[blind-democracy] Koch Brothers' Higher Education Investments Advance Political Goals

No surprise here. If we had billions of dollars, we could meet the
Koch Brothers head to head. But we don't have the big bucks. And
fussing around trying to figure out how to blunt the impact of their
expensive, long range programs is simply an exercise in futility. The
answer is not to try to fund a campaign to oppose them, because they
can out spend us ten to one. The solution is to change governments.
It's time we understood that the present government is serving the
Koch Brothers and their comrades very well, and they do not plan to
give up any of their ill gotten gains.
Times are different today than they were back when FDR pushed through
reforms that saved Capitalism despite the best efforts of the
Capitalists to stop him. But today we have seen the methodical
dismantling of the so called Middle Class, the destruction of Unions,
the negativism toward our government. And through it all we are being
brain washed to believe that Libertarian ism will save us all.
We have been so dummied down that we can't see that our greatest
strength is in our numbers. We are being divided and subdivided just
as surely as if we were cattle being sorted for slaughter.
As tenuous as it may be, we need to continue reaching out to one
another, encouraging and teaching. It is my personal belief that we,
the human species, is in for a near self extinction, and those of us
who survive need to be ready to raise up a new civilization from the
ashes.

Carl Jarvis

On 11/8/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Koch Brothers' Higher Education Investments Advance Political Goals
> Sunday, 08 November 2015 00:00 By Dave Levinthal, The Center for Public
> Integrity | News Analysis
> Charles Koch appears in a video promoting a partnership between Koch
> Industries, the Charles Koch Foundation and the United Negro College Fund.
> (Screenshot: Koch Industries)
> Last year, a top lieutenant of Charles and David Koch's vast network of
> philanthropic institutions laid bare the billionaire brothers' strategy to
> evangelize their gospel of economic freedom.
> Political success, Kevin Gentry told a crowd of elite supporters attending
> the annual Koch confab in Dana Point, Calif., begins with reaching young
> minds in college lecture halls, thereby preparing bright,
> libertarian-leaning students to one day occupy the halls of political
> power.
> "The [Koch] network is fully integrated, so it's not just work at the
> universities with the students, but it's also building state-based
> capabilities and election capabilities and integrating this talent
> pipeline," he said.
> "So you can see how this is useful to each other over time," he continued.
> "No one else has this infrastructure. We're very excited about doing it."
> The Center for Public Integrity obtained a previously unpublished audio
> recording of the meeting, which focused on the Kochs' higher education
> funding strategy, from liberal activists who produce The Undercurrent, an
> online video program.
> Higher education has become a top Koch priority in recent years. And
> funding
> - as well as pushback against it - is increasing.
> During 2013, a pair of private charitable foundations Charles Koch leads
> and
> personally bankrolls combined to spread more than $19.3 million across 210
> college campuses in 46 states and the District of Columbia, according to a
> Center for Public Integrity analysis of Internal Revenue Service tax
> filings.
> That represents a significant increase from the $12.7 million the Koch
> foundations distributed among 163 college campuses in 41 states and the
> District of Columbia during 2012. It's also exponentially more than what
> the
> Koch foundations together spent directly on higher education a decade ago.
> The Center for Public Integrity reviewed hundreds of private documents,
> emails and audio recordings that, along with interviews with more than 75
> college officials, professors, students and others, indicate the Koch
> brothers' spending on higher education is now a critical part of their
> broader campaign to infuse politics and government with free-market
> principles.
> Spreading the Free-Market Gospel
> It is no secret that the Kochs' network has invested hundreds of millions
> of
> hard-to-track dollars in conservative political nonprofits that influence
> elections. The brothers, who earned their billions leading private oil,
> chemical and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries Inc., were dominant
> forces in recent election cycles. They're now poised to rank among the most
> influential Americans shaping next year's presidential and congressional
> vote.
> Much less well known: their activities on college campuses.
> The Kochs are among many wealthy political patrons who give money to
> education, including conservative Robert McNair, independent Michael
> Bloomberg and liberal billionaire financier George Soros. (The Center for
> Public Integrity receives funding from the Open Society Foundations, which
> Soros funds. A complete list of Center for Public Integrity funders is
> found
> here.)
> The Kochs' giving, however, has a laser-like focus on a specific,
> politically relevant discipline - free market economics - unmatched by
> other
> political mega-donors. Koch officials routinely cultivate relationships
> with
> professors and deans and fund specific courses of economic study pitched by
> them.
> Detractors argue the Koch brothers' college-focused money, by helping
> advance a philosophy of economic liberty, is eroding a fundamental aspect
> of
> higher education: academic freedom.
> But some conservatives and libertarians consider the Kochs' investments in
> higher education a much-needed counterweight to an American higher
> education
> system that historically tilts leftward.
> And they explain the Kochs' decision to influence education most certainly
> does not spring, as many liberal partisans would like the body politic to
> believe, from the compulsions of steel-souled industrialists more concerned
> about fortune and power than, say, protecting the environment or helping
> the
> poor.
> "Since the '60s, they've been imbued with the sense that the world would be
> a better place if the country instituted their libertarian values," author
> Brian Doherty said of the brothers.
> "For Charles, his time horizon, as he gets a little older, has become a
> little shorter. He has lots of money, and he wants to see action in his
> lifetime," continued Doherty, the author of "Radicals for Capitalism: A
> Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement" and
> senior
> editor at Reason who's interviewed both Koch brothers.
> "I'm not doing anything I'm ashamed of," Charles Koch himself told Forbes
> last month. "You've gotta change the hearts and minds of the people to
> understand what really makes society fairer and what's going to change
> their
> lives. And it's not more of this government control."
> The Kochs educational giving, while rarefied, isn't the nation's largest.
> With his wife, Betty, Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, this year
> pledged $100 million to the California Institute of Technology - and
> allowed
> the school to spend it as it sees fit.
> Koch defenders also note, accurately, that the pair has donated generously
> to educational causes not necessarily animated by political considerations:
> the Smithsonian, public television, media organizations, music
> scholarships,
> medical research and a variety of others. David Koch, for his part, has
> poured hundreds of millions of dollars into medicine and the arts over the
> years.
> But it's clear where there is an ideological bent to their giving: Tax
> returns, as well as emails and private documents exchanged among Charles
> Koch Foundation officers and various college and university officials,
> indicate the foundation's commitment to funding academics is deep and
> growing. Koch education funding, which is almost singularly focused on
> economics, also sometimes comes with certain strings attached.
> Also see: "How Colleges Use Koch Money"
> Recruiting New Believers
> At the College of Charleston in South Carolina, for example, documents show
> the foundation wanted more than just academic excellence for its money. It
> wanted information about students it could potentially use for its own
> benefit - and influence over information officials at the public university
> disseminated about the Charles Koch Foundation.
> It sought, for one, the names and email addresses - "preferably not ending
> in .edu" - of any student who participated in a Koch-sponsored class,
> reading group, club or fellowship. The stated purpose: "to notify students
> of opportunities" through both the Charles Koch Foundation and the
> Institute
> for Humane Studies at George Mason University.
> And the foundation certainly did not want the College of Charleston to
> speak
> to news reporters about its Koch-funded programs without prior consent from
> the Charles Koch Foundation.
> "[I]f you intend to engage in press releases or other media outreach
> associated with programmatic activities, please notify us in advance,"
> Charles Koch Foundation officials Charlie Ruger and Derek Johnson wrote
> Peter Calcagno, director of the College of Charleston's Center for Public
> Choice and Market Process. "We consider media outreach a collaborative
> effort and would appreciate the opportunity to both assist and advise."
> Donors are often sent unpublished press releases about programs they fund
> "as a courtesy so that they will know the contents," school spokesman Mike
> Robertson said.
> At Florida State University, one of the nation's top educational recipients
> of Koch foundation money this decade - about $1.38 million from 2010
> through
> 2013 - a similar request is more direct.
> "FSU will allow [the Charles Koch Foundation] to review and approve the
> text
> of any proposed publicity which includes mention of CKF," reads a
> memorandum
> of understanding signed between the university and foundation in 2013.
> Such provisions aren't new at Florida State University: the Center for
> Public Integrity last year reported that the Charles Koch Foundation first
> attempted in 2007 to place specific conditions on its financial support of
> the school, when it initially considered providing funding.
> Among the proposed conditions: Teachings must align with the libertarian
> economic philosophy of Charles Koch, the Charles Koch Foundation would
> maintain partial control over faculty hiring and the chairman of the
> school's economics department - a prominent economic theorist - must stay
> in
> place for another three years despite his plans to step down.
> Florida State University ultimately didn't agree to the initial requests
> when, in 2008, it reached a funding agreement with the foundation. It's
> also
> tightened and clarified policies that affect private donors' contributions
> to the university.
> Relationships between certain school officials and the Charles Koch
> Foundation personnel nevertheless blossomed. One gatekeeper to Charles
> Koch's riches practically became family - if not by blood, then money.
