Cain Has Deep Ties to Koch Brothers

Left-leaning news outlets have been saying it for a while now. In fact, just two days ago, AlterNet headlined an article: “As Herman Cain Surges, Corporate Media Ignore His Koch Connections.” No longer. The Associated Press has come out with a long piece detailing how the retired pizza magnate who bills himself as an outsider with real-world experience has deep ties to one of the biggest insiders of them all: the Koch brothers. The billionaire Charles and David Koch have been “waging a war against Obama,” as The New Yorker put it in a long profile last year, and have bankrolled a number of right-wing causes through their group Americans for Prosperity.

Now the AP notes that “Cain’s campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity.” And he has even admitted that he came up with his famous “9-9-9” tax plan with the help of someone who serves on the AFP advisory board. Yet as he has surged in the polls, his ties to the Koch brothers are not exactly something that his campaign, or the Koch brothers, seem eager to talk about. The AP also notes that Mark Block, Cain’s campaign manager who was hired to lead the AFP Wisconsin chapter in 2005, has a spotty past and settled a suit in 2001 that accused him of violating campaign laws by agreeing to pay $15,000 and “sit out of politics for three years.”

Earlier this month, ThinkProgress ran down a list of Cain’s “close, consistent ties with the Koch Brothers.” And Daily Kos was on the case in May. But, of course, the issue is bound to get more attention now that the AP has looked into it and “could undercut his outsider, non-political image among people who detest politics as usual and candidates connected with the party machine,” writes the AP's Ryan J. Foley.