Koch Group, Spending Freely, Hones Attack on Government

Americans for Prosperity -- the group backed by David H. and Charles G. Koch that has been pouring millions of dollars into competitive Senate races to the rising alarm of Democrats -- was also among the politically active groups on the ground in this month’s special House election on Florida’s Gulf Coast. But its agenda had little to do with the fate of David Jolly, the Republican candidate who won that race. The group’s ground troops -- including those who knocked on doors, ran phone banks and reached out through social media to gauge ways to motivate voters -- were part of a much greater project, with a prize much larger than a congressional seat. Americans for Prosperity turned the Florida contest into its personal electoral laboratory to fine-tune get-out-the-vote tools and messaging for future elections as it pursues its overarching goal of convincing Americans that big government is bad government. The little-noticed Florida field operation and a similar one in Virginia during the governor’s race last year were part of the group’s effort to apply the well-honed, data-centric business practices of the Koch brothers, as well as undisclosed donors, to devise an approach that is not only smarter, sleeker and sprier, but also one that provides more bang for the big bucks.