> "Thought you might want to see our 'nephew!'" wrote executive assistant
> Tonja Guilford to David Rasmussen, her boss and dean of Florida State
> University's College of Social Sciences and Public Policy.
> Attached to the October 2014 email were photos of this "nephew" - the
> tow-headed toddler son of John C. Hardin, director of university relations
> for the Charles Koch Foundation.
> Hardin and his family had previously visited with Florida State University
> officials in Tallahassee. Talk of future get-togethers, and more pictures
> of
> Hardin's son in a Superman costume, aloft in his father's arms, would
> follow.
> "I was just thinking this morning I needed new pictures to post outside my
> door," Guilford fawned to Hardin in an email. "He is just way too cute in
> his superman costume. He's my 'little' superman - I just love him!"
> Friend-Raising
> Rasmussen, who routinely pursues private funding on behalf of his
> department, declined interview requests from the Center for Public
> Integrity, as did Guilford.
> Florida State University spokesman Dennis Schnittker described the email
> exchanges as "friendly correspondence between individuals," adding that
> collegial communications are a valuable part of school culture.
> "Most university presidents would tell you before you can fundraise, you
> have to 'friend raise,'" Schnittker said.
> Today, the Kochs' friendship with Florida State University appears stronger
> than ever.
> An email written in September 2014 by Jesse Colvin, Florida State
> University's College of Social Sciences and Public Policy development
> director, indicates the Charles Koch Foundation is committed to funding the
> work of economic department doctoral students "during 2015-2016 and in
> subsequent years."
> A series of other meetings and conversations between Hardin, from the
> Charles Koch Foundation, and Florida State University officials followed,
> documents indicate.
> In November 2014, Florida State University officials huddled in the office
> of newly installed university President John Thrasher for a meeting
> entitled
> "Koch briefing." Schnittker, the university spokesman, said the meeting was
> an "opportunity for our new president to be briefed by university staff
> about a gift agreement that obviously preceded his tenure." Hardin of the
> Charles Koch Foundation was not present, Schnittker said.
> Meanwhile, when officials at the Florida State University Project on
> Accountable Justice went hunting for funding, the Charles Koch Foundation
> factored into their strategy.
> The Koch brothers, after all, were telegraphing their intent to make
> criminal justice reform a personal priority, reasoning that
> "overcriminalization," like overregulation of industry, is resulting in
> more
> Americans enjoying fewer economic freedoms.
> Not everyone at the Florida State University Project on Accountable Justice
> appeared thrilled at pursuing Koch cash.
> "I know you really hate them, but we really need to send them some stuff,"
> then-Chairman Allison DeFoor wrote Executive Director Deborrah Brodsky late
> last year. "They have money. We don't."
> Reached separately by phone last week, DeFoor, an unabashed conservative,
> and Brodsky, a Canadian whose politics point more leftward, both laughed
> off
> the exchange as comedic banter between longtime colleagues.
> But they confirmed they had pursued the Charles Koch Foundation. It hasn't
> yet funded the project but did provide the organization "strategic
> support,"
> including co-hosting a forum on criminal justice.
> DeFoor would conclude, following presentations in Washington, D.C., to both
> the Charles Koch Foundation and the conservative American Legislative
> Exchange Council, that Koch interest in issues the project researches "is
> sincere, potentially aggressive and deep."
> As a small, three-year-old "research- and evidence-based" program, the
> Florida State University Project on Accountable Justice will gladly take
> money from most anyone along the ideological spectrum who's dedicated to
> its
> study of and work on criminal justice system reforms, Brodsky said. She
> counts liberal lions such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern
> Poverty Law Center and Human Rights Watch as partners.
> The Charles Koch Foundation executives declined to be interviewed
> individually. Trice Jacobson, a foundation spokesperson, instead provided a
> statement that she said "captures what we all hope to share for this
> piece."
> "Like many charities, the Charles Koch Foundation recognizes the importance
> of supporting a diversity of ideas so scholars and students can continue to
> push the frontiers of knowledge and help people discover new and better
> ways
> to live fulfilling lives," the statement read. "Our giving has expanded to
> support new research and programs on critical issues ranging from criminal
> justice reform to corporate welfare."
> In a separate statement of its "academic giving principles," the Charles
> Koch Foundation asserts that it is "committed to advancing a marketplace of
> ideas and supporting a 'Republic of Science' where scholarship is free,
> open
> and subject to rigorous and honest intellectual challenge."
> It also notes that scholars and students "who are free to teach, learn,
> research, speak, critique and receive support for their work without
> interference" are in the "best position to discover the advances that will
> help improve well-being."
> George Mason, aka Koch U
> Nowhere is expanded Koch involvement in higher education more evident than
> at George Mason University, which receives more funding from the Kochs than
> any other school.
> The large, diverse public school in northern Virginia, about 20 miles from
> the White House, today houses and lends its name to what's effectively
> Charles Koch's personal academic workshop. The Charles Koch Foundation in
> 2013 donated more than $14.4 million to George Mason University and the
> research centers it hosts. That's on top of tens of millions in Koch
> dollars
> that George Mason University and the affiliated research centers have
> collectively received in recent years.
> Charles Koch himself is a George Mason University fixture. He's the
> recipient of an honorary doctorate in science from the university, which
> boasts a student population of more than 33,700. He is a director of the
> university-based Mercatus Center - Mercatus means "market" in Latin - that
> Charles Koch Foundation Vice President Ryan Stowers described at the 2014
> Koch gathering in California as "critical" to advancing policy priorities.
> Koch also enjoys the company of several current and former George Mason
> University affiliates who play multiple roles across the Koch brothers'
> sprawling educational, corporate and political network.
> Chief among them is Gentry, who presided over the Koch's closed-door higher
> education workshop last year.
> Gentry possesses unique knowledge about the interconnectivity of the Koch's
> various interests and operations because he embodies its reach. He's a
> Charles Koch Foundation vice president and a key fundraiser for the Kochs'
> political action arm. He's a former vice president of both the Mercatus
> Center and the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. And
> today, he's even Eastern vice chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia.
> Brian Hooks, now president of the Charles Koch Foundation, is another key
> Koch network player.
> Hooks served as the Mercatus Center's executive director and chief
> operating
> officer from 2005 until 2014 and remains a Mercatus Center board member.
> The
> year Hooks took over, the Mercatus Center posted $4.9 million in total
> revenue, according to tax filings. The year he left, it posted nearly $20.7
> million.
> "Our job is to make sure that we've got a strategy for our work to have a
> disproportionate impact," Hooks said at the Kochs' conference in 2014,
> noting that the Mercatus Center is the "largest collection" of "free market
> faculty" at any university in the world. "These guys are producing research
> that groups in this network can rely on to advance economic freedom every
> single day."
> Scholarly research performed by academics at Koch-funded schools and
> programs is indeed sometimes used by Koch-backed nonprofit organizations
> that, in turn, overtly advocate for political candidates or causes.
> For instance, to support assertions made in a recent, 67-page policy paper,
> Koch-supported American Encore regularly cites and quotes Mercatus Center
> research and mentions the center nearly a dozen times.
> Among the academic work American Encore's paper highlights: a 2014 Mercatus
> Center study by Keith Hall, a senior research fellow who had previously
> served as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a 2014
> commentary about a federal regulations tracking and measurement tool by
> Patrick A. McLaughlin, another senior research fellow.
> "Yet another study has confirmed what we already knew - states with lower
> taxes do better," read an article by the Kochs' flagship nonprofit,
> Americans for Prosperity, about a study published July 7 by the Mercatus
> Center. "Overall, the rankings provide more evidence that economic freedom
> works, and bigger government means bigger trouble."
> And the 60 Plus Association, a retiree-focused nonprofit that's benefited
> from tens of millions of dollars of the Koch brothers' money over the
> years,
> for a time tapped Walter Williams, a George Mason University economics
> professor, syndicated columnist and Rush Limbaugh Show fill-in host, as a
> member of its "truth squad." His mission: to "battle" against Democrats on
> Social Security and Medicare programs.
> Congress Takes Notice
> Congress is also paying more attention to the Mercatus Center, which from
> 1999 to 2008 was mentioned by name 32 times in either the Congressional
> Record or congressional committee reports. Since 2009, it's been mentioned
> 93 times, often in reference to Mercatus Center faculty who were testifying
> before Congress.
> This year, Congress even cited Mercatus Center research in the text of
> budget bills. House Concurrent Resolution 27 and Senate Concurrent
> Resolution 11 note that a Mercatus Center study "estimates that Obamacare
> will reduce employment by up to 3 percent, or about 4 million full-time
> equivalent workers."
> Mercatus Center Vice President Carrie Conko, while declining to address
> critics' "ad hominem attacks" of Charles Koch, stressed the institution's
> work is the product of hard work and high standards - not the whims of some
> patron puppet master.
