Watchdog’s Comment: Will America become Koch Brothers, Inc.?
Americans for Prosperity was founded by David H. Koch of Koch Industries. Koch and his wife, Julia, are major GOP contributors: They have donated more than $2 million to federal candidates and party organizations since 1990, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Koch also ran for vice president on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980, and currently serves on the board of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, according to his biography on the AFP website.
The group’s president is Tim Phillips, a Republican campaign strategist who helped organize tea party protests. Directors of the organization include Art Pope, a former North Carolina congressman, and James Miller, former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and budget director under President Ronald Reagan.
AFP is registered under the IRS code as a 501(c)(4) — meaning it does not have to disclose its donors.
AFP is affiliated with the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which operates from the same address and with the same president and senior staff. The foundation is a public charity registered under the IRS code as a 501(c)(3) — meaning that donations to it may be deducted from the donor’s taxable income. Its donors also need not be publicly disclosed. In late August, 2010 the New York Times reported that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had filed a complaint with the IRS accusing the AFP Foundation of abusing its tax-deductible status by running TV ads that it claimed were inherently “political in nature.” The AFP called the complaint without merit, and said it had raised money from 70,000 individual donors, according to the Times.
The Washington Post reported that the group "plans to spend more than $45 million targeting more than 50 House districts and half a dozen Senate races in key battleground states
Click on the following for more details: Americans for Prosperity | FactCheck.org
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