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After trying and failing to make the Koch brothers the focus of the mid-term election, Democrats are digging deeper into the billionaire brothers operations to combat their prodigious fundraising and making them the focus once again of the 2016 election.

Representatives of several powerful Democratic groups from unions to abortion rights activists and environmentalists gathered behind closed doors on Tuesday to take the next steps in plotting a strategy for dealing with Charles and David Kochs plan to raise and spend more than $889 million over the next two years.

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They emerged with a commitment to expand their rapid-response and research teams to fight back against the Kochs political agenda, according to attendees. And the host of the meeting, the well-funded opposition-research group American Bridge, has been pouring resources into a series of state reports that will focus on the Koch brothers business practices environmental record, layoffs and outsourcing and their impact in key states such as Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin for Democrats to use in campaigns nationwide.

There was only one problem: Pro-Democratic outside groups representing some of the same interests spent millions in 2014 trying to draw attention to the Kochs and lost almost every election in which they intervened. But with a more collaborative and thorough approach this time around, outside groups and party leaders are hoping that their anti-Koch strategy will move voters in 2016.

At the meeting Tuesday evening, representatives from groups such as AFL-CIO, Center for American Progress, Americans for Responsible Solutions, Correct the Record and Planned Parenthood heard from experts including Paul Tencher who served as campaign manager for now-Sen. Gary Peters and Guy Molyneux of Hart Research, who presented polling data showing that direct attacks on the Koch brothers could be effective.

Facing criticism from some within the party after millions of dollars spent on anti-Koch ads yielded few wins, Democrats have repeatedly used Peters 2014 race in Michigan as the prime example of how their Koch messaging can be successful.

Tencher gave a presentation to the roughly 70 attendees, explaining how the campaign was able to hit Peters opponent, Terri Lynn Land, by connecting her to the Koch brothers and encouraged groups to use the strategy more in 2016.

Outside groups involved in the race also hammered Land using the same approach. For example, the super PAC created by mega donor, environmentalist Tom Steyer spent heavily on ads in Michigan connecting the piles of petroleum coke contaminating the Detroit River area to the Koch brothers and Land.

At this weeks meeting, attendees said Democrats were in agreement that although they lost the Senate and several seats in the House, the Koch strategy was not to blame. Its not a black and white thing, said Ben Ray, spokesman for American Bridge.

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Liberals' secret Koch strategy