 13 states are the states for you. In six of them, you are guaranteed the freedom to subject your unvaccinated children to the virus as well.At the same time the Republican Party is moving to protect your right to refuse the COVID vaccine, rates of infection are on the rise across the country. According to Johns Hopkins University, the new case rate is 10 percent higher in 46 states than it was last week. According to CNN, "In 31 states, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/13/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">new cases this past week are at least 50% higher </a>than new cases the previous week."Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN that more than 99 percent of deaths from Covid in June were unvaccinated patients. CNN reports that "the vast majority of new Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths … are among unvaccinated people, doctors say."The Delta variant of the virus is causing more infections among children and young adults than before. In Missouri, where just 39 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, the situation is so bad that the CDC and FEMA have sent teams of specialists to the state to help stop the spread of the disease. "We've been seeing a much younger population," Dr. Harold Jarvis, an emergency physician in Springfield, Missouri, told CNN. "We're seeing a lot of people in their 30s, 40s, early 50s. We're seeing some teenagers and some pediatric patients as well."Missouri is one of the states that has passed a law forbidding the requirement of a COVID vaccine or evidence of vaccination such as a so-called vaccine passport.In Mississippi, where the vaccination rate is only 33 percent, seven children are in intensive care with COVID disease and two are on ventilators, according to the state health officer, Thomas Dobbs. On Monday, Dobbs tweeted "Pretty much ALL cases in MS are Delta variant right now. Vast majority of cases/hospitalizations/deaths UNVACCINATED." By Wednesday, Dobbs was tweeting that the state had suffered a "Big jump," and reported 641 new cases and five deaths in one day, along with 36 new outbreaks of the virus in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and rehabilitation centers.Mississippi has three bills pending before the state legislature that would prohibit issuing a "vaccine passport" and prohibit businesses and state facilities from requiring proof of vaccination.. One bill has passed both houses of the legislature and is awaiting the governor's signature.But it's in Tennessee that promotion of the Republican death wish has reached its nadir. On Monday, the state fired its top immunization official for her efforts to get teenagers vaccinated against the COVID virus. "This is about a partisan issue around covid vaccines and around people in power in Tennessee not believing in the importance in vaccinating the people, and so they terminated the person in charge of getting it done," Michelle Fiscus told the Washington Post. She was director of all immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of Health. "The government is sacrificing public health to be in the good graces of our legislators; it's a horrid dereliction of duty," she said on Monday. The Tennessean, the state's largest daily newspaper, reported on Tuesday that the state would stop promoting vaccinations for all teenagers, and would cease sending out reminders for teenagers who had received one vaccination to get their second dose.That's more than a death wish. With 99 percent of all deaths from Covid among the unvaccinated, that is more like the organized and state-sanctioned killing of children.I've been reading these stories all week and trying to figure out what's driving this madness. The evidence is out there for everyone to see. There can't be a state legislator or governor in this country who isn't aware that virtually all people who come down with COVID today, and 98 or 99 percent of those who die from the disease, are unvaccinated. They have to be aware of the fact, and it is a fact, that if you want to avoid being hospitalized with this disease and dying from it, a vaccination will not only help, it will absolutely prevent both outcomes.They're not just standing up and speaking out against the COVID vaccines, they are passing laws with the express purpose of making it easier for people to refuse vaccinations. In some cases, these laws are specifically aimed at school-age children. It's one thing to put your adult neighbors and employees and fellow workers at risk. It's quite another to put not only your children, but all children at greater risk of getting sick with a virus that, with the spread of the Delta Variant, is showing signs of being deadly to children as well as adults.The only answer I've been able to come up with is the obvious one. It's about politics, and not just any politics. These Republican death wish laws have one purpose: they are designed to make President Biden's push to get all Americans vaccinated fail. Republicans at the CPAC gathering last week in Dallas were laughing at references to Biden's goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the population by the Fourth of July. One speaker received an ovation when he told the crowd, "The government was hoping they could sucker 90% of the population into getting vaccinated. And it isn't happening.""The government," of course, is no longer being run by the man the whole CPAC conference was designed to celebrate, former president Donald Trump. It's run by the man who beat him, Joe Biden, and the Republican Party seems determined to do as much damage to his vaccination program as they can, even if that means enacting laws that will surely cause more people to get sick from the virus and die.Republicans have become the death wish party. Unsatisfied with passing laws to take away people's right to vote, they have moved on to passing laws that will, without a doubt, take away people's right to life.<div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.438px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/new-polling-reveals-gop-governors-disastrous-handling-of-covid-19-is-coming-back-to-bite-them/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: lighter; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">New polling reveals GOP governors' disastrous handling of COVID ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/trump-loving-former-gop-official-who-hated-face-masks-dies-from-19/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: lighter; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trump-loving former GOP official who hated face masks dies from ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/gop/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: lighter; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">The GOP's pro-COVID plan is straight out of its usual playbook ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.438px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/11/politics/kristi-noem-cpac-south-dakota-governor-covid-mandate/index.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: lighter; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Kristi Noem criticizes GOP governors who enacted Covid-19 ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/us/politics/gop-covid-vaccine.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: lighter; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Some G.O.P. 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</div>=beat 2018 --> dirty tricks: (anti-democratic authoritarian moves)
eg <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2019/03/04/right-wing-funded-groups-battle-new-state-governors">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2019/03/04/right-wing-funded-groups-battle-new-state-governors</a>ctr-attackIf the corporate-funded influence groups on the Right have their way, there will be no honeymoon for newly elected Democratic governors.Affiliates of the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/State_Policy_Network" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">State Policy Network</a> (SPN), a network of right-wing “think tanks” in 49 states bankrolled by the Kochs and other billionaires and big corporations, have already been deployed to oppose legislation introduced by Democratic governors in states that previously had GOP governors.Last week the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2019/02/21/koch-bradley-groups-battle-medicaid-expansion-proposed-gov-tony-evers/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">wrote</a> about the battle over Medicaid in Wisconsin, where the newly elected Democratic governor, Tony Evers, who replaced the GOP’s <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Scott_Walker" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Scott Walker</a>, has introduced a measure to expand Medicaid in the state.The article showed how right-wing “think tanks,” in this case the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Wisconsin_Institute_for_Law%26_Liberty" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty</a> (WILL) and the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Research_on_the_Wisconsin_Economy" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy</a> (CROWE), and state legislators quickly rolled out a flawed study to exaggerate the costs of Medicaid expansion to the tune of $600 million. The “research” was released without noting that the paper supported the anti-Medicaid expansion position taken by the groups’ major funders: the Bradley Foundation and the Koch brothers.<h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Minimum Wage Fight in Illinois</h2>In Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker, who defeated Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner, introduced an increase in the state’s minimum wage as one of his first acts. The state’s SPN affiliate, the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Illinois_Policy_Institute" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Illinois Policy Institute</a> (IPI), quickly went on the attack, repeating claims that a rise in the minimum wage reduces jobs, because Illinois would have higher minimum wages than surrounding states. The group does not consider the relative cost of living among Midwestern states, and ignores the experience of nearby Minnesota where 92,600 have directly benefited from the January 1 increase, the Economic Policy Institute <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/over-5-million-workers-will-have-higher-pay-on-january-1-thanks-to-state-minimum-wage-increases/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">reports</a>.Nonetheless, the Illinois legislature voted along party lines to increase the state minimum wage to $15 by 2025, starting with a $1 increase next year to $9.25 an hour. On February 19, the Governor <a href="https://www.illinoispolicy.org/pritzker-signs-statewide-15-minimum-wage-into-law/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">signed the bill into law</a>.IPI is well-connected to right-wing billionaires. The GOP megadonor Richard Uihlein has provided $11.8 million through his foundation to IPI since 2009, according to a CMD analysis of IRS filings. Robert Mercer has donated <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/illinois-policy-institute-john-tillman-transactions" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">$1.1 million</a> through his foundation to IPI over the same period, and the preferred piggy bank of the Koch donor network, DonorsTrust and its sister organization Donors Capital fund, has funneled over <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/DonorsTrust_and_Donors_Capital_Fund_Grant_Recipients" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">$1.5 million</a> to IPI since 2010.Notably, IPI has received <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Contributions_of_the_State_Policy_Network" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">$717,300</a> from SPN itself between 2012 and 2017, making it one of the largest grant recipients over this period.Previously IPI was listed as a “partner organization” in the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Charles_Koch_Institute" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Charles Koch Institute</a>‘s Liberty@Work program, but the current status of that program is unknown.Consistent with the opinions of its funders, IPI also does not consider the ripple effect of a rise in the incomes of low wage workers.A recent <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/raising-the-federal-minimum-wage-to-15-by-2024-would-lift-pay-for-nearly-40-million-workers/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">study</a> by the Economic Policy Institute finds that raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024 would increase wages for 40 million U.S. workers, which would “stimulate the economy and spur greater business activity and job growth.”<h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Renewable Energy in New Mexico</h2>In New Mexico, newly elected Democratic Governor Lujan Grisham has made increasing the state’s reliance on renewable energy a hallmark of her first year. “We know that we cannot rely on the federal government right now to lead on climate action,” Lujan Grisham <a href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/legislature/bill-seeks-changes-to-state-renewable-energy-standard/article_4a5f239b-1492-5c69-b6c6-4dd3b6ec7220.