News

Former Senator Rick Santorum, a one-time hardcore conservative presidential candidate, is visiting Washington today, to help opponents of marriage equality. While Santorum takes his opposition to marriage equality to Bellevue, Rob McKenna still stands behind his own opposition to marriage equality.

McKenna has said he will vote to reject Referendum 74, which would be a vote for discrimination against gays and lesbians. When asked by the Yakima Herald-Republic about his position, he called it “consistent,” and said that “because it’s based in faith, it could never change.” But McKenna, like Santorum, has had harsher words for marriage equality in the past.

In 2004, as the Seattle Times reported, King County Councilman Rob McKenna criticized a court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage by saying it could leave marriage open to polygamy and incest. He also said, “it threatens to destroy all standards we apply to the right of marriage.” Those words are strikingly similar to Santorum’s position. The former Pennsylvania Senator was also criticizing a Supreme Court ruling that threw out Texas’ anti-sodomy law when he said “then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery.”

“Being against marriage equality doesn’t only put Rick Santorum and Rob McKenna on the wrong side of history, it puts them on the wrong side of equality,” said Benton Strong, communications director for the Washington State Democrats. “These types of comments don’t reflect our state’s values, or the level of discourse we expect from elected officials. They do, however, give us a glimpse into the values of the Republican candidate for governor, values he certainly does not share with the people of our state.”

Back in May, a major Rick Santorum SuperPAC supporter, Foster Friess, went on Andrea Mitchell’s MSNBC show to talk about his preferred candidate’s presidential campaign. What he clearly didn’t expect were questions about Santorum’s controversial views on women, contraception, and marriage equality.

“People seem to be preoccupied with sex,” Friess said. “I think that says something about our culture…On this contraceptive thing, my gosh it’s such [sic] inexpensive. You know, back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraception. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”

Mitchell, on her own show, was rendered speechless. Now Friess has decided McKenna deserves his support too. Friess and his wife, Lynn, have both given max contributions to McKenna, afterhaving given more than $2 million to Santorum’s Super PAC.

“Reproductive health and marriage equality are local issues here in Washington,” said Benton Strong, communications director for the Washington State Democrats. “These are issues that our state has and will be a leader on. Rob McKenna, like Rick Santorum, has opposed access to affordable health care for women, and said he will vote to discriminate against gays and lesbians in the fall. McKenna’s positions are clear and they don’t match up with our states values.”

While Rob McKenna has spent his campaign trying to frame himself as a different kind of Republican, his donors continue to tell a different story. From Big Oil to private insurance companies, McKenna’s funders look a lot like the typical lineup of big Republican donors. But, like national Republicans, including the likes of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republican Governors’ Association, McKenna’s money has two powerful ringleaders: Charles and David Koch.

The nation’s second-largest private company, Koch Industries is headed by the two brothers, who along with their associates and their company’s subsidiaries have given hundreds of millions of dollars to Republican interests, including candidates, smear campaigns against clean energy initiatives, and now to McKenna. Koch Industries has given more than $2 million to the RGA during the 2012 campaign cycle, helping the organization funnel more than $5.5 million into attack ads in our state. Georgia Pacific, a Koch Subsidiary, gave the maximum $3,600 to McKenna, while the attorney general has also taken $6,400 from two members of the Koch Brothers’ $1 million donors club, who also run a coal mining company in Virginia.

All told, more than $15,000 has come to McKenna by way of the Koch Brothers, while millions have gone to the RGA and other national Republican organizations.

“We’ve always known Rob McKenna is not who he says he is,” said Benton Strong, communications director for the Washington State Democrats. “But recently we’ve seen McKenna refuse to hold oil companies accountable for their willful violations of worker safety, and we’ve seen McKenna pile up contributions from the royalty of Republican donors, who happen to run a company that refines and distributes oil. We’ve seen the result of Koch-funded candidates winning elections, with their anti-worker, anti-women, anti-equality, hardcore conservative agenda. Washingtonians won’t go for that in November.”

Koch Brothers: Nearly $15K To McKenna; Millions To RGA

Koch Industries Has Contributed More Than $2 Million To The RGA During 2012 Cycle. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Koch Industries has been the top contributor to the RGA during the 2012 cycle, giving $2,075,900. [opensecrets.org, accessed 9/13/12]

· Top Koch Brothers Aide Attended RGA Meeting With McKenna. In August 2012, the Seattle-PI reported that McKenna was heading to Aspen, Colorado for a meeting with the top donors to the Republican Governors Association and that “a top political aide” to David and Charles Koch would be attending. [Seattle-PI, 8/01/12]

Georgia Pacific, A Koch Industries Subsidiary, Maxed Out To McKenna. According to the PDC, Georgia Pacific contributed $3,600 to McKenna for Governor. Georgia Pacific’s parent company is Koch Industries. [PDC, accessed 9/13/12; National Institute for Money in State Politics, accessed 9/13/12]

McKenna Took $6,400 From Robert & Leslie Gilliam Who Are Members of The Koch Brothers’ $1 Million Donors Club. According to PubliCola, “Attorney General Rob McKenna is trying to position himself as a moderate Republican in his run for governor. Well, this doesn’t help his case. McKenna’s most recent campaign finance reports show August 22 maxed out donations from Richard Gilliam, the founder and manager of Cumberland Development, a coal mining company in Keswick, Virginia and his wife Leslie. D.C. news publication Politico recently reported that Gilliam is one of the infamous Koch brothers’ $1 million donors. The Koch brothers thanked Gilliam for being a member of their $1 million Donor Club at their June retreat in Vail. (As we reported last year, the Tea Party-friendly Koch Brothers have played in Washington State before.)” [PubliCola, 9/13/11]

Virginia Gilliam Gave McKenna $3,000. August, October & July 2011-2012: Virginia Gilliam, relative of Robert & Leslie who are members of the Koch Brothers’ $1 million donors club, has given McKenna $3,000 in his campaign for governor. [PDC, accessed 8/14/12 PubliCola, 9/13/11]

Five HillCo Employees, Including President & CEO, Donated $1,600 To McKenna In October 2011. According to PubliCola, “Five donors, including the president & CEO, from the Texas-based lobbying firm Hillco Partners contributed a total of $1,600. Not a lot, but enough to rile liberals who are trying to tar McKenna as a closet Tea Party candidate. Hillco, also known as Hillco Health in DC, lobbies for big drug companies, but more notably, for the Koch brothers.” [PubliCola, 11/11/11]

· HillCo Partners Did Work For Top-Tier Conservative Donors, Like Swift-Board Funder Bob Perry & Koch Industries. According to Huffington Post, “Bill Miller, a founding partner of the Austin lobbying powerhouse HillCo Partners told HuffPost. The firm has done work on behalf of top-tier conservative donors, such as Houston construction mogul and swift-boat funder Bob Perry (no relation) and Koch Industries.” [Huffington Post, 9/16/11]

When Rob McKenna left Washington for Texas on the same June day that Mitt Romney was visiting our state, he was trying to hide his connection to the national Republican party. What he couldn’t hide was his schedule in Texas: a fundraiser co-hosted by Tesoro Oil, the company that pumps out 120,000 barrels of oil from its Anacortes refinery each day.

Watch the Washington State Democrats’ new video “Oil” here.

(more…)