Americans for Prosperity plows millions into building conservative ground force

[applegrove]

Americans for Prosperity plows millions into building conservative ground force

By Matea Gold at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/americans-for-prosperity-plows-millions-into-building-conservative-ground-force/2014/10/06/692469b6-4b35-11e4-b72e-d60a9229cc10_story.html

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CLIVE, Iowa — Denise Bubeck studied her iPad as she scoped out her voter targets in this leafy Des Moines suburb. She was armed with a carefully honed script and a pile of slickly produced door hangers, like so many seasoned field operatives who parachute into this state during election season.

But Bubeck, 52, is no temporary campaign worker. The resident of Grimes, Iowa, is part of a permanent ground force that the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity is building in Iowa and across the country — a long-term effort to undercut the left’s long-standing dominance in grass-roots organizing.

“All we’re going to do is get bigger,” said Mark Lucas, an AFP regional director who oversees operations in Iowa and 10 other states. “After 2014, we’re not shutting down our offices. You’re going to see all these guys pack up the day after the election, but we’re going to stay open.”

AFP, which is expected to spend more than $125 million in the 2014 elections, plans to plow more than half its resources into expanding its ground organization, with more than 500 paid field staffers positioned in pivotal races across the country. The group, backed by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch and other conservative donors, aims to keep its activists engaged through state legislative fights in 2015 and then harness more firepower in the 2016 elections.




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