Brown thanks conservative billionaire David Koch for campaign donations
The liberal blog Think Progress has posted exclusive video of US Senator Scott Brown thanking conservative billionaire David Koch for supporting Brown’s campaign last year — and asking him for help in his re-election.
“Your support during the election, it meant a ton,” the Massachusetts Republican is shown telling Koch. “It made a difference and I can certainly use it again.”
Koch and his brother, Charles, are known for multi-million dollar contributions to conservative and libertarian political causes. In what has become a well-publicized example of the power of the Koch brothers, a prankster calling the office of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was recently able to get the embattled governor on the phone by pretending he was David Koch.
According to Think Progress: “David Koch directly gave the National Republican Senatorial Committee $30,400 in November 2009, [two months before Brown was elected] and the Koch Industries PAC threw in $15,000 to NRSC plus $5,000 more directly to Brown right before Brown’s special election.”
The video of Brown was shot on Friday by Think Progress blogger Brad Johnson, using a small Flip camera at the dedication of the David H. Koch Integrative Cancer Institute at MIT, Johnson said today by telephone.
An online biography says Johnson is the climate editor at American Progress. He graduated from both Amherst College and Massachusetts Institute for Technology. Before joining Think Progress, the bio says, the former Boston resident was a developer for Saatchi & Saatchi, Lextranet, and the Democratic National Committee.
The video also captures Brown appearing to contradict himself on the subject of politics.
In public appearances, the senator says that he's not interested in politicking right now, that there will be time for it in 2012 — his re-election year.
Yet in the video, Brown tells Koch he's politicking right now.
“I’m in the cycle right now,” Brown tells Koch. “We’re already banging away."
About Political Intelligence
Glen Johnson is Politics Editor at boston.com and lead blogger for "Political Intelligence." He moved to Massachusetts in the fourth grade, and has covered local, state, and national politics for over 25 years. E-mail him at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen. |
