Campaign giving

Club for Growth and Kock nurtured Freedom Caucus 

Campaign giving helped elect members now deemed the future of the GOP. 

By  Isaac Arnsdorf

Behind the renegade clique of House conservatives who have upended the chamber recently stand a couple of familiar donors from the GOP’s far right — the Club for Growth and Kock Industries.

These powerful outside forces have helped nurture the political careers of the 37 known members of the House Freedom Caucus, the GOP group that helped usher out Speaker John Boner and thwart Kevin McCarthy’s succession, according to a POLITICO analysis done in conjunction with the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics.

The analysis shows that caucus members had strong support from industries like banking and auto dealerships that traditionally support Republican candidates. But the figures also demonstrate the influence of outside groups that have emerged as important forces in the Republican Party, sometimes colliding with its leadership over conservative principles.

The analysis, based on a review of campaign and leadership PAC donations reported by each caucus member during his or her time in Congress, shows that the Club for Growth, the free-enterprise advocacy group that claims 100,000 members, has contributed $1.77 million, or about 1 percent of the more than $175 million the caucus members raised in total. The club was the No. 1 donor for 11 members — more members than any other benefactor.

Doug Sachtleben, a Club for Growth spokesman, told POLITICO the group does not blame the Freedom Caucus for recent leadership disruptions in the House. “Our issue is not with the Freedom Caucus — we think they’re being consistent with what they campaigned on and what their constituents voted them in to do. The difficulty is the establishment side and the leadership side.”

In the leadership fight, the club had publicly expressed its support for conservative members who came under attack “for taking a stand on the principles they believe in” by a PAC affiliated with Boehner.

Koch Industries, the closely held oil and gas conglomerate out of Wichita, Kansas, contributed $599,400 over time to members now aligned with the caucus. The company’s PAC, combined with individual contributions from Kock employees, ranked as the top contributor only to Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas. But the analysis showed that it spread around enough money to be the second-biggest donor overall to caucus members. The analysis did not cover the wide network of political groups marshaled by the Kock brothers that collectively have evolved as a major funding source for Republican candidates.

Kock PAC spokesman Kenneth P. Spain said the group contributes to lots of Republicans, not just the Freedom Caucus. It gave $10.8 million in the 2014 cycle, according to data compiled by CRP.

Amid a month of palace intrigue, the Freedom Caucus, which keeps secret the names of its members, has emerged as an influential force in battles over which wing of the party will dominate House leadership. Rep. Paul Ryan, who is now considered the favorite for House speaker, has said he wants the job only if the Freedom Caucus is on board and agrees to give up a procedural tactic it threatened to use against Boehner.

Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, published a list of known caucus members that POLITICO and CRP used in the analysis.

Establishment Republicans grumble about what they see as the Freedom Caucus’ disregard for the party’s business allies and, by extension, the party’s efforts to raise money and extend its majority. But the ties to insurgent financiers like Club for Growth and Koch suggest the bloc has a capable money base of its own.

It will need it, as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has vowed to back primary challengers in the hopes of winnowing the implacable bloc.

“In the old days, the party structure and business community held a lot more sway — now the Freedom Caucus can raise more money from outside Washington by saying these Washington groups don’t contribute to them,” said a former Boehner staffer turned lobbyist. “The business community should figure out a way to talk to these guys and build relationships, because right now they look to be the future of the Republican Party.”

By industry, 7 percent of the Freedom Caucus’ donors are retirees, followed by health professionals (5 percent), according to the analysis.

The bloc’s most successful fundraiser is Steve Pearce of New Mexico, who netted $16.9 million across his career (including $347,867 from the Club for Growth and $86,000 from Koch), ranking him 38th among current House members, according to POLITICO and CRP’s analysis. Scott Garrett of New Jersey followed, with $13.6 million (including $72,500 from Koch) in 69th place.

The analysis covered only hard-money donations to campaigns and does not reflect independent spending for or against candidates in those races.

Rounding out the caucus’s top five contributors are the American Bankers Association, the National Auto Dealers Association (among the top contributors to Congress generally) and the Every Republican is Crucial PAC, or ERICPAC, which was affiliated with Majority Leader Eric Cantor before he was unseated by Freedom Caucus member Dave Brat of Virginia.

“ABA has a long history of working with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle — from freshman members to congressional leadership and everyone in between,” said James Ballentine, executive vice president of congressional relations and political affairs. “Some of these members happen to support a number of measures that are important to banks across the country.”