Kochs' money used to blast, buoy Pryor

Though GOP got most, he got some

WASHINGTON -- Groups backed by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch have spent millions of dollars chastising U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor for voting for the president's 2010 health-care law, while the family business -- Koch Industries -- has spent tens of thousands supporting the senator over the past few years.

Koch Industries has also given money to other Democrats in Arkansas.

The brothers' giving is drawing scrutiny from the media and condemnation from some Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has called them "un-American" and regularly denounces them by name on the Senate floor.

The brothers are known for contributing millions to Republicans each election cycle, but they have also made smaller contributions over the years to a handful of Democrats.

Many people are closely watching Arkansas' U.S. Senate race between Pryor, a Democrat from Little Rock, and U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Dardanelle, because Republicans need to win only a handful of seats to gain control of the Senate.

The contributions to Pryor, the state congressional delegation's only Democrat, came in two ways from the Koch Industries Inc. Political Action Committee, known as KochPAC.

Between 2006 and 2012, the PAC donated $20,000 directly to Pryor's election campaign, according to analysis of federal campaign-finance reports by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington group that tracks money in politics. Between 2008 and 2013, the PAC donated $35,000 to the PAC affiliated with Pryor, Priority PAC. While barred from spending that money on his own campaign, Pryor can distribute it to the campaigns of political allies.

Koch Industries spokesman Robert Tappan said more than a week ago that the company would not comment about contributions to individual candidates, but that he would send a general statement to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. However, no statement had arrived by 5 p.m. Thursday, despite repeated requests.

The most recent contribution was $5,000 from Koch PAC to Priority PAC on Aug. 24, just 18 days after Cotton announced his bid for the Senate seat.

Koch Industries' companies make and market thousands of products ranging from fertilizer to paper. The corporation owns electronics manufacturer Molex, which has two facilities in Maumelle, is a major investor in the Big River Steel Mill project in Osceola and owns Georgia Pacific, which has 10 facilities in Arkansas.

KochPAC hasn't donated to Cotton's Senate campaign, but an Arlington, Va.-based group backed financially by the Koch brothers, Americans for Prosperity, has announced spending more than $1.8 million on ads criticizing Pryor for supporting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the 2010 law that expanded government-subsidized health insurance coverage to millions.

KochPAC gave Cotton $5,000 when he first ran for the House in 2012.

Cotton received a 100 percent ranking on Americans for Prosperity's scorecard this year. Pryor had a 16 percent rating. The scorecard rates how members of the House and Senate vote on policies supported and opposed by the group.

Another Koch-backed group, Concerned Veterans of America, has announced spending more than $2.4 million on ads.

The Federal Election Commission limits traditional political action committees like KochPAC to giving up to $5,000 to a candidate. Groups like Americans for Prosperity are registered as 501(c)(4) nonprofits with the Internal Revenue Service, which doesn't require them to reveal their donors or limit how much they can raise and spend. The only restriction on 501(c)(4) groups is that they cannot spend a majority of their budgets on political-issue ads.

Why would one Koch-affiliated organization help Pryor financially while another one opposes him?

The Koch brothers have private ideological interests that sometimes differ from the interest of their corporation, Duke University political science professor David Rohde said.

"This political organization which the Koch brothers are behind is different than the business that these people own," Rohde said. "It doesn't seem at all implausible to me that a business would donate to an incumbent, which is what most economic PAC donations go to, and at the same time the Koch brothers' private political interests would be in defeating such members."

MAJORITY LEADER

Reid has mentioned the Koch brothers on the Senate floor in at least 25 speeches since Jan. 1, according to the C-Span archives.

On April 28, Reid called them "oil barons" and "power-drunk billionaires."

Earlier that month, he denounced their "shadowy influence" and accused them of "closing plants and laying off employees in Alaska, Arkansas and North Carolina, devastating the economies in those communities."

In late February, Reid said ads about the Affordable Care Act run by Koch-backed groups had gone too far and were trying to "buy America." He said Americans should speak out against "this terrible dishonesty of these two brothers who are about as un-American as anyone I can imagine."

Reid's spokesman did not return calls asking whether Reid wants the Democrats to return the donations.

Cotton's spokesman David Ray said in a statement that Pryor should give back the money.

"Since Sen. Pryor has said repeatedly he believes Koch Industries has a 'reckless agenda,' we're looking forward to seeing when and how he will be refunding the $55,000 in contributions he has accepted from them," Ray said.

Pryor, who has also criticized the brothers in fundraising emails, has no plans to return the contributions, his deputy campaign manager Erik Dorey said.

"No doubt the Koch brothers want a refund after Mark had the nerve to support the Farm Bill and disaster relief funds, both of which Congressman Cotton opposed, so they could add it to the $2.4 million they're spending to reward Cotton's blind ambition for a higher office," Dorey said in a statement.

But, he said, the senator does not agree with Reid's comments about the brothers' actions being un-American.

Rohde said Democratic leaders are likely more worried about shielding Democrats from the onslaught of ads from the nonprofit groups than how it looks to criticize past donors to Democratic candidates.

"Consistency is not necessarily the prime concern of politicians when making statements like this," Rohde said. "The Koch brothers are spending a lot of money trying to defeat a lot of Democrats; it certainly makes sense from a political point of view for the Democrats to try to demonize them as much as possible and thereby stimulate donations to the Democratic Party and to Democratic candidates, which is what Reid is certainly trying to do."

OTHER DEMOCRATS

Koch Industries' campaign contributions go primarily to Republicans, though Democrats received sizable amounts in some previous election cycles.

In 2008, KochPAC contributed $158,000 to Democrat-led PACs. Republican-led PACs split $748,000. In 2010, KochPAC gave $120,500 to Democrat-led PACs and $618,000 to Republican-led PACs.

But in 2012, the amount going to Democrats dropped to $24,000. Republicans received $824,000.

In the 2014 election, as of April 20, KochPAC has donated $12,500 to Democrats and $504,000 to Republicans.

Beyond the $5,000 that Koch Industries gave to Priority PAC, it has contributed $2,500 to SkiPAC, which is affiliated with U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and $5,000 to Valley PAC, which is affiliated with U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn. Minnesota is home to Koch Trucking, and Utah is home to Koch Mechanical.

Matheson, Peterson and U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., are the only Democrats who have reported receiving campaign donations from KochPAC this cycle.

Before Republicans secured a majority of the state's six congressional seats in 2010, other Democrats from Arkansas received large donations from KochPAC.

Then-U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln received $15,000 from the PAC in 2010, the year she lost to Republican John Boozman, who last received a contribution of $5,000 from the PAC in 2008 when he was in the House of Representatives.

That same year, then-U.S. Reps. Mike Ross received $10,000 and Marion Berry received $4,000. Ross is now running for governor and has received at least $3,000 in contributions from Koch Industries for his 2014 campaign.

Ross campaign spokesman Brad Howard said the contributions came from a representative of the Georgia-Pacific facility in Arkansas, which employs thousands in the Crossett area.

Since 2010, the PAC has given money to nearly every Republican member of the state's delegation. U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, received a $5,000 donation before announcing he wouldn't run for re-election. His most recent campaign-finance report shows that he has returned $4,500. Second District Republican candidate French Hill received $5,000.

A Section on 05/11/2014

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