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 Post subject: Aegis Strategic picking ALEC Candidates for the Koch Empire
PostPosted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 2:56 pm 
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Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2005 8:59 am
Posts: 5796
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Aegis Strategic Is Running The Show for Libertarians which are masquerading as republicans

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... -strategic

This includes getting Koch people on the school boards,city/county commissions etc etc etc etc over and above
state legislators and congress.

Stakeholders want Fiscal Responsible Management Taxpayers are the largest group of stakeholders in Lawrence and Douglas County. Stakeholders
have the least amount of respect and input as to how are tax dollars are spent.


Last edited by Merrill on Thu Mar 26, 2015 5:09 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Aegis Strategic Is Handpicking Candidates for ALEC
PostPosted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 9:14 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 4:38 pm
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I think I saw a flying saucer when I was a kid sleeping out in my back yard. (I was sleeping in the back yard, not the flying saucer).

:D'oh:


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 Post subject: Re: Aegis Strategic Is Handpicking Candidates for ALEC
PostPosted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 1:03 pm 
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A new political consulting firm with deep ties to the Koch brothers has quietly set up shop in Arlington, Virginia. Its mission: to prevent future Todd Akins and Richard Mourdocks from tanking the Republican Party's electoral prospects. The firm, named Aegis Strategic, is run by a former top executive at Charles and David Koch's flagship advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, and it was founded with the blessing of the brothers' political advisers, three Republican operatives tell Mother Jones.

The consulting firm plans to handpick local, state, and federal candidates who share the Kochs' free-market, limited-government agenda, and groom them to win elections. "We seek out electable advocates of the freedom and opportunity agenda who will be forceful at both the policy and political levels," the company notes on its website. Aegis says it can manage every aspect of a campaign, including advertising, direct mail, social media, and fundraising.

Aegis' president is Jeff Crank, a two-time failed Republican congressional candidate who ran the Colorado chapter of Americans for Prosperity and served as the chief operating officer of the national organization. The firm's six-person staff boasts two others with connections to the Kochs. The group's lead strategist is Karl Crow, a former project coordinator for the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, where he focused "on how political advocates for economic freedom are identified, trained, and promoted," according to his bio on Aegis' website. Crow, who was scheduled to speak at an invite-only Koch donor summit in 2010 on the subject of voter mobilization, subsequently worked for Themis, the Koch brothers' voter microtargeting operation. Brad Stevens, the former state director for Americans for Prosperity-Nebraska, is Aegis' director of candidate identification.

Aegis Strategic's first client is Marilinda Garcia, a 31-year-old Republican serving her fourth term in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Last November, she launched a bid for Congress, hoping to oust freshman Democrat Rep. Ann Kuster. Garcia, who has been loudly praised by her state's Americans for Prosperity chapter, declined to comment. Crank told Mother Jones that Aegis will announce new clients in the coming months.

People who've spoken with Crank about Aegis say he told them that the firm has access to the Kochs' formidable donor network, and Aegis' website appears to allude to this. Noting the "services" it provides, the consultancy says that its fundraising team "takes on a limited number of candidates each election cycle and markets them to Aegis' exclusive fundraising network."

When asked about this statement, Crank questioned whether that language in fact appeared on Aegis' website. When informed that it did, he called it "standard marketing stuff."

Aegis Strategic comes across as an effort by the Koch brothers' allies to bring in-house the business of campaigns. On its website, Aegis bills itself as a one-stop shop for candidates who are "committed to freedom and economic opportunity," offering candidates such services as opposition research, fundraising, direct mail, TV/radio/cable advertisements, phone banking, data management, and social media. The company's office is located just blocks from Americans for Prosperity's national headquarters, the offices of various Koch-funded foundations, and Freedom Partners, the primary vehicle for anonymous money raised by the Koch donor network.

Pledging to identify and train budding conservative and libertarian candidates, Aegis potentially fills a gap that the Kochs have previously identified in their political operation. Donors and activists who are active in the Koch network say there was widespread frustration following the 2012 elections, during which the GOP had fielded so many lackluster candidates. "You can spend all the money on a candidate you want, but if they're talking about self-deportation, or betting $10,000, or 47 percent, you're gonna lose," says Stan Hubbard, a Minnesota-based radio and TV magnate who attends the Koch seminars. "You have a bad candidate, you're gonna lose."


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