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Comment by anarazel | Hacker News Reader

Main Koch PAC:

https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=...

  Total Independent Expenditures: $41,016,106
    For Democrats: $92,936
    Against Democrats: $8,887,525
    For Republicans: $32,035,645
    Against Republicans: $0

Koch industry donations:

https://www.opensecrets.org/search?order=desc&q=Koch+Industr...

Edit: Added link showing recent Koch Industry donations

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That’s actually not very much compared to someone like Bloomberg.

The interesting aspect here is not so much the amount as it is the one-sidedness.

It shows Koch is still very actively making the same mistake.

Now that Trump lost, I want to be seen as the good one. Tho I also want to actually do the same thing I have done before.

I mean, these guys are all sociopaths, so what should one expect?

Funding one side more than the other is not quite the same as contributing to partisanship. For example, he could be focused on funding more moderate candidates he thinks will build bridges.

The Koch's political funding goes far beyond just this one PAC fyi. Their funneling of millions into the Federalist Society and its individual causes serving as just one example that has had an outsized negative influence on the health of American democracy.

More than amount, I'm impressed by the strategy, focus, and long term commitment. They've played 4D chess while my Democrats are amnesiacs still trying to grasp checkers.

I recalled this story [0] where the Koch brothers said they would organize $1 billion to conservative groups for the 2016 election.

[0] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/koch-brothers-network-will-spen...

Important follow-up story the next year. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/05/the-koch-brother... “The Koch Brothers Were Supposed to Buy the 2016 Election: What happened?”

As the article notes, Trump (who was not Koch-backed) won with very little spending compared to his big-money backed conventional GOP opponents. They decided to step back and spend less in 2016 as a result, since they didn’t support either Trump or Hillary.

I'm glad he's spending money to help fight climate change but it's gross how much the wealthy can influence elections and policy. If I have to choose, obviously I want that money to go toward making the world a better place for everyone, but I'd rather not have to choose at all.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-01/billionai...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/10/billio...

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