> "As a university research center, our scholarship is independent and
> subjected to rigorous peer review," Conko said. "Our researchers are
> interested in understanding what shapes societies and economies and that
> covers a spectrum of research from the history of economic thought to the
> application of economics to questions of public policy."
> Conko also noted that the Mercatus Center abides by a strong conflict of
> interest and research independence policy, which she described as "stronger
> than those of most found with typical academic centers or departments."
> Mercatus Center officials note that the center isn't part of George Mason
> University the same way as, say, its chemistry or psychology departments.
> Instead, it's organized as a stand-alone nonprofit, and as such, George
> Mason University isn't directly responsible for it.
> The Mercatus Center doesn't receive direct funding from George Mason
> University, Conko said.
> But George Mason University and its students do receive millions of dollars
> in annual financial benefit from the Mercatus Center, according to federal
> tax filings.
> That alone is a major incentive for a public university in Virginia, where
> state funding of higher education is dwindling, to host a privately funded
> operation on its campus - today, a fairly common practice among public
> schools.
> The Mercatus Center spent $3.64 million during that time to "support
> graduate students at George Mason University" by "training future scholars
> and decision-makers to advance and apply a research agenda for
> understanding
> institutions and change," according to a tax filing.
> The Mercatus Center helped fund $1.82 million worth of communication
> efforts
> that included promoting its research and ideas "to the media and opinion
> shapers."
> And it made a $10,000 grant to the Atlas Economic Research Foundation,
> which
> operates a "global network of more than 400 free market organizations."
> They
> include several Koch-backed nonprofit groups such as Americans for
> Prosperity, the American Legislative Exchange Council and Americans for Tax
> Reform.
> McAuliffe Mum?
> The Mason-Mercatus-Koch nexus may seem like rich fodder for a Democrat such
> as Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, whose national party brethren makes
> demonizing the Koch brothers a central strategy of their electoral and
> fundraising agenda.
> McAuliffe's own political committee, Common Good VA, bashed the "ultra
> right wing Koch Brothers" in an email earlier this month, accusing them of
> working against "expanding health care for all" and "ensuring a living
> wage."
> But McAuliffe - the outspoken former chairman of both the Democratic
> National Committee and Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign -
> declined Center for Public Integrity requests to discuss George Mason
> University's relationship with the Koch brothers.
> George Mason University's top undergraduate leader, Student Body President
> Khushboo Bhatia, also declined comment.
> University spokesman Michael Sandler explained that George Mason is among
> the nation's most diverse campuses, and "this notion of diversity and
> inclusion that is so central to our mission applies to our donors, as
> well."
> Sandler said the university appreciates the Charles Koch Foundation's
> donations, as well as those from thousands of other donors.
> "While we are grateful for all of the gifts we receive, we value academic
> freedom above all else," Sandler said. "This freedom allows our faculty and
> researchers to ask questions and make discoveries that others wouldn't
> otherwise pursue, and we will not compromise that freedom for anything or
> anyone."
> Jennifer Victor, a George Mason University politics professor who
> specializes in how individuals and groups influence government, is
> skeptical.
> George Mason University's marriage to an ideologically motivated donor with
> a policy agenda to achieve "raises some eyebrows," Victor said. "I don't
> really see what Mason gets from them, and I don't think the situation is
> healthy or consistent with the university's teaching mission."
> No Comment on Koch Funding
> Some college officials such as Sandler are willing to discuss the financial
> support their schools receive from Koch-run private foundations, with many
> emphasizing that gifts from donors, whether liberal or conservative, don't
> affect coursework or the manner in which students learn. They also note
> that
> their schools receive hundreds, and sometimes thousands of contributions
> each year from individuals, private foundations and the like.
> But it's not uncommon for other school officials to button up.
> Take Victor Nakas, a spokesman for The Catholic University of America in
> Washington, D.C.
> Posed a series of questions about the $215,000 the university received in
> 2013 from the Charles Koch Foundation, he emailed a pair of dated press
> releases announcing grants.
> "We will be unable to provide you with more than links to these
> announcements," he said.
> Follow-up messages went unreturned.
> Michael Schoenfeld, the vice president for public affairs and government
> relations at Duke University, declined to say how the school used the
> $37,000 it recently received from the Charles Koch Foundation.
> "As a rule, we do not comment on individual donors or contributions without
> the donor's permission," he explained.
> Officials at Oklahoma State University likewise offered no details about
> how
> the school used the $69,000 the Charles Koch Foundation recently gave it.
> Why the silence?
> An email exchange between two Florida State University officials, obtained
> by the Center for Public Integrity, offers a measure of explanation.
> In it, the officials indicate deep concern about the potential effects of
> releasing more information about the school's moneyed donors in response to
> activist demands.
> "[R]equiring donors to disclose more than they already do will likely
> result
> in fewer gifts and smaller gifts, and it will impose an additional
> administrative hurdle for the university," wrote Thomas W. Jennings, vice
> president for university advancement, to David Coburn, Florida State
> University chief of staff.
> Revealing donor gift agreements, even for donors who have not requested
> anonymity, might "have a negative effect on FSU's relationships with many
> of
> its donors, who don't want that kind of attention," Jennings continued.
> The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill received $115,000 from the
> Charles Koch Foundation in 2013, one of nearly 100 schools that year to
> receive a five-figure contribution from a Koch foundation.
> But that's information not easily accessed by students. Whether by design,
> happenstance or ignorance, "most individuals don't know where any of the
> university's funds come from," University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
> Student Body President Houston Summers said.
> University spokesman Jim Gregory confirmed the school received $110,000 for
> the Charles Koch Visiting Scholars Program in UNC-Chapel Hill's Philosophy,
> Politics and Economics Program, conducted in collaboration with Duke
> University. Donors are allowed to remain anonymous, if they choose.
> However, some universities are facing blowback over scant information about
> school donors from increasingly organized anti-Koch groups and activists.
> The umbrella group UnKoch My Campus, for one, has staged protests, demanded
> meetings with administrators and launched chapters at George Mason
> University and Florida State University, among others. The organization
> accuses the Kochs and their allies of undermining issues many students care
> about, such as environmental protection, workers' rights, healthcare
> expansion and public education.
> Its immediate goal, beyond convincing colleges to de-Koch themselves?
> "Transparency, because students should have the capability to be more aware
> of who's funding their school and their education, and where funding might
> conflict with student interests," said Kalin Jordan, an UnKoch My Campus
> organizer. "The universities - most don't do a good job of informing
> students at all."
> Said Colin Nackerman, a student activist at George Mason University: "You
> should know, if you're going into a classroom, that $30 million is going
> into your school from someone who wants you to think a certain way."
> Largely silent in the past, the Charles Koch Foundation has begun to push
> back at such dissenters.
> "They don't want students and scholars to expand their educational
> horizons," Hardin, the foundation's university relations director, wrote in
> a May 26 Wall Street Journal op-ed. "Rather than engage in a vigorous and
> civil debate about the merits of different ideas, they seek to prevent
> those
> with which they disagree from ever being heard."
> Liberals Give Big, Too
> If George Mason University is Charles Koch's academic playground, Bard
> College is that of Democratic bankroller George Soros, often viewed as the
> Koch brothers' pre-eminent liberal foil.
> The tiny New York liberal arts school nestled along the Hudson River is
> renowned for both scholarship and hippy-dippyness. It received more than
> $11.2 million from Soros' private foundation in 2013 - part of a $60
> million, multiyear commitment.
> But for Soros, himself a multibillionaire with wealth comparable to the
> Kochs, his contributions to Bard College aren't generally earmarked for
> core
> academics or domestic political considerations.
> Instead, Soros' money mainly helps fund Bard College's Center for Civic
> Engagement, which houses a broad portfolio of both U.S. and overseas
> programs aimed at "advancing the ideals of an innovative, hands-on liberal
> arts education through a myriad of opportunities across the globe."
> This tracks with Soros' broader tack on educational giving: The vast
> majority of his tens of millions of dollars in education-related
> contributions fund foreign schools and programs, particularly in Eastern
> Europe and the Middle East. (Soros lived his early life in Hungary, where
> as
> a Jew, he survived Nazi occupation before emigrating.)
> Among the U.S. schools Soros does aid, many of his most sizable grants are
> earmarked for programs with international goals, such as $500,000 to
> Harvard
> University funding a project on economic growth in Albania, and $159,834 to
> The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., to "develop effective
> and influential public policy leaders in Central Asia."
> Soros' foundation even gave George Mason University more than $22,500 - not
> to fund economics programs, but to organize meetings in Mexico and Peru
> about conflict reconciliation.
> "As a general rule," Soros said in 2011, "I do not support higher education
> in the United States."
> Soros does make exceptions.
> An avowed advocate of campaign finance reform, Soros has used his private
> foundations to fund certain domestic college initiatives squarely rooted in
> American politics and elections.
> One Soros foundation, for example, gave New York City's Fordham University
> $200,000 in 2013 to study the "role of money in democratic process."
