It’s never too late to start your own policy institute or astroturf-phony consumer group. In reviewing some of the comments against Net Neutrality, I encountered a particularly odious set of organizations and individuals associated with a number of “institutes,” “centers,” and “Americans for This for That.” Most are funded by the Koch Brothers or quietly work with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) or other conservative and corporate donors that back “consumer-sounding” groups that literally work against the best interests of consumers.

The “groups” touting their unified opposition to Net Neutrality as “Over 65 Groups Against Obama FCC Internet Regulations,” is a major stretch, considering some are run out of UPS Stores or post office boxes, others haven’t updated their websites in years, have no web presence at all, or don’t discuss Net Neutrality (or any internet public policy) on their websites. Many are “asterisked” to reflect the fact the letter signer is expressing their own personal views and not necessarily those of the groups they are affiliated with.

Several signers are with groups operating under different names but share the same parent group or telephone number. Ironically, these birds of a feather often flock together and many of the same people also signed joint letters on a range of disparate public policy campaigns. They always take the side of corporate interests, usually coal, chemical companies, tobacco, oil and gas, and big cable and phone companies.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announces his opposition to Net Neutrality at a FreedomWorks and Small Business & Entrepreneur Council-sponsored event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Both organizations signed the letter opposing Net Neutrality.

Their joint letter opposing Net Neutrality relies on claims harvested from industry-funded and backed sources and dark money players including Hal Singer, Will Rinehart, and George Ford. Let’s take a closer look at who is signing:

• Grover G. Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform: Everyone knows Grover. He’s been backed by deep pocketed conservative donors for years, usually fighting to keep taxes low for his friends. But now for some reason he is the first signer of this letter to the FCC opposing Net Neutrality.
• Leigh Hixon, Alabama Policy Institute: A member of the Koch Bros./ALEC-backed State Policy Network.
• Phil Kerpen, American Commitment: Kerpen has been affiliated with a lot of different groups. We tangled with him before and when he was working for Americans for Prosperity. Koch money.
• Daniel Schneider, American Conservative Union: Lobbying organization.
• Steve Pociask, American Consumer Institute: The telecom industry’s 100% fake “consumer group” that astroturfs industry talking points.
• Center for Citizen Research: Just another name for the phony American Consumer Institute.
• Lisa Nelson, American Legislative Exchange Council: Corporate funded group that writes its own state legislative bills and finds Republicans willing to call them their own.
• Christine Harbin, Americans for Prosperity: Prosperity for the Koch Bros. (who founded this group) anyway.
• Robert Alt, The Buckeye Institute: Koch money and a history of problems with accuracy.
• Jeffrey Mazzella, Center for Individual Freedom: Hides its donor list, but there are ties to Big Tobacco and Karl Rove.
• Grant Maloy, Center Right Coalition of Orlando: So small, it doesn’t even have a website.
• Chuck Muth, Citizen Outreach: A Nevada blogger and Republican operative. Their bizarre issues agenda suggests possible funding. It includes “free market sugar, ‘contact lens’, and patent trolls.” Nothing about Net Neutrality.
• Michael J. Bowen, Coalition for a Strong America: Funded entirely by the Koch Bros.’ Wisconsin Club for Growth, this group operates out of a UPS Store mailbox in Beaver Dam, Wisc.
• Matthew Kandrach, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy: “The only thing making it possible to call his organization an ‘organization’ is that, along with its vice president, they make an organization of two people.” Amateurish combination of bad links and no spell-checking, a-la their Issues list which includes “Banking & Investmets” (sic).
• Col. Francis X. De Luca USMR (Ret), Civitas Institute: Koch money.
• Katie McAuliffe, Digital Liberty: “Digital Liberty is a project of Americans for Tax Reform,” which means it’s a Grover operation pretending to be more than what it actually is.
• Hance Haney, Discovery Institute: Donor list is kept top secret to “avoid harassment” but this group usually obsesses about promoting “intelligent design” but also loves to lobby on telecom issues, which means industry money is extremely likely.
• Adam Brandon, FreedomWorks Foundation: Its immediate predecessor was founded by the Koch Bros. Washington Post: “wealthy donors [sway] the direction of FreedomWorks and other political groups, which increasingly rely on unlimited contributions from corporations and financiers for their financial livelihood.” A handful of those donors are said to be responsible for the bulk of FreedomWorks’ annual budget.
• Annette Meeks, Freedom Foundation of Minnesota: Conservative group that got the bulk of its funding from DonorsTrust, “the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement.”
• Richard Watson, Florida Center/Right Coalition: See “Center Right Coalition of Orlando.”
• David Barnes, Generation Opportunity: Koch money.
• Ray Chadwick, Granite State Taxpayers: Lists National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Tax Reform, New Hampshire Tea Party Coalition, and Americans for Prosperity as “affiliates,” but also calls itself “non-partisan.”
• Joseph Bast, The Heartland Institute: Close ties to ALEC and now hides its donor list.
• Mike Krause, Local Colorado Project: No website at all, but we believe it is affiliated with the “Independence Institute,” a group closely tied to ALEC.
• Andrew Langer, Institute for Liberty: Started as a one-man operation with a $25k budget until the corporate donors moved in. Now the group refuses to disclose its donor list, but SourceWatch discovered it shared a phone number with the National Taxpayers Union.
• Tom Giovanetti, Institute for Policy Innovation: Ties to Koch Bros. and ALEC.
• Seton Motley, Less Government: Close ties to ALEC and part of the Heartland Institute’s plethora of groups.
• Daniel Garza, The LIBRE Initiative: Astroturf en español. A Koch operation trying to pass itself off as a Latino group.
• Bartlett Cleland, Madery Bridge: It’s a bit hilarious to find a corporate lobbying firm listed as one of the 65 “groups” against Net Neutrality. But at least it’s a case of being honest. Like most of the others, there is a financial incentive to take that position.
• Dee Hodges, Maryland Taxpayers Association, Inc. – Website hasn’t been updated for over a year. Nothing about Net Neutrality. Zombie group?
• Mike Wendy, MediaFreedom: We exposed Mike Wendy’s close ties to the telecom industry back in 2010, and we notice his and several other names listed among the 65 “groups” here were part of the ridiculous Progress & Freedom Foundation (now defunct), which was the final destination of the generously filled money train from some of the biggest telecom companies in the country. MediaFreedom is comprised primarily of Wendy’s blog attacking media reform groups like Free Press. His bio shows an endless journey working for a number of groups quietly funded by the cable and telephone companies.
• Henry Kriegel, Montanans for Tax Reform: Their website has not been updated in years and the rest appears to be little more than a post office box in Bozeman.
• Brent Mead, Montana Policy Institute: Ties to Koch Bros. and ALEC.
• Scott Cleland, NetCompetition: The Payola Pundit. Mr. Cleland doesn’t like to talk about his close ties to ALEC, where he served as co-chair of the Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force. Members of that committee include Comcast and AT&T.
• Lorenzo Montanari, Property Rights Alliance: Really Americans for Tax Reform under yet another name.
• Don Racheter, Ph.D., Public Interest Institute: Five people on a college campus in Iowa. Ties to ALEC. Claims to be non-partisan but attacked “liberals” all over its website.
• Mike Stenhouse, Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity: You guessed it. Ties with ALEC and Franklin Center, which funds reporters of all things.
• Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation: Ties to Koch Bros., ALEC, and Franklin Center.
• Tom Struble, R Street Institute: Broken record — ties to Koch Bros. and Franklin Center.
• Karen Kerrigan, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council: Has unnamed “corporate partners.” Ironic opponent of Net Neutrality, considering it is supposed to represent the interests of small startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses — exactly the types that would be discriminated against by giant ISPs unconcerned about Net Neutrality.
• James L. Martin, 60 Plus Association: The corporate astroturf version of AARP funded by the Koch Bros. Mr. Martin is a prolific letter-signer when corporate interests are involved. Check out this letter on another issue and notice how many of the groups signing that letter just happen to be involved in this Net Neutrality opposition campaign.
• David Williams, Taxpayers Protection Alliance: The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is part of the network of front groups funded by the Koch Bros. and their political network.
• Berin Szoka, TechFreedom: “Sucking on the teat of the phone and cable companies” who donate tens of thousands of dollars to TechFreedom to act as their sock puppet.
• Gerrye Johnston, Women for Democracy in America, Inc.: Very, very odd organization (it’s now MEN and Women for Democracy by the way.) Internet public policy is so far afield from their mission statement, you’d need to book a flight to find it.
• Mary Adams, Maine Center-Right Coalition: See Center Right Coalition of Orlando. We think this group is normally concerned about illegal immigration, but there does not seem to be a formal coordinated web presence.