Charles and David Koch wrapped up their annual summer seminar on June
16 in Dana Point, California, at the St. Regis Monarch Bay resort—a
fitting location for two men whose combined net worth is more than $100
billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The highly secretive mega-donor conference, called "American Courage:
Our Commitment to a Free Society," featured a who's who of Republican
political elites. According to conference documents obtained through a
source who was in attendance, Representatives Tom Cotton (AR), Cory
Gardner (CO) and Jim Jordan (OH) were present, as were Senators Mitch
McConnell (KY) and Marco Rubio (FL). Cotton, Gardner and McConnell are
all running for the Senate this year; Jordan for re-election in the
House. Rubio is widely considered a major contender for a 2016
presidential run.
According to the documents, the conference attendees
discussed strategy on campaign finance, climate change, healthcare, higher education and opportunities for taking control of the Senate. (The draft agenda is available for viewing here.)
According to another source who also attended the conference, 300
individuals—worth at least a billion each—were present. This source said
that the explicit goal was to raise $500 million to take the Senate in
the 2014 midterms and another $500 million "to make sure Hillary Clinton
is never president." Three hundred billionaires in attendance is likely
an exaggeration; to put that figure in perspective, there are 492 total
billionaires in the United States by Forbes's count. The Koch network raised an estimated $407 million in the 2012 presidential election, according to an analysis by The Washington Post and the Center for Responsive Politics.
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