Koch Group Ups Spending to Oust Democrats in Missouri, Indiana

[DonViejo]

Source: Bloomberg News




By John McCormick
March 14, 2018, 4:00 AM EDT

The political network backed by billionaires Charles and David Koch is planning to step up its advertising to unseat Democratic Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, who are seen as vulnerable because they’re from states President Donald Trump won in 2016.

The Koch-affiliated group Americans for Prosperity says it will run almost $4 million in television and online ads targeted at the two lawmakers. The spending follows a similar $4 million ad buy announced by the group in February targeting them.

The group is trying to help the GOP expand its one-vote majority in the Senate in November, when a third of the seats are on the ballot. McCaskill and Donnelly are two of 10 Senate Democrats running in states won by Trump and are rated by nonpartisan campaign analysts as among the most vulnerable. Trump is scheduled to travel to Missouri on Wednesday to raise money for a GOP candidate running against McCaskill.

The latest batch of money -- $1.8 million in Missouri and $2.1 million in Indiana -- is part of a pledge made by the Koch network to spend $20 million selling GOP’s federal tax cuts. The spots are scheduled to start Thursday, the day after Trump’s fundraiser for the GOP candidate in Missouri, Attorney General Josh Hawley, and run for three weeks in each state.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-14/koch-group-ups-spending-to-oust-democrats-in-missouri-indiana

[TranssexualKaren]

1. All hey have left....

Is cheating and money...my Buddhism informs me that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

[ancianita]

2. That still buys a lot. Cheating and buying are both backups for each other.

Or let the democratic process play out after using both, THEN buy the winner.

[TranssexualKaren]

4. Well how did that work out last night?

Money reaches a point of diminishing returns in politics. No amount of advertising can sell used toilet paper.

[ancianita]

7. Not saying it's all-powerful, but we shall see what those states' voters say. We need more than

a recent pattern in the context of the 50-year, 50-state long game of the Koch oligarchic network.

A couple of battles don't portend inevitability. They just don't.

The Kochiban move on. Structurally, they're strong.

The goal is never to give them the last word.

[TranssexualKaren]

8. The arch of history bends toward justice.....

Not because good always wins, but because good lasts, evil does not. Just because the current trend is ephemeral it will leave a mark that will survive, the mark that is left by the Koch’s will not.

[ancianita]

11. This storied view of America gets a public day of celebration.

Remember that Dems need to hold to the hard taste of reality right now. To that end...

The Koch cause (Are Americans ever going to get clear on what it is?) will not die with them. Sure, it will dwindle, but it's got old historical roots.

The oligarchic will to rule uses any "cover" for its advancement, to be sure.

No matter how old those coots are, remember their ideological billionaire network, and with them, 200-300 university law and economics departments across this country.

Other oligarchs stand by to take up the Koch's weaponized philanthropy of austerity economics.

Dem leadership has admitted they have nothing to compare to the Koch network. I have yet to see whether they even want to bother with any more than nobly fought uphill battles every so often. Such claims from Schumer, et. al., could be just their front, too. We shall see.

This Pennsylvania uphill is about winning back the electorals of WI, MI and PA -- still Koch zones -- then so much more groundwork, strategy and GOTV tactics remain toward 2020.

We'll never win back structural democracy if we don't keep winning. Right now, the wave is still a swell.

[BlueMTexpat]

3. May the Kochs and their allies

go broke in support of GOPers! May all their efforts to elect them fail!

[SWBTATTReg]

5. Tie the Koch brothers around their necks as a bane to all politicians accepting their blood money...

Josh Hawley needs to go down in flames. He was just elected in MO to his office and is now going off into the sunset for this latest bout. This is wrong and is angering a lot of Missourians. Obviously, instead of listening to his MO audience as he should, he's listening to someone outstate.

Thanks Josh H for your service to Missouri (sarcasm, dripping heavily)...

[flibbitygiblets]

6. Because a couple of rich people deserve more "Free Speech" than people who live in those states

As soon as Dems are in control again, the first thing that needs to be addressed is campaign finance reform. Regular people on all sides will love that.

[not fooled]

9. Someone needs to tell me

What's the difference between a couple of rich oligarchs buying a country vs. e.g. Hitler invading another country and taking it over.

I know, I know the kook brothers don't shed blood directly in their march towards conquering the U.S.A., but millions suffer and die (are already dying) under their policies. They have just found a way to act indirectly and keep the blood off their actual hands. But, it stains them anyway.

They really are no different than conquering marauders throughout history. They just dress it up better. That's civilization for you, I guess.

[FakeNoose]

10. It's only the crooked GOP politicians who will take their money

So this helps us figure out which ones are crooked.

[Initech]

12. Let 'em blow their money!

If enough people in Missouri and Indiana GOTV, we can defeat them!