Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century

"A recording obtained by The New Yorker of a private conference call on January 8th, between a policy adviser to Senator Mitch McConnell and the leaders of several prominent conservative groups—including one run by the Koch brothers’ network—reveals the participants’ worry that the proposed election reforms garner wide support not just from liberals but from conservative voters, too. The speakers on the call expressed alarm at the broad popularity of the bill’s provision calling for more public disclosure about secret political donors. The participants conceded that the bill, which would stem the flow of dark money from such political donors as the billionaire oil magnate Charles Koch, was so popular that it wasn’t worth trying to mount a public-advocacy campaign to shift opinion. Instead, a senior Koch operative said that opponents would be better off ignoring the will of American voters and trying to kill the bill in Congress."

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news...argest-election-reform-bill-in-half-a-century

 

Charles Koch is 85 years old. George Soros is 90. These billionaire vanity exercises will be ended by the sands of time in short order.

 

There are some legitimate reasons to be against more disclosure.

Thread that gives a little more insight on that subject here: California forcing non-profits to reveal donor names

 

To be fair, it might just be that they were trying to focus their resources where it would be most effective. That's just basic political strategy.
If you have limited resources that you can allocate, and you have better odds of winning the battle in one arena rather than another, you should focus your efforts there.

Why should they spend all that money trying to change public opinion and have only a 40% chance of winning, when they could instead use that money to try to influence Congress and have a 50% of winning?

 

I also wonder, despite what those on the Left so often seem to think, if the Right really is the side that has more financial support from wealthy donors. It seems like it could be the opposite case in the US.

The Kochs are only the most famous very wealthy people that support Libertarian and Conservative causes, but there don't seem to be many others. Yet we could name a big handful of billionaires who generously support the Democrat Party.

 

THIS IS A GREAT ARTICLE! Really shows how today's GOP operates. Also interesting for the donor take: calling the disclosure of their names an abridgement of freedom of speech, since that freedom, naturally, relies on SECRECY, & includes funding ad campaigns & other political activities to effectively control the narrative, the pols, & the country, under the cover of anonymity.


Dems & Biden need to get out there and spread the word on this aspect of their H.R.1 bill, the elimination of dark money from politics, which polls as well, even among Conservatives, as it does with Liberals. This could be Biden's UNIFYING message!
Then they would only need restore the filibuster to its traditional, speaking form,
and that would spell the end of CITIZENS UNITED!!

 

I doubt we will miss them.

 

Yeah it's a bad bill and a power grab by one party and power grab by the federal government over the states and local governments. Why would ANYONE support this huge shift in political power the Dems are trying to shove down our throats?