Mediaboss Marketing

No Democratic strategy got more attention in 2014 than the party's ritualized slamming of the conservative Koch brothers. From Harry Reid's floor speeches to TV ads broadcast across the country, Democrats bloodied the billionaire brothers and they candidates they fundedyet most of the Koch candidates won anyway.

But one of Democrats' top campaigners has a bold message for his colleagues: Despite the losses of 2014, double down on the Kochs in 2016.

It's one of several strategiesincluding the vaunted "war on women" playbookthat many Democrats hope to resurrect in the next election, even as Republicans scoff and other Democrats push for the party to change course.

Paul Tencher, who managed Democratic Sen. Gary Peters's victorious 2014 campaign in Michigan, says his team's efforts demonstrate that the strategy is too potent to give up, especially with the Kochs' political network planning to spend a gargantuan $889 million in 2016. Tencher says their methods are the only way to keep the ever-growing influx of Koch-network money from swinging elections.

"We have to be smarter and more disciplined about shutting off the spigot of outside money," Tencher said in an interview. " This isn't just about bruising up the Koch brothers and raising money. It's about shutting off that spigot and making their brand incapable of carrying the Republican message.

"There's nothing worse than a campaign manager who talks about how campaigns should be run," Tencher laughed. "It's a choose-your-own-adventure business, and some others had strategies that worked as well. But I think other campaigns could and should have bought into this messaging better."

Yet not every Democrat wants to double down on the Kochs. It's expensive, for one thing, to raise the profiles of businessmen most people have never heard of in order to attack them. "I think the Kochs are a great fundraising foil, but I continue to believe they're not the best line of attack for Democrats," said Travis Lowe, a Democratic ad-maker.

"Any number of entities used the Kochs as a foil last time, and it didn't work," Lowe continued. "That doesn't mean it can't in a better environment. But ... there are better arguments."

And Republicans have long jeered Democrats' attacks on the Kochs;they say the Democratic Party's record in 2014 speaks for itself. "When you're cleaning out the fridge, if it stinks, you get rid of it," said GOP strategist Brad Todd. "The Democrats have been totally unwilling to clean out their campaign fridge after 2014."

Democratic Senate strategists caution that nearly two years before the 2016 election, they have made no decisions about whether the Kochs will figure as strongly in their messaging as they did last year. But Tencher says his Michigan experience shows that a Koch-focused attack has promise.

Read more:
Should Democrats Double Down on Attacking the Koch Brothers?