Andy Kroll

Reporter

Andy Kroll is Mother Jones' Dark Money reporter. He is based in the DC bureau. His work has also appeared at the Wall Street Journal, the Detroit News, Salon, and TomDispatch.com, where he's an associate editor. He can be reached at akroll (at) motherjones (dot) com. He tweets at @AndrewKroll.

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How the Koch Brothers Backed Public-School Segregation

—By Andy Kroll

| Mon Aug. 15, 2011 3:00 AM PDT

[UDPATE: In an August 16 letter to Brave New Foundation Robert Greenwald, Dallas Woodhouse, Americans for Prosperity's North Carolina state director, attacked the premise of Greenwald's film, saying it "falsely claims" AFP was involved in the 2009 Wake County school board elections. Woodhouse asserts that AFP "did not spend a single dime on those elections" nor did it engage in any get-out-the-vote or voter education efforts. "AFP played no role in the 2009 WCPSS election," Woodhouse asserts. Read his full response.

In its response to AFP, Brave New Foundation stood by its story. BNF pointed to several statements of AFP-NC's in support of its claims, including a 2008 blog post of Woodhouse's saying AFP-NC "is on record as supporting the parents of WakeCARES, through significant financial contributions as well as other support." In the fall of 2009, WakeCARES endorsed the four school board candidates who opposed Wake County's busing policy, and a former AFP-NC director later credited WakeCARES with paving the way for the four candidates' victories. BNF alleged AFP "funneled" financial support to the candidates through Art Pope, a wealthy Raleigh businessman and an AFP national director, who gave more than $15,000 to the Wake GOP which in turn spent nearly all of its political donations in 2009 on backing the four conservative school board candidates. AFP-NC's Woodhouse also told Newsweek in January that his group did voter education and mobilized volunteers for the school board election.]

At first glance, the billionaire libertarian Koch brothers and the Wake County, North Carolina, school board couldn't be more disparate. Charles and David Koch, the brains behind the massive Koch Industries conglomerate and the funders of so many right-wing political causes, are national figures, credited with (or accused of, depending on your political persuasion) launching the tea party movement and waging war on the Obama administration and its agenda. The Wake County public school board is, well, just that.

In reality, there are deep connections between the Kochs and Wake County, and it's all about the money. The latest installment in the left-leaning Brave New Foundation's "Koch Brothers Exposed" video series claims that a Koch-founded and funded outfit, Americans for Prosperity, fueled a campaign to "resegregate" the schools of Wake County, a prosperous area in central North Carolina that's home to the cities of Raleigh and Cary, among others.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

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WI GOP Recall Challenger Can't Name One Bill She Supports or Opposes

—By Andy Kroll

| Fri Aug. 12, 2011 6:58 AM PDT

Wisconsin Republican Kim Simac has encountered plenty of problems in her bid to unseat Democratic State Senator Jim Holperin in one of the Badger's State final two recall elections on Tuesday. It emerged that she once compared public education in America to Nazism. And her 32-page children's book, "American Soldier Proud and Free," a self-published ode to patriotism, turned out to have been published in China.

But from a policy perspective, those gaffes pale in comparison to what Simac said—or failed to say—earlier this week. As part of a forum hosted by the WJRO radio station, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, Simac was asked what particular legislation she would support or challenge if elected to the State Senate. Amazingly, Simac could not name a single bill. Not one. Here was her response:

"Hmm, well, I think that...I guess I would have to say that with all of the things that I've been looking at, I think you just stumped me. All the things I've been looking at for all the last couple months here trying to get up on board as a new candidate, I've been trying to stay up with the issues, but I would have to say that I can't name you a single one right now."

Simac even admits that she can't name a single bill she would back or oppose; a basic question that even a political neophyte could expect has "stumped" her. Simac's excuse: she's been spending all her time talking to voters in Holperin's northeastern Wisconsin district. What it is that Simac is discussing with them is anyone's guess.

Stephen Colbert's Super PAC Ads Get "Cornographic"

—By Andy Kroll

| Thu Aug. 11, 2011 1:33 PM PDT

Last we heard from Colbert Super PAC, the satirist Stephen Colbert's political action committee, it had nearly created a massive loophole in the nation's laws regulating money in politics. (In the end, the nation's top campaign finance cop ruled favorably for Colbert and pro-regulation groups.)

Now, with the Republican presidential candidates descending on Ames, Iowa, for that town's straw poll this weekend, Colbert Super PAC is at it again with a pair of campaign ads that are hilarious parodies of the typical pre-election spot. With Colbert as narrator, his PAC bashes outside political groups urging Iowans to write in Texas Gov. Rick Perry for the Ames Straw Poll, then tells viewers to write in "Rick Parry"—with an "a"—instead. "We want you to vote for Rick Parry, too—but not their Rick Perry, our Rick Parry," Colbert intones.

Oh, and there's some "cornography" in Colbert PAC's ad. Really. Watch for yourself:

First ad:

And the second ad:

After the Wisconsin Recalls: What's Next?

Peering into the crystal ball for the Badger State's progressive groundswell.

—By Andy Kroll

| Thu Aug. 11, 2011 3:00 AM PDT

A movie theater marquee in Wisconsin.

No amount of Wisconsin's finest craft-brewed beer could lighten the mood at Hawk's bar on Tuesday night as the final recall election results dribbled in. Democrats had won two seats, one short of what they needed to retake the GOP-controlled state Senate. Boisterous, confident, even costume-clad Democratic supporters had piled into Hawk's to watch MSNBC's coverage of the six races, but by night's end, the feeling was one of disappointment, with plenty of tears to go around. "We need to go home and wallow in self-pity now," one woman said on her way out.

Right then, a simple question hung heavy in the room: What now? Talking to people in Wisconsin in the days before the election; seeing the massive get-out-the-vote effort mounted by activists, labor unions, and the state Democratic Party; and watching the thousands of volunteers manning phone banks and knocking on doors made Tuesday's recall elections feel like a make-or-break moment for the movement sparked by this winter's protests in Madison. At close range, the sheer energy was staggering. Can that energy survive now? And if so, for what end will it be used next?

[Read the full article]

National Republicans Trumpet Wisconsin Recall Victories, Beg for Bucks

—By Andy Kroll

| Wed Aug. 10, 2011 12:21 PM PDT

The Republican National Committee blasted an email out to supporters today trumpeting the four Republican victories in Wisconsin's August 9 recall elections and using the results to ask for campaign cash. "The Republican Party won a great victory over the Big Union bosses and Obama Democrats last night, and we could not have done it without the support you have given the RNC," the email reads. Later in the email, the RNC asks for two- and three-figure donations to "regain total control of Congress and ensure Barack Obama is a one-term president."

Republicans came out on top in Tuesday's heated recall races, winning four out of six races and denying Democrats the majority in the State Senate. That narrows the GOP's edge in the Senate to one vote, though that lead could widen if Democrats lose either of the seats in the August 16 recall of two Democratic senators.

While some Republicans decried the national feel of Tuesday's recalls, the RNC heralds its own role in helping the state GOP beat back the Democratic challengers:

Because of your support of the RNC, Republican, we were able to help the Wisconsin Party's grassroots efforts and provide strategic resources to keep our majority in the state senate.

We provided staff on the ground;

Funded a voter ID program;

Worked with the Wisconsin Party on contact lists and a Get-Out-The-Vote plan;

Provided Get-Out-The-Vote technology and equipment to the state party; and,

Funded the absentee ballot program.

"None of this," the letter goes on, "would have been possible without your financial support of the Republican National Committee."