Christie and Koch in Cahoots? It's Time to Subpoena the Committee for Our Children's Future
Thursday, 16 January 2014 11:26By Greg Palast, Truthout | News Analysis
(Photo: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie continued his "New Jersey Comeback" theme at a town hall meeting held at the Westfield Armory located in Westfield, New Jersey on February 8, 2012 via Shutterstock)Far more insidious, more corrosive and dangerous than the Governor of New Jersey playing traffic warden is the story of Gov. Chris Christie's secret meetings with a gaggle of billionaires - and the legality of the spending by the front organization set up following these hidden hugger-muggers.
In 2012, a tax-exempt "social welfare organization" called Committee for Our Children's Future, CCF, ran a series of TV ads telling America that Governor Christie has performed more miracles in New Jersey than Jesus did with loaves and fish. The New York Times found some old college chums who said they set up the "Children's" crusade for Christie. But the ads cost about $6 million. The Times didn't ask how Christie's buddies, not wealthy guys, found the six big ones.
But CCF was not started in 2012. When I heard "Children's Future," my nose started twitching. I smelled Koch.
The whiff of sulfur took me back to seven thick investigation binders nearly two decades old - each one marked "KOCH." In Volume 3, I found it: CCF - Campaign for Our Children's Future.
Just days before the 1996 election, "Campaign for our Children's Future," previously unheard of, paid for some of the most vicious smear ads ever run. The nasty blast, disseminated in coordination with a mysterious operation called "Citizens United," accused one Democrat of associating with a child molester (false), another of being "a Jewess" (true) and so on.
Most of the 29 targeted Democrats, blindsided and unable to swing at the phantom "Children" and "Citizens," were creamed. The result, to everyone's surprise, was that the Republicans kept control of Congress.
(Image: Ted Rall)Everyone's surprise but Charles and David Koch. The head of "Children's Future" confessed to federal investigators he'd signed over $700,000 in blank checks to ananonymous donor running funds through Children's. The money-laundering