April 16, 2012

New Online Documentary: Koch Brothers, Tiny Number of Plutocrats, Set to Make 2012 “The Great Election Bought And Sold”

New Online Documentary: Koch Brothers, Tiny Number of Plutocrats, Set to Make 2012 "The Great Election Bought And Sold" The election this year is shaping up to be the biggest spending spree since the Gilded Age. In an era of Citizens United, a small number of billionaires on both the right and left are stepping up to funnel tens, potentially hundreds, of millions of dollars to elect either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. A new documentary by Bob Abeshouse explores this dynamic while focusing on the efforts of petrochemical oligarchs, David and Charles Koch.

Republic Report’s own Lee Fang is featured in the video, which can be found online:

Meanwhile, the Kochs are rounding up hundreds of millions of dollars for the 2012 elections. In January, they held another of their secret meetings with wealthy conservatives at a lush resort in Palm Springs, California. New attendees included the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who with his family has given $16.5m to the Super PAC backing Newt Gingrich, and Foster Friess, a wealthy financier supporting Rick Santorum in the Republican primaries.

Obama is doing his best to raise a billion dollars for the presidential race, and break all fundraising records. But Lee Fang, an investigator with the Republic Report, told reporter Bob Abeshouse that the “Kochs will have a tremendous impact. On a larger scale this election will come down to a few billionaires: a couple on the left supporting the Democrats, and a lot on the right supporting the Republicans. I think in 2013 people will look back on this election as the greatest one bought and sold.”

Watch the new al Jazeera documentary here:

Republic Report was the only media outlet to report from the secret Koch gathering last in January. We were kicked out of the hotel, but managed to figure out a number of the billionaire financiers who were in attendance. We’ve had subsequent reports on how big money continues to flow freely through our election system.