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Were You Misinformed?
You may have received a recent phone call that included misinformation.
The Marin Post has just published two articles in which Kate Sears admits she hired a firm to do a telephone “survey” that included a thinly veiled attempt to create a strong link between Susan Kirsch and the Koch Brothers and extremist ideologies.
If you have received such a phone call, you need to know that Susan is a long-time progressive liberal and an elected member of the Marin Democratic Central Committee. She has no connection to the Koch Brothers or extremist ideologies.
Besides standing for a number of liberal causes, Susan has served on the Marin Interfaith Council, has written a book on spiritual development and has the highest ethical standards.
Please distribute this post as widely as possible to counteract the pernicious effects of misinformation that you or your neighbors have received.
Here are links to the two articles in The Marin Post: All the Supervisor’s Men and Kate Sears Admits Hiring FM3 and Responds by Attacking Toni Shroyer.
Kate Sears is standing by her efforts to link Susan Kirsch with the Koch Brothers via a letter to Community Venture Partners. The article is entitled, Kate Sears Responds – Doubles Down on Koch Brothers Conspiracy Allegations. Her argument is that Kirsch's organization, Citizen Marin, is linked directly to the Koch Brothers through Bay Area Citizens and the Pacific Legal Foundation.
Citizen Marin meetings are composed of elected and non-elected leaders from Marin cities who “round” on local issues. Speakers—reps from “alphabet agencies (ABAG, etc.),” local government, nonprofits and stakeholders for a wide array of issues and from both sides of the aisle are invited to provide basic information in the interests of creating a more informed electorate (see www.citizenmarin.org home page for a description of all meetings/events). Voluntary annual dues are $40, used primarily for meeting space.
The link to the Koch Brothers forged in the mind of Ms. Sears is based on a 2013 speaker at a Citizen Marin meeting. The President of Bay Area Citizens was invited to speak about his organization’s opposition to Plan Bay Area. Bay Area Citizens sought pro bono legal counsel and found the Pacific Legal Foundation, known for support of homeowner rights. Lambda Foundation is a small donor to Pacific Legal Foundation. Charles Koch is on the Lambda Foundation board.
2014 tax returns on the Pacific Legal Foundation home page show total assets of $46M, 92% from early (Scaife) endowments/legal fees/investments/trust assets/real property, etc. The remaining 8% ($3M) is from 9,881 donors, including Lambda. Describing Pacific Legal Foundation as a “conservative” organization is accurate; describing it as a “Koch Brothers” organization is not.
Bottom line:
Using a telephone “survey” to widely spread a false claim of a “working relationship” between Kirsch and the Koch Brothers is, bluntly, a despicable smear tactic that removes Sears from the ranks of ethical Marin politicians.