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">said</a> in her January 15 State of the State address. “It is our responsibility and indeed our moral obligation to ensure our planet and our state are preserved for our children and their children.”The SPN local affiliate, the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rio_Grande_Foundation" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Rio Grande Foundation</a> (RGF), came right out to oppose the increase in renewable energy the state relies on, from 20 percent to 50 percent by 2030, and then to 80 percent by 2040, <a href="https://riograndefoundation.org/transition-to-renewables-shouldnt-cost-utility-rate-payers/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">saying</a> it will raise electrical bills.RGF has received <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/DonorsTrust_and_Donors_Capital_Fund_Grant_Recipients" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">over half a million dollars</a> from DonorsTrust since 2010 and <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_Family_Foundations" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">tens of thousands</a> from the Charles Koch Foundation since 2015. In addition, RGF has held joint events with the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Charles_Koch_Institute" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Charles Koch Institute</a>.RGF fails to consider the cost of carbon on health and its effects on climate change in its analysis. The industry-backed group also leaves out the fact that renewable energy prices in New Mexico have gone down by 60 percent to 70 percent, according to the newly appointed state energy agency head, Cottrell Propst, and that as new technologies are adopted the costs will come down even more. “We know that this technology and cost will not stay the same for renewables or energy storage,” <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/01/ambitious-renewable-energy-goals-on-deck-as-new-political-era-dawns-in-nm/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Propst said</a>. “History shows us it’s good to be ambitious, it’s good to be bold.”RGF does not share that ambition and is even out of step with the state’s major utilities which, while not now embracing the same targets as the Governor, support increases in the state renewable energy standard to reduce carbon emissions.<h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Medicaid Work Rules in Michigan</h2>The SPN affiliate in Michigan, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mackinac_Center_for_Public_Policy" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Mackinac Center for Public Policy</a>, is already battling newly elected Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s reconsideration of a 2018 law that included a work rule requirement for Medicaid recipients. Mackinac <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/04/senate_panel_approves_medicaid.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">lobbied for the work requirement</a> and testified in support of its passage.Whitmer wants a reconsideration of the requirement in light of new research showing that people are losing coverage in Arkansas, one of the first states with the work requirement. Thousands of people in the state have lost coverage because of failing to report their activities, whether they are meeting rules or not, and almost 17,000 Medicaid recipients in all lost coverage in 2018.In December alone, 4,655 Medicaid recipients lost coverage, many for failing to report their activities to the state. “Arkansas takes an especially aggressive approach to terminating coverage due to paperwork and compliance issues, such as not responding to a (state) request for information quickly enough,” the <a href="https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2018/12/17/work-rule-ends-medicaid-coverage-for-4600-more-arkansans-in-december" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Arkansas Times reported</a>.The Mackinac Center ignores the negative societal effects a work requirement has and instead focuses on cutting Medicaid costs. “Medicaid has ballooned into an unwieldy and massively expensive entitlement program that crowds out access to services and vital resources for that most vulnerable population,” <a href="https://www.mackinac.org/lawmakers-repeal-prevailing-wage-and-pass-work-requirements-for-able-bodied-medicaid-population" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Mackinac reports</a>.But it provides no such evidence for its claims. Whitmer believes the Arkansas research may show that vulnerable people are losing coverage and that, until it is known who is losing coverage and why, Michigan should go slow on adopting the work rules.Mackinac Center has received <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mackinac_Center_for_Public_Policy#Ties_to_the_Bradley_Foundation" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">over $1.5 million</a> from the Bradley Foundation since 1993 and <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_Family_Foundations" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">$590,000</a> from the Koch family foundations since 2001, as well as over $3.4 million from the DonorsTrust conduits since 2010.
<div>=</div><div><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/in-11th-hour-power-grab-republicans-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-use-koch-playbook-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/in-11th-hour-power-grab-republicans-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-use-koch-playbook-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters</a></div><div>
</div><div>In Wisconsin and Michigan, Republicans in their respective state legislatures </div><div>are aiming to clip the wings of newly elected Democratic governors by curtailing executive-branch power with legislation </div><div>advanced in lame-duck sessions controlled by GOP majorities.</div><div>
</div><div class="mce-content-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; line-height: 1.5;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">It’s no coincidence that the list of proposed or enacted changes to executive power furthers the agenda long advanced by entities tied to billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who set out more than a decade ago to build state-level power through politicians willing to march to their beat.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Just before dawn this morning, Wisconsin legislators <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/in-11th-hour-power-grab-republicans-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-use-koch-playbook-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters/%22https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/republican-lawmakers-approve-amended-lame-duck-bills-after-capitol-all/article_6051c782-b63b-5318-876c-55fec6d61ce3.html%E2%80%9D" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">concluded an all-nighter</a> by passing bills that will shorten the period allowed for early voting (which proved advantageous to Democrats in last month’s elections) and allow lawmakers to intervene in defense of court challenges to legal statutes by hiring their own special counsel rather than leaving such measures to the attorney general, the position won by Democrat Josh Kaul.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The Wisconsin State Journal <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/in-11th-hour-power-grab-republicans-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-use-koch-playbook-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters/%22https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/republican-lawmakers-approve-amended-lame-duck-bills-after-capitol-all/article_6051c782-b63b-5318-876c-55fec6d61ce3.html%E2%80%9D" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">wrote of the early-voting measure</a>:<blockquote style="background: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; hyphens: none; padding: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0.75em 2em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">That would curtail the current date window for early voting in large cities such as Madison or Milwaukee — shortly after record early voting totals, especially in those large cities, helped Democrats win every statewide race in the November election.</blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The Wisconsin legislature also barred the incoming attorney general from withdrawing a lawsuit currently in progress against the federal government, through which the state seeks to nullify the Affordable Care Act, and enacted work requirements for people who receive Medicaid.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In addition, the legislature enacted a scheme to protect the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, which Governor-elect Tony Evers said he wanted to dissolve. The WEDC has drawn <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/4/18123784/gop-legislature-wisconsin-michigan-power-grab-lame-duck" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">scrutiny for the deal</a> it cut with the Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn—$3 billion in incentives to offset the building of a $10 billion plant.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">And if Evers should wish to ban firearms from the state capitol building, he’s now barred from doing that, too.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who <a href="https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2018/dec/03/wisconsin-republican-legislative-leaders/wisconsin-republicans-gave-gop-governor-more-power/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">decried a lame-duck session</a> convened by Democratic legislators in 2010—just before his inauguration and the seating of a newly elected Republican majority—appears poised to sign off on whatever the Koch-allied legislature rams through in its closing days.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In Michigan, the three top spots in the executive branch—governor, secretary of state and attorney general—were <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/11/29/bill-would-allow-legislators-intercede-any-court-case-involving-state/2150818002/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">won by Democratic women</a>. There, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/4/18123784/gop-legislature-wisconsin-michigan-power-grab-lame-duck" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">according to Vox</a>, the Republican-led legislature is seeking to reserve for itself the right to “intervene in any legal battles involving state laws that the attorney general may be reluctant to defend.” One bill advanced in the legislature’s upper chamber would move enforcement of the state’s campaign finance law from the secretary of state’s office to a to-be-created commission, and will see a vote next week.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Last night, meanwhile, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/419859-michigan-legislature-guts-minimum-wage-paid-sick-leave-measures" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Michigan lawmakers reneged</a> on a deal they made with the voters when they enacted, earlier this year, increases in the minimum wage and a paid-family leave law. That earlier legislation, which would have raised the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2022 and allowed employees of large companies to earn paid family leave by a formula that capped at 72 hours of paid leave per year, was enacted in response to proposed ballot measures for those requirements. Once the legislature enacted those measures, organizers withdrew the ballot measures. Now they’ve been gutted in the lame duck.<h5 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; font-weight: normal; hyphens: none; line-height: 1.1; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">The significance of Michigan and Wisconsin</h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The loss of those two key Midwestern governorships to Democrats was a surprising and stinging rebuke to the Kochs, whose flagship Americans for Prosperity organization spent millions in a failed effort to re-elect Wisconsin’s Walker, who lost the governor’s mansion to Tony Evers by <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2018/results/wisconsin/governor" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">less than a percentage point</a>, and spent millions more in negative ads against Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, who bested Republican Bill Schuette in Michigan’s gubernatorial contest. According to the Grand Rapids-based <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/10/heres_how_much_money_the_gover.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">MLive website</a>, as of October 26, Americans for Prosperity had spent $3.9 million in ads against Whitmer, and that “groups associated with the Republican Governors Association,” to which both David Koch and Koch Industries have donated millions in recent years, spent $4.3 million in ads that boosted Schuette and disparaged Whitmer. By October 31, the Wisconsin State Journal reported, Americans for Prosperity had also spent $5.8 million on ads against Evers and Kaul, the Wisconsin Democrats, and ads in favor of GOP candidates for legislative positions in that state.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">If any one politician is a product of the Koch machine, it’s Scott Walker, who was brought into the Americans for Prosperity fold when he was <a href="https://www.alternet.org/story/149965/wisconsin_is_a_battleground_against_the_billionaire_kochs%27_plan_to_break_labor%27s_back" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">a mere county executive</a> in Milwaukee. Once in the Wisconsin governor’s mansion, which he won in 2010, Walker set about effecting the Kochs’ <a href="https://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigation/2011/06/02/workers-learned-fear-unions-wisconsin/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">number one goal</a>: the kneecapping of public-sector unions in order to starve them of resources they had successfully deployed in the past to turn out the vote for progressive candidates.