Koch brothers’ cash will wash over California, experts say

Always great to talk to Carla Marinucci of the San Francisco Chronicle.

“It is staggering,” said Jessica Levinson, who teaches political ethics at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. “It’s not a pebble in the pond, it’s an asteroid in the ocean.”

The cascade of conservative cash is “an amount we could not have fathomed 10 years ago,” Levinson said. Not even California and other strongly Democratic states will be exempt from its effects, she said.

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“It will change the tenor, the narrative of the debate and what we talk about,” Levinson said.

One race certain to be affected by the Kochs’ money, she said, is the contest for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by California Democrat Barbara Boxer, even though no prominent Republican candidates are on the horizon.

“No race is run in isolation, and to the extent the discussion about tax cuts and immigration reform happens in Ohio, candidates get asked about it in California,” Levinson said.

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Levinson said the Kochs’ actions may “embolden both sides” of the political spectrum — especially California’s progressives.

“All you have to say is, 'A billion dollars — let’s do something!’” she said. “Nothing is going to get campaign finance reform efforts going like the Koch brothers.”