Kansas GOP senator launches blistering attack on Koch — in Republican Party newsletter | Opinion
When I used to cover the Statehouse on the regular, I’d pass by a sign on the way to my Capitol office quoting the Kansas Constitution: “All political power is inherent in the people.”
Being the political cynic that I can be from time to time, I’d think to myself, “and their names are Charles and David.”
For about as long as I’ve been here, the fingerprints of the Koch brothers (until David’s death in 2019) have been all over state government and our congressional delegation.
And the Kochs’ extravagant political spending, more than any other factor, has shaped the transformation of the Kansas Legislature from a more or less mundane and moderate Republican body into the hard-right star chamber it is today.
So it was with no small sense of amazement that I read last week’s Kansas Republican Party “KSGOP Friday File” — a weekly email newsletter sent to 30,000 Republicans (myself included) — and found that the party had given space to a full-throated attack on the Koch political machine.
It was written by Alicia Straub, a GOP state senator from Ellinwood, a small city just east of Great Bend.
She didn’t pull any punches. I quote:
“Food. Shelter. Clothing. Transportation. These are some of life’s basic necessities. Each of these products are manufactured by a Globalist Company, with headquarters in Kansas. This behemoth of a business uses their unfathomable wealth to manipulate and control politicians worldwide. They enjoy playing politics. In fact, their political ‘advocacy’, is what they claim ‘truly sets them apart’. They have created and funded countless think tanks, non-profit organizations, and lobbying groups, most notably, Americans for Prosperity (AFP). Americans for Prosperity, is not Republican. They are self-proclaimed Libertarians …
“AFP has been known to spend over $100,000 against a legislator in a non-election year. They do this with letter size full color mailers that contain blatant lies about voting records. AFP in fact did this, when no one had even filed to run for Senate Dist. #33 in June 2023. I guess being worth over $200 billion has its downside; boredom must set in. Idle hands are the devil’s playground, and play they do.”
Overall, it was the boldest written critique of the Koch family’s outsize influence on Kansas politics that I’ve ever seen from a Republican officeholder — also the only one.
Donald Trump lashes out at ‘overrated globalist’ billionaire
For more than two decades, Koch Industries has been above such criticism — even entrenched Democrats are terrified of them.
And although she didn’t say the name, her guest column also included a back of the hand to Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican:
“AFP likes to control politicians so much, that if one dare ‘Pass’ on playing childish games with ‘leadership’ they try to punish and deter others from voting their moral principles. … . We don’t need bankrupt politicians who’ve been strong-armed by lobbyists and backed by libertarian billionaires. We need bold LEADERS, unafraid to tackle real issues.”
For the record, Masterson filed for bankruptcy in 2011 after his construction business went under and now makes his living as director of GoCreate — “A Koch Collaborative” — a creators workspace on the Innovation Campus at Wichita State University.
Criticizing Koch influence is almost always a fatal error in Kansas politics. Seeing a column like Straub’s in a Kansas Republican Party newsletter would have been unimaginable before last Friday.
So what changed? Maybe it’s the Donald Trump effect.
In June, The New York Times reported that AFP and other Koch-affiliated political organizations are spending at least $70 million to beat back Trump’s campaign for president in 2024.
Trump responded as he usually does to his critics, with insults and threats.
“Very stupid, awkward, and highly overrated Globalist Charles Koch of the Koch Network doesn’t have a clue,” Trump proclaimed on his personal social media network, Truth Social. “Watch what happens to Charles Koch!”
It’s probably worth noting that Straub’s campaign website is straub-kansasfirst.com, a localized echo of Trump’s campaign slogan “America First.”
Maybe Kansas Republicans do love Trump more than their longtime benefactor.
Maybe Kansas politics have evolved to a point where it’s OK for a Republican officeholder to criticize Charles Koch and the effect his money has on our elections and our government.
We’ll see.
This story was originally published October 31, 2023 at 5:11 AM with the headline "Kansas GOP senator launches blistering attack on Koch — in Republican Party newsletter | Opinion."