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Initially, Wisconsin was something of a pilot project for the Kochs; it was the place where they tested the model for gaining state power via Americans For Prosperity, which was <a href="https://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigation/2011/06/02/workers-learned-fear-unions-wisconsin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">conceived as a counterweight</a> to door-knocking power of the unions, as well as a policy-promoting organization that would ply the Kochs’ anti-regulatory, climate-science-rejecting, tax-cutting ethos to politicians eager for a little help on the ground in winning campaigns.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Wisconsin, they knew, held a place of awe in the history of the U.S. labor movement; it is the state where the public-sector unions were born. Break the unions there, and you could send the fear of God into the heart of every labor activist and union member. So they set about doing just that.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">And Michigan, one of the last remaining strongholds of private-sector manufacturing unions, would be next on the list.<h5 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; font-weight: normal; hyphens: none; line-height: 1.1; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">The Wisconsin pilot project</h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In 2005, Americans for Prosperity established its beachhead, employing a known dirty-trickster, Mark Block, to head the Wisconsin AFP chapter. Block had been banned from participating in Wisconsin politics for three years, due to his flouting of campaign laws when he ran a successful 2001 state Supreme Court campaign for a local judge. The minute his sentence was fulfilled, AFP hired Block to set up its Dairy State shop. (More on Block’s shady acts <a href="https://www.alternet.org/story/151231/gop_hopeful_herman_cain%3A_david_koch%27s_stalking_horse" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.)<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">At a 2010 Tea Party rally in Sheboygan, <a href="http://prospect.org/article/scott-walkers-shady-deals-win-him-campaign-cash-billionaires" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Block said his goal</a> was to grow the state’s AFP membership to equal that of the Wisconsin Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.The agenda? Unfettered energy expansion, rollbacks of environmental regulations, “entitlement reform,” opposition to any government-subsidized health care, redistribution of public education dollars to private entities, lower taxes (of course)—and the diminishment of labor unions.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Block shepherded AFP’s efforts on behalf of Scott Walker’s first gubernatorial bid that year, and was implicated in a <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mark_Block#Caging_Scheme_with_Americans_for_Prosperity" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">vote-caging scheme</a> in Milwaukee. Block’s AFP organizing also helped Ron Johnson defeat incumbent U.S. Senator Russell Feingold, and elect two new freshmen congressmen: Reid Ribble and Sean Duffy. Future House Speaker Paul Ryan, his congressional career long celebrated by AFP, also benefited.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Within weeks of taking office, Walker <a href="https://www.alternet.org/story/149965/wisconsin_is_a_battleground_against_the_billionaire_kochs'plan_to_break_labor's_back" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">took aim at Wisconsin’s public-sector labor unions</a> with a bill that gutted collective bargaining rights, sparking 18 days of protest at the state capitol building in Madison as legislators rammed it through and thousands of protesters chanted and disrupted. Americans for Prosperity bused in modest numbers of counter-protesters. Walker prevailed.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In 2011, Block went on to run the Herman Cain presidential campaign and got caught doing some <a href="https://www.alternet.org/story/151182/wall_street_journal_honcho_shills_for_secret_worker%27education%27_program_linked_to_koch_group" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">grifty</a> <a href="http://archive.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/state-firms-cash-to-herman-cain-may-breach-federal-campaign-tax-laws-132898423.html/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">things</a>. But Walker and the legislators who allied with him continued to enjoy AFP’s support.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">One of those legislators is Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, whose former policy director, Eric Bott, currently runs the Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin chapter. It was Fitzgerald who pushed today’s lame-duck bills through, complaining to the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/in-11th-hour-power-grab-republicans-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-use-koch-playbook-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters/%22https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/republican-lawmakers-approve-amended-lame-duck-bills-after-capitol-all/article_6051c782-b63b-5318-876c-55fec6d61ce3.html%E2%80%9D" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Wisconsin State Journal</a> that “he did not understand the outrage from the public and Democrats, and emphasized repeatedly that the measures were ‘inside baseball.’”<h5 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; font-weight: normal; hyphens: none; line-height: 1.1; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">The Michigan model</h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The Koch brothers and Michigan’s Republican Gov. Rick Snyder haven’t always seen eye to eye, but, once elected, Snyder apparently felt he owed the Kochs a debt. After all, they played a significant role in Snyder’s election to the governor’s mansion in 2010. According to MSNBC’s Ned Resnikoff, David Koch donated nearly $1 million the Republican Governors Association Michigan PAC that year, which spent heavily for Snyder’s election.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">So, under pressure from Americans For Prosperity, Snyder flipped on his previous opposition to the anti-union measures known by the Orwellian label “right to work” laws, and signed a law passed in the Republican legislature that was designed to thin the ranks of unions.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The law echoed, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/in-11th-hour-power-grab-republicans-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-use-koch-playbook-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters/%22https://billmoyers.com/2012/12/11/how-michigans-right-to-work-law-came-to-be/%E2%80%9D" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">almost word for word</a>, model legislation promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a policy organization that receives substantial funding from the Koch brothers and their company.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Also pushing for the right-to-work law were entities funded by Michigan’s influential DeVos family, the right-wing, evangelical Amway dynasty whose members also take part in the Koch donor network.<h5 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; font-weight: normal; hyphens: none; line-height: 1.1; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Not going quietly</h5><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Given their patrons’ investment of tens of millions of dollars in their political careers, Republican lawmakers in these two states—the Koch brothers’ shiniest trophies for nearly a decade—were not about to quietly cede control of the states’ top offices to the will of the voters.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">It’s a tactic that legislatures seated by wealthy, Koch-connected plutocrats rolled out two years ago <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/5/18125544/north-carolina-power-grab-wisconsin-michigan-lame-duck" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">in North Carolina</a>, when Democrat Roy Cooper unseated the incumbent Republican governor, Pat McCrory. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/5/18125544/north-carolina-power-grab-wisconsin-michigan-lame-duck" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">According to</a> Vox’s Tara Golshan:<blockquote style="background: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; hyphens: none; padding: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0.75em 2em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">Cooper has been fighting these changes in the courts ever since, to varying degrees of success. The supermajority of Republicans has rendered him “very ineffective,” said Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, a voting rights and campaign finance group in the state.</blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In North Carolina, the reigning plutocrat is Art Pope, heir to a dime-store fortune, who at one time served as chairman of the board of Americans for Prosperity. He and his family foundations are part of the Koch donor network.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The strategy is based on raw power. The will of the voters means little if it gets in the way of wielding that power. And if one’s last exercise of that power depends on breaking the infrastructure of government so as to deprive one’s opponent of access to it, then so be it. It’s almost epic: a little salting of the fields, so to speak.</div></div><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; border-top: 5px solid rgb(239, 243, 243); margin-bottom: 2em; padding-top: 1em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Tags: <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/charles-koch/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Charles koch</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/david-koch/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">David Koch</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/eric-bott/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Eric Bott</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/gretchen-whitmer/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Gretchen Whitmer</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/josh-kaul/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Josh Kaul</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/mark-block/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Mark Block</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/richard-devos/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Richard DeVos</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/rick-snyder/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Rick Snyder</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/scott-fitzerald/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Scott Fitzerald</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/scott-walker/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Scott Walker</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/tony-evers/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Tony Evers</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/alec/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">ALEC</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/americans-for-prosperity/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a></div></div><div>
</div><div></div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/wisconsin-power-grab-protestors-state-capitol">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/wisconsin-power-grab-protestors-state-capitol</a></div><div>
</div><div>failed in n carolina? also done now in MI</div><div>
</div><div>Stinging from their defeat at the polls in November, Republicans are now <a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/wisconsin-gop-power-grab-bills-public-debate-one-minute" style="text-decoration-line: none;">rushing a set of bills</a> through a special session of the Wisconsin State Assembly nakedly designed to curb the power of Democratic Governor-elect Tony Evers and Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul, and handicap Democrats' competitiveness in upcoming elections. The bills are scheduled for a vote on Tuesday, with the plan of getting them on outgoing GOP Gov. Scott Walker's desk so he can sign them before losing his job in a few weeks.</div>But Republicans didn't plan on the furious wave of protests that would descend on the state capitol in Madison on Monday afternoon.Demonstrators crowded outside as the bills were debated, trying to shout down Republicans' power grab: [pix tweets]The protests were spurred along by MoveOn political director Ben Wikler, who has been covering the GOP's power play closely since last Friday when the bills were first introduced, and who urged his followers in other states to call senators in key districts:2018 flips:see reaction above<div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/trump-country-turnaround-why-presidents-faux-populism-could-return-rust-belt-its-democratic-roots">https://www.alternet.org/trump-country-turnaround-why-presidents-faux-populism-could-return-rust-belt-its-democratic-roots</a></div><div>
