Jane Mayer, New Koch: Rebranding the Koch Brothers. The New Yorker, 25 January 2016. “The billionaire brothers are championing criminal-justice reform. Has their formula changed?… On the night of November 2nd [2015], well-dressed Wichita residents formed a line that snaked through the lobby of the city’s convention center. They all held tickets to the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce’s annual gala, which had drawn thirty-five hundred people. The evening’s featured speaker, Charles Koch, had lived in town almost all of his eighty years, but few locals—even prominent ones—had ever laid eyes on him. Charles, along with his brother David, owns virtually all of the energy-and-chemical conglomerate Koch Industries, which is based in Wichita and has annual revenues of a hundred and fifteen billion dollars. Charles’s secretive manner, right-wing views, and concerted campaign to exert political influence by spending his fortune have made him an object of fascination, especially in his home town. “You never see him,” one local newsman whispered.”
January 25, 2016
New Koch: Rebranding the Koch Brothers
January 25, 2016 Filed Under: Campaign Finance, Corporations, Criminal Justice, Politics, The One Percent Tagged With: alexander hertel-fernandez, american civil liberties union, Americans for Prosperity, arthur brooks (president of the american enterprise institute), center for american progress, charles koch, criminal justice reform, david axelrod, david koch, david uhlmann, environmental protection agency (e.p.a.), fraser seitel (president of public-relations firm emerald partners), jane mayer, joe scarborough, koch industries, lauren windsor, libertarian, libre initiative, mark holden, mika brzezinski, msnbc, oligarchs, rebranding image of koch brothers, republican national committee, richard fink (kochs' closest political adviser), steve lombardo, theda skocpol, united negro college fund, valerie jarrett, van jones, wichita kansas chamber of commerce