Koch brothers’ cash will wash over California, experts say [View all]

[KamaAina]

http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Koch-brothers-cash-will-wash-over-California-6044288.php

The billionaire Koch brothers’ intention to spend nearly $900 million on conservative candidates and causes in the 2016 election cycle will unleash a tidal wave of cash that will swamp the political landscape even in solidly blue California, experts said Tuesday.

When it comes to spreading money around, the spending plan that industrialists Charles and David Koch unveiled Monday will put the brothers and an estimated 300 conservative mega-donors in their network on a plane now occupied only by the country’s two major political parties.

“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.”...

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.

"an asteroid in the ocean" is an extinction-level event.

As to the Senate race, our bizarre top-two primary system means that the general election could very well be real Dem (Kamala Harris?) against ersatz Third Way Dem (Ro Khanna?!) And you know which way the Koch bottle will roll.