</div><div>Politically, the Rust Belt has been one of the most volatile parts of the United States. While New England and the West Coast lean Democrat and many of the southern states have been reliably Republican, the Rust Belt has generally had a mixture of blue states and swing states (with Indiana being the most GOP state in the Rust Belt). But in 2016, President Donald Trump’s faux-populism not only resulted in a victory in the swing state Ohio—Trump also flipped three states that usually go Democrat in presidential races: Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is still fuming over the fact that Hillary Clinton was the first Democrat to lose Wisconsin in a presidential election since Walter Mondale in 1984. </div>The 2018 midterms, however, found Democrats <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/politics/democrats-rebuild-blue-wall-michigan-pennsylvania-wisconsin/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">regaining a lot of ground</a> in parts of the Rust Belt—and between now and 2020, the DNC will no doubt be spending considerable time trying to figure out ways to avoid another Rust Belt debacle like the one two years ago.In 2019, this is what the political environment will look like in four Rust Belt states that were carried by Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 but by Trump in 2016.1. MichiganSaying that Michigan is a blue state does not mean that Michigan residents vote Democrat exclusively in major races—only that they are, on the whole, more likely to vote Democrat. During the Obama years, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder campaigned as a self-described “pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, pro-family” Republican and won in both 2010 and 2014. It was under Snyder’s watch that the appalling Flynt water crisis occurred, but even that tragedy didn’t prevent Trump from carrying Michigan in 2016 (making him the first GOP presidential candidate to do so George H.W. Bush in 1988). In 2018, however, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer defeated Republican Bill Schuette by 10% in Michigan’s gubernatorial race. Incumbent Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow was reelected, defeating Republican John James by 7%—and Michigan Democrats flipped two GOP-held seats in the U.S. House of Representatives when Elissa Slotkin defeated incumbent Rep. Mike Bishop and Haley Stevens defeated Lena Epstein in the 11th Congressional District. Meanwhile,Democrats didn’t obtain a majority in <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/07/democrats-michigan-house-senate/1835284002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Michigan’s state legislature</a> in 2018, although they decreased the GOP majority in the Michigan House and the Michigan Senate.  2. PennsylvaniaAlthough Pennsylvania and Ohio are both Rust Belt swing states, Pennsylvania has been more favorable to Democrats in presidential elections—especially when there is a heavy voter turnout in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. But in 2016, Trump managed to flip Pennsylvania with a strong turnout in the central part of the state (which Democratic strategist James Carville famously described as “Alabama in between”). Altoona, Johnstown and other areas of Central Pennsylvania that Pennsylvanians jokingly refer to as “Pennsyltucky” or “Pennsissippi” came out for Trump in droves, making him the first Republican to carry Pennsylvania in a presidential race since 1988. Democrats, however, enjoyed <a href="https://www2.philly.com/philly/news/politics/elections/pa-nj-election-results-2018-midterm-live-updates-20181106.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">double-digit victories</a> in the 2018 midterms when Gov. Tom Wolf and Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. were reelected. In Pennsylvania, Democrats <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-pennsylvania-elections.html?mtrref=www.google.com" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">flipped three GOP-held seats</a> in the U.S. House of Representatives; of the 18 House seats in Pennsylvania, there will be nine held by Democrats in 2019 and nine by Republicans. However, Republicans still control <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/11/five_hot_takes_from_the_mid-te.html" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">Pennsylvania’s state legislature</a> (110-92 in the Pennsylvania House, 29-21 in the Pennsylvania Senate).3. OhioSome elections were very easy to predict in 2018. Republican Mitt Romney’s chances of losing the Utah Senate race were slim and none, as were House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s changes of not being reelected in the San Francisco Bay Area. And in New York City, Congresswoman-Elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez enjoyed so much support that voters hardly knew anything about her Republican challenger Anthony Pappas. But countless races in the 2018 midterms were major nail biters, from Texas to Florida to Virginia—and Ohio had its share of nail-biters this year. Ohio is a swing state where Democrats can perform well (Obama carried Ohio in both 2008 and 2012) but have to work extra hard, as Hillary Clinton was reminded when she lost to Trump in the Buckeye State in 2016. And this year, Democrats were disappointed in Ohio once again when Democrat Richard Cordray lost to Republican Mike DeWine by 4% in the state’s <a href="https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/ohio/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">gubernatorial race</a>—although Sen. Sherrod Brown was reelected, defeating Republican challenger Jim Renacci by 7%. Republicans maintained a strong majority in Ohio’s state legislature (both the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate) this year, and 12 of Ohio’s 16 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives will be held by Republicans in 2019. As Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley asserted in a November 23 piece for the New York Times, Ohio has not turned into a red state but is a state where Democrats will need to find their “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/23/opinion/ohio-election-sherrod-brown-democrats.html" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">path out of the wilderness</a>.”4. WisconsinWhen President George H.W. Bush enjoyed an electoral landslide over Democrat Mike Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election, Wisconsin was one of the states Dukakis managed to win. Wisconsin, all things considered, is still a blue state, but far-right Republicans enjoyed some important victories in Wisconsin during the Obama years. House Speaker Paul Ryan was elected via Wisconsin, and Gov. Scott Walker won two terms. Ryan and Walker became stars of the far-right. But Ryan opted to resign from the House, claiming that he wanted to spend more time with his family (which is nonsense—Ryan was worried about a blue wave). And Republicans suffered a <a href="https://splinternews.com/scott-walker-lost-1830239961" style="text-decoration-line: none;">painful loss</a> in Wisconsin when Walker failed to win a third term in 2018 and was defeated by Democrat Tony Evers, who Obama had campaigned for aggressively. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, defeating Republican Leah Vukmir, was reelected by 11%. Those were important wins for Democrats, although Republicans will still control five of Wisconsin’s eight seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2019.<div>
</div><interaction data-token="5b96855f8198b4e625350260" data-context="true" data-tags="" data-fallback="true" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div></div>
RGA shuffle dark $
 [[http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/republican-governors-association-perry-michigan
The 20 Biggest Donors of the 2012 Election [2]
RGA:
[Read more of our coverage of political dark money. [3]
Created in December 2009 and shut down shortly after the election, RGA Michigan 2010 had come out of nowhere to spend [4] nearly $8.4 million—54 percent more than any other PAC had poured into any election in Michigan history. Ninety-six percent of the group's donors lived outside the state, and its top three funders included Texas homebuilder Bob Perry, Koch Industries' David Koch, and New York City hedge fund CEO Paul Singer. On the other side of the ledger, RGA Michigan 2010 had given $5.2 million to the Michigan Republican Party—no surprise there—but, mysteriously, it had also funneled $3 million into the campaign coffers of Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Robinson, the executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, began to connect the dots. He remembered the phone calls from reporters in Maine and Florida asking if Robinson knew why money from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce had ended up with PACs in their states. The state's Chamber, which usually spent more than $1 million on TV ads during Michigan elections, officially didn't spend a dime on ads in 2010, according to Robinson. But it had given an unprecedented [4] $5.37 million to a national organization that, Robinson now realized, was at the root of the anomalous spending he'd uncovered: the Washington, DC-based Republican Governors Association.
During the midterms, while many campaign finance observers were fixated on the proliferation of super-PACs and shadow-spending groups, the RGA spent [5] $132 million—more than the five biggest conservative super-PACs and 501(c) groups combined. It was instrumental in electing a slate of GOP governors—Wisconsin's Scott Walker, Ohio's John Kasich, Georgia's Nathan Deal, and Iowa's Terry Branstad, among others—who hastened to crack down on public-sector unions and roll back environmental regulations. These electoral successes were fueled in part by the creative campaign finance strategy that Robinson began to piece together.
Since 2008, he explains, the RGA has used a network of at least 15 state-level PACs to shuffle campaign cash around the country. Doing so serves a couple of purposes. First, it enables the RGA to scrub the identity of a donor to avoid image issues. For instance, Rick Perry taking $3 million from a Texas oil baron might be controversial, but if that baron gives $3 million to the national RGA, which then diverts the money to RGA Michigan PAC and then to Perry? Harmless.
The RGA's cash shuffle also allows it—and its corporate allies—to skirt campaign finance laws. For instance, in Michigan, corporations can't donate directly to candidates or political parties. But the state's Chamber of Commerce donated millions to the national RGA, which then directed some of the money to its PACs in Florida and Maine, where no such corporate-money bans exist. Why would a Michigan group want its money flowing to races in other states? Chamber CEO Rich Studley told [6] Maine Public Radio that its members supported funding "pro-business" candidates outside Michigan.
Robinson has a different theory. During the 2010 election cycle, the Michigan Chamber donated more than $5 million to the RGA. In turn, the RGA's Michigan PAC directed $5.2 million—contributions that largely came from individuals outside the state—to the Michigan Republican Party. Robinson believes that, through this roundabout process, the Chamber's corporate money was swapped out with individual contributions, allowing it to be deployed in Michigan in a more potent form. (The Chamber acknowledges that the RGA called the shots on where its money was spent. Studley says his group's political spending "has been in full compliance with all Michigan and federal laws." The RGA did not respond to a request for comment on this practice.....
=
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Horsemen-Apocalypse-Destroying-Earth_And-Children/dp/1510721754">https://www.amazon.com/Horsemen-Apocalypse-Destroying-Earth_And-Children/dp/1510721754</a><div class="a-section a-spacing-none" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 id="title" class="a-size-large a-spacing-none" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin-bottom: 0px !important; line-height: 1.3 !important;">Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The Men Who Are Destroying Life on Earth―And What It Means for Our Children Hardcover – May 2, 2017</h1></div><div id="byline" class="a-section a-spacing-micro bylineHidden feature" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by <a class="a-link-normal" href="https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&text=Robert+F.+Kennedy+Jr.&search-alias=books&field-author=Robert+F.+Kennedy+Jr.&sort=relevancerank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Robert F. Kennedy Jr.</a> (Author), <span class="a-declarative" data-action="a-popover" data-a-popover="{" closebuttonlabel="closeButtonLabel" close="Close" author="Author" dialog="Dialog" popover="Popover" name="name" contributor-info-b001jpbskg="contributor-info-B001JPBSKG" position="position" triggerbottom="triggerBottom" popoverlabel="popoverLabel" allowlinkdefault="allowLinkDefault" true="true" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a data-asin="B001JPBSKG" class="a-link-normal contributorNameID" href="https://www.amazon.com/Dick-Russell/e/B001JPBSKG/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Dick Russell</a> <a class="a-popover-trigger a-declarative" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity" /></a><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"> <span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">(Author), <span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><a class="a-link-normal" href="https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_3?ie=UTF8&text=David+Talbot&search-alias=books&field-author=David+Talbot&sort=relevancerank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">David Talbot</a> (Foreword)</div><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">=<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/david-koch-charles-koch-network-is-going-all-in-for-2018-midterms/">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/david-koch-charles-koch-network-is-going-all-in-for-2018-midterms/</a>Indian Wells, Calif. — The network backed by Charles and David Koch realizes 2018 will be a challenging environment — and they're going "all in" to defend their policy priorities and candidates who support them, to the likely tune of roughly $400 million. That would be likely the largest investment the Koch network — the affiliated groups backed by the brothers and donors — has ever had in a midterm election, and significantly more than the roughly $250 million they spent during the 2016 presidential cycle. Last summer, the Koch brothers' political network projected it would <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/koch-brothers-political-network-will-spend-between-300-and-400-million-on-2018/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">spend $300 to $400 million</a> on politics and policy in the election, but now, spending will be on the "high end" of that.<ul style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 20px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="background-image: url(" bundles="bundles" cbsnewscore="cbsnewscore" images="images" standalone="standalone" article-arrow-gray.png="article-arrow-gray.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding="padding" px="px" background-position="background-position" float="float" none="none" display="display" block="block"><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-rnc-finance-chair-steve-wynn-resigning-in-wake-of-sexual-misconduct-allegations/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Steve Wynn, casino mogul, resigns as top GOP finance chairman</a>
