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The political advocacy group backed by billionaire Charles Koch is pressing Senator Joe Manchin, DW.Va, to oppose key parts of the Democratic agenda, including stall reform and voting rights legislation.
These lobbying efforts appear to be paying off. Manchin, in a recent opinion piece, wrote that he opposes eliminating disruption and that he would not vote for the People’s Act, which, advocates say, would limit the influence of big-money donors on elections.
President Joe Biden has described some voting restrictions proposed by Republican leaders in several states as “sick” and “unAmerican.” The president hailed a law for the people and said the stalling must be changed.
Sixty votes are needed to break the blockage in the Senate, in order to allow the legislation to receive a final vote. The Democrats, with 50 seats, have a narrow control of the House due to a vote by Vice President Kamala Harris.
CNBC previewed an episode of a video series of Americans for Prosperity shack policy group, along with advertisements made by the organization. The network is especially calling on grassroots supporters to push Manchin, a conservative Democrat, to be against some of his party’s legislative priorities.
Americans for Prosperity launched a website titled West Virginia Values, which invites people to email Mansion “to be the voice West Virginia needs in the capital – reject Washington’s partisan agenda.”
He then lists all the elements Manchin has promised to oppose, including the idea of eliminating disruption, a law for the people and mobilizing the Supreme Court. Then everything the group thinks Manchin should oppose, including Biden’s infrastructure plan and union-friendly PRO law, emerges.
US Leaders for Prosperity shared one of their video series with the West Virginia administrator in May in which they praised Manchin for declaring his opposition to deactivation. The video was reviewed by CNBC after it was posted on the group’s Facebook page.
“A wise man once said that it takes a lot of courage to stand up to your enemies, but it takes a lot more courage to stand up to your friends,” Ted Ellis, director of the Americans’ Coalitions for Prosperity government affairs team, told the audience. “And that’s what Joe Mansion is doing now. I think he shows a lot of courage and we have to pay tribute to that.”
“Our grassroots are very important and it would be hard to say they are more important anywhere than West Virginia right now because of the dramatic effect that our grassroots in West Virginia have in encouraging Senator Manchin to stand strong on this point,” Casey Mattox said. Vice President of Legal and Judicial Strategy at Americans for Prosperity during the presentation.
Ellis was listed in a recent lobbying report as one of the Americans for Prosperity officials who lobbied in the first quarter of 2021 against a bill for the people and Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan. Lobbyists targeted House and Senate representatives.
In a statement to CNBC, an Americans for Prosperity spokesperson did not deny whether its officials spoke directly to Manchin or his staff about a bill for the people. The representative praised Manchin’s position on the bill, likening it to the position of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Senator Manchin has carved his own path long ago, and on this issue, we agree: Extreme partisanship stands in the way of positive solutions,” AFP spokesman Lou Isidro told CNBC in an emailed statement Tuesday. . “Unfortunately, this bill and the tactics some are using to get it passed will make it difficult to work together — frightening debate, exacerbating partisanship, setting up a wrong choice between voting rights and free speech. We support both. Like the ACLU, our concerns focus on the part. which targets the First Amendment. And we will continue to defend these rights.”
A spokesperson for Manchin did not respond to a request for comment.
Americans for Prosperity also launched a radio ad in West Virginia that quotes Manchin himself as saying that Democrats are not with the Green New Deal or Medicare for all. “Encourage Senator Manchin to keep his word. To reject the partisan agenda that will host West Virginia’s return from realizing its full potential,” the ad’s voiceover reads.
Koch’s political network is just one of many groups that have coordinated outside efforts to oppose the Democratic-backed election bill.
The New Yorker reported on a meeting between Koch’s leaders and representatives of other conservative-leaning groups about how they were trying to block the bill’s passage, but some of their polls show that campaign-financing elements of the legislation have broad support.
Heritage Action and other groups organized a March rally in West Virginia that, according to the document, was supposed to pressure Manchin to oppose similar legislation to Act for the People.
Manchin defended the Koch family from his party’s attacks.
“People want jobs. You don’t hit people. I mean, I don’t agree with their policies or philosophically, but, you know, they’re Americans, they do — they pay their taxes,” he said in response to questions about party leaders blowing up the Kochs.
“They are not breaking the law. They are providing jobs,” he noted.
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