Billionaire Koch brothers send 45,000 employees letter telling them to vote for Romney

Mike Gallagher

Oct 15, 2012 - 10:04

0 0

Billionaire Koch brothers send 45,000 employees letter telling them to vote for Romney

Brothers in charge: Charles (left) and David Koch (right) have supplied billions in political funding to conservative Republican candidates and have now told their employees who to vote for

Thousands of employees at companies owned by billionaire Republican fundraisers were told to vote for Mitt Romney in packet mailed to them waing of the dangers of an Obama re-election.

The mailer is easily traced back to David and Charles Koch, the notorious multi-billionaire brothers who have largely financed the Tea Party movement and served as effective Romney bundlers.

In These Times released excerpts from a letter sent to 45,000 employees at Georgia Pacific- a Koch-owned paper company based in Washington state- that was signed by the company's CEO Dave Robertson.

This is the third time in the past week that the head of a major corporation sent out a letter pressuring employees to vote for Romney in the upcoming election.

'While we are typically told before each Presidential election that it is important and historic, I believe the upcoming election will determine what kind of America future generations will inherit,' the letter reads.

It goes on to say that the dangers that loom with the wrong presidency would include 'unprecedented regulatory burdens on businesses' and threaten 'many of our more than 50,000 U.S. employees and contractors may suffer the consequences, including higher gasoline prices, runaway inflation, and other ills'.

The excerpts from the letter show that while the CEO never implicitly said that Obama would be the one to cause said ills, the point is made very clear by the inclusion of a list of Koch-supported candidates. Needless to say, Obama did not make the list.

The letter says that the list comes at the request of 'many employees' who wanted to know what state and local politicians are supported by 'Koch companies or by KOCHPAC, our employee political action committee'.

Famous friends: Mitt Romney is seen shaking David Koch's (tallest on left) hand at the Republican National Convention

Raising the alarm: The Kochs have served as the silent financial partners of many Tea Party groups

The full text of the letter- and of the supporting list- were not made public by In These Times, but the site reports that in addition to Mitt Romney, 14 other Republican state politicians were highlighted.

Though the cover letter was signed by Mr Robertson, the driving force was explicitly clear: an anti-Obama editorial penned by Charles Koch and a pro-Romney editorial by his brother David were included in the packets.

Exerting such pressure on employees was not always legal, but recent Supreme Court decisions no longer prohibit companies from telling their employees who to vote for.

For appearances sake, however, the letter did include one line gesturing towards partiality: 'We believe any decision about which candidates to support is—as always—yours and yours alone, based on the factors that are most important to you.'

This is the second time in a week where an influential CEO waed his employees about the prospect of an Obama win come November.

Gawker published the letter written by Westgate Resorts owner David Siegel where he clearly said that if Romney won the presidential election, they would be more likely to keep their jobs.

'The economy doesn't currently pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is another 4 years of the same Presidential administration. Of course, as your employer, I can't tell you whom to vote for, and I certainly wouldn't interfere with your right to vote for whomever you choose,' he wrote.

MSNBC's Chris Hayes reported that Arthur Allen, the CEO of Florida-based ASG Software Solutions, sent an email to more than 1,000 employees saying that the company needs a new administration to remain 'independent' in order to keep from cutting costs and firing employees.

'I can tell you, if the US re-elects President Obama, our chances of staying independent are slim to none,' he wrote.

'If we fail as a nation to make the right choice on November 6th, and we lose our independence as a company, I don't want to hear any complaints regarding the fallout that will most likely come.'

When it comes to the Kochs, the brothers prefer to remain behind the curtain rather than in the spotlight.

As a result, no members of the press were invited to their seaside $50,000-per-plate fundraiser for Romney in their Hamptons home this July.

There was a brief break in that privacy lately, however, as their other brother William now faces a lawsuit after he allegedly held a former employee hostage for two days.