It looks like Mr Integrity, the Senator who marches to his own drummer is really just another employee doing what he was sent to do.
Last march Jane Mayer at the New Yorker wrote a long piece about how the Koch Network was heavily lobbying Senators to oppose the Biden agenda, especially the Voting Rights legislation and the move to eliminate the filibuster. She mentioned they were specifically targeting Joe Manchin, and reportedly “had a little fun” putting the squeeze on him.
CNBC reviewed an episode of a Koch policy group Americans for Prosperity’s video series, along with ads crafted by the organization. The network specifically calls on its 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 calls on people to email Manchin “to be The Voice West Virginia Needs In D.C. — Reject Washington’s Partisan Agenda.”
It then lists all of the items Manchin has promised to oppose, including the idea of eliminating the filibuster, the For the People Act and packing the Supreme Court. It then shows everything the group believes Manchin should oppose, including Biden’s infrastructure plan and the union-friendly PRO Act.
Americans for Prosperity leaders took part in one of their video series with their West Virginia state director in May where they praised Manchin for voicing his opposition to abolishing the filibuster. The video was reviewed by CNBC after it was posted to the group’s Facebook page.
“A wise man once said that it takes a lot of courage to stand up to your enemies but that it takes even more courage up to stand up to your friends,” Ted Ellis, the director of coalitions for Americans for Prosperity’s government affairs team, told the audience. “And that’s what Joe Manchin is doing right now. He’s displaying, I think, a lot of courage and we should applaud that.”
“Our grassroots are critically important and it would be difficult to say that they are more important anywhere than West Virginia right now because of the dramatic impact that our grassroots have in West Virginia in encouraging Senator Manchin to stand strong on this point,” Casey Mattox, the vice president of legal and judicial Strategy at Americans for Prosperity, said during the presentation.
Ellis is listed on a recent lobbying report as one of the Americans for Prosperity officials who in the first quarter of 2021 lobbied against the For the People Act and Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan. The lobbyists targeted House and Senate lawmakers.
In a statement to CNBC, a spokesman Americans for Prosperity did not deny whether its officials have spoken directly to Manchin or his staff about the For the People Act. The representative praised Manchin’s stance on the bill and likened their to stance to that of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Sen. Manchin has long blazed his own path, and on this issue, we agree: Extreme partisanship gets in the way of finding positive solutions,” Lo Isidro, a spokesman for AFP, told CNBC in an emailed statement on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, this bill and the tactics some are using to pass it would make it harder to work together – chilling debate, worsening partisanship, and setting up a false choice between voting rights and free speech. We’re for both. Like the ACLU, our concerns focus on the portion that targets the First Amendment. And we’ll continue to defend those rights.”
I’m not one to assume that everything always comes down to money. But it often does. And the outsized influence these big money wingnuts wield is always relevant. They have no problem leveraging the culture war issues to get their way and use their financial clout to push politicians to do their bidding. And some don’t need much pushing although they’ll certainly take the money.