The political network overseen by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch plans to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, an unparalelled effort by outside groups to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the most expensive in history.
The goal, revealed Monday at the Kochs’ annual winter donor retreat near Palm Springs, Calif., would effectively allow their political organization to operate at the same financial scale as the Democratic and Republican parties. In the last presidential election, the Republican National Committee and the party’s two congressional campaign committees spent a total of $657 million.
The network’s $889 million budget includes spending on both the presidential campaign and congressional races, and would be financed by donors as well as the Koch brothers themselves.
The Kochs and their advisers have already built a robust political operation that includes a data and analytics firm, a state-focused issue-advocacy group and affinity groups aimed at young voters and Hispanics.
Conservative donors recruited by the billionaire businessmen — hundreds of whom joined them in California this weekend for three days of issue seminars, strategy sessions and mingling with rising Republican stars — represent the largest single concentration of political money outside the two established parties, and one that has achieved enormous power within Republican circles in recent years.
Now their network will embark on its largest drive ever to influence legislation and campaigns across the country, leveraging Republican control of Congress and the party’s dominance of state Capitols to push for deregulation, tax cuts and smaller government. In 2012, the Kochs’ network spent just under $400 million, an astonishing sum at the time.
The group’s budget, disclosed by an attendee at the Palm Springs conference, reflects an increase in the ambition and reach of the Koch operation, which has sought to distinguish itself from other groups by emphasizing the role of donors over consultants and political operatives.
And unlike the parties, the Koch network is constructed chiefly out of nonprofit groups that are not required to disclose their donors. Among other advantages, it makes it almost impossible to tell how much of the money is provided by the Kochs — who are among the wealthiest men in the country — and how much by other donors.
Roughly 300 wealthy businessmen and philanthropists, many of whom are not traditional Republican givers, belong to a trade organization overseen by Koch advisers, Freedom Partners. The association organizes the conference and helps corral contributions for Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, a national grass-roots organization, and Concerned Veterans for America, which organizes conservative veterans.
In his welcoming remarks on Saturday, Charles Koch spoke of his efforts and the vast sums he and his brother have invested to combat what they see as an overweening federal government
“Much of our efforts to date have been largely defensive to slow down a government that continues to swell and become more intrusive – causing our culture to deteriorate,” Mr. Koch said. “Making this vision a reality will require more than a financial commitment,” he added. “It requires making it a central part of our lives.”
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