> The money is part of a $1 million, multi-year grant to determine how
> disclosure of campaign money influences voters - an awfully political
> endeavor by any measure.
> But school officials say the research they conduct is free of outside
> influence and subject to the highest academic and legal reviews and
> standards.
> "None of this work is 'political' per se in terms of any ideological
> dimensions . it is all strictly nonpartisan," said Costas Panagopoulos,
> director of Fordham's Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy, who is
> leading the program.
> Penn State University's economics department in 2013 benefited from
> $150,000
> in Soros money to help build a research center focused in part on
> "interactions between new media and society."
> And the Ohio State University Research Foundation received $50,000 to
> conduct a research project aimed at better understanding the role
> independent expenditures play in federal elections and "how those
> expenditures influence the legislative process."
> Bard College officials do hear their share of criticism for taking a
> massive
> amount of money from Soros' private foundation, said Jonathan Becker, the
> school's vice president for academic affairs and director for civic
> engagement.
> But, similar to some of the schools that accept Koch money, the school's
> tenuous budget situation means that it'd take funding from just about
> anyone
> so long as the transaction was legal and wasn't intended to fund an
> initiative "antithetical to our vision," Becker said.
> That vision, in the words of its student handbook, imagines a "supportive,
> intellectually rich environment where students can engage themselves to the
> fullest while respecting all members of the community."
> So what if the Charles Koch Foundation wanted to donate $1 million to Bard
> College?
> Or $10 million?
> "We would say 'thank you,' and we would cash the check quickly," Becker
> said.
> Other Conservative Donors
> Unlike the Kochs, Soros and many other prominent political donors, both
> left
> and right of center, have charitable agendas that largely diverge from
> their
> domestic political agendas.
> Robert McNair, the Houston Texans owner who this year alone has spread $3
> million among five super PACs backing several Republican presidential
> candidates, used his private foundation to give millions of dollars to
> various medical schools and a scholarship program for doctors performing
> research in areas such as breast cancer, juvenile diabetes and
> neuroscience.
> Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, two other top-shelf Republican donors whom 2016
> presidential candidates have endlessly wooed, directed almost all of their
> university-related private foundation funding - millions of it in 2013 - to
> medical research.
> A private foundation co-run by former World Wrestling Entertainment honcho
> Linda McMahon, a major GOP donor who herself twice unsuccessfully ran
> self-funded U.S. Senate campaigns, gave its most sizable, six-figure
> contributions to substance abuse help group Liberation Programs.
> Then there's one late Republican superdonor whose philanthropy has been at
> war with his political giving: Harold Simmons.
> The Texas businessman bankrolled his eponymous foundation, but his liberal
> daughters run it. In doing so, they saw to it that Planned Parenthood - the
> ultimate Republican scourge of late - received more than $300,000 of his
> money during 2013. It's also given hundreds of thousands of dollars to
> Public Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based money-in-politics reform group
> also supported in 2013 with $300,000 from a private foundation led by
> liberal hedge fund manager Jonathan Soros, son of George Soros.
> Money the Harold Simmons Foundation did give to colleges in 2013 mostly
> went
> toward infrastructure and general operating expenses.
> University of Dayton Says "No Thanks"
> While more schools than ever are engaging with Koch foundations, at least
> one school - the University of Dayton in Ohio - has seemingly soured on
> Koch
> cash, which it has previously accepted in five-figure amounts.
> Jay Riestenberg, a research analyst at campaign reform advocacy group
> Common
> Cause and University of Dayton alumnus, earlier this year emailed the
> school's Interim Provost Paul H. Benson, asking him if the University of
> Dayton is still funded by, or seeking new funding from Koch foundations.
> Attached was an op-ed Riestenberg has written for the school's student
> newspaper. In it, he explains that his education at the small Catholic
> school inspired him to care about other people, protect the environment and
> fight for social justice.
> "UD accepting Koch funding is in clear violation of the institution's
> Catholic Marianist values," Riestenberg wrote in the April 28 email.
> Benson replied later that night. His answer: The University of Dayton no
> longer accepts Koch cash, and it will not in the future - despite the
> efforts of Koch-backed organizations.
> "There have been instances in which other foundations who are funded in
> part
> by the Koch Brothers have tried to interest us in establishing centers at
> UD," Benson wrote Riestenberg. "We have not supported those proposals,
> precisely for the reasons you cite."
> Benson declined an interview request by the Center for Public Integrity.
> In a statement, University of Dayton spokeswoman Cilla Shindell explained
> that the school did reject a recent proposal from a "foundation that is in
> part funded by the Koch family" because it "would have been structured in a
> way that would limit oversight by the university in such areas as
> curriculum
> and faculty hiring."
> She did not name the foundation.
> Kochs' Higher Education Funding Strategy
> This previously unpublished recording of Koch aides discussing education
> funding strategy with potential donors was provided to the Center for
> Public
> Integrity by The Undercurrent, an online program produced by liberal
> political activists.
> Key Kochworld Lieutenants
> Several associates of Charles and David Koch span multiple aspects of the
> billionaire brothers' political, educational, charitable and industrial
> juggernauts. Among them:
> Richard Fink is among Charles Koch's top aides. Fink is the co-founder of
> George Mason University's Mercatus Center and a current member of the
> center's board of directors. Fink has also served on the boards of several
> of Charles and David Koch's private foundations. That includes serving as
> president of the Charles Koch Foundation until 2014 and as a director for
> the Fred C. & Mary R. Koch Foundation alongside Charles and David Koch
> themselves. Fink likewise sits on the board of directors for Americans for
> Prosperity, a "social welfare" nonprofit that doesn't reveal its donors but
> spent more than $33.5 million during the 2012 election advocating against
> President Barack Obama's re-election. Fink also works as chairman and chief
> executive of Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC, the legal, government and
> public affairs wing of Koch Industries Inc.
> Kevin Gentry is vice president of the Charles Koch Foundation. He is also a
> board member for Koch-backed nonprofit Freedom Partners and vice president
> for special projects/development at Koch Companies Public Sector LLC.
> Gentry
> previously served as vice president of the Koch-funded Institute for Humane
> Studies and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and as volunteer
> faculty at the Leadership Institute, which "identifies, recruits, trains
> and
> places conservatives in government, politics and the media." In party
> politics, Gentry serves as eastern vice chairman for the Republican Party
> of
> Virginia.
> Brian Hooks is president of the Charles Koch Foundation, having been hired
> in 2014. Hooks is also a Mercatus Center board member and served as the
> Mercatus Center's executive director and chief operating officer from 2005
> until 2014.
> Wayne Gable is a board member of the Koch-funded Freedom Partners, itself a
> nonprofit that has largely provided seed money to other Koch-backed
> political nonprofits over many years. He served from 1999 to 2000 as
> president of the Charles Koch Foundation as well. Gable is also a former
> managing director of international government affairs at Koch Industries
> Inc. and a onetime registered federal lobbyist for the company. He received
> a doctoral degree in economics from George Mason University.
> Nancy Pfotenhauer served from 2010 to 2014 on George Mason University's
> Board of Visitors - a 16-member university governing body appointed by
> Virginia's governor that "exercises its authority principally in
> policy-making and oversight." She received a master's degree in economics
> from George Mason University. Pfotenhauer today serves on Americans for
> Prosperity's board of directors and runs a communications firm. She is also
> a former director of the Independent Women's Forum, which in 2010 received
> $350,000 from the Koch-controlled (and now defunct) Claude R. Lambe
> Charitable Foundation, according to IRS tax documents. She once led Koch
> Industries Inc.'s Washington, D.C., office.
> Dale Gibbens is the human resources vice president for Koch Industries Inc.
> He is a board member for Koch-backed nonprofit Freedom Partners, described
> by Politico in 2013 as "the Koch brothers secret bank." Since then, Freedom
> Partners' sister super PAC spent about $23.4 million advocating for
> Republican congressional candidates and against Democratic candidates. In
> 2014, Gibbens also helped fund the Koch Center for Leadership and Ethics at
> Emporia State University in Kansas, which is focused on "free market
> principles, leadership and ethical theories."
> Patrick Hedger is policy director for American Encore, a heavily
> Koch-backed
> political nonprofit previously known as the Center to Protect Patient
> Rights. He is a recent graduate of George Mason University, where he is
> also
> pursuing a master's degree in public policy.
> A version of this story was co-published with The Atlantic.
> This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not
> be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
> DAVE LEVINTHAL
> Dave Levinthal joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2013 to help lead
> its Consider the Source project investigating the influence of money in
> politics. For two years prior to joining the Center, Dave reported on
> campaign finance and lobbying issues for Politico and co-wrote the daily
> Politico Influence column. He also edited OpenSecrets.org from 2009 to
> 2011,
> where he led coverage that won the Online News Association's top honors in
> 2011 for best topical reporting and blogging and was a finalist the same
> year for the Scripps Howard Foundation's Distinguished Service to the First
> Amendment award. From 2003 to 2009, Dave worked for The Dallas Morning
> News,
> primarily covering Dallas City Hall also reporting on national elections
> and
> aviation security. From 2000 to 2002, he covered the New Hampshire
> Statehouse for The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence, Mass. A native of Buffalo,
> N.Y., Dave graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in newspaper
> journalism and political philosophy and edited The Daily Orange. He is also
> a two-time winner (2007 and 2010) of Canada's Northern Lights Award for his
> travel writing about the arctic.
