Chris Moody reports at The Ticket:
Koch Industries, the billion-dollar energy conglomerate that faces regular attacks from liberal groups for donating millions to conservative and free-market political causes, reported that a national Democratic group approached the company seeking campaign donations. The appeal went out out over the signature of Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).
The DSCC asked Koch for a five-figure donation, a request the company is making very public after it weathered months of criticism from Democrats, including the DSCC.
A Koch spokesman responded to the request with a scathing letter to Murray.
"For many months now, your colleagues in the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee leadership have engaged in a series of disparagements and ad hominem attacks about us, apparently as part of a concerted political and fundraising strategy," wrote Philip Ellender, Koch's president of government and public affairs. "So you can imagine my chagrin when I got a letter from you on June 17 asking us to make five-figure contributions to the DSCC. You followed that up with a voicemail indicating that, if we contributed heavily enough, we would garner an invitation to join you and other Democratic leaders at a retreat in Kiawah Island this September." ...>more
