Koch says Dems asked for donations
Koch Industries, whose conservative leaders are the regular subject of Democratic attacks, says it received an interesting letter from the campaign arm of the Senate Democratic caucus.
The energy and manufacturing conglomerate claims the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is asking the company for money -- even though the group regularly slam the company's leaders, billionaire conservatives Charles and David Koch. Philip Ellender, president of government and public affairs for Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC, posted a letter on the site Kochfacts.com that is addressed to Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the DSCC chairwoman.
Ellender alleges that he received a letter from Murray on June 17 asking for a five-figure contribution to the DSCC. Ellender wrote that he also received a voicemail from Murray indicating that a large enough donation would earn Koch Industries an invitation to join Democrats at a retreat in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. The web page includes a link to the recording of Murray.
"I'm hoping you can help me understand the intent of your request because it's hard not to conclude that DSCC politics have become so cynical that you actually expect people whom you routinely denounce to give DSCC money," Ellender wrote.
The DSCC has disparaged the Koch brothers repeatedly in their fundraising solicitations. In an email sent to supporters on June 24, Sen. Barbara Boxer wrote, "The stakes are too high to let the Koch Brothers and the right-wing secret money machine continue their radical right-wing agenda."
The DSCC and its House counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, sent at least 11 other similar emails to their supporters in the month of June. Democrats and their liberal supporters have vilified the Koch brothers for funding conservative activism. The two financiers, for instance, fund the group Americans for Prosperity, which played an active role supporting the conservative side of the debate over union rights in Wisconsin earlier this year.
