Super Kock Block...

Democratic ‘Super PAC’ to Take On Kock Brothers

By Maggie Haberman

A “super PAC” that focuses on opposition research is planning to invest heavily in efforts to tie Republican candidates to the Kock brothers, oil tycoons whom Democrats have maligned in the last three national elections.

The strategy by American Bridge 21st Century, a group founded by David Brock, a Hillary Rodham Clinton ally, represents a redoubling of efforts that have had mixed results in recent election cycles and ignited some controversy.

It comes as Kock officials, who support Republicans in national races, have indicated that they plan to spend more than $900 million on the 2016 campaign through their network. The brothers have been criticized by Democrats for financing conservative groups and funneling money into efforts to fight key parts of President Obama’s agenda.

Democrats have refused to let up on the Kock brothers for the last six months, led in part by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the outgoing minority leader. And officials with American Bridge, which was pivotal to 2012 efforts to tie Republicans to contentious remarks about “legitimate rape” by Representative Todd Akin when he ran for the Senate in Missouri, argue there is clear evidence that laying out a case against the Kocks is effective.

Their ambitious plan will involve a surgical focus on statements, interviews and activities related to Kock Industries and to their political activities, including the Libre Initiative, which is focused on Hispanic voters.

The American Bridge plan, which has a budget of roughly $4 million, includes hiring 10 more opposition researchers and a press person focused solely on this topic in a “war room”-style campaign, as well as extensive polling and focus groups.

The effort is as much about picking at the Kock operations as it is getting in their heads – Bridge officials proudly talk about how they tracked down information from David Kock’s unsuccessful run for president as a libertarian in 1980.

A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton did not comment on the effort. But two people privy to her thinking said she approves broadly of Democrats highlighting the Kocks and tethering them to a policy agenda that critics argue is anti-environment and flows from pools of so-called “dark money.”

The Kocks — David and his older brother, Charles — have indicated that they may give money to several Republican candidates running for president in the primaries, although they are believed to have the closest ties to Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

“We have evidence from both private polling and last year’s Michigan Senate race that the Kocks’ support is a liability when voters know their agenda and their motives,” Mr. Brock said. “It’s our job to tell them.”

Beyond denouncing the brothers as a symbol of the era of unlimited spending in campaigns, American Bridge is seeking to tie the Kocks to policies that affect voters’ lives.

“You have to connect three dots — the Kocks’ anti-government agenda to how that benefits their bottom line to how their businesses hurt workers in specific communities,” Mr. Brock said. “It isn’t easy — you need slam-dunk research. That’s why we’re making this investment.”

Ken Spain, a spokesman for Kock Industries, dismissed the American Bridge efforts.

“Kock Industries and our 60,000 American employees are focused on driving innovation and improving people’s lives,” Mr. Spain said.

“Our company remains committed to making products that people value and use every day, and maintaining our commitment to help our communities and the disadvantaged, including our work on criminal justice reform,” he added. “False and misleading attacks on Kock Industries, its shareholders, and our thousands of hard-working employees, will be as unsuccessful as they were in 2014.”

The evidence of whether such campaigns work is in dispute.

The efforts to paint the Kocks negatively and to make them boogeymen of the right began in earnest in 2010. Mr. Reid has been deeply critical of the Kocks for the last 18 months, continuing his attacks even after Democratic losses in the midterm elections.

Some Democrats have questioned whether the efforts are worthwhile, amid cries of McCarthyism from Republicans over the continuing attacks on two private citizens.

Yet even as the Kocks and Republicans wave off the attacks, the brothers have made an effort to soften their images in the media in the last six months. David Kock recently gave an interview to the radio host Larry Kudlow, in which he spoke extensively about his financial support of cancer research and cultural institutions in New York City.

Geoff Garin, a pollster working with American Bridge, said he has done extensive research going back to 2012 in states where the Kocks were engaged, including a “large-scale survey” last August.

While voters may not be able to easily identify the Kocks, television ads that talked about their role in elections broke through to voters, Mr. Garin said.

“If you’re a voter, to know them is to be unfavorable to them,” Mr. Garin said. For voters, the questions go beyond just that they spend heavily in elections, he added.

In places like New Hampshire, where a Republican, Scott Brown, was defeated by Senator Jeanne Shaheen last year, Mr. Garin said that voters knew two things at the end of the campaign – that Mr. Brown had come from Massachusetts to run there, and that “he was supported by these two out-of-state oil billionaires.”