16 The Nation. August 26/September 2 ,1996

before die report was issued. It now looks like those concerns were well founded.” (Again, according to committee sources, Petrodollar Scholars neither Dole nor his staff had ever taken the panel up on its offer to let them examine the evidence.) n illionaire oilmen Charles and are fast join- Over the next six years, the Kochs showered the G.O.P. with I I ing the Scaifes. the Olins, the Bradleys and the_Smith- more than $340,000 in campaign contributions from the Koch K Richardsons as major funding sources for the conserva- Industries PAC and from their individual donations. KochPAC | | tive movement’s powerful “third stream” of political gave $18,000 to Dole and $5,000 to Nickles. On a personal level, U money, channeled from philanthropic foundations into sent $1,000 to the Kassebaum re-election cam­ right-wing causes. The Koch foundations now lavish $4 mil- J paign in 1990 and contributed $2,000 to Dole. In 1991 David lion to S5 million a |year on anti-regulatory “free market” I Koch contributed $ 1,000 to Nickles and the maximum $2,000 think tanks and other groups. 1 to Dole’s primary and general election campaigns. Koch em­ At a recent conference, vice president ployees kicked in $23,950 for Dole. Koch-supported think tanks outlined the Kochs’ strategy of investing in each also coordinated more closely with Republicans. stage of idea development—from academic research and the In 1993 Charles Koch donated $1,000 to Boren, the sole Dem­ recruitment of young scholars, to think tanks for refining ideas into policy, to “implementation” groups that push the ocrat in the Koch Oil Four. Then, after Boren retired in 1994 to concepts into reality. “We at the Koch Foundation view them become president of the University of , die Kochs’ as complementary institutions, each critical for social trans­ largesse followed him. According to an internal Koch memo, formation,” Fink stated. the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence had been identified To advance their jgbals, the Kochs have entered into a as “David Boren’s puppy.” So Koch Industries gave the group pragmatic alliance with Republican politicians. In the early $50,000 in September 1994, In June 1995, Koch Industries boost­ '■ - 1990s, for instance, the Kochs gave $300,000 to Citizens for ed Boren in his new job as O.U. president by contributing Congressional Reform, which was supporting state initia­ $150,000 to O.U.’s College of Medicine and Children’s Hospital. tives to impose Congressional term limits, then a key G.O.P. As for Dole, in the years following his help in the Indian oil tactic for breaking Democratic control of Congress. The case, Charles and David Koch have raised hefty sums for him and Kochs did so even though term limits would seem to con- for other Republican Senate candidates to aid him. In October .. ffict with their libertarian philosophy. 1994, for instance, with Dole trying to nail down a G.O.P. Senate The Koch-founded Cato Institute, too, bas expanded its majority, the Kochs organized a “joint fund-raising representa­ Washington influence by working with G.O.P. free-market de­ tive,” called^itizens for Economic Growtjn to solicit ICoch busi­ votees such as House majority leader Dick Armey. From 1986 ness associates and collect izuojTW for Republicans in four to 1994, the three Koch foundations gave Cato $11.9 million pivotal Senate races: Rod Grams of Minnesota, of Ok­ as the think tank attacked social welfare programs and gov­ lahoma, Craig Thomas of Wyoming and Jan Stoney of Nebraska. ernment handouts. On October 29,1994, Bob Dole attended the gala candidates’ In 1984 Fink fouiided a new anti-regulatory group. Citi­ dinner at Charles Koch’s home in Wichita. “The event not only zens for a Sound Economy, which has received more than offers another example of how Dole and his connections are fill­ $9.3 million from Koch foundations. C.S.E. is now an im­ ing the coffers of G.O.P. Senate hopefuls this fall, but it also shows portant weapon in the assault on government interference in the sorts of tactics being used to gamer cash from special inter­ business, from environmental rules to agencies testing foods ests in the closing weeks of the campaign," the Minneapolis Star and medicines. C.S.E. is now chaired by C. Boyden Gray, Tribune reported. Of the four Republicans, all but Stoney won, P resident Bush’s counsel. With Koch Industries a major oil company, the Kochs’ victories that helped give the G.O.P. narrow control of the Senate investment in C.S.E. has paid dividends to the corporate and made Dole the new majority leaden—------“ ------— bottom line. In 1993, C.S.E. organized national pressure That same year, when Dole’^B etter America Foundation against President Clinton’s proposed energy tax, known as the was soliciting money, Charles Koch was there again with his B. T.U. tax. “Our belief is that the tax, over time, may have checkbook. The chairman of Koch Industries gave $225,000, destroyed our business,” Fink told The Wichita Eagle. While the second-largest contribution. But after the special-interest the Koch foundations could not legally lobby against the tax, fundraising drew public criticism in 1995, Dole closed down the C. S.E. rallied public opposition, especially in Oklahoma, foundation and returned some of the money. where then-Senator David Boren agreed to help kill it. C.S.E. has served as a direct Republican resource, too. The Criminal Cases In 1995 Bob Dole asked Gray to write the G.O.P regulatory reform bill, Congressional Quarterly reported. The initia­ I I et despite the four senators’ intervention, the Indian oil case tive sought a broad rollback of government regulations and I I refused to die a quiet death. Into the early 1990s, Koch was contained a provision to undercut the E.P.A.’s enforcement ■ still facing the federal criminal investigation in Oklahoma of antipollution laws. Noting a pending environmental suit | City, which could have led to indictment of the corporation against Koch Industries, some critics claimed the clause could I and possibly of senior executives. Nancy Jones, the assistant have shielded the company from liability. The rollback bill U.S. Attorney in charge, had found “probable cause to believe was slopped by a Democratic filibuster, R.P. that Koch Oil...was engaged in corporate directed theft from Government lands and non-government lands, involving inter-

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