Billionaire brothers' company PAC spending significantly more compared to recent election cycles
-By Dave Levinthal and Michael Beckel
June 20, 2013- The political action committee of Koch Industries Inc. — the energy company run by conservative billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch — is off to its fastest start ever for a federal election cycle.
KOCHPAC donated $559,000 to federal-level political candidates and committees during the first five months of the year, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of Federal Election Commission disclosures released today.
That easily bests its output for the same time periods during previous election cycles: $387,500 in 2011, $274,500 in 2009 and $387,570 in 2007.
Such spending is notably aggressive for the nascent months of a two-year election cycle. Only a handful of the nation's thousands of registered PACs, including perennial PAC powerhouses Honeywell and National Beer Wholesalers Association, have donated so much cash so early.
In May alone, KOCHPAC spread $145,000 to 61 different federal candidate committees and other PACs, filings show.