> RELATED STORIES
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> By Nick Surgey, PR Watch | Report
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> By Brendan Fischer, PR Watch | Report
> ________________________________________
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> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Koch Brothers' Higher Education Investments Advance Political Goals
> Sunday, 08 November 2015 00:00 By Dave Levinthal, The Center for Public
> Integrity | News Analysis
> . font size Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
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> . Charles Koch appears in a video promoting a partnership between
> Koch Industries, the Charles Koch Foundation and the United Negro College
> Fund. (Screenshot: Koch Industries)
> . Last year, a top lieutenant of Charles and David Koch's vast network
> of philanthropic institutions laid bare the billionaire brothers' strategy
> to evangelize their gospel of economic freedom.
> Political success, Kevin Gentry told a crowd of elite supporters attending
> the annual Koch confab in Dana Point, Calif., begins with reaching young
> minds in college lecture halls, thereby preparing bright,
> libertarian-leaning students to one day occupy the halls of political
> power.
> "The [Koch] network is fully integrated, so it's not just work at the
> universities with the students, but it's also building state-based
> capabilities and election capabilities and integrating this talent
> pipeline," he said.
> "So you can see how this is useful to each other over time," he continued.
> "No one else has this infrastructure. We're very excited about doing it."
> The Center for Public Integrity obtained a previously unpublished audio
> recording of the meeting, which focused on the Kochs' higher education
> funding strategy, from liberal activists who produce The Undercurrent, an
> online video program.
> Higher education has become a top Koch priority in recent years. And
> funding
> - as well as pushback against it - is increasing.
> During 2013, a pair of private charitable foundations Charles Koch leads
> and
> personally bankrolls combined to spread more than $19.3 million across 210
> college campuses in 46 states and the District of Columbia, according to a
> Center for Public Integrity analysis of Internal Revenue Service tax
> filings.
> That represents a significant increase from the $12.7 million the Koch
> foundations distributed among 163 college campuses in 41 states and the
> District of Columbia during 2012. It's also exponentially more than what
> the
> Koch foundations together spent directly on higher education a decade ago.
> The Center for Public Integrity reviewed hundreds of private documents,
> emails and audio recordings that, along with interviews with more than 75
> college officials, professors, students and others, indicate the Koch
> brothers' spending on higher education is now a critical part of their
> broader campaign to infuse politics and government with free-market
> principles.
> Spreading the Free-Market Gospel
> It is no secret that the Kochs' network has invested hundreds of millions
> of
> hard-to-track dollars in conservative political nonprofits that influence
> elections. The brothers, who earned their billions leading private oil,
> chemical and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries Inc., were dominant
> forces in recent election cycles. They're now poised to rank among the most
> influential Americans shaping next year's presidential and congressional
> vote.
> Much less well known: their activities on college campuses.
> The Kochs are among many wealthy political patrons who give money to
> education, including conservative Robert McNair, independent Michael
> Bloomberg and liberal billionaire financier George Soros. (The Center for
> Public Integrity receives funding from the Open Society Foundations, which
> Soros funds. A complete list of Center for Public Integrity funders is
> found
> here.)
> The Kochs' giving, however, has a laser-like focus on a specific,
> politically relevant discipline - free market economics - unmatched by
> other
> political mega-donors. Koch officials routinely cultivate relationships
> with
> professors and deans and fund specific courses of economic study pitched by
> them.
> Detractors argue the Koch brothers' college-focused money, by helping
> advance a philosophy of economic liberty, is eroding a fundamental aspect
> of
> higher education: academic freedom.
> But some conservatives and libertarians consider the Kochs' investments in
> higher education a much-needed counterweight to an American higher
> education
> system that historically tilts leftward.
> And they explain the Kochs' decision to influence education most certainly
> does not spring, as many liberal partisans would like the body politic to
> believe, from the compulsions of steel-souled industrialists more concerned
> about fortune and power than, say, protecting the environment or helping
> the
> poor.
> "Since the '60s, they've been imbued with the sense that the world would be
> a better place if the country instituted their libertarian values," author
> Brian Doherty said of the brothers.
> "For Charles, his time horizon, as he gets a little older, has become a
> little shorter. He has lots of money, and he wants to see action in his
> lifetime," continued Doherty, the author of "Radicals for Capitalism: A
> Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement" and
> senior
> editor at Reason who's interviewed both Koch brothers.
> "I'm not doing anything I'm ashamed of," Charles Koch himself told Forbes
> last month. "You've gotta change the hearts and minds of the people to
> understand what really makes society fairer and what's going to change
> their
> lives. And it's not more of this government control."
> The Kochs educational giving, while rarefied, isn't the nation's largest.
> With his wife, Betty, Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, this year
> pledged $100 million to the California Institute of Technology - and
> allowed
> the school to spend it as it sees fit.
> Koch defenders also note, accurately, that the pair has donated generously
> to educational causes not necessarily animated by political considerations:
> the Smithsonian, public television, media organizations, music
> scholarships,
> medical research and a variety of others. David Koch, for his part, has
> poured hundreds of millions of dollars into medicine and the arts over the
> years.
> But it's clear where there is an ideological bent to their giving: Tax
> returns, as well as emails and private documents exchanged among Charles
> Koch Foundation officers and various college and university officials,
> indicate the foundation's commitment to funding academics is deep and
> growing. Koch education funding, which is almost singularly focused on
> economics, also sometimes comes with certain strings attached.
> Also see: "How Colleges Use Koch Money"
> Recruiting New Believers
> At the College of Charleston in South Carolina, for example, documents show
> the foundation wanted more than just academic excellence for its money. It
> wanted information about students it could potentially use for its own
> benefit - and influence over information officials at the public university
> disseminated about the Charles Koch Foundation.
> It sought, for one, the names and email addresses - "preferably not ending
> in .edu" - of any student who participated in a Koch-sponsored class,
> reading group, club or fellowship. The stated purpose: "to notify students
> of opportunities" through both the Charles Koch Foundation and the
> Institute
> for Humane Studies at George Mason University.
> And the foundation certainly did not want the College of Charleston to
> speak
> to news reporters about its Koch-funded programs without prior consent from
> the Charles Koch Foundation.
> "[I]f you intend to engage in press releases or other media outreach
> associated with programmatic activities, please notify us in advance,"
> Charles Koch Foundation officials Charlie Ruger and Derek Johnson wrote
> Peter Calcagno, director of the College of Charleston's Center for Public
> Choice and Market Process. "We consider media outreach a collaborative
> effort and would appreciate the opportunity to both assist and advise."
> Donors are often sent unpublished press releases about programs they fund
> "as a courtesy so that they will know the contents," school spokesman Mike
> Robertson said.
> At Florida State University, one of the nation's top educational recipients
> of Koch foundation money this decade - about $1.38 million from 2010
> through
> 2013 - a similar request is more direct.
> "FSU will allow [the Charles Koch Foundation] to review and approve the
> text
> of any proposed publicity which includes mention of CKF," reads a
> memorandum
> of understanding signed between the university and foundation in 2013.
> Such provisions aren't new at Florida State University: the Center for
> Public Integrity last year reported that the Charles Koch Foundation first
> attempted in 2007 to place specific conditions on its financial support of
> the school, when it initially considered providing funding.
> Among the proposed conditions: Teachings must align with the libertarian
> economic philosophy of Charles Koch, the Charles Koch Foundation would
> maintain partial control over faculty hiring and the chairman of the
> school's economics department - a prominent economic theorist - must stay
> in
> place for another three years despite his plans to step down.
> Florida State University ultimately didn't agree to the initial requests
> when, in 2008, it reached a funding agreement with the foundation. It's
> also
> tightened and clarified policies that affect private donors' contributions
> to the university.
> Relationships between certain school officials and the Charles Koch
> Foundation personnel nevertheless blossomed. One gatekeeper to Charles
> Koch's riches practically became family - if not by blood, then money.
> "Thought you might want to see our 'nephew!'" wrote executive assistant
> Tonja Guilford to David Rasmussen, her boss and dean of Florida State
> University's College of Social Sciences and Public Policy.
> Attached to the October 2014 email were photos of this "nephew" - the
> tow-headed toddler son of John C. Hardin, director of university relations
> for the Charles Koch Foundation.
> Hardin and his family had previously visited with Florida State University
> officials in Tallahassee. Talk of future get-togethers, and more pictures
> of
> Hardin's son in a Superman costume, aloft in his father's arms, would
> follow.
