The shape of Koch’s political operations in Kansas may be old news to long-time Kansans, but quite a bit of it was new to me. #
IMO, the really interesting point here is that in Kansas, the company’s ideological proxies are strongly associated with its household name and resistance to Koch-backed organizations may be stronger than it is in parts of the country where the company is not a well-known political player. To wit: #
The ferment being brewed by Koch-financed groups like Americans for Prosperity is paralyzing Washington and preventing the nation from dealing realistically with its many challenges. But in the Koch brothers’ own stomping grounds, their money and ideology are frequently trumped by fairness and common sense. #To reach this conclusion, KC Star columnist Barbara Shelly cites one example I noted here earlier this year and points out that another Koch-backed group, American Legislative Exchange Council, has pushed state-level legislatures to reject parts of the federal health care reform package. When it came time to balance the state budget earlier this year, the Kansas legislature chose to raise taxes to pay for necessary spending on education, health and other basic infrastructure—and Kansas voters, for the most part, have rewarded that choice. As importantly, according to the Star column, the anti-HCR push has already failed here in Kansas even as it has moved forward in other states. #
