PrairiePundit

CNN: ... "We would need to see two things and they're straightforward things," Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, told David Axelrod on "The Axe Files," a podcast produced by CNN and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. "One is genuinely movement towards a more prosperity-focused free market vision on entitlement reform, government spending, government cronyism,...free trade. And two, a tone that is more uplifting. This isn't electoral advice, but we just tend to look at getting involved where there is more of an uplifting tone." ... It sounds like it would take a personality transplant for Trump to earn that help.  Phillips is a smart guy.  Trump would be wise to consider what he is looking for.

ABC News: Political groups backed by billionaires Charles and David Koch are spending $7.7 million on television and online advertising in the Ohio Senate race — part of a broader plan to focus on the Republican-led Senate instead of the presidential race. The latest wave of ads in the matchup between incumbent Republican Sen. Rob Portman and Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland spotlights taxes and fees Strickland raised while in office. The ads are paid for by Freedom Partners Action Fund. Other Koch groups, including Americans for Prosperity, have been knocking on doors and making phone calls to voters to boost Portman support. During an Ohio "day of action" last month, the groups made 625,000 calls and stopped at almost 17,000 homes. Beyond that race, Koch groups have advertised in Senate contests in Nevada, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and made a small buy in New Hampshire before the Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte said she did not want money from outside groups invo...

Washington Free Beacon: Federal Court Blocks Dem’s Attempt to Out Conservative Donors Citing First Amendment, judge enjoins California from forcing Koch-backed nonprofit to disclose supporters AFP was able to demonstrate all the death threats against the Koch brothers  to show the dangers of forcing them to reveal their donors.  This makes eminent sense and until states enforce laws against donor stalkings there will be resistance to force disclosures of donors.  One of the problems is that Democrats in government are also some of the stalkers as the IRS abuse shows.

Fox News: Americans for Prosperity, a prominent conservative group, is suing the California attorney general for allegedly demanding donor information and threatening harsh penalties if they don't comply. The lawsuit, which claims that complying with Attorney General Kamala Harris' demands would put donors' safety "at risk," comes on the heels of the 2013 controversy over IRS targeting of conservative groups. According to the Courthouse News Service , the nonprofit group is seeking a federal court order that would bar Harris from demanding the names of its donors. Harris, according to the report, had told the group if it did not hand over the donor lists from 2011 and 2012, Americans for Prosperity would be slapped with fines and barred from operating in California. ... "Faced with such bullying, current and potential donors are understandably afraid that having their identities disclosed will put them and their families at risk," the court complaint ...

Washington Post: Koch-backed group aims to build a permanent conservative ground force Americans for Prosperity plows millions into an operation that goes beyond the midterm elections. I recently attended an AFP gathering in Dallas and was impressed by the sincere dedication of thousands of activist eager to get conservatives involved in the election process.  What would be surprising to many in the media is the number of women in AFP who enthusiastically get involved.  It gives conservatives a group to counter the left activist and the unions.  They are knocking on doors and gathering data for a get out the vote campaign already.

CBS News: Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which is backed by the conservative Koch brothers, is flooding the web with a seven-figure ad buy targeting nine Democrats, five senators and four representatives, ahead of the midterm elections. Six of the ads target the politicians for their votes in favor of the Affordable Care Act , with several reminding viewers that Mr. Obama's promise that, "if you like your health plan, you can keep it," was named the Lie of the Year by fact-checking website PolitiFact in 2013. A few lawmakers get special treatment, though. Alaska Sen. Mark Begich is called out for missing more votes than 80 percent of his colleagues in the Senate. Sen. Kay Hagan is hammered by a North Carolina mother for voting in favor of increased spending. And the ad aimed at Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana highlights the fact that she owns a $2 million residence in Washington, D.C. "Easy to forget your roots in a place like that, especially after almost 20 yea...

NY Times: Kochs’ Political Network Wrestles With Expectations Activists involved in organizations backed by Charles and David Koch want a more active role in the 2016 primaries. While there are other aspects of the network of activist, Americans for Prosperity just wrapped up a Defending the American Dream Summit in Dallas. Texas with around 3,000 enthusiastic supporters.  They knocking on doors and find potential supporters who become part of a get out the vote project.  But they are also Involved in a more broad based social media effort to identify supporters.  Democrats have been fearful of conservative activist since the 2010 race and have tried to use the levers of government to thwart them. That effort has back fired with the IRS scandal.

The AFP's Defending the American Dream Summit has brought around 3,000 to Dallas.  Among the many things I have found interesting is that Women probably out number the men. The audience is diverse.  It is like all these women did not get the word that they are supposed to not like conservatives.  I just don't buy the Democrat spin and even the polls that attempt to support it.  These women are activist who support the mission of AFP including support for the free market and the freedom agenda.

ABC News: A pair of possible 2016 Republican presidential candidates attacked President Obama 's blunt admission that he does not yet have a strategy to counter ISIS militants in Syria , just as the White House tried to clarify the president's intention. At a conservative gathering in Dallas, Texas Gov. Rick Perry slammed the president for "dithering" on a decision of whether to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria , accusing the president of "always playing catch-up" on the world stage. President Obama Says 'We Don't Have a Strategy Yet' to Bomb ISIS in Syria ABC DEEP DIVE: ISIS' Trail of Terror Perry Warns Terrorists Could Infiltrate US Through Border "ISIS is not the junior varsity," said Perry, who is believed to be considering another bid for president in 2016, directing his comments towards the president. "It is a clear and present danger to the free worldand, Mr. President, the pea...

