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Donors Who Fund Koch Brothers’ Causes Say They’re Tired of Being ‘Demonized’


David Koch, shown at a Metropolitan Museum of Art gala in New York in May, and his brother Charles convened a weekend gathering of donors to causes the pair support.
Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Secrecy lifts a bit at biannual Koch conference and some donors tell their side of the story

By
Patrick O’Connor
Aug. 3, 2015 10:25 a.m. ET

DANA POINT, Calif.— Steve Hamilton owns a company that manufactures complex lab equipment. He employs 650 people in Reno, Nev. And he doesn’t like being portrayed as a villain.

Mr. Hamilton is one of the 450 donors who attended a weekend gathering hosted by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. Like many of his cohorts, Mr. Hamilton doesn’t appreciate how the group is depicted.

“I’m tired of being demonized as just one of these rich guys,” Mr. Hamilton said. “So, I decided to stand up for what I believe in. I decided to stand up and fight with the Koch brothers.”

The biannual Koch conference has long been shrouded in secrecy, stirring speculation and garnering derision for a group of donors who finance a web of conservative causes. This year, for the first time in its 12-year history, the organizers invited a handful of reporters to attend on the grounds they not identify donors without their consent. The Wall Street Journal agreed to the arrangement.

On Sunday, Mr. Hamilton and a crowd of 20 or so donors agreed to talk to the press about their involvement with the network, lifting the veil however slightly on a group of influential conservatives about whom very little is known. Many of the donors who agreed to speak to reporters were business owners who were drawn to the group’s free-market message and its role as a liberal foil.

Michael Shaughnessy first learned about the group when he drove past a group of protesters outside an earlier Koch gathering in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He asked his friend Josh Mandel, Ohio’s state treasurer, about the group and eventually got an invitation to one of their meetings. He now organizes his own twice-yearly meetings to recruit other Cleveland-area conservatives to join the broader Koch network.

“I was desperately looking for some way to do something significant, and not just write a $2,700 check,” Mr. Shaughnessy said, referring to the maximum donation individuals can give a candidate in a single election.

Bill O’Neill long shared a common worldview with the Kochs, as an avid fan of Ayn Rand and a member of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank co-founded by Charles Koch. But he was unaware of the Koch network until Mr. Shaughnessy recruited him to attend one of his introductory events in Cleveland.

Mr. O’Neill likes the group because it isn’t just focused on election results and short-term campaigns but rather on broadly influencing society as a whole. “They’re looking at much longer time horizons,” he said.

The focus of this weekend’s event was the need to remedy the country’s economic disparities, a stark departure from popular perceptions of the group. Charles Koch warned of specter of a two-tiered society in which government regulations and other laws favor the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class. Policy discussions centered on the need to overhaul the criminal justice system to be more forgiving for nonviolent offenders. He even likened the group’s efforts in support of individual liberty to the Civil-rights movement.

“Look at the American Revolution, the antislavery movement, the women’s suffrage movement, the Civil-rights movement,” Mr. Koch told donors during an early afternoon session. “All of these struck a moral chord with the American people. They all sought to overcome an injustice. And we, too, are seeking to right injustices that are holding our country back.”

At a later session, the chief executive of Koch Industries acknowledged his own privileged upbringing in lauding those people who rise above poverty to graduate from college and achieve professional success. He devoted the keynote speech to Michael Lomax, president of the organization formerly known as the United Negro College Fund, who stressed the importance of historically black colleges and encouraged the assembled donors to support those schools.

Longtime attendees played down the group’s political ambitions, stressing its effort to make longer-term changes.

“I know a lot of the discussion and questions at today’s meetings have been about the elected leaders who also happen to be candidates for president,” said Art Pope, a North Carolina conservative activist and businessman. “But the effort has not been about electing presidents or electing governors or senators. It’s been about making policy changes for a positive, free society.”

This year’s conclave drew the most attendees ever since Charles Koch organized the first such event in Chicago in 2003. Donors are required to contribute at least $100,000 a year to the causes Charles Koch and his brother David promote.

But that isn’t the only cost. As groups financed by the Kochs played a bigger role backing Republican candidates, the brothers and their affluent allies have endured regular derision from top Democrats and other liberal allies.

The gathering showcased five Republicans running for the presidency, as well as a number of senators, congressman and governors, including South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory. Many of the donors interviewed Sunday acknowledged their natural affiliation with the GOP but expressed misgivings about the party.

“I don’t like to be considered a Republican,” said Bob Fettig, a Wisconsin business owner who has been attending the gatherings for years. “I’m proud to be affiliated with the group because it’s more about principles.”

Mr. Hamilton echoed that sentiment. He welcomed Charles Koch’s call to end corporate subsidies, even though it may cause heartburn for other business owners. Mr. Hamilton wants to see an overhaul of the tax system that would lower the corporate tax rate.

The chief executive of Hamilton Company, attending his fourth Koch event, relishes the camaraderie of these events and said he was frustrated with attacks on the organizers.

“I think they’ve been wrongfully demonized,” Mr. Hamilton said. “It’s a wonderful family.”

Copyright ©2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/donors-who-fund-koch-brothers-causes-say-theyre-tired-of-being-demonized-1438611929 [with comments]


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