Mediaboss Marketing

WASHINGTON Democrats struggling to combat a flood of outside money pouring in to defeat their candidates have found at least a temporary solution: If you can't beat them, brand them.

The latest strategy of Democratic messaging is tying Republican candidates and policies to the party's most prominent and at times vilified financial patrons, billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) initiated the strategy last month when he decried the brothers whose last name is pronounced "coke" from the Senate floor as "shadowy billionaires" and "un-American."

This week, after Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) released his new austere budget, Reid described it as a blueprint for a "modern Kochtopia."

And when the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down overall limits on how much wealthy donors can spend per congressional election, Reid said it was no surprise, "because as you know the Koch brothers are trying to buy America."

It's a campaign strategy that serves several purposes for Democrats, and strategists say the effort is already paying off in grass-roots fundraising and by helping the party crystallize a message against the GOP.

On Thursday, Koch Industries Chief Executive Charles Koch felt compelled to respond and, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, likened the Democratic campaign to "character assassination."

And Republicans dismissed the effort as a sign of Democratic desperation, predicting it would not prevent a GOP takeover of the Senate after the midterm election this fall. They point to a recent George Washington University Battleground poll that found Reid actually had lower favorability ratings than the Kochs and that only 48% of voters had even heard of the brothers.

"It's about the biggest example of distraction politics that I've ever seen," said Levi Russell, a spokesman for the Koch-funded political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity. "Folks care a lot more about how Obamacare is impacting their daily lives than what some senator says on the Senate floor."

But following Reid's lead, other Democrats are now rallying behind his mantra that the GOP is "addicted to Koch."

Read more:

Democrats target Republican ties to Koch brothers