</li></ul>"So we're all in," said Tim Phillips, the president of the network's political advocacy arm Americans for Prosperity, at a gathering of the Koch-affiliated Seminar Network in Indian Wells, Calif., Saturday. Allies of the network — about 700 of them — are meeting this weekend to discuss the intersection of policy, politics and philanthropy in 2018 and beyond. The tone of leaders in the Koch network Saturday, the first day of the three-day gathering, was one of optimism, coming off of what Phillips described as perhaps the most effective policy year yet. They count reforms in the Department of Veterans Affairs, the nomination of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, and — perhaps most of all — <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gop-tax-bill-how-the-new-tax-plan-will-affect-you/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">tax reform</a> as significant, long-lasting accomplishments in Washington, D.C.But there's no denying that history and polling don't favor Republicans, the party with which the Kochs have generally aligned themselves. According to Real Clear Politics, Democrats, on the generic House ballot, Democrats beat Republicans by about 8 points, as of polls aggregated between Jan. 8 and Jan. 23. Historically, midterm elections don't favor the party in power, as Phillips was quick to highlight. Elections in Virginia and elsewhere have revealed momentum for Democrats. "The left is energized, there's no question about that," Phillips said. The financial support comes, coincidentally, as the Republican National Committee loses finance chair <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-rnc-finance-chair-steve-wynn-resigning-in-wake-of-sexual-misconduct-allegations/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Steve Wynn</a>, who resigned after the Wall Street Journal reported alleged extensive sexual misconduct. Wynn, a casino mogul, was a major backer of Republican candidates. The unspoken aspect of the challenging 2018 environment is President Trump, who continues to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-at-one-year-low-job-approval-but-economy-is-good-cbs-news-poll/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">struggle with approval ratings</a> lower than his recent predecessors at this point in their presidencies. The Koch brothers themselves declined to spend anything on the 2016 presidential race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But that tone seems to have shifted since the 2016 election, and Koch-related entities are finding ways to work with the Trump administration. Marc Short, for instance, the White House's director of legislative affairs, previously worked in Koch world, at Freedom Partners. Now, they want to protect what they consider significant accomplishments in the administration, and work to further them. Part of that includes an infusion of up to $20 million on selling tax reform to the public — after already spending $20 million on passing the legislation Mr. Trump signed into law at the end of last year. Other than that, much of their spending strategy in 2018 has yet to be seen. But, it likely won't be focused on the upcoming primary races. "Historically, we have not gotten involved with primaries," Phillips said.Leaders in the Koch network on Saturday were hesitant to share what specific requirements they might have for backing candidates, on immigration or any other policy area. The Seminar Network on Saturday issued a statement Saturday supporting the White House's proposal for a path to citizenship for young immigrants, but expressed concern over the proposal to end extended family-based migration. "If you're not a champion, it's going to be hard to support you," said James Davis, president of In Pursuit Of, the relatively new public relations arm affiliated with the Koch network. <i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">"We're going to be there for our champions, and that's what we've consistently said and done."<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">=<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/koch-brothers-network-planning-massive-spending-increase-for-2018-midterms">https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/koch-brothers-network-planning-massive-spending-increase-for-2018-midterms</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px;">WELLS, Calif. — Charles Koch and members of his Seminar Network — donors who contribute a minimum of $100,000 to the various political action and philanthropic organizations run by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers — have big plans for the midterm elections.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At a retreat this weekend, the group announced plans to spend between $300 million and $400 million in 2018 — a 60 percent increase from its spending in 2016 — to defend Trump administration policies that Charles and David Koch and their network overwhelmingly support — while distancing themselves from a man that some believe is personally unfit to serve as president.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">President Donald Trump is “not the greatest human being,” said Liz Wright a staunch libertarian from Colorado who voted for the independent Gary Johnson in the 2016 presidential election. “I’m not a fan, but I think he’s done an amazing job of putting in policies that really are changing the trajectory of the country.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This is the compromise many members of the Koch network seem to have made.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“We’re voting for a chief executive who makes good decisions,” Pick said.“We’re not voting for [a] best friend,” said Jacki Pick, a first-time attendee from Austin, Texas, who works in the energy sector. Pick praised Trump’s policies and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic who supports increasing oil and gas development.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Koch brothers network is pledging to up its political spending because of the difficult political environment the Republican Party faces in November. With a number of retirements and Trump’s low approval rating, there is increased concern among many conservatives that more GOP seats could be vulnerable in the fall.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump “is not a nice person and he’s alienating a lot of people, similar to the way Obama destroyed the Democratic Party,” said Wright, a reference to the Republicans’ historic gains in the midterm elections of 2010.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers primary political organization, acknowledged the midterm elections are “challenging,” arguing that the GOP needed to improve its messaging around the tax bill. The party has to make “people connected to the benefits of the tax bill,” Phillips said. His group has committed an additional $20 million to fund a campaign focused on championing the bill, which was Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress’ top legislative victory in 2017.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Charles Koch launched the biannual event <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llBdOr4d7PE&feature=youtu.be" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.2s, box-shadow 0.2s, -webkit-box-shadow 0.2s; box-shadow: rgb(214, 223, 232) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Saturday evening</a> with a poolside cocktail party at the Renaissance Resort in Indian Wells, California. “We’ve made more progress in the last five years than I have in the previous 50,” he said in a speech.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Koch challenged his supporters to increase their output ten-fold, a project the Network has dubbed “10x.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The retreat and its theme, “Breaking Barriers,” also highlighted the Network Seminar’s work outside of politics.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px;">Koch released a film, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmUf1ZXweTY&feature=youtu.be" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.2s, box-shadow 0.2s, -webkit-box-shadow 0.2s; box-shadow: rgb(214, 223, 232) 0px -1px 0px inset;">The History of Freedom</a>,” over the weekend that tells the story of the Seminar’s overall goals, which include education and criminal justice reform.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Kochs “started with policy and that is the real interest. Most people here have been involved with philanthropy and engaged with education reform their entire adult lives,” said Randy Kendrick, a conservative donor from Arizona who is married to the owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Network Seminar also includes a growing philanthropic division, Stand Together, that supports non-profits aligned with the organization’s goals, and has become a venture fund seeding money to enable successful non-profits to grow.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 650px;">
The 2018 retreat was the Network Seminar’s largest gathering ever, with 550 attendees including 160 first-timers. The three-day policy conference focused criminal justice reform, free speech, reducing regulations, and creating opportunities for all.The initiative has helped organizations like Rising Tide Capital, a New Jersey-based firm that educates potential entrepreneurs in management and micro-finance, and PHOENIX, a fitness-focused recovery program that uses outdoor activities like hiking, climbing, and boxing to provide paths forward for those fighting through addiction.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity" />Several elected officials attended the retreat, which gives Republicans access to wealthy donors and party activists. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., were all featured Saturday night at the opening dinner, and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, also made an appearance.<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">=<div><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/koch-pipelines-dakota-keystone-2540819277.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/koch-pipelines-dakota-keystone-2540819277.html</a></div><div>
</div><div><div class="headline-container" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="headline h1" style="margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;">Koch Network Took Credit for Dakota Access, Keystone XL and REINS Act, Leaked Memo Shows</h1></div><div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2540819277" data-authors="DeSmogBlog" data-headline="Koch Network Took Credit for Dakota Access, Keystone XL and REINS Act, Leaked Memo Shows" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px;"><div class="body-description">By Steve HornA <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/02/25/koch-brothers-trump-administration/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">leaked memorandum published</a> by <a href="https://theintercept.com/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Intercept</a> and <a href="http://documentedinvestigations.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Documented Investigations</a> shows that a <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/koch-brothers" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Koch</a> Industries' donors network, known as the <a href="https://seminarnetwork.