Today, Congresswoman Barbara Comstock will accept the “Women of Valor” award from one of her special interest former employers – the Independent Women’s Forum, a Koch brothers-backed women’s group that ironically opposes paycheck fairness and bills to address violence against women.
Congresswoman Comstock getting IWF’s top honor comes as no surprise. Just yesterday, Comstock voted to block consideration of a bill to increase transparency on outside spending in elections, in a campaign cycle where the Koch brothers have promised to spend almost a billion dollars influencing elections. Last year, Comstock received campaign cash from an organization set up by the Koch Network to vet its favored candidates.
Just like the Independent Women’s Forum disingenuously claims to advance “women’s issues” while advocating against equal pay for women, Congresswoman Comstock is not the moderate she purports to be, as made clear by her extreme voting record that falls right in line with her patrons, the Koch brothers.
“This award is just another example of Congresswoman Comstock’s status as one of the Koch brothers’ hand-picked candidates,” said Christie Stephenson of DCCC. “It is no surprise that Congresswoman Comstock has so often voted against women’s health priorities, when she is simply following the agenda of her Koch-backed former employer.”
BACKGROUND
Comstock Previously Consulted For The IWF. “The Independent Women’s Forum, which is conservative but does not take a position on abortion, announced that it will work closely with the pro-Bush coalition to put women on television who will portray the president’s choice as mainstream. ‘We know NOW [the National Organization for Women] will be everywhere,’ said Barbara Comstock, a consultant and legal strategist for the group. ‘They have been crying wolf for 20 years, and we’re going to counter them.’” [Washington Post, 7/03/05]
Victory Trust 2014 Hosted Fundraiser Organized By Aegis Strategic For Candidates Favored By Koch Network. “Each collected about $60,000 or more from a little-noticed fundraising committee, Victory Trust 2014, that hosted a reception to raise money from network donors for candidates favored by the network, according to documents reviewed by POLITICO. They show that the committee and the reception were organized by Aