3 FORMS OF POLITICAL SPENDING MERGED

“What makes this book [Jane Mayer’s Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right (2016)] more than a study in sociology and history is the effectiveness of these billionaires in dominating our political life. They merged three forms of political spending—campaign dollars, lobbying expenditures, and philanthropy at think tanks, universities, and media properties—into a juggernaut. Mayer highlights the strategic insight of the effort in several ways. She describes, for instance, how various think tanks had worked for years to lay the groundwork for the Citizens United and SpeechNow decisions, which made it far easier for big donors to influence elections.

“Among those leading the fight for the SpeechNow decision, which overturned limits on individual contributions to PACs, was the lawyer Bradley Smith, a product of the various institutes and think tanks that this donor network has patiently built. He’d been a scholar at Charles Koch’s Institute for Humane Studies, and used the patronage of the Koch-funded Cato Institute to win a post at the head of the Federal Election Commission. After the ruling, Karl Rove, among others, quickly appreciated its meaning, telling a group of wealthy Dallas oilmen that “People call us a vast right-wing conspiracy, but we’re really a half-assed right-wing conspiracy. Now it’s time to get serious.”

“Getting serious meant, among other things, funneling completely unprecedented amounts of money into the 2010 midterm elections—$200 million or more from ‘Republican-aligned independent groups.’ All over the country absurd attack ads were going after incumbents—Congressman Bruce Braley of Iowa and Bob Etheridge of North Carolina were each accused of wanting to build a ‘mosque at Ground Zero.’ Republicans gained sixty-three seats in the House, putting them firmly in control.

“Even more importantly, they gained 675 seats in state houses across the country, giving the GOP control of the redistricting process as the new census was released. This was the careful culmination of a dream called REDMAP, funded by, among others, the North Carolina variety store magnate Art Pope, a kind of junior Koch, and it all but guaranteed that conservatives would dominate American political life at least through the next census in 2020. Mayer describes the endless fundraising for REDMAP, ‘especially at honeypots like the Koch summit.’”

“The Koch Brothers’ New Brand,” a review in the New York Review [March 10, 2016; pp. 16-18] by Bill McKibben of Jane Mayer’s Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right (2016).