Jane Mayer Quotes

When most people find themselves running afoul of the law, they might change their ways. When the Koch brothers found themselves running afoul of the law, David Koch decided to run for office so that he could change the law.

That's why they're in the problem - having the problem they're having. They're not conservative. They're being run by their donors.

Washington is dominated by big money.

Who do you think controls the Republican Party? Big money controls the Republican Party. This is where their campaign contributions come from.

Even though the Koch brothers' businesses put 4.4 million people at risk with pollutants, the Kochs have poured millions into lobbyists' coffers and political contributions to ensure their bottom line stays unchanged by the most basic safety precaution.

Public employee unions are hardly the only group involved in bare-knuckles politics. Businesses lobby fiercely, and executives make hefty campaign donations.

It's not difficult for a business to launch thousands of pieces of mail on Capitol Hill, and that scares ... everyone.

The Tea Party was a grass roots movement and then the Koch Brothers came along. So now we have the Tea Party on coke.

What is a super PAC? It’s like a PAC that got bitten by a radioactive lobbyist.

Business must learn the lesson. Political power is necessary, that such political power must be assiduously cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with determination.

All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law; directors should not be permitted to use stockholders' money for such purposes; and, moreover, a prohibition of this kind would be, as far as it went, an effective method of stopping the evils aimed at in corrupt practices acts. Not only should both the National and the several State Legislatures forbid any officer of a corporation from using the money of the corporation in or about any election, but they should also forbid such use of money in connection with any legislation save by the employment of counsel in public manner for distinctly legal services.

A lot of the Citizens United problem could be solved if we knew where the money came from for all these ads. The companies create these entities with fake names - like 'Citizens for Nice Puppies' - which means that the sources of the money are unaccountable.

Political speech is indispensable to decision-making in a democracy, and this is no less true because the speech comes from a corporation rather than an individual.

The Koch brothers spent millions against me.

The Koch brothers are spending more money against me than I've been able to raise.

Big money and corporate interest drown out a lot of voices.

If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void: lobbyists and special interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election and those who are making it harder for you to vote; Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry, or control health care choices that women should make for themselves.

There's a difference between those two [George Soroses and the Tom Steyers] and the Kochs that I think is important.

What I write about is how much influence it's had in things like state legislatures and governorships and congressional races. The other thing that's even more important in the long run is that very extreme money has affected the ecosystem of ideology in the country.

The lobbyists, the special interests, the special pleaders, if you will, the super PACs the billionaires, these people are apoplectic about the rise of Trump. He can't be bought. He can bring sweeping conservative reform.

There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains.

The Kochs are very much involved in this election, not backing [Donald] Trump but backing everything down the ballot from him. They're pouring money into capturing the Senate and the House of Representatives, and state Houses across the country.

Big money buys access in Washington, and access purchases influence. It is as simple as that. And they have basically given a green light, a further green light, after Citizens United, to the biggest money to have the bigger voice in our politics, and to sound out and drown out the voice of just ordinary citizens.

I'm against very wealthy ­people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it.

I think it's a terrible system, but money in politics is like water running downhill -- it finds its way.