Fiorina's billionaire backers

[TomCADem]

Source: LA Times

California, birthplace of the modern environmental movement, remains one of the greenest of blue states, even while it struggles to cope with levels of unemployment unseen since the Depression.

That makes the budding relationship between Republican senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina and billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch all the odder. The Kochs own and run America's second-largest privately held company, Koch Industries — an amalgam of oil, gas, pipeline, chemical, fertilizer and wood products companies, including Georgia-Pacific. Lump them together, and the Koch brothers have the country's third-largest fortune — $35 billion — after Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

According to a New Yorker profile, the Koch brothers' father was one of the original members of the John Birch Society, and his sons embraced his conservative politics, ultimately drifting into the anarchist-inflected wing of the libertarian movement. They're currently major funders of the "tea party" and of conservative Republican candidates across the country.

Though one brother lives in Wichita, Kan., and the other in Manhattan, they seem to be taking a particular interest in California politics this year. They helped mount the campaign for Proposition 23, the ballot measure that essentially would gut AB 32, the state law mandating lower carbon emissions as a step toward addressing global warming. A Koch Industries PAC has also donated $5,000 to Fiorina, and the company was among the sponsors of a Washington fundraiser for her Thursday night.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten-fiorina-koch-20100925,0,3849413.column

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California is going to be a preview of 2012. Can billionaires (Koch and Whitman), and oil companies, get elected and convince California voters to vote for right wing candidates and support corporatist ballot propositions like Proposition 23 by spending hundreds of millions of dollars?

NO ON 23!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. All their money will be wasted because she is going to lose

There's a lot of dirt on this Fiorina creature that hasn't come out yet.

[TomCADem]

2. Look at Big Oil's Prop 23 Campaign - Close To $10 million has made the race close

California will be a test case of how much a ridiculous amount of money can be used to defraud folks in a Democratic state to vote for pro-corporate candidates and ballot proposals like the Oil Industry sponsored Proposition 23.

No on 23!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. Isn't ANYONE going to tell the voters what she did at Hewlett Packard?

[TomCADem]

6. Shoot, Boxer Mentions It Every Chance She Gets, But Fiorina Is Helped...

...By free coverage by Fox News, and millions from corporate backers like the Koch brothers.

[jonthebru]

9. Concur

Many very intelligent people will voluntarily vote against their self interests, or not vote at all, and irreparably damage their culture.

[Dawson Leery]

4. Boxer is in for the win.

Carly is in for kick in the rear end from the majority of voters.

[mackerel]

5. I can't imagine Californian's could forget so quickly

what Carly did to HP?

[Dawson Leery]

7. Boxer is leading the polls.

[SoapBox]

8. Let's KICK the KKKoch Bozos OUT of California.

Hey, KKKoch Brothers...get your stink'n snout out of MY state.

You wanna fu*k with someplace? Do it in Kansas.

[happygoluckytoyou]

10. WHERE ARE THE BILLIONAIRE DEMOCRATS WHEN THEY ARE NEEDED

[Bryn]

11. Do we have Billionaire democrats?

Are all rich people Republicans?

[golfguru]

12. Californians are perfectly happy with the present situation

So what if foreclosures are breaking records?
So what if unemployment is double digits?
So what if the state gov't is broke?

We still have the sunshine, great climate, less smog, same sex marriage is legal,
medicinal marijuana is legal, look at all the windmills here, all in all it is nirvana here in CA.

[TomCADem]

13. Why Did This Get Moved? Its Not Opinion, Its Fact! She Is Getting Koch $$$