Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker had some big money behind his Tuesday recall victory, with 14 billionaires giving to his campaign.
Missing from that list? Charles and David Koch, America's richest brothers. That hasn't stopped the conservative billionaires and prolific political donors from being linked to Walker's win.
On Wednesday, Obama strategist David Axelrod tweeted: "Billionaire Koch Bros ALONE gave Walker nearly double what Barrett raised IN TOTAL & lined up millions more."
That same day, the New York Times published a recall postmortem claiming "some of the same corporate interests and personalities who are active in financing Mr. Romney’s campaign nationally helped funnel cash to Mr. Walker, including David H. Koch and Charles G. Koch, two billionaire industrialists."
The Times story has since been revised, with that paragraph removed, probably for good reason: If the Koch brothers funneled millions to Walker, it certainly wasn't in their own names.
The official word from Koch Industries is that neither of the two -- worth a combined $50 billion -- gave a dollar to Walker's cause.
"No contributions were received by the Walker recall campaign from either Charles Koch or David Koch," said spokesperson Melissa Cohlmia. A trawl of Walker's campaign finance disclosures corroborates that claim.
What the Kochs and their spokespeople aren't saying, however: whether they helped boost Walker's campaign coffers via Americans for Prosperity, the tax-exempt nonprofit David founded.
While the younger Koch chairs the separate Americans for Prosperity Foundation, his handlers are generally careful to distance him from AFP itself.
In this instance, it's easy to see why. AFP spent $3 million on ads ahead of the recall as well as providing 75 staffers for door-knocking purposes, encouraging voters to choose Walker. The Wisconsin chapter of AFP also launched a four-day, 10-city bus tour directly preceding Tuesday’s vote and set up a web petition to Stand With Scott Walker.
And the Kochs have much to gain from anti-union Walker. Their business interests in Wisconsin include a branch of their pulp and paper giant Georgia-Pacific, a coal subsidiary, timber plants and a pipeline network.
The brothers have also been unfavorably linked to Walker in the past, although through no fault of their own. Last year, Walker was prank called by a blogger posing as David Koch. When the fake Koch offered to fly the Governor to California to thank him for his union-crushing efforts, Walker jumped at the chance.
AFP isn't required to disclose the donors behind its multimillion-dollar Walker ad spend. The Supreme Court's controversial Citizens United ruling is often blamed for allowing billionaire donors their anonymity. This isn't exactly the case: AFP has always been allowed to raise unlimited amounts without naming benefactors.
Instead, since 2010, Citizens United has made it possible for nonprofits like AFP to raise these millions from anyone, anywhere -- including from corporations and unions -- to spend directly on political campaigns, like Walker's. Nonprofits like AFP can use their general treasury funds for what the Supreme Court dubbed "electioneering communications", like the AFP's $3 million of ads.
So, the Kochs are telling the truth. Neither Charles nor David wrote a check to Walker. The New York Times was right to quietly correct its story, and Axelrod's tweet was out of line. If the billionaire brothers contributed to AFP ahead of Walker's win, neither party is obliged to confirm it.
If there's any lesson to be learned from Wisconsin, it's not that America's super-rich can sway an election. They've always been able to do that, and without revealing their identities. It's that they can do so unrestricted by the provenance of their cash and without having to conceal their motives.
As the general election heats up, watch for Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS -- the tax-exempt nonprofit sister of the strategist's billionaire-backed American Crossroads Super PAC -- to start spending big on Obama attack ads. The ads might just be paid for by billionaires, as American Crossroads' campaigns certainly are, but they're not telling.
