Koch Bros running pro-MJ/anti war ads to fight dem in NC

[wawa]

Not sure if this has been posted already.  Posting and running because it's a crazy day, but I heard it on the radio this morning and thought it'd be a good one for here.  Sorry for any goofy formatting.

www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2014/10/23/358118060/outside-group-sends-blunt-message-in-n-c-senate-race


 
Outside Group Sends Blunt Message In N.C. Senate Race




by S.V. Date

October 23, 2014 7:03 AM ET



The American Future Fund has purchased $225,000 worth of online ads supporting Libertarian Sean Haugh in the North Carolina Senate race, citing his pro-marijuana stance. 


"More weed, less war."

That's the latest campaign slogan in the North Carolina Senate race advertising wars. And no, neither Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan nor Republican challenger Thom Tillis is jumping on the state's marijuana legalization effort.

A quarter-million dollars in online ads is now supporting a third-party Senate challenger — Libertarian candidate and pizza delivery guy Sean Haugh. The ads are coming from an unlikely source: the American Future Fund, a secret-donor political group backed by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers.

The spots are aimed at young voters who typically support Democrats. One features a 20-something who criticizes Hagan for opposing legalization and supporting President Obama's war efforts in Afghanistan.

"Vote Sean Haugh," she says. "He shares our progressive values. Pro-legalization, pro-environment. More weed, less war."


Libertarian North Carolina Senate candidate Sean Haugh tweets his views on his support from American Future Fund.
Twitter/Sean Haugh
In a tweet, Haugh says he now has "a whole new reason to despise Koch brothers & their dark money."

"It's all kind of surreal, frankly," Haugh told NPR. "Obviously they want to try to use me to siphon votes away from Kay Hagan and maybe swing the election to Thom Tillis."

Neither American Future Fund nor Koch Industries responded to queries about their strategy. But Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Justin Barasky said: "The Koch brothers are doing everything they can to elect Speaker Tillis because no one has gone to the mat for the Koch brothers more than he has."


Pizza delivery man Sean Haugh is in single digits in the polls. But he could have a significant impact on the close Senate race.i



Haugh is drawing about 6 percent in public polls, with some analysts believing his support is coming equally from those who would otherwise vote for Hagan or Tillis.

The $225,000 is nearly 30 times more than the $7,744 Haugh said he has spent for himself.

To put that in perspective, the two main party candidates and outside groups have already spent $85 million on the North Carolina Senate race in advertising that directly tells voters to support or oppose a candidate. Nonprofit political groups that are allowed to keep their donors secret, including the Koch brothers-founded Americans for Prosperity, have spent tens of millions of dollars more in so-called "issue" ads attacking Hagan.

"You have to wonder why people are willing to spend up to $100 million to elect somebody to a job that only pays $174,000 a year," Haugh said.






 



 

[laurenpetro]

when i read "pro-MJ" i was wondering what Michael Jacson had to do with an election.

shamon.

[pixy0stix]

I'm guessing this is solely to splinter the Dem vote?

[Velar Fricative]

I admit I am going to be SO interested in seeing what happens and if "pot" becomes the magic word for D votes like "values" is for R votes.

[CrazyLucky]

I've heard plenty of political advertising against Hagan, but I haven't heard of this guy. I didn't think I could hate the Kochs more, but I think I have it in me. I really hope Tillis loses. I'm so sick of his ads (all the ads, but especially his ads).

[meshaliuknits]

Oct 23, 2014 14:36:44 GMT -5 laurenpetro said:

when i read "pro-MJ" i was wondering what Michael Jacson had to do with an election.

shamon.

I'm so happy to learn I am not alone.

[orangeblossom]

Oct 23, 2014 14:52:23 GMT -5 CrazyLucky said:

I've heard plenty of political advertising against Hagan, but I haven't heard of this guy. I didn't think I could hate the Kochs more, but I think I have it in me. I really hope Tillis loses. I'm so sick of his ads (all the ads, but especially his ads).

I'm annoyed by the ads too. I'm especially annoyed by th pro Be.n Car.son group saying he agrees with tillis, so we as black folk should too. It doesn't expressly say that, but it's implied, as it's played on black radio stations.

[wawa]

Oct 23, 2014 14:53:31 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

Oct 23, 2014 14:36:44 GMT -5 laurenpetro said:

when i read "pro-MJ" i was wondering what Michael Jacson had to do with an election.

shamon.

I'm so happy to learn I am not alone.

I actually thought that when I made the post, but I couldn't think of a better less confusing title.

[wawa]

Oct 23, 2014 14:40:19 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I'm guessing this is solely to splinter the Dem vote?

That's my assumption.  It's some bullshit.

[EloiseWeenie]

I haven't heard any ads for Haugh. I only know who he is, because of the pamphlet the board of elections sent me a couple weeks ago. I can't find the article I read on him before, but Haugh said he thinks Tillis is unelectable. H and I can't stand Tillis, and won't vote for him (and we're both registered Rs).

[orval]

I have not heard these ads. I also do not know who I am going to vote for. I really dislike both candidates. Both of their ads are terrible. And if Planned Parenthood comes to more door one more time asking me as a "Woman" if I am going to vote, I will kick their ass!

[y4m]

This reminds me of 2010 when I got "negative" ads paid for by the DCCC saying the 3rd party candidate "wants to abolish the IRS" and is a "true conservative".

[y4m]

[Deleted]

I am just pleased I dont have a TV connected to anything other than a nintendo. I have heard no ads at all. I did turn on WUNC / NPR and hear 15 minutes of adverts asking to send NPR money and telling me I could win a trip to Paris (like thats a prize, not a punishment). So I turned it off and tried again later in the day. I heard another 15 minutes of them asking me to send NPR money and decided to go back to the ipod. I wasn't that upset. It made a change from the usual programming of interviewing Albanian bread makers who started their own balloon company or whatever.

But this is a useful thread because I did not know who Tillis was. All I knew was Hagan is the D, and I probably wouldn't vote for her because of her involvement with SOPA - which is what I told the prat who came to ask me to vote for her.

Not that it matters anyway, it was a) far to complex to sort out my voting shit and b) not worth voting anyway as NC has been gerrymandered to fuck and will take 3 D votes for every 1 R vote to still lose. I figure the turnout for these elections will be smaller than for the 2012, and seeing as in 2012 NC voted in Obama, and yet every other thing turned red (implying loads of people went to the polls and said "yes, I want Obama. And loads of other conservatives" - which seems unlikely) I dont see that my vote will be missed.

Lastly, I think the US needs to go completely red. Once every state is as broke and desperate as the red ones, and once the current red ones can no longer get funded by the blue states because they will be broke too, and once no woman can get an abortion and minimum wage is demolished and every school is christian via St. Reagan, then maybe, maybe something will change.

[meshaliuknits]

Oct 24, 2014 6:48:34 GMT -5 y4m said:

Ugh.