Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Koch Brothers Pour More Campaign Cash into Wisconsin than Any Other Great Lakes State


Press Release
March 15, 2011


CONTACT:
Jay Heck – 608/256-2686



Koch Industries Have Contributed $160,500 to Wisconsin
Candidates & Political Parties Since 2003


Have Contributed Hundreds of Thousands More to Outside Special
Interest Groups Trying to Influence Wisconsin Voters

The now infamous Koch Brothers of Wichita, Kansas have been big political players in Wisconsin for years. Since 2003, they have made $160,500 in direct contributions to candidates and state political party committees - more than in any other state in the Great Lakes region and second only to Kansas in the entire midwest. Almost all of the money they spend in Wisconsin is not from Wisconsin.

Their contributions have gone overwhelmingly to Republican and conservative candidates and committees (83.8 percent) since 2003 while contributing 16.2 percent of their total to Democrats.

Their largest contribution was $43,000 from the Koch Political Action Committee to Scott Walker for his campaign for Governor last year. This became a big issue last month when Walker took a phone call from a prankster he thought was David Koch. In 2007, the Kochs sent $10,000 to Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen and another $2,500 in 2009. Also in 2007, the Koch Brothers sent $8,325 to the campaign of conservative state Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler and in 2008, $6,000 to conservative Justice Michael Gableman. The largest Democratic recipient of Koch campaign cash was former Governor Jim Doyle, who received $3,500 since 2003.

To view all of the Koch contributions to Wisconsin candidates and political party committees, go here. Thanks to the National Institute on Money in State Politics for setting up this useful tool.

The Koch Family spends far more money in Wisconsin through making corporate contributions to outside spending groups such as the Republican Governor's Association. In 2010, the Koch Brothers contributed $1 million to the RGA, which in turn spent well over $3 million in Wisconsin supporting Walker and attacking the Democratic Gubernatorial candidate, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

The Koch Brothers are also the primary funder of "Americans for Prosperity" of Arlington, Virginia -- the group that has spent more money in Wisconsin promoting Walker's agenda here, than any other organization. Americans for Prosperity president Tim Phillips of Virginia was a close associate of convicted felon and Washington superlobbyist Jack Abramoff and worked closely with Christian Coalition and Religious Right operative Ralph Reed of Georgia.

_________________________________________

Jay Heck, Executive Director
Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 W. Johnson St., Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
608/256-2686

Want Good Government?
Join Common Cause in Wisconsin!
http://www.commoncausewisconsin.org/





6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's it? ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Kevin said...

Jay,

And how much have unions given?

Christ, your partisan stripe is really showing.

Anonymous said...

Jay - in the interest of full disclousure don't you think you should footnote all your articles with the fact that you worked for the Senate DEMOCRATIC Caucus. The idea that your group is non-partisan is a joke.

Robert said...

Interesting that previous commenters choose to ignore the Koch brothers (well-documented) excessive interest in how we Wisconsinites run our state.

You know, the POINT of this article.

Instead they opt to attack the author/organization, providing no response to the facts.

Anonymous said...

The excessive spending by corporations on Wis elections should concern us all. They aren't doing it because they just like Wis - they want something back for all the money they spend.

That should be clear to everyone by now.

Anonymous said...

I thought that they contributed MILLIONS to Walker.