It calls itself the 60 Plus Association and describes itself as “a non-partisan, conservative leaning seniors organization.” In fact, it’s one of the Koch Brothers’ spider web of organizations with names that make them sound like a bunch of regular folks who’ve come together to fight for what makes America great — Americans for Prosperity, American Commitment, Concerned Women for American Action and on and on — but are funded by the Koch Brothers and their ultra-rich friends. And it’s spent $304,000 to put up an attack ad against Terry Goddard.
If you want to learn more about 60 Plus Association, its dark money political operations and its links to the Koch Brothers and their Arizona money funneler Sean Noble, read AZ Blue Meanie’s excellent post on Blog for Arizona, complete with links to other articles and a visual of the whole interconnected $400 million Koch Brothers political network.
The ad is 30 seconds connecting Goddard to Obama: “Instead of fighting for us, Goddard fights for Obama’s policies.” You know, policies like immigration reform and ObamaCare. It’s so cliched and cartoonish, it should be laughable, but with $304,000 worth of repetition, it may be effective. It bears a striking resemblance to an ad the group put out during the primary campaign targeting Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Smith, which begins with the words, “What do Scott Smith and Obama have in common?” The answer is, Smith supports Medicaid expansion, just like Obama. And then there’s the group’s ad against DuVal, where the link is to Hillary Clinton, not Obama.
When it’s not attacking politicians in Arizona and elsewhere, including Republicans who aren’t Tea Party enough, the 60 Plus Association likes to go after the EPA: “New Report Shows EPA Regulations Will Raise Electricity Rates For Florida Seniors”; “Energy Bills Challenge Alabama’s Senior Citizens”; “New Report: Seniors Will Bear Brunt of Proposed EPA Regulations.” Remember, the Koch Brothers made their fortune in oil and would have made more if all those pesky environmental regulations hadn’t gotten in the way. They would love to defang or dismantle the EPA.
Goddard has made dark money one of his campaign’s primary target. It’s no surprise the dark moneyed forces would throw their cash into a campaign to keep him out of office.
This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2014.
It is kind of like ACORN, but unlike ACORN it does not steal tax payer money to accomplish it’s goals. They exercise the freedom to use their own money.
So what is the difference between George Soros funding the progressives, democrats or whatever you want to call them and the Koch Brothers funding the other party?
So what is the difference between buying a politician directly and printing your own laws and mail them in with a check? Free speech, just don’t ask who is speaking
The dems have done worse things so that means we can too
So Obama goes to California. We pay for the flight, security, etc., with Tax $$. They will not in their transparent administration disclose the amounts of these expenses—where he spends much of his time. Raise untold $$$ for Dems. And it isn’t called ‘dark money’. I guess we’d be labeled as racists if we called this activity so….
Looks like some folks were having trouble getting to ADI’s website yesterday, so they came here instead.
The fact that millions of dollars are being spent on political campaigns by both major parties clearly suggests that many can easily afford to pay more in taxes thereby supporting and enhancing the common good. All of this money would go a long ways towards ending childhood poverty and education.
Dave, why would you want to end education?
The horrible Citizens United decision by the SCOTUS has brought in lots of “free speech” – that is, if money is equated to speech. The decision reeks and is one of the worse ever from the Supreme Court ranking right up there with Plessy v. Ferguson (“Separate but equal”).
The Borowitz Report nailed it today – http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-re…
But, we need to get rid once and for all god awful goddard.
David, it’s interesting that in your comments you mentioned the Koch brothers “made their fortune in oil.” That’s true, but you just didn’t go back far enough in the family’s history to point out that the actual family’s empire was built on the work Daddy Fred Koch did for the Soviet Union under Stalin. Just do a Google search, and you will find out the reasons why Daddy Fred Koch went to Russia in the first place and how he made his fortune by establishing oil refineries in Russia from around 1929-1931.
Consider that Daddy Koch went to Russia not long after the first “red scare” that permeated the US consciousness. During that period of time, 1919-1920, “thousands of Russians were deported without a formal trial” (Russian Exiles, US Immigration, Library of Congress). So maybe Daddy Koch just wasn’t a very good student of history or had a rather sort memory of world events at that time.
Bottom line, Daddy Koch’s money that bankrolled an industrial empire, had its roots, very literally, in a communistic regime. The irony here is the very money that “seeded” the Koch empire was derived from a form of government that the brothers continually rail against.
The Koch Brothers are the epitome of the American system. Inherited dirty money and bought and paid for politicians. And just to answer before they do, George Soros, George Soros, George Soros, unions, unions, unions. Impeach Scalia, Impeach Thomas.