Quixotic ’80 Campaign Gave Birth to Kochs’ Powerful Network

[deminks]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/us/politics/quixotic-80-campaign-gave-birth-to-kochs-powerful-network.html?hp

He backed the full legalization of abortion and the repeal of laws that criminalized drug use, prostitution and homosexuality. He attacked campaign donation limits and assailed the Republican star Ronald Reagan as a hypocrite who represented “no change whatsoever from Jimmy Carter and the Democrats.”

It was 1980, and the candidate was David H. Koch, a 40-year-old bachelor living in a rent-stabilized apartment in New York City. Mr. Koch, the vice-presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, and his older brother Charles, one of the party’s leading funders, were mounting a long-shot assault on the fracturing American political establishment.

The Kochs had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the burgeoning libertarian movement. In the waning days of the 1970s, in the wake of Watergate, Vietnam and a counterculture challenging traditional social mores, they set out to test just how many Americans would embrace what was then a radical brand of politics.

(snip)

David Koch ultimately contributed about $2.1 million, more than half the campaign budget. But the costs began to wear on his siblings, Mr. Koch recounted in an interview with New York magazine. In September 1980, at a rally in Los Angeles, Mr. Crane and Charles Koch shared an elevator with Melinda Pillsbury-Foster, a libertarian activist, who overheard Charles Koch grumbling that his brother was dipping into his investments to pay for the effort.

“Charles was horrified that David had actually had to spend capital instead of just some of the interest on some of his money,” said Ms. Pillsbury-Foster, who became a critic of the brothers’ involvement in the libertarian movement.

(end snip)

[Wellstone ruled]

1. The apple did not fall far from the tree.g

When the Birch Society surfaced it's ugly head once again in the Midwest in the late 70's,we watched the Krotch Brothers positioning themselves for something in the early 80's. Kept bumping into their operatives when we were out organizing and door knocking in 76 and 78 in our district in Minnesota. Sorry ass twit Bachnman was elected as a result of there efforts. Along with a big time disinformation campaign that was funded by or through their operatives,they beat us up big time. When thy say money is speech,that is so true. Of course,Jesse the Ego didn't help.

[eShirl]

2. Not apples, but nuts fell from that Birch tree.