Koch Brothers' Political Group Struggles In Alaska
ANCHORAGE, July 27 (Reuters) - When it comes to influencing politics, few billionaires are more effective than the industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the nonprofit organization they founded and continue to support, achieved a 95 percent success rate in the 2014 election races where it spent money. But in Alaska, a state that could be pivotal in the 2016 elections, the group's reception has been surprisingly chilly.
Republicans outnumber Democrats by nearly two to one in America's northernmost state, and the GOP candidate has won every presidential contest in the state for the last 50 years. The conservative AFP's message of free markets and limited government, along with its strong support for oil industry interests, resonates here. But the same independent spirit that defines Alaskans also makes them bristle at attempts by outsiders to shape their thinking, political analysts say, and the Kochs are viewed as outsiders here by many Democrats and Republicans alike.
Dave Stieren, a conservative talk radio host in Anchorage, said that in Alaska the group has been neither the "boogeyman" liberals fear nor the "engine for change" the Kochs would like it to be. It just hasn't had much impact, he said. "When you say Americans for Prosperity in Alaska," he said, "I'm like, 'Who?'"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/americans-for-prosperity-alaska_55b61dc0e4b0a13f9d18f8cb?
