RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif., Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The Koch brothers' promise to spend $889 million on Republican candidates in 2016 may have set off a financial arms race between the two parties.
The money would come from Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, which organizes twice-yearly meetings for large donors who share the Kochs' conservative-libertarian political views. Politico reported the total figure was leaked by attendees at the winter meeting this week in California, which featured a debate between Republican senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Charles and David Koch each own 42 percent of Koch Industries and have fortunes estimated at $40 billion each.
The Republican National Committee reported spending $404 million in 2012 while the campaigns of President Obama and his Republican challenger, MIitt Romney, cost about $1 billion each.
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In 2013, the Federal Election Commission estimated the total cost of the presidential race and contests for House and Senate at $7 billion. About $3.2 billion was spent by candidates, $2.1 billion by political action committees and other outside groups and $2 billion by parties.
Democrats tried to make the Koch brothers an issue in 2014. While the party failed to stop the Republican tide in congressional and state elections, the presidential electorate is different and Democratic candidates have won a majority of the popular vote since 1992 in every election except 2004.
Mo Elleithee, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, suggested the Koch brothers will remain a campaign issue in his reaction to Politico: "Wait, you mean a bunch of billionaires are going to spend nearly $1 billion in pocket change to try to buy a president to rig the system for them and give them massive tax breaks that no one else gets? I'm shocked!"
Democratic fundraisers, although none of them wanted to be quoted by name, told CNN the $889 billion figure can be used to sharpen pitches to their donors.
One said he was not surprised.
"Tom Brady is going to throw a lot of passes on Sunday and Richard Sherman is going to try to intercept them. The Kochs are going to spend money in 2016. Well, yeah," he said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats, was indignant, however.
'In the last presidential election Obama and Romney raised about $1 billion each. The Koch brothers, the second-wealthiest family in America, now say they will raise nearly $1 billion for the 2016 elections," Sanders said. "When one family can raise as much as an entire party, the system is broken. This is oligarchy, not democracy."