This is a story about one of those ads and its reception in Arkansas.

Moe Lane: ... It’s because of stuff like this that the Democrats keep screaming about how the entire Tea Party movement is a tool of the Koch Brothers, and why the Left gets genuinely upset when their argument fails to resonate among more, ah, reality-based folks. You see, the Left has always had everything it needed for a successful populist movement except for actual people. Their ‘popular movements’ (scare quote and sneer deliberate) have always relied on paid protesters and blanket coalitions, all diligently slaving away to puff up the cause du jour. To them, ‘arming people with talking points’ is semantically equivalent to ‘You will say this, and only this, and you will not break character for a minute.’ That it could mean, say, ‘Here are the specific things that this Member of Congress did to support the bill that you already hate with a white-hot passion’ never seems to occur to the average Democratic activist, in much the same way that a person with monochromatic vision may h...

NY Times: Americans for Prosperity — the group backed by the Koch brothers that has been pouring millions of dollars into competitive Senate races to the rising alarm of Democrats — was also among the politically active groups on the ground in this month’s special House election on Florida’s Gulf Coast. But its agenda had little to do with the fate of David Jolly, the Republican candidate who won that race. The group’s ground troops — including those who knocked on doors, ran phone banks and reached out through social media to gauge ways to motivate voters — were part of a much larger project, with a prize much larger than a congressional seat. Americans for Prosperity turned the Florida contest into its personal electoral laboratory to fine-tune get-out-the-vote tools and messaging for future elections as it pursues its overarching goal of convincing Americans that big government is bad government. As the group emerges as a dominant force in the 2014 midterm elections, spendin...

NY Times: Conservative Group Counters Criticism of Ad Against Health Law Americans for Prosperity is unveiling a new ad after being challenged by a Michigan Democratic lawmaker who demanded verification of the claims of a woman in the initial commercial who said she had lost her preferred health plan. The Democrat response to ads featuring those who have lost their healthcare insurance because of Obamacare has been audacious.  Calling those who were victimized looks like a conman's ploy to avoid responsibility.   It will only lead to more people coming forward and complaining about Democrats lack of empathy for what has been done to them. Clearly, she does not like the change that has been forced on her.

Washington Examiner Editorial: Leukemia patient Julie Boonstra is the latest American to get caught up in the media fact-checking frenzy. Her offense: Appearing in an anti- Obamacare ad for Americans for Prosperity , in which she said her out-of-pocket costs had become "unaffordable" since her insurance was canceled because of President Obama 's health care law . She also said Rep. Gary Peters , D-Mich., who is running for Senate , "jeopardized my health" by voting for it. Within hours of the AFP ad's initial broadcast, media fact-checkers pored over alleged inconsistencies between her comments in the ad and statements she'd made in interviews, then said her numbers didn't add up. Liberal pundits suggested they knew what was good for her better than she did. Peters sent a letter to television stations running the ad threatening their licenses if the "questionable claims" in the ad were not proven. No one is arguing in favor of misleadi...

This is a devastating ad run by AFP in the Michigan that focuses on a House member who voted for Obamacare and is now running for the Senate.

Washington Post: Americans for Prosperity, the advocacy group backed by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, is emerging as the most powerful ally of the Republican Party ahead of the 2014 midterm elections, bombarding Senate Democrats with early air attacks that could help the GOP retake the Senate. The organization is set to announce on Thursday a three-week ad campaign against Sen. Mark Pryor (Ark.), bringing to five the number of vulnerable Senate Democrats in its cross-hairs. It also is going after Democrats running for open Senate seats in Michigan and Iowa and running ads against House Democrats, including Rep. Nick Rahall (W.Va.). The group’s expansive efforts underscore its ascendancy as a force in American politics and illustrate how the traditional domain of political parties has been overtaken by independent groups. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has made just one small ad buy, last summer in Louisiana, while Karl Rove’s super PAC, American...

This looks like a very effective ad.  AFP has produced some of the best ads in recent years.  Hopefully voters will respond appropriately and vote against the Democrats who supported this bad law.

AFP's latest ads take a critical look at health care law.  There is more ab out the ad campaign here .

NY Times: Conservatives’ Aggressive Ad Campaign Seeks to Cast Doubt on Health Law Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group, will begin running television commercials asserting that the law will limit Americans’ health care choices. And they will be right.  The law of unintended consequences appears to be overwhelming the implementation of this monstrosity.  It is not working because it was a bad law thrown together by a bunch of liberals who were not willing to listen to alternatives that made more sense.

Kimberley Strassel: Perhaps the only useful part of the inspector general's audit of the IRS was its timeline. We know that it was August 2010 when the IRS issued its first "Be On the Lookout" list, flagging applications containing key conservative words and issues. The criteria would expand in the months to come. What else was happening in the summer and fall of 2010? The Obama administration and its allies continue to suggest the IRS was working in some political vacuum. What they'd rather everyone forget is that the IRS's first BOLO list coincided with their own attack against "shadowy" or "front" conservative groups that they claimed were rigging the electoral system. Below is a more relevant timeline, a political one, which seeks to remind readers of the context in which the IRS targeting happened. Aug. 9, 2010: In Texas, President Obama for the first time publicly names a group he is obsessed with—Americans for Prosperity (founded by t...