Billionaire Koch Comes Out Publicly For Romney With $50,000-A-Head Hamptons Party

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2012/07/05/koch-brothers-dinner-mitt-romney-fundraiser-hamptons-david-koch/

America’s richest brothers Charles and David Koch generally like to wield their influence from behind closed doors. The conservative billionaire industrialists might be the most influential political donors in the country, but they work quietly, under the radar.

If they’ve been giving millions towards a Republican victory this election cycle, as has been widely reported, they’ve been doing so via nonprofits that don’t disclose their benefactors, so there’s no paper trail. Younger brother David founded right-leaning tax exempt group Americans for Prosperity, but there’s no way of telling whether he or Charles are funding the outfit, which spends millions on anti-Obama ads in swing states.

Slowly, though, the Kochs are coming out of the shadows as the election draws nearer. This Sunday, David Koch and his wife Julia will host GOP contender Mitt Romney at their palatial summer home on sought-after Meadow Lane in Southampton, New York. This is the first time Koch has hosted an official Romney campaign event — indeed, the first time either Koch has officially come out in support of the Governor’s campaign.

In the fall, the two were firmly behind Herman Cain as their candidate of choice. At an Americans for Prosperity Foundation event I attended in Washington, D.C., Cain called himself a “Koch brother from another mother” to wild applause. Since Cain’s campaign ended, the Kochs have remained mum on who they’d like to see in the White House.