"Does Ann Arbor have its own Koch brothers and sisters? You’d better believe it."

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When the Koch Bros. Walk, People Listen
By P.D. Lesko, August 24, 2014

THE KOCH BROS. last week pulled $1.1 million in ads buys in the metro-Detroit marketplace. Well, not the Koch brothers themselves. They work through intermediaries. A powerful group funded by the Koch brothers pulled $1.1 million in ad buys last week. Freedom Partners, which had booked about $1.1 million in The canceled buy included $800,000 in spending just in the Detroit media market.

It was reported in the Detroit newspapers that at a campaign stop in Detroit last month, Rep. Gary Peters, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Michigan, invoked the Republican mega-donor duo Charles and David Koch, who have become the arch-villain avatars of outside money’s influence in politics.

“As you know, we are in a very, very tough race. An awful lot of money is being spent, millions and millions of dollars have already been spent,” Peters said. “… I feel like I’m not really running against [Republican] Terri Land, I feel like I’m running against the Koch brothers.”

Rep. Peters leads opponent Terri Lynn Land by four percentage points according to a recent poll by Real Clear Politics. The Republican firm Harper Polling found Peters leading Land by just one point. These are not exactly insurmountable numbers, but nonetheless Washington, DC media jumped on the Koch brothers’ move as a signal that they have concluded their money will be spent more wisely elsewhere.

Even without Michigan, Republicans have multiple paths to capture the six seats they need to give their party a majority in the Senate.

Democrats shouldn’t pop open the bubbly and celebrate the Koch brothers’ money being taken out of play in our state just yet. The group Ending Spending has bought up $650,000 of new air time in Michigan, with more on the way, according to an article in the Washington Examiner. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has purchased nearly $1.5 million in television advertising beginning Aug. 26, The Hill reported last week.The group purchased cable and broadcast slots in the Detroit and Grand Rapids media markets expected to run between Aug. 26 through Sept. 22.

The obvious message is that groups willing to pour money into Michigan believe Terri Lynn Land still has a strong chance of defeating Peters.

The bottom line is that while Rep. Peters’s campaign is picking up speed, Republicans are pouring money into the race hoping that Peters will plow right into a wall of third-party ad buys. Meanwhile, The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is hoping to do the same thing to Terri Lynn Land. That group has $5 million reserved for Michigan this Fall.

Terri Lynn Land has more cash on hand than Peters, because of her ability to self-fund.

One particularly interesting aspect to such donations is that while local Democrats understand why it’s a blow to Democracy for the Koch brothers to pour money into political races, there was little media coverage about donations to Ann Arbor’s political candidates during the primary election from local entities and people intent on buying local elections and access to local politicians.

Does Ann Arbor have its own Koch brothers and sisters? You’d better believe it. There was even a big endorsement mailing prior to the Aug. 5 primary election from an entity that wasn’t registered as a company, PAC or charity doing business in our state. It was a front for an individual and his personal PAC. Sound like a page out of the Koch brothers book? You bet it was.
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