Billionaire Charles Koch is consolidating the array of conservative advocacy groups financed by his donor network, merging all the organizations into the main political arm, Americans for Prosperity, officials announced Friday.
Network leaders cast the surprising move as a way to operate more efficiently and better coordinate their organizing reach on the ground, which has increasingly become the focus of the operation. The change means that three smaller groups that target Latinos, veterans and millennials will now operate as part of AFP. The leaders of the LIBRE Initiative, Concerned Veterans for America and Generation Opportunity are all expected to remain in place, but will be running their organizations as branded projects under the AFP banner.
[…] The network’s financing of various advocacy groups began when the operation was far more low-profile, seeking to shield the role the Kochs and other donors played in its financing. In early 2014, when The Washington Post and Center for Responsive Politics used tax filings to map out the maze of groups financed by the network, officials declined to confirm how the organizations were connected. But in the years since, the network has taken a more public posture, inviting reporters to attend its twice-a-year donor seminars.