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Seminar Network</a>, has taken credit for Donald <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Trump</a> approving the permits for both the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dakota-access-pipeline" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Dakota Access</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/keystone-xl" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Keystone XL</a> pipelines during the first months of his presidency.The memo also applauded efforts by the Koch network's <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/americans-for-prosperity" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a> (AFP) chapter in Wisconsin to pass a deregulatory measure there known as the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/topics/reins-act" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">REINS Act</a>. The Seminar Network, which meets secretly twice a year, is made up of<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/koch-brothers-network-planning-massive-spending-increase-for-2018-midterms" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> donors who give at least $100,000 toward Koch-led political and philanthropic efforts</a>.Koch Industries has a business interest in both <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines" style="text-decoration-line: none;">pipelines</a>, though their approval has not been something its funded network has widely discussed. Quietly, though, Koch has advocated for the pair of pipelines in regulatory hearings in both Iowa for Dakota Access—as <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/04/08/koch-dakota-access-pipeline" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">previously reported by DeSmog</a>—as well as in Canada, as <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120510/koch-industries-brothers-tar-sands-bitumen-heavy-oil-flint-pipelines-refinery-alberta-canada" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported in 2012</a> by InsideClimate News.The REINS (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act, which GOP officials have been pushing in Congress since Obama's first term, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/07/10/koch-reins-act-wisconsin-governor-scott-walker" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">passed as state law</a> in Wisconsin in 2017. The law, long considered crown jewel legislation by the Koch front group AFP, gives legislative bodies full veto authority over regulations proposed by executive agencies. Conservative groups in Wisconsin <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/01/07/bradley-foundation-koch-wisconsin-reins-act-lawsuit" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">already are using the law</a> to sue the top state public education officer."State legislatures, particularly in states with a strong Network presence, have also made significant progress toward removing harmful and unnecessary regulations. For example, Wisconsin this year went so far as to enact the nation's first REINS Act, which will require legislative approval of any issued regulation that has an impact above a certain cost threshold," <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4364737-Koch-Seminar-Network.html" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">reads the Koch Seminar Network document</a>.The <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/american-legislative-exchange-council" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">American Legislative Exchange Council</a>, a corporate-funded group of mostly Republican Party state legislators, has a <a href="https://www.alec.org/model-policy/draft-resolution-calling-on-congress-to-pass-to-pass-the-regulations-from-the-executive-in-need-of-scrutiny-reins-act/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">REINS Act model resolution</a> on the books, which supports the federal version of this legislation. In 2017, six states introduced pro-REINS Act resolutions: <a href="http://kslegislature.org/li/b2017_18/measures/hcr5003/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Kansas</a>, <a href="http://laws.leg.mt.gov/legprd/LAW0210W$BSIV.ActionQuery?P_BILL_NO1=6&P_BLTP_BILL_TYP_CD=SJ&Z_ACTION=Find&P_SESS=20171" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Montana</a>, <a href="https://house.mo.gov/Bill.aspx?bill=HCR85&year=2018&code=R" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Missouri</a>, <a href="http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/en-US/display/20172018/HR/1293" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Georgia</a>, <a href="https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-summary?id=GA132-HCR-24" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Ohio</a> and <a href="http://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=3401&session=122&summary=B" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">South Carolina</a>. ALEC—which brings corporate lobbyists and state legislators together at annual meetings for networking, seminars and voting on what it dubs "<a href="https://www.alec.org/model-policy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">model policies</a>" —maintains <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/alec-exposed-koch-connection" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">close connections</a> with the Koch network.Koch, KXL, DAPL Business TiesKoch Industries also owns assets in a <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/tar-sands" style="text-decoration-line: none;">tar sands</a> reservoir located in Alberta, Canada, both in the form of lease holdings for land and as a company with a drilling interest. For the latter, Koch owns Koch Oil Sands Operating, which has a drilling interest in both the <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120919/koch-brothers-industries-canadian-tar-sands-properties-keystone-xl-pipeline-alberta-dilbit-climate-skeptics" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Gemini and Muskwa</a> tar sands fields in Alberta.It also owns 1-2 million acres' worth of land (the <a href="http://ifg.org/koch-tar-sands-acreage/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">exact number</a> is <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1059996591" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">contested</a>) in the tar sands for prospective future leasing, according to a <a href="http://kochcash.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Embargo_Report.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">2013 report</a> published by the International Forum on Globalization. Keystone XL, the pipeline owned by <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5420" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">TransCanada</a> and approved by Trump and his U.S. Department of State in March 2017, would bring around <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18012018/keystone-xl-pipeline-status-tar-sands-oil-export-nebraska-map-transcanada" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">500,000 currently-booked barrels per day of tar sands oil</a> from Alberta to Cushing, Oklahoma, where the pipeline connects with TransCanada's <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/14265" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Gulf Coast Pipeline</a>.Gulf Coast, which was approved by President Barack Obama in a 2012 election season executive order, sends the tar sands bitumen down to Port Arthur, Texas, where the substance is refined into products and then sent to market.</div></div></div><div>
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background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Koch Industries even <a href="http://negotiating%20confidential%20agreements%20with%20the%20landowners/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">nearly testified</a> at a 2012 hearing in support of its development of tar sands, before backing out after signing confidentiality agreements with impacted landowners. Much of the tar sands extracted in Alberta is refined at Koch's refinery in Pine Bend, Minnesota, which is owned by its subsidiary <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5218" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Flint Hills Resources</a> and is the <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2013/12/13/refinery-report-new-online-tool-tracks-tar-sands-flows-north-america/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">top refiner of tar sands</a> in the U.S. at <a href="http://www.refineryreport.org/numill.php?id=1408" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">223,000 barrels per day</a>, as of 2013.
<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">For Dakota Access, Koch also quietly came out in support of the pipeline via its front group, the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/60-plus-association" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">60 Plus Association</a>, which purports to be a conservative alternative to the American Association of Retired Persons for seniors. Through intermediary groups, 60 Plus had received tens of millions of dollars from the Koch network.<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/04/08/koch-dakota-access-pipeline" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Koch Industries has a direct tie</a> to Dakota Access, through a storage terminal part-owned by its subsidiary Flint Resources and located in North Dakota's <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/7174" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Bakken Shale</a> basin. As <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/04/08/koch-dakota-access-pipeline" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">DeSmog previously reported</a>, this terminal, called the COLT Hub, feeds oil into the Dakota Access pipeline.<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Back in 2015 when the pipeline was hotly contested in Iowa, a representative for 60 Plus <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/60%20Plus%20Association%20DAPL%204.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">testified on behalf</a> of Dakota Access in front of the Iowa Utilities Board.<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">"The Dakota Access Pipeline Project is important to seniors for several reasons. High energy prices are disproportionately impacting America's low and fixed-income senior citizens today—citizens that often have limited financial resources with which to meet their needs," the 60 Plus representative testified in September 2015. "By helping the United States to better capitalize upon its growing domestic energy resources—and affordably transport these resources to market—the Dakota Access Pipeline will help to foster stability within energy markets nationwide, and improve the availability of affordable American produced crude oil."<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">60 Plus also began lobbying and campaigning on behalf of the Dakota Access as the protest movement grew against the pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Around the same time those protests began in September 2016, 60 Plus deployed its chairman, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-martin-2472b27/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Jim Martin</a>, to begin <a href="https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=1198D7A2-3128-4BDC-9D09-FA85A875E2AE&filingTypeID=73" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">lobbying Congress</a>about Dakota Access. Martin also wrote an opinion piece that month supporting the pipeline for the publication Morning Consult.<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">"Whether it's heating or cooling your home or putting gas in your car, the cheaper the energy, the more economically stable your checkbook will be," wrote Martin. "The 60 Plus Association's 5.5 million members know this all too well. This is why as an organization that champions free enterprise and who have championed energy issues for seniors before, we strongly support the Dakota Access pipeline."<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">'Whole New Level'<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">In the 2018 election cycle, the Koch network plans to spend up to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/28/politics/koch-network-2018-outlook/index.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">$400 million</a> to keep the Republican majority in Congress and GOP control over statehouses nationwide.<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">"We've made more progress in the last five years than I had in the last 50," Charles Koch, one of the infamous petrochemical billionaire Koch brothers, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/david-koch-charles-koch-network-is-going-all-in-for-2018-midterms/" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">said in January at a private Seminar Network meeting</a> held in Indian Wells, California. "The capabilities we have now can take us to a whole new level."</div><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">=<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">9/17<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"> Hurricane Harvey was still generating devastation -- and countless public workers worked night and day on search and rescue -- a little known ally of the American Legislative Exchange Council was meeting a short distance away planning an attack on public sector workers nationwide. <span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">The $80 million network of state “think tanks” and other right-wing organizations known as the  State Policy Network (SPN) held a closed-door confab with Koch operatives, corporate donors, and ALEC staff to coordinate an assault on public sector unions to advance political control by right wing politicians in state houses nationwide. <span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">While these groups say they are advancing “worker rights,” documents obtained by CMD and featured in the Guardian lay bare their true political agenda. <span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"> “A network of conservative think tanks with outposts in all 50 states has embarked on a ‘breakthrough’ campaign designed to strike a ‘mortal blow’ against the American left. The aim is to ‘defund and defang’ unions representing government employees as the first step towards ensuring the permanent collapse of progressive politics,” wrote the  Guardian. 