> "I was just thinking this morning I needed new pictures to post outside my
> door," Guilford fawned to Hardin in an email. "He is just way too cute in
> his superman costume. He's my 'little' superman - I just love him!"
> Friend-Raising
> Rasmussen, who routinely pursues private funding on behalf of his
> department, declined interview requests from the Center for Public
> Integrity, as did Guilford.
> Florida State University spokesman Dennis Schnittker described the email
> exchanges as "friendly correspondence between individuals," adding that
> collegial communications are a valuable part of school culture.
> "Most university presidents would tell you before you can fundraise, you
> have to 'friend raise,'" Schnittker said.
> Today, the Kochs' friendship with Florida State University appears stronger
> than ever.
> An email written in September 2014 by Jesse Colvin, Florida State
> University's College of Social Sciences and Public Policy development
> director, indicates the Charles Koch Foundation is committed to funding the
> work of economic department doctoral students "during 2015-2016 and in
> subsequent years."
> A series of other meetings and conversations between Hardin, from the
> Charles Koch Foundation, and Florida State University officials followed,
> documents indicate.
> In November 2014, Florida State University officials huddled in the office
> of newly installed university President John Thrasher for a meeting
> entitled
> "Koch briefing." Schnittker, the university spokesman, said the meeting was
> an "opportunity for our new president to be briefed by university staff
> about a gift agreement that obviously preceded his tenure." Hardin of the
> Charles Koch Foundation was not present, Schnittker said.
> Meanwhile, when officials at the Florida State University Project on
> Accountable Justice went hunting for funding, the Charles Koch Foundation
> factored into their strategy.
> The Koch brothers, after all, were telegraphing their intent to make
> criminal justice reform a personal priority, reasoning that
> "overcriminalization," like overregulation of industry, is resulting in
> more
> Americans enjoying fewer economic freedoms.
> Not everyone at the Florida State University Project on Accountable Justice
> appeared thrilled at pursuing Koch cash.
> "I know you really hate them, but we really need to send them some stuff,"
> then-Chairman Allison DeFoor wrote Executive Director Deborrah Brodsky late
> last year. "They have money. We don't."
> Reached separately by phone last week, DeFoor, an unabashed conservative,
> and Brodsky, a Canadian whose politics point more leftward, both laughed
> off
> the exchange as comedic banter between longtime colleagues.
> But they confirmed they had pursued the Charles Koch Foundation. It hasn't
> yet funded the project but did provide the organization "strategic
> support,"
> including co-hosting a forum on criminal justice.
> DeFoor would conclude, following presentations in Washington, D.C., to both
> the Charles Koch Foundation and the conservative American Legislative
> Exchange Council, that Koch interest in issues the project researches "is
> sincere, potentially aggressive and deep."
> As a small, three-year-old "research- and evidence-based" program, the
> Florida State University Project on Accountable Justice will gladly take
> money from most anyone along the ideological spectrum who's dedicated to
> its
> study of and work on criminal justice system reforms, Brodsky said. She
> counts liberal lions such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern
> Poverty Law Center and Human Rights Watch as partners.
> The Charles Koch Foundation executives declined to be interviewed
> individually. Trice Jacobson, a foundation spokesperson, instead provided a
> statement that she said "captures what we all hope to share for this
> piece."
> "Like many charities, the Charles Koch Foundation recognizes the importance
> of supporting a diversity of ideas so scholars and students can continue to
> push the frontiers of knowledge and help people discover new and better
> ways
> to live fulfilling lives," the statement read. "Our giving has expanded to
> support new research and programs on critical issues ranging from criminal
> justice reform to corporate welfare."
> In a separate statement of its "academic giving principles," the Charles
> Koch Foundation asserts that it is "committed to advancing a marketplace of
> ideas and supporting a 'Republic of Science' where scholarship is free,
> open
> and subject to rigorous and honest intellectual challenge."
> It also notes that scholars and students "who are free to teach, learn,
> research, speak, critique and receive support for their work without
> interference" are in the "best position to discover the advances that will
> help improve well-being."
> George Mason, aka Koch U
> Nowhere is expanded Koch involvement in higher education more evident than
> at George Mason University, which receives more funding from the Kochs than
> any other school.
> The large, diverse public school in northern Virginia, about 20 miles from
> the White House, today houses and lends its name to what's effectively
> Charles Koch's personal academic workshop. The Charles Koch Foundation in
> 2013 donated more than $14.4 million to George Mason University and the
> research centers it hosts. That's on top of tens of millions in Koch
> dollars
> that George Mason University and the affiliated research centers have
> collectively received in recent years.
> Charles Koch himself is a George Mason University fixture. He's the
> recipient of an honorary doctorate in science from the university, which
> boasts a student population of more than 33,700. He is a director of the
> university-based Mercatus Center - Mercatus means "market" in Latin - that
> Charles Koch Foundation Vice President Ryan Stowers described at the 2014
> Koch gathering in California as "critical" to advancing policy priorities.
> Koch also enjoys the company of several current and former George Mason
> University affiliates who play multiple roles across the Koch brothers'
> sprawling educational, corporate and political network.
> Chief among them is Gentry, who presided over the Koch's closed-door higher
> education workshop last year.
> Gentry possesses unique knowledge about the interconnectivity of the Koch's
> various interests and operations because he embodies its reach. He's a
> Charles Koch Foundation vice president and a key fundraiser for the Kochs'
> political action arm. He's a former vice president of both the Mercatus
> Center and the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. And
> today, he's even Eastern vice chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia.
> Brian Hooks, now president of the Charles Koch Foundation, is another key
> Koch network player.
> Hooks served as the Mercatus Center's executive director and chief
> operating
> officer from 2005 until 2014 and remains a Mercatus Center board member.
> The
> year Hooks took over, the Mercatus Center posted $4.9 million in total
> revenue, according to tax filings. The year he left, it posted nearly $20.7
> million.
> "Our job is to make sure that we've got a strategy for our work to have a
> disproportionate impact," Hooks said at the Kochs' conference in 2014,
> noting that the Mercatus Center is the "largest collection" of "free market
> faculty" at any university in the world. "These guys are producing research
> that groups in this network can rely on to advance economic freedom every
> single day."
> Scholarly research performed by academics at Koch-funded schools and
> programs is indeed sometimes used by Koch-backed nonprofit organizations
> that, in turn, overtly advocate for political candidates or causes.
> For instance, to support assertions made in a recent, 67-page policy paper,
> Koch-supported American Encore regularly cites and quotes Mercatus Center
> research and mentions the center nearly a dozen times.
> Among the academic work American Encore's paper highlights: a 2014 Mercatus
> Center study by Keith Hall, a senior research fellow who had previously
> served as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a 2014
> commentary about a federal regulations tracking and measurement tool by
> Patrick A. McLaughlin, another senior research fellow.
> "Yet another study has confirmed what we already knew - states with lower
> taxes do better," read an article by the Kochs' flagship nonprofit,
> Americans for Prosperity, about a study published July 7 by the Mercatus
> Center. "Overall, the rankings provide more evidence that economic freedom
> works, and bigger government means bigger trouble."
> And the 60 Plus Association, a retiree-focused nonprofit that's benefited
> from tens of millions of dollars of the Koch brothers' money over the
> years,
> for a time tapped Walter Williams, a George Mason University economics
> professor, syndicated columnist and Rush Limbaugh Show fill-in host, as a
> member of its "truth squad." His mission: to "battle" against Democrats on
> Social Security and Medicare programs.
> Congress Takes Notice
> Congress is also paying more attention to the Mercatus Center, which from
> 1999 to 2008 was mentioned by name 32 times in either the Congressional
> Record or congressional committee reports. Since 2009, it's been mentioned
> 93 times, often in reference to Mercatus Center faculty who were testifying
> before Congress.
> This year, Congress even cited Mercatus Center research in the text of
> budget bills. House Concurrent Resolution 27 and Senate Concurrent
> Resolution 11 note that a Mercatus Center study "estimates that Obamacare
> will reduce employment by up to 3 percent, or about 4 million full-time
> equivalent workers."
> Mercatus Center Vice President Carrie Conko, while declining to address
> critics' "ad hominem attacks" of Charles Koch, stressed the institution's
> work is the product of hard work and high standards - not the whims of some
> patron puppet master.
> "As a university research center, our scholarship is independent and
> subjected to rigorous peer review," Conko said. "Our researchers are
> interested in understanding what shapes societies and economies and that
> covers a spectrum of research from the history of economic thought to the
> application of economics to questions of public policy."
> Conko also noted that the Mercatus Center abides by a strong conflict of
> interest and research independence policy, which she described as "stronger
> than those of most found with typical academic centers or departments."
> Mercatus Center officials note that the center isn't part of George Mason
> University the same way as, say, its chemistry or psychology departments.
> Instead, it's organized as a stand-alone nonprofit, and as such, George
> Mason University isn't directly responsible for it.
> The Mercatus Center doesn't receive direct funding from George Mason
> University, Conko said.
> But George Mason University and its students do receive millions of dollars
> in annual financial benefit from the Mercatus Center, according to federal
> tax filings.
> That alone is a major incentive for a public university in Virginia, where
> state funding of higher education is dwindling, to host a privately funded
> operation on its campus - today, a fairly common practice among public
> schools.
> The Mercatus Center spent $3.64 million during that time to "support
> graduate students at George Mason University" by "training future scholars
> and decision-makers to advance and apply a research agenda for
> understanding
> institutions and change," according to a tax filing.
> The Mercatus Center helped fund $1.82 million worth of communication
> efforts
> that included promoting its research and ideas "to the media and opinion
> shapers."
> And it made a $10,000 grant to the Atlas Economic Research Foundation,
> which
> operates a "global network of more than 400 free market organizations."
> They
> include several Koch-backed nonprofit groups such as Americans for
> Prosperity, the American Legislative Exchange Council and Americans for Tax
> Reform.
> McAuliffe Mum?
> The Mason-Mercatus-Koch nexus may seem like rich fodder for a Democrat such
> as Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, whose national party brethren makes
> demonizing the Koch brothers a central strategy of their electoral and
> fundraising agenda.
> McAuliffe's own political committee, Common Good VA, bashed the "ultra
> right
> wing Koch Brothers" in an email earlier this month, accusing them of
> working
> against "expanding health care for all" and "ensuring a living wage."
> But McAuliffe - the outspoken former chairman of both the Democratic
> National Committee and Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign -
> declined Center for Public Integrity requests to discuss George Mason
> University's relationship with the Koch brothers.
> George Mason University's top undergraduate leader, Student Body President
> Khushboo Bhatia, also declined comment.
> University spokesman Michael Sandler explained that George Mason is among
> the nation's most diverse campuses, and "this notion of diversity and
> inclusion that is so central to our mission applies to our donors, as
> well."
> Sandler said the university appreciates the Charles Koch Foundation's
> donations, as well as those from thousands of other donors.
> "While we are grateful for all of the gifts we receive, we value academic
> freedom above all else," Sandler said. "This freedom allows our faculty and
> researchers to ask questions and make discoveries that others wouldn't
> otherwise pursue, and we will not compromise that freedom for anything or
> anyone."
> Jennifer Victor, a George Mason University politics professor who
> specializes in how individuals and groups influence government, is
> skeptical.
> George Mason University's marriage to an ideologically motivated donor with
> a policy agenda to achieve "raises some eyebrows," Victor said. "I don't
> really see what Mason gets from them, and I don't think the situation is
> healthy or consistent with the university's teaching mission."
> No Comment on Koch Funding
> Some college officials such as Sandler are willing to discuss the financial
> support their schools receive from Koch-run private foundations, with many
> emphasizing that gifts from donors, whether liberal or conservative, don't
> affect coursework or the manner in which students learn. They also note
> that
> their schools receive hundreds, and sometimes thousands of contributions
> each year from individuals, private foundations and the like.
> But it's not uncommon for other school officials to button up.
> Take Victor Nakas, a spokesman for The Catholic University of America in
> Washington, D.C.
> Posed a series of questions about the $215,000 the university received in
> 2013 from the Charles Koch Foundation, he emailed a pair of dated press
> releases announcing grants.
> "We will be unable to provide you with more than links to these
> announcements," he said.
> Follow-up messages went unreturned.
> Michael Schoenfeld, the vice president for public affairs and government
> relations at Duke University, declined to say how the school used the
> $37,000 it recently received from the Charles Koch Foundation.
> "As a rule, we do not comment on individual donors or contributions without
> the donor's permission," he explained.
> Officials at Oklahoma State University likewise offered no details about
> how
> the school used the $69,000 the Charles Koch Foundation recently gave it.
> Why the silence?
> An email exchange between two Florida State University officials, obtained
> by the Center for Public Integrity, offers a measure of explanation.
> In it, the officials indicate deep concern about the potential effects of
> releasing more information about the school's moneyed donors in response to
> activist demands.
> "[R]equiring donors to disclose more than they already do will likely
> result
> in fewer gifts and smaller gifts, and it will impose an additional
> administrative hurdle for the university," wrote Thomas W. Jennings, vice
> president for university advancement, to David Coburn, Florida State
> University chief of staff.
> Revealing donor gift agreements, even for donors who have not requested
> anonymity, might "have a negative effect on FSU's relationships with many
> of
> its donors, who don't want that kind of attention," Jennings continued.
> The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill received $115,000 from the
> Charles Koch Foundation in 2013, one of nearly 100 schools that year to
> receive a five-figure contribution from a Koch foundation.
> But that's information not easily accessed by students. Whether by design,
> happenstance or ignorance, "most individuals don't know where any of the
> university's funds come from," University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
> Student Body President Houston Summers said.
> University spokesman Jim Gregory confirmed the school received $110,000 for
> the Charles Koch Visiting Scholars Program in UNC-Chapel Hill's Philosophy,
> Politics and Economics Program, conducted in collaboration with Duke
> University. Donors are allowed to remain anonymous, if they choose.
> However, some universities are facing blowback over scant information about
> school donors from increasingly organized anti-Koch groups and activists.
> The umbrella group UnKoch My Campus, for one, has staged protests, demanded
> meetings with administrators and launched chapters at George Mason
> University and Florida State University, among others. The organization
> accuses the Kochs and their allies of undermining issues many students care
> about, such as environmental protection, workers' rights, healthcare
> expansion and public education.
> Its immediate goal, beyond convincing colleges to de-Koch themselves?
> "Transparency, because students should have the capability to be more aware
> of who's funding their school and their education, and where funding might
> conflict with student interests," said Kalin Jordan, an UnKoch My Campus
> organizer. "The universities - most don't do a good job of informing
> students at all."
> Said Colin Nackerman, a student activist at George Mason University: "You
> should know, if you're going into a classroom, that $30 million is going
> into your school from someone who wants you to think a certain way."
> Largely silent in the past, the Charles Koch Foundation has begun to push
> back at such dissenters.
> "They don't want students and scholars to expand their educational
> horizons," Hardin, the foundation's university relations director, wrote in
> a May 26 Wall Street Journal op-ed. "Rather than engage in a vigorous and
> civil debate about the merits of different ideas, they seek to prevent
> those
> with which they disagree from ever being heard."
> Liberals Give Big, Too
> If George Mason University is Charles Koch's academic playground, Bard
> College is that of Democratic bankroller George Soros, often viewed as the
> Koch brothers' pre-eminent liberal foil.
> The tiny New York liberal arts school nestled along the Hudson River is
> renowned for both scholarship and hippy-dippyness. It received more than
> $11.2 million from Soros' private foundation in 2013 - part of a $60
> million, multiyear commitment.
> But for Soros, himself a multibillionaire with wealth comparable to the
> Kochs, his contributions to Bard College aren't generally earmarked for
> core
> academics or domestic political considerations.
> Instead, Soros' money mainly helps fund Bard College's Center for Civic
> Engagement, which houses a broad portfolio of both U.S. and overseas
> programs aimed at "advancing the ideals of an innovative, hands-on liberal
> arts education through a myriad of opportunities across the globe."
> This tracks with Soros' broader tack on educational giving: The vast
> majority of his tens of millions of dollars in education-related
> contributions fund foreign schools and programs, particularly in Eastern
> Europe and the Middle East. (Soros lived his early life in Hungary, where
> as
> a Jew, he survived Nazi occupation before emigrating.)
> Among the U.S. schools Soros does aid, many of his most sizable grants are
> earmarked for programs with international goals, such as $500,000 to
> Harvard
> University funding a project on economic growth in Albania, and $159,834 to
> The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., to "develop effective
> and influential public policy leaders in Central Asia."
> Soros' foundation even gave George Mason University more than $22,500 - not
> to fund economics programs, but to organize meetings in Mexico and Peru
> about conflict reconciliation.
> "As a general rule," Soros said in 2011, "I do not support higher education
> in the United States."
> Soros does make exceptions.
> An avowed advocate of campaign finance reform, Soros has used his private
> foundations to fund certain domestic college initiatives squarely rooted in
> American politics and elections.
> One Soros foundation, for example, gave New York City's Fordham University
> $200,000 in 2013 to study the "role of money in democratic process."
> The money is part of a $1 million, multi-year grant to determine how
> disclosure of campaign money influences voters - an awfully political
> endeavor by any measure.
> But school officials say the research they conduct is free of outside
> influence and subject to the highest academic and legal reviews and
> standards.
> "None of this work is 'political' per se in terms of any ideological
> dimensions . it is all strictly nonpartisan," said Costas Panagopoulos,
> director of Fordham's Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy, who is
> leading the program.
> Penn State University's economics department in 2013 benefited from
> $150,000
> in Soros money to help build a research center focused in part on
> "interactions between new media and society."
