Billionaire David Koch — known for spending on conservative political causes — has passed away, but experts say his death isn’t likely to shake up such spending that much.
Christopher Leonard, author of “Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America,” said Friday that he expected the death would have a “minimal impact” on the powerful political network associated with David Koch and his elder brother Charles Koch.
“Charles Koch has been the driving force — the strategic thinker, the operational thinker — behind the corporate growth and the political strategy,” Leonard told MarketWatch.
“The reason David Koch is so well known is he was willing to be the public face of the company. … But he was described to me as a silent partner in the corporation, and even though he gave speeches for the political network, Charles Koch drove the strategy and the philosophy.”
“So I think that as sad as it is when somebody passes away, this won’t have a significant impact on either the company or the political operation,” Leonard added.
Daniel Schulman, author of “Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Become America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty,” also predicted that David Koch’s death wouldn’t dramatically change how money flows to conservative causes or conservative politicians.
“Part of what David and his brother have been doing for the past at least a decade or so has been building up this network of donors that could bankroll this movement, so it would endure after both of them were gone,” said Schulman, who is also deputy Washington, D.C., bureau chief for Mother Jones.
“I don’t know that you’re going to see an enormous change in political giving coming from the Kochs,” he added.
“The idea was that they would build up this large network of donors, so it really wasn’t them that would be single-handedly funding this movement. It would be spread out among many different megadonors.”
“This was Charles’ strategy,” Schulman also said. “David was the face man. Charles was the strategy guy. So while he ended up being associated a lot more with their political causes, it was really Charles that was running the strategy behind all of this.”
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David Koch, who died Friday at age 79, gave more than $1 billion to charitable causes, but was better known for using his money to reshape U.S. politics and was once the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential candidate.
The Kansas native used his fortune to support conservative causes that favor lowering taxes, free trade and fewer regulations, but was a liberal on social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. He is survived by his wife, three children, his 83-year-old brother Charles and two other brothers.