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">You can read the Guardian expose here and access the documents at ExposedbyCMD.org. <span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">https://www.theXXXguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/30/rightwing-alliance-unions-defund-defang<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">long doc no link<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Rightwing activists across the US have launched a nationwide campaign to undermine progressive politicians by depriving them of a major source of support and funding – public sector unions.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">A network of conservative thinktanks with outposts in all 50 states has embarked on a “breakthrough” campaign designed to strike a “mortal blow” against the American left. The aim is to “defund and defang” unions representing government employees as the first step towards ensuring the permanent collapse of progressive politics.
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Bernie Sanders attacks 'greedy' Nissan for waging anti-union campaign]
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">The campaign carries a powerful echo of the populist creed espoused by Donald Trump. The president was propelled into the White House last November after unexpected victories in several previously Democratic rust belt states including Michigan and Wisconsin, both of which have endured withering attacks on trade unions in recent years.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">The new assault is being spearheaded by the State Policy Network (SPN), an alliance of 66 state-based thinktanks, or “ideas factories” as it calls them, with a combined annual budget of $80m. As suggested by its slogan – “State solutions. National impact” – the group outlines an aim to construct a rightwing hegemony throughout the US, working from the bottom up.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">To do that, it first has to sweep aside the public sector unions and their historic ties to Democratic and progressive politicians. In a 10-page fundraising letter, part of a set of documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy and published by the Guardian today for the first time, SPN sets out its mission in frank language that does not disguise its partisan ambitions.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">[doc]<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">The author of the letter, SPN’s president and CEO Tracie Sharp,describes the $8m “breakthrough” campaign as a “once-in-a-lifetime chance to reverse the failed policies of the American left … We are primed, right now, to deliver the mortal blow to permanently break its stranglehold on our society.”<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Sharp pitches the battle against unions as the start of a war on progressive politics, with the ultimate goal of winning elections for rightwing candidates. “Big government unions are the biggest sources of funding and political muscle for the left – and a major obstacle to the ability of voters to reclaim control of American government. To win the battle for freedom, we must take the fight to the unions, state by state.”<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">The target of such union-bashing, she openly admits, is to “defund and defang one of our freedom movement’s most powerful opponents, the government unions”. The long-term objective is to “deal a major blow to the left’s ability to control government at the state and national levels. I’m talking about permanently depriving the left from access to millions of dollars in dues extracted from unwilling union members every election cycle” (emphasis in original).<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">SPN will be discussing its anti-union and anti-left agenda on Wednesday at its annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Its morning session will look at how “labor reform” can be pursued with renewed vigor under the Trump administration.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">The discussion will feature some of the key architects of SPN’s political strategy, including Vincent Vernuccio who pioneered anti-union legislation in Michigan, and Tom McCabe of the Freedom Foundation, who has sent his foot soldiers on an aggressive offensive against collective bargaining in the US north-west.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Mary Bottari, deputy director of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) which tracks the rise of rightwing groups in America, said the fundraising letter and other SPN documents published by the Guardian cast light on the conservative game plan. “It’s very rare to catch conservative thinktanks talking so openly and blatantly about their long-term political aims. These documents reveal to us that SPN’s goals are entirely political – they have no concern for workers or union members, their only goal is winning elections to advance rightwing causes.”<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Bottari added: “An $80m campaign to ‘defund and defang’ public sector unions is remarkable, both in its size and in its ambition.”<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Public sector unions have come under growing fire from conservatives in recent years. While unions operating in private companies have been diminished since the 1980s – their membership plummeting from about 17% of the workforce in 1983 to just 6% today – their equivalents in the public sector such as teacher, local government, police and fire officer unions have remained relatively stable, at around 35%.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">But in 2010, Scott Walker, the newly elected governor of Wisconsin, opened a new front in America’s partisan war when he passed Act 10, stripping public sector unions of the power to bargain collectively and forcing them to re-certify themselves every year with electoral backing from more than 50% of all workers, not just those voting. The move has spawned a rash of imitations across Republican-controlled states, with Iowa and Indiana passing similar laws, and a further 15 states introducing legislation – encouraged by SPN, which has framed a model bill to make it easier for Republican legislators to adopt the changes.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">A total of 28 states have also passed “right to work” laws that allow workers in private companies to refuse to join unions despite enjoying the fruits of collective bargaining.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Though the long-term consequences of such union restrictions have yet to be fully understood, there are early indications that the impact could be profound even at presidential level. Since Act 10 came into effect in Wisconsin, public sector union membership has slumped by 40%, or about 136,000 people.
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Trump won Wisconsin last November by just 23,000 votes.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">A similar pattern can be seen in Michigan where unions have shrunk steadily since a right-to-work law came into effect in 2013, with a loss of at least 30,000 members. Trump took Michigan, to the shock of Hillary Clinton and her supporters, by just 11,000 votes.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">When asked whether anti-union laws in Michigan and Wisconsin had affected the outcome of the presidential race, Matt Patterson of the conservative group Americans for Tax Reform said: “No question in my mind. Hard to fight when your bazooka’s been replaced by a squirt gun.”<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Carrie Conko, SPN’s vice president of communications, said that the network does not involve itself in political campaigns. “Labor reform is an issue where SPN has been clearly on the side of workers who are against forced unionization and the use of their hard-earned wages to support causes they don’t believe in. If workers choose to support their unions agenda that is fine – but, right now, in many states they don’t have a choice or a voice.” [: translate? they do not have  choice to avoid a small fee for which is return they get a union to bargain for better wages, which presumably more than offsets the coast?]<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Conko’s statement echoed the language used in an SPN “toolkit”, also published here for the first time, that advises Republican policymakers on how to campaign for anti-union legislation. “Be pro-worker, not anti-union,” the pamphlet says. “Frame union reform from the point of view of the members and how the reform helps them have a greater voice in their union. Don’t rant against unions. We’ve all been frustrated by the actions of public sector unions to block pro-freedom reforms, but publicly venting these feelings is counterproductive.”<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">SPN’s disclosure of its political and partisan objectives in the new documents could arouse the interest of investigators from the Internal Revenue Service. The group is constituted as a 501(c)(3) organisation, which renders it exempt as a charity from taxation.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Marc Owens, a partner with Loeb & Loeb who worked as an IRS lawyer specializing in charitable tax exemptions, said that the provision was designed for charitable purposes, not for lobbying against public sector unions or for activities to influence the outcome of elections. “A charity that does those things is not engaging in charitable activities and that puts its tax exempt status in jeopardy,” he said.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Conko told the Guardian that SPN takes “great care to be fully in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations”.<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity" /><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">=<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><i class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><a href="https://kpfa.org/episode/rising-up-with-sonali-august-29-2017/" style="">https://kpfa.org/episode/rising-up-with-sonali-august-29-2017/</a><h1 id="bookTitle" class="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; line-height: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); width: 455px;"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: The Dirty Dealers and Defenders of the Indefensible Who Are "Making America Great Again"</h1><div id="bookAuthors" class="stacked" style="margin-bottom: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">by <a class="authorName" itemprop="url" href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3115888.John_Nichols" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: 19.8px;">John Nichols</a></div><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">mike davis says tee'd up trump win:<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">
<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">In the Midwest the 2010 Tea Party victories brought a new generation of feral Republicans to power, many of them groomed by far-right think tanks such as Indiana’s Policy Review Foundation (once headed by Mike Pence), Michigan’s Mackinac Center, Wisconsin’s MacIver Institute, and Minnesota’s Center of the American Experiment, all of them spoiling for a fight to the death with the region’s public-sector unions and progressive big-city governments. Coordinating through the State Policy Network (sixty-five conservative think tanks) and the American Legislative Exchange Council, they launched campaigns to destroy public-sector bargaining rights, defund unions through right-to-work laws, and privatize public education through vouchers.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">They focused in other words on increasing their structural and legal advantages in ways that Democrats would find difficult, even impossible to roll back. Unions and students, of course, conducted an epic resistance in Wisconsin but were unable to recall Scott Walker, in large part because of the lackluster character of the Democratic candidate. In Ohio the unions were more successful and repealed right-to-work by referendum, but in Indiana, Michigan and West Virginia, Republican majorities <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/michigan-snyder-mackinac-center" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; border-bottom: 1px solid; transition-duration: 0.25s;">rammed through</a> right-to-work and in Michigan, a Mackinac Center-inspired receivership for Detroit’s schools.<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/the-great-god-trump-and-the-white-working-class">
</a><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/the-great-god-trump-and-the-white-working-class">https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/the-great-god-trump-and-the-white-working-class</a><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">=<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">=<span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/fearsome-four-leading-governors-seeking-2016-gop-nomination-are-all-dismal-right">http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/fearsome-four-leading-governors-seeking-2016-gop-nomination-are-all-dismal-right</a><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">kasich, christie, jeb, walker ALEC</div><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity"><span class="a-icon a-icon-popover" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: url(" font-style="font-style" normal="normal" https="https" m.media-amazon.com="m.media-amazon.com" images="images" g="G" auiclients="AUIClients" amazonuibasecss-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.v2.png="AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-4424f4f4dd8ca9a98584abfc3b833ba8f12eb36a.V2_.png" background-size="background-size" px="px" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" text-top="text-top" margin="margin" em="em" width="width" height="height" background-position="background-position" opacity="opacity">

