Yesterday, I wrote a post about the Wichita Eagle selling out and pandering to the teabaggers who made a brief appearance in my fair city of Wichita on Wednesday at Lawrence Dumont Stadium. In that post, I wrote:
“The astroturf movement is paid for by David Koch of Wichita-based Koch Industries to the tune of $20 million of his own treasure.”
This morning, I received an e-mail from Melissa “Missy” Cohlmia, the Communications Director for Koch Companies Public Sector. In it, Ms. Cohlmia asked:
“Can you point me to the facts behind this statement? The astroturf movement is paid for by David Koch of Wichita-based Koch Industries to the tune of $20 million of his own treasure.”
E-Mail from Koch Industries
“Five years ago, my brother Charles and I provided the funds to start Americans for Prosperity, and it’s beyond my wildest dreams how AFP has grown into this enormous organization…days like today bring to reality the vision of our board of directors…we envisioned a mass movement, a state-based one, but national in scope, of hundreds of thousands of American citizens from all walks of life standing up, fighting for the economic freedoms that made our nation the most prosperous society in history.”
“Americans for Prosperity does not hide where the money comes from, but when the activists are told that the money is coming from the oil companies, when the implication of their astroturf gets out there, they get very angry.”
As to the amount of funding from Koch to AFP, there’s this post from the DeSmogBlog, and reposted by SourceWatch.org, on the history of Koch’s involvement with Americans for Prosperity:
“The AFP is the third largest recipient of funding from the Koch Family Foundations, behind the Cato Institute and the George Mason University Foundation. Before 2003, when the AFP was still named the Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation, it received $18,460,912 in funding. 84% (sic) of that funding came from the Koch Family Foundations ($12,906,712) and the Scaife Family Foundations ($2,510,000). Koch Family Foundations is funded by Koch Industries. According to Forbes, Koch Industries is the second largest privately-held company, and the largest privately owned energy company, in the United States. Koch industries has made its money in the oil business, primarily oil refining. Presently, it holds stakes in pipelines, refineries, fertilizer, forest products, and chemical technology.”
At the end of day, we’ll never truly know how much David Koch and Koch Industries have put behind the AFP cause. Because the group claims a not-for-profit foundational status instead of one as a campaign, despite the heavy political rhetoric and targeting of currently elected officials at its events, AFP doesn’t have to report how much it’s receiving from big contributors like Koch.
Because my research was only able to put $12 million in funding from Koch to AFP, I stand corrected and have corrected it in the original Wichita Eagle post. And, to be fair, Koch Industries, through its Communications Director, Missy Cohlmia, claims that it’s not made any substantial contributions to AFP in the 2009 year. Ms. Cohlmia claims, in an e-mail to the somewhat ambiguous news source, Newsmax, that:
Koch is not helping coordinate the town hall opposition to current healthcare legislation.
The Koch foundations do not contribution money to AFP, although they do support the AFP Foundation, which focuses on citizen education about economic plicy. Koch Industries has supported both industries.
Neither Koch Industries nor the Koch foundations have, to date, contributed funds dedicated to AFP and the AFP Foundation’s efforts on the healthcare issue. (Emphasis my own.)
Less than 5 percent of the fund AFP or the AFP Foundation has received in 2009 has been contributed by David Koch, Koch Industries, or Koch Foundation.
Interesting. Though, just yesterday, 40 buses of AFP astroturfers showed up in Washington. ThinkProgress grabbed some good video of the buses unloading and some youth claiming to be AFP employees boasting about the number of buses they were able to deliver to Washington–for an anti-healthcare reform rally.
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