Monday, October 27, 2014
It calls itself the 60 Plus Association and describes itself as "a non-partisan, conservative leaning seniors organization." In fact, it's one of the Koch Brothers' spider web of organizations with names that make them sound like a bunch of regular folks who've come together to fight for what makes America great — Americans for Prosperity, American Commitment, Concerned Women for American Action and on and on — but are funded by the Koch Brothers and their ultra-rich friends. And it's spent $304,000 to put up an attack ad against Terry Goddard.
If you want to learn more about 60 Plus Association, its dark money political operations and its links to the Koch Brothers and their Arizona money funneler Sean Noble, read AZ Blue Meanie's excellent post on Blog for Arizona, complete with links to other articles and a visual of the whole interconnected $400 million Koch Brothers political network.
The ad is 30 seconds connecting Goddard to Obama: "Instead of fighting for us, Goddard fights for Obama's policies." You know, policies like immigration reform and ObamaCare. It's so cliched and cartoonish, it should be laughable, but with $304,000 worth of repetition, it may be effective. It bears a striking resemblance to an ad the group put out during the primary campaign targeting Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Smith, which begins with the words, "What do Scott Smith and Obama have in common?" The answer is, Smith supports Medicaid expansion, just like Obama. And then there's the group's ad against DuVal, where the link is to Hillary Clinton, not Obama.
When it's not attacking politicians in Arizona and elsewhere, including Republicans who aren't Tea Party enough, the 60 Plus Association likes to go after the EPA: "New Report Shows EPA Regulations Will Raise Electricity Rates For Florida Seniors"; "Energy Bills Challenge Alabama’s Senior Citizens"; "New Report: Seniors Will Bear Brunt of Proposed EPA Regulations." Remember, the Koch Brothers made their fortune in oil and would have made more if all those pesky environmental regulations hadn't gotten in the way. They would love to defang or dismantle the EPA.
Goddard has made dark money one of his campaign's primary target. It's no surprise the dark moneyed forces would throw their cash into a campaign to keep him out of office.
Tags: Terry Goddard , 60 Plus Association , Koch Brothers , Sean Noble , Fred DuVal , Scott Smith