> And the Ohio State University Research Foundation received $50,000 to
> conduct a research project aimed at better understanding the role
> independent expenditures play in federal elections and "how those
> expenditures influence the legislative process."
> Bard College officials do hear their share of criticism for taking a
> massive
> amount of money from Soros' private foundation, said Jonathan Becker, the
> school's vice president for academic affairs and director for civic
> engagement.
> But, similar to some of the schools that accept Koch money, the school's
> tenuous budget situation means that it'd take funding from just about
> anyone
> so long as the transaction was legal and wasn't intended to fund an
> initiative "antithetical to our vision," Becker said.
> That vision, in the words of its student handbook, imagines a "supportive,
> intellectually rich environment where students can engage themselves to the
> fullest while respecting all members of the community."
> So what if the Charles Koch Foundation wanted to donate $1 million to Bard
> College?
> Or $10 million?
> "We would say 'thank you,' and we would cash the check quickly," Becker
> said.
> Other Conservative Donors
> Unlike the Kochs, Soros and many other prominent political donors, both
> left
> and right of center, have charitable agendas that largely diverge from
> their
> domestic political agendas.
> Robert McNair, the Houston Texans owner who this year alone has spread $3
> million among five super PACs backing several Republican presidential
> candidates, used his private foundation to give millions of dollars to
> various medical schools and a scholarship program for doctors performing
> research in areas such as breast cancer, juvenile diabetes and
> neuroscience.
> Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, two other top-shelf Republican donors whom 2016
> presidential candidates have endlessly wooed, directed almost all of their
> university-related private foundation funding - millions of it in 2013 - to
> medical research.
> A private foundation co-run by former World Wrestling Entertainment honcho
> Linda McMahon, a major GOP donor who herself twice unsuccessfully ran
> self-funded U.S. Senate campaigns, gave its most sizable, six-figure
> contributions to substance abuse help group Liberation Programs.
> Then there's one late Republican superdonor whose philanthropy has been at
> war with his political giving: Harold Simmons.
> The Texas businessman bankrolled his eponymous foundation, but his liberal
> daughters run it. In doing so, they saw to it that Planned Parenthood - the
> ultimate Republican scourge of late - received more than $300,000 of his
> money during 2013. It's also given hundreds of thousands of dollars to
> Public Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based money-in-politics reform group
> also supported in 2013 with $300,000 from a private foundation led by
> liberal hedge fund manager Jonathan Soros, son of George Soros.
> Money the Harold Simmons Foundation did give to colleges in 2013 mostly
> went
> toward infrastructure and general operating expenses.
> University of Dayton Says "No Thanks"
> While more schools than ever are engaging with Koch foundations, at least
> one school - the University of Dayton in Ohio - has seemingly soured on
> Koch
> cash, which it has previously accepted in five-figure amounts.
> Jay Riestenberg, a research analyst at campaign reform advocacy group
> Common
> Cause and University of Dayton alumnus, earlier this year emailed the
> school's Interim Provost Paul H. Benson, asking him if the University of
> Dayton is still funded by, or seeking new funding from Koch foundations.
> Attached was an op-ed Riestenberg has written for the school's student
> newspaper. In it, he explains that his education at the small Catholic
> school inspired him to care about other people, protect the environment and
> fight for social justice.
> "UD accepting Koch funding is in clear violation of the institution's
> Catholic Marianist values," Riestenberg wrote in the April 28 email.
> Benson replied later that night. His answer: The University of Dayton no
> longer accepts Koch cash, and it will not in the future - despite the
> efforts of Koch-backed organizations.
> "There have been instances in which other foundations who are funded in
> part
> by the Koch Brothers have tried to interest us in establishing centers at
> UD," Benson wrote Riestenberg. "We have not supported those proposals,
> precisely for the reasons you cite."
> Benson declined an interview request by the Center for Public Integrity.
> In a statement, University of Dayton spokeswoman Cilla Shindell explained
> that the school did reject a recent proposal from a "foundation that is in
> part funded by the Koch family" because it "would have been structured in a
> way that would limit oversight by the university in such areas as
> curriculum
> and faculty hiring."
> She did not name the foundation.
> Kochs' Higher Education Funding Strategy
> This previously unpublished recording of Koch aides discussing education
> funding strategy with potential donors was provided to the Center for
> Public
> Integrity by The Undercurrent, an online program produced by liberal
> political activists.
> Key Kochworld Lieutenants
> Several associates of Charles and David Koch span multiple aspects of the
> billionaire brothers' political, educational, charitable and industrial
> juggernauts. Among them:
> Richard Fink is among Charles Koch's top aides. Fink is the co-founder of
> George Mason University's Mercatus Center and a current member of the
> center's board of directors. Fink has also served on the boards of several
> of Charles and David Koch's private foundations. That includes serving as
> president of the Charles Koch Foundation until 2014 and as a director for
> the Fred C. & Mary R. Koch Foundation alongside Charles and David Koch
> themselves. Fink likewise sits on the board of directors for Americans for
> Prosperity, a "social welfare" nonprofit that doesn't reveal its donors but
> spent more than $33.5 million during the 2012 election advocating against
> President Barack Obama's re-election. Fink also works as chairman and chief
> executive of Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC, the legal, government and
> public affairs wing of Koch Industries Inc.
> Kevin Gentry is vice president of the Charles Koch Foundation. He is also a
> board member for Koch-backed nonprofit Freedom Partners and vice president
> for special projects/development at Koch Companies Public Sector LLC.
> Gentry
> previously served as vice president of the Koch-funded Institute for Humane
> Studies and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and as volunteer
> faculty at the Leadership Institute, which "identifies, recruits, trains
> and
> places conservatives in government, politics and the media." In party
> politics, Gentry serves as eastern vice chairman for the Republican Party
> of
> Virginia.
> Brian Hooks is president of the Charles Koch Foundation, having been hired
> in 2014. Hooks is also a Mercatus Center board member and served as the
> Mercatus Center's executive director and chief operating officer from 2005
> until 2014.
> Wayne Gable is a board member of the Koch-funded Freedom Partners, itself a
> nonprofit that has largely provided seed money to other Koch-backed
> political nonprofits over many years. He served from 1999 to 2000 as
> president of the Charles Koch Foundation as well. Gable is also a former
> managing director of international government affairs at Koch Industries
> Inc. and a onetime registered federal lobbyist for the company. He received
> a doctoral degree in economics from George Mason University.
> Nancy Pfotenhauer served from 2010 to 2014 on George Mason University's
> Board of Visitors - a 16-member university governing body appointed by
> Virginia's governor that "exercises its authority principally in
> policy-making and oversight." She received a master's degree in economics
> from George Mason University. Pfotenhauer today serves on Americans for
> Prosperity's board of directors and runs a communications firm. She is also
> a former director of the Independent Women's Forum, which in 2010 received
> $350,000 from the Koch-controlled (and now defunct) Claude R. Lambe
> Charitable Foundation, according to IRS tax documents. She once led Koch
> Industries Inc.'s Washington, D.C., office.
> Dale Gibbens is the human resources vice president for Koch Industries Inc.
> He is a board member for Koch-backed nonprofit Freedom Partners, described
> by Politico in 2013 as "the Koch brothers secret bank." Since then, Freedom
> Partners' sister super PAC spent about $23.4 million advocating for
> Republican congressional candidates and against Democratic candidates. In
> 2014, Gibbens also helped fund the Koch Center for Leadership and Ethics at
> Emporia State University in Kansas, which is focused on "free market
> principles, leadership and ethical theories."
> Patrick Hedger is policy director for American Encore, a heavily
> Koch-backed
> political nonprofit previously known as the Center to Protect Patient
> Rights. He is a recent graduate of George Mason University, where he is
> also
> pursuing a master's degree in public policy.
> A version of this story was co-published with The Atlantic.
> This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not
> be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
> Dave Levinthal
> Dave Levinthal joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2013 to help lead
> its Consider the Source project investigating the influence of money in
> politics. For two years prior to joining the Center, Dave reported on
> campaign finance and lobbying issues for Politico and co-wrote the daily
> Politico Influence column. He also edited OpenSecrets.org from 2009 to
> 2011,
> where he led coverage that won the Online News Association's top honors in
> 2011 for best topical reporting and blogging and was a finalist the same
> year for the Scripps Howard Foundation's Distinguished Service to the First
> Amendment award. From 2003 to 2009, Dave worked for The Dallas Morning
> News,
> primarily covering Dallas City Hall also reporting on national elections
> and
> aviation security. From 2000 to 2002, he covered the New Hampshire
> Statehouse for The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence, Mass. A native of Buffalo,
> N.Y., Dave graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in newspaper
> journalism and political philosophy and edited The Daily Orange. He is also
> a two-time winner (2007 and 2010) of Canada's Northern Lights Award for his
> travel writing about the arctic.
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> of Wisconsin Corruption Measures
> By Brendan Fischer, PR Watch | Report
>
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