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Koch brothers drop $6.5 million for PAC ads in 6 tight Senate races

Posted at 5:19 PM, Oct 22, 2014
and last updated 2014-10-22 17:19:24-04

WASHINGTON — A super PAC backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch is dropping $6.5 million into six competitive Senate races in a final ad push to send Republican candidates to the upper chamber.

The television ads, which will air in Alaska, Arkansas, North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa and New Hampshire, link Democratic candidates in each race to President Barack Obama, reinforcing Republican messaging throughout the 2014 midterm season that has pushed the Democratic candidates in each of those states to keep their distance from the President.

Local residents are the face of ads in the six states, saying either “there are lots of reasons” or “there are many reasons” why the Democrat doesn’t deserve their vote. And the voters go on to say in similar form that, “A vote for [insert Democratic candidate here] is a vote for President Obama.”

David Koch attends American Prosperity event

David Koch attends American Prosperity event

The ads also close by directly endorsing the Republican candidate for Senate in each race, a push not seen from groups in the Koch political network before 2014.

That’s because Freedom Partners Action Fund is the first super PAC in the Koch’s web of political groups that can do so under campaign laws. And while super PACs, unlike nonprofit issues groups, are required to disclose their donors, super PACs can also directly support individual candidates.

The group was founded in June and the Koch Brothers donated more than $4 million to Freedom Partners Action Fund, according to the group’s October quarterly disclosure with the Federal Elections Commission.

The super PAC has also launched ads in several congressional districts in the last week and plans to push additional ads in key states before the election is over.

“We’ll launch additional ads, it’s just for these states these are kind of our close out messages,” the group’s spokesman James Davis said.