Demonstrators protest in NYC on June 5, 2014 against campaign contributions by the billionaire Koch brothers. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.
By Alex Kotch
As election season heats up, business interests that have come under fire recently are funding Republican political groups that pour money into state-level elections. New quarterly financial documents reviewed by TYT show that Koch Industries, the National Rifle Association (NRA), and two contentious private prison companies are backing these GOP associations.
Koch Industries, the giant industrial conglomerate owned by the billionaire GOP megadonors Charles and David Koch, shelled out $600,000 in 2018’s first quarter to three Republican spending groups: $250,000 to the Republican Governors Association; $250,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association; and $100,000 to the Republican State Leadership Committee, which spends money on state-level campaigns, including legislative and supreme court races.
The NRA, an extreme, partisan force in politics that has been subject to boycotts and consternation since the massacre at a Parkland, Florida, high school, gave $60,000 to the Republican Governors Association and $25,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association in this year’s first quarter.
During that time period, the largest private prison company in the U.S., GEO Group, donated $25,000 to the Republican Governors Association. CoreCivic, founded by a former Tennessee Republican Party chairman and now the country’s second-largest private prison company, gave $96,000 to the Republican Governors Association and $25,000 to the Republican State Leadership Committee. It also pitched in $50,000 to the Democratic Governors Association.
The three companies and the NRA benefit from conservative state leaders who favor less regulation, lower taxes, and other big business–friendly policies. As one of the nation’s biggest polluters, Koch Industries makes more money when environmental regulations are kept to a minimum. The company has racked up roughly $737 million in fines for a slew of environmental, discrimination, workplace-safety, and other violations since 2000. The billionaire Koch brothers run a formidable, conservative political operation that spends hundreds of millions of dollars each election to help install governors likely to appoint regulators who will grant Koch Industries permits to pollute the environment, attorneys general without the appetite to prosecute Koch Industries, and state lawmakers who will cut corporate taxes and oppose unions and other pro-worker policies.
The NRA, which represents gun manufacturers, is opposed to virtually all gun regulations and wants to elect governors and attorneys general who don’t support restrictions on gun purchases or other gun control measures. In the wake of the Parkland shooting, the NRA’s harsh reaction, which included a full-throated defense of automatic rifles and a public campaign against teenage survivors, has caused boycotts, and while the gun group saw an upsurge in donations after Parkland, its finances are still shaky, according to MarketWatch.
GEO Group is based in Florida, which is holding a gubernatorial contest, and likely wants a governor who’s eager to give the company lucrative contracts and is willing to overlook the company’s numerous wage, labor, and discrimination violations and alleged slavery. The company has operations around the country, especially concentrated in the Deep South, California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Over the past few years, GEO Group has donated to several Republican Party state groups.
CoreCivic, which has its fair share of violations, is based in Tennessee, which also has a gubernatorial election in 2018. The business has facilities in many states, including where it appears to have the most, Colorado, which is also holding a governor’s race this year.
Alex Kotch is an investigative reporter whose work has previously appeared in International Business Times, Vice.com, and Exposed by CMD. Follow him on Twitter.
Follow TYT Investigates on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to stay on top of exclusive news stories from The Young Turks.