Reports shed light on how Koch brothers' money flows to campaigns

http://host.madison.com/news/local/writers/steven_elbow/reports-shed-light-on-how-koch-brothers-money-flows-to/article_3fc32d79-f8fb-5c22-b5ee-78d4e4109afa.html#ixzz2kx6ZA100

November 13, 2013 1:45 pm • STEVEN ELBOW | The Capital Times

A slew of reports released Wednesday reveal that a network of conservative think tanks, funded by multinational corporations and industrialists — most notably Charles and David Koch — comprise a vast dark-money campaign funding mechanism that funnels cash to conservative candidates, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in last year’s recall election.

On Wednesday, the liberal Center for Media and Democracy along with Progress Now released an analysis of IRS tax documents in the form of a dozen reports and other information posted on CMD's website. The reports reveal the structure of the State Policy Network, a group of 63 state-based organizations that CMD calls an "$83 million dollar right-wing empire" of dark money — undisclosed campaign cash — from some of the world's top corporate powerhouses and conservative special interest groups.

"The identities of the donors we have discovered reveal that SPN is largely funded by global corporations such as Reynolds American, Altria, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, GlaxoSmithKline, Kraft Foods, Express Scripts, Comcast, Time Warner, and the Koch- and Tea Party-connected DCI Group lobbying and PR firm that stand to benefit from SPN’s destructive agenda, as well as out-of-state special interests like the billionaire Koch brothers, the Waltons, the Bradley Foundation, the Roe Foundation, and the Coors family that are underwriting an extreme legislative agenda that undermines the traditional rights of modern Americans," CMD writes in this report.

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