=  Meanwhile, it turns out that then-Ohio charter school chief David Hansen, who drafted the grant application, also rigged charter school sponsor evaluations to improve their ratings. Hansen resigned July 18, two days after submitting the grant request to the feds and several days after admitting he broke the law by excluding failing grades for some charter schools in the evaluations.Hansen's wife, Beth Hansen, is Ohio Governor John Kasich's former chief of staff and the manager of Kasich's newly surging presidential campaign.

Koch-Fueled Playbook against Working Families Exposed by CMD

By PRWatch Editors -- Right to Work legislation is basically a pay cut for workers, or about $1,558 lower annual wages for a typical full-time, full-year worker.

Reporters Guide on the Koch Right to Work Playbook

By PRWatch Editors -- West Virginia is the latest front in a national battle to undermine worker rights bankrolled by the billionaire Koch brothers.

Corporate Interests Take Aim at Local Democracy

By Brendan Fischer -- Across America, corporate interests are taking aim at local government.

Photo Finish for Sanders in Iowa

By Mary Bottari -- With only one precinct out, the Iowa caucuses are over and it is a photo finish.

CMD and CREW Allege Koch-Backed Group Broke the Law

By PRWatch Editors -- Trees of Liberty broke the law in helping Joni Ernst win her primary election in 2014, according to a complaint filed by CMD and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Anti-Muslim CEO Is Key Walker Ally

By Jessica Mason -- The head of Walker's controversial business development initiative, is accused of discriminating against Muslim Americans by denying them reasonable accommodation of their faith as guaranteed by the Constitution and statutes.

Mission in Iowa: "Shock the Political Establishment"

By Mary Bottari -- The tiny state of Iowa was the center of attention as voters in big cities and small towns gathered to caucus in schools, libraries, homes, and bars.

"National School Choice Week" Fueled by Major Right-Wing Funders and Corporate Lobby Groups

By PRWatch Editors -- With 32 governors proclaiming the week "School Choice Week," #NationalSchoolChoiceWeek became a big deal, and not by accident.

<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/01/13024/national-school-choice-week-fueled-major-right-wing-funders-and-corporate-lobby" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/01/13024/national-school-choice-week-fueled-major-right-wing-funders-and-corporate-lobby</a>

Reform Groups Strongly Oppose Constitutional Convention

By PRWatch Editors -- Corporate-funded groups like ALEC are urging state legislatures to pass resolutions calling for a constitutional convention to adopt a "Balanced Budget Amendment" and more.

===

1/16

<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/8/gov_snyder_should_be_arrested_flint">http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/8/gov_snyder_should_be_arrested_flint</a>

===

</div>

These are privatization, financialization, militarization, and criminalization, which together are producing a steadily creeping authoritarianism—a new authoritarianism—to fit our times. Let’s call them the Four Plagues, or if we wish, “The Four Horsemen of Our Apocalypse,” from the Book of Revelations.

===

<a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/fearsome-four-leading-governors-seeking-2016-gop-nomination-are-all-dismal-right">http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/fearsome-four-leading-governors-seeking-2016-gop-nomination-are-all-dismal-right</a>

kasich, christie, jeb, walker ALEC

===

<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Governors with Ties to ALEC</h2>

(as of 2011)

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Governor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Jan_Brewer" title="Jan Brewer" style=" text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Jan Brewer</a> (Arizona)<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-ALEC_Health_1993-12" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[12]</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Former Governor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bill_Owens" title="Bill Owens" style=" text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Bill Owens</a> (Colorado)<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-2001AR-8" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[8]</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Governor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Terry_Branstad" title="Terry Branstad" style=" text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Terry Branstad</a> (Iowa), identified by ALEC as involved in its formative years<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-ALEChistory-13" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[13]</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Former Governor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/John_Engler" title="John Engler" style=" text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">John Engler</a> (Michigan), identified by ALEC as involved in its formative years<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-2001AR-8" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[8]</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Governor Nikki Haley (South Carolina), ALEC alumna<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-14" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[14]</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Governor John Kasich (Ohio), identified by ALEC as involved in its formative years<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-ALEChistory-13" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[13]</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Former Governor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Frank_Keating" title="Frank Keating" style=" text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Frank Keating</a> (Oklahoma)<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-2001AR-8" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[8]</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Governor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bob_McDonnell" title="Bob McDonnell" style=" text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Bob McDonnell</a> (Virginia)<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-15" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[15]</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Governor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rick_Perry" title="Rick Perry" style=" text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Rick Perry</a> (Texas), ALEC member as of 1990,<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-16" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[16]</a> and received the "<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Award_Winners" title="ALEC Award Winners" style=" text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award</a>" from ALEC in 2010<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-17" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[17]</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Governor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Scott_Walker" title="Scott Walker" style=" text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Scott Walker</a> (Wisconsin)<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-18" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[18]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-19" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[19]</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Former Governor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Tommy_Thompson" title="Tommy Thompson" style=" text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Tommy Thompson</a> (Wisconsin), identified by ALEC as involved in its formative years<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-2001AR-8" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[8]</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Governor Mary Fallin (Oklahoma) <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-1995ALECSB-20" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[20]</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Former Governor John G. Rowland and Lt. Governor Jodi Rell (Connecticut), listed in "1999 ALEC Leaders in the States" by ALEC as alumni<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians#cite_note-1999ALEC-21" style=" text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[21]</a></li>

</ul>

==

koch donors pledge 800M$

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==

<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/04/walker-wind-energy-health_n_6616692.html?ncid=newsltushpmg00000003" class="external text" title="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/04/walker-wind-energy-health n 6616692.html?ncid=newsltushpmg00000003" rel="nofollow" style=" margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7040004730225px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: url(http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png); background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Scott Walker's Budget Includes $250,000 To Study 'Wind Energy System-Related Health Issues</a><span style=" font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7040004730225px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important;"> 2/15

==

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