Why, Carly........Look who you're in bed with: the billionaire backers. [View All]

[CaliforniaPeggy]

By Tim Rutten

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.

The rest at the link:

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