Republican US presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the US capital. However, Cain’s economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity (AFP).
Cain’s campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who served on an AFP advisory board with helping devise his “9-9-9” plan to rewrite the nation’s tax code. And his years of speaking at AFP events have given the businessman and radio host a network of loyal grassroots fans.
The once little-known businessman’s political activities are getting fresh scrutiny these days since he soared to the top of some national polls of Republican voters.
His links to the Koch brothers could undercut his outsider, non-political image among people who detest politics as usual and candidates connected with the party machine.
AFP tapped Cain as the public face of its “Prosperity Expansion Project,” and he traveled the country in 2005 and 2006 speaking to activists who were starting state-based AFP chapters from Wisconsin to Virginia. Through his AFP work, he met Mark Block, a longtime Wisconsin Republican operative hired to lead that state’s AFP chapter in 2005 as he rebounded from an earlier campaign scandal that derailed his career.
Block and Cain sometimes traveled together as they built up AFP: Cain was the charismatic speaker preaching the ills of big government; Block was the operative helping with the nuts and bolts.
When US President Barack Obama’s election helped spawn the “Tea Party” that advocates limited government and low taxes, Cain was positioned to take advantage. He became a draw at growing AFP-backed rallies, impressing activists with a mix of humor and hard-hitting rhetoric against Obama’s stimulus, healthcare reform and budget policies.
Block is now Cain’s campaign manager. Other aides who had done AFP work were also brought on board.
Cain’s spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael, who recently left the campaign, was an AFP coordinator in Louisiana. His campaign’s outside law firm is representing AFP in a case challenging Wisconsin campaign finance regulations. At least six other current and former paid employees and consultants for Cain’s campaign have worked for AFP in various capacities.
And Cain has credited Rich Lowrie, a Cleveland businessman who served on AFP’s board of advisers from 2005 to 2008, with being a key economic adviser and with helping to develop his “9-9-9” plan to cut the corporate tax rate to 9 percent, impose a national sales tax of 9 percent and set a flat income tax rate of 9 percent.
“He’s got a national network now that perhaps he wouldn’t have had 15 or 20 years ago because of his work with AFP,” said Republican Party of Wisconsin vice chair Brian Schimming, who has introduced Cain at events in Wisconsin. “For a presidential candidate, that’s obviously helpful to have.”
He said Cain was smart to hire Block.
Cain’s recent victories in non-binding straw polls in Florida and Minnesota highlight the importance of organizing supporters and Block, who has a deep network in the Tea Party, “gets that side of it,” Schimming said.
However, Block has had his problems as well. He settled a lawsuit in 2001 accusing him of illegally coordinating a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice’s re-election with an outside group. Block agreed to pay US$15,000 and sit out of politics for three years.
While Cain is quick to promote his career at the helm of the Godfather’s Pizza chain, his ties to AFP are not something the candidate appears eager to highlight.
Cain does not include his AFP work on his biography on his Web site, but spokesman J.D. Gordon said on Sunday that Cain was “proud of his business record” and his association with the group.
“He has made a lot of important connections through AFP,” Gordon said, pointing to Block and Lowrie, among others.
However, Cain continues to work with the group.
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