Jeff Merkley Says Targeting The Koch Brothers Helped Him Survive The GOP Wave

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Reflecting on the campaign in an interview with The Huffington Post in his office on Capitol Hill, Merkley seemed relieved that it was over. He said he was still working through why he and other progressives, like Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and incoming Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), won while so many other Democrats lost.

He could, however, point to the turning point in his race: his decision to go after the billionaires Charles and David Koch, whose political groups spent at least $100 million this election cycle.

"It was a very deliberate decision to call out the Koch brothers directly," said Merkley.

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"People have different campaigns, they have different quality of opponents, they have different quality of voter turnout operations," Merkley said. "We had really great coordination in the whole get-out-the-vote effort. Message is a part of the piece, but it's not the entire piece."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/22/jeff-merkley-koch-brothers_n_6194302.html?utm_hp_ref=politics