Money from the Left and Right is Distorting Democracy This Election Day
Money from the Left and Right is Distorting Democracy This Election Day
November 5, 2013 - Karin Kamp -
http://billmoyers.com/2013/11/05/money-from-the-left-and-right-is-grossly-distorting-democracy-this-election-day/
Today is Election Day and outside money is flooding campaigns in small towns and big cities across the country in amounts not seen in past off-year elections.
The New York Times points to the cash that the billionaire Koch brothers have thrown into local races to help sway voters in Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and Texas.
In Coralville, Iowa (population: 20,000), the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity (AFP) jumped into the race to elect the town’s next mayor and city council with an aggressive campaign — including direct mail, newspaper advertising and knocks on doors — focused on the tiny town’s finances.
It’s just one local race AFP has tried to swing — often with success — since the Citizens United decision in 2010. ........
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Koch Group Has Ambitions in Small Races
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/04/us/politics/koch-group-has-ambitions-in-small-races.html
By JOHN ELIGON - November 3, 2013
CORALVILLE, Iowa — Election seasons in this small eastern Iowa town are usually cordial affairs. But this year, a group backed by the billionaire Koch brothers has changed that.
The group, Americans for Prosperity, has jumped into the race to elect Coralville’s next mayor and City Council with an aggressive campaign.....
.......... Tim Phillips, the national president of Americans for Prosperity, said the organization could have a real effect on local races, where it does not have to deal with all the Washington special interests.
The main reason “we fight local issue battles is because they result in good policy outcomes, generally promoting economic freedom via less taxes, less government spending,” he said.
But here, in this town of fewer than 20,000 residents, the group has not been so welcome, and the nonpartisan campaign has become an informal referendum on the involvement of outsiders. ............