Freedom Partners, the political operation run by the Koch
brothers, has budgeted $889 million for its political
activities in the 2016 election, donors were told at the
group's meeting in California over the weekend.
The Washington Post reports that the
move is part of a strategy to build on its 2014 victories
that may include getting involved in the Republican
primaries.
The Koch-backed group's budget would rival the $1 billion
that each of the two major parties expects to spend on 2016,
making it a significant political force.
The money for 2016's presidential and congressional races
more than doubles the $407 million that the 17 groups funded
by Freedom Partners spent on 2012's elections, the Post
reported. Freedom Partners-funded groups include the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce and several tea party organizations.
The money is to be used for field operations, new
technology, policy work, advertising, data gathering and
grass-roots activities.
The group, which includes brothers Charles and David Koch —
billionaire industrialists who built Koch Industries into
the second largest privately held corporation in the United
States — and hundreds of other right-leaning donors, has yet
to decide whether it will fund GOP primaries or wait until
the general election to become involved, the Post reported.
"Americans have taken an important step in slowing down the
march toward collectivism," Charles Koch told the group on
Saturday. "But as many of you know, we don't rest on our
laurels. We are already back at work and hard at it."
Freedom Partners President Marc Short told the Post that the
Republican gains of 2014 were nice, "but there’s a long way
to go." The group aims to make free-market ideals central in
American society, he said.
Most of the 450 who attended the weekend event weren't
interested in another Mitt Romney run. They leaned more
toward Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Florida Gov. Jeb
Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
The Kochs taking sides in a primary would be no small deal,
conservative activist Grover Norquist told the Post.
"It’s not like a Chicago political boss where Charles would
say, 'We’re all for this guy.' But if he said, 'I really
like this guy' and did an op-ed, it would matter."
While the Koch-backed groups are tremendously effective,
even some of their allies eyed the latest budget figure with
wariness.
Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, a Republican who now
heads the American Bankers Association and who calls the
Kochs "wonderful human beings," lamented the ballooning role
of outside groups in politics.
"This is the new normal," Keating said.
Democrats paint the Kochs as an evil force in politics, and
Ben Ray of Democrat-aligned American Bridge called the
group's budget "an obscene amount of money."
"If they are spending more than the RNC, I know exactly who
the [Republican] presidential candidates will listen to,"
Ray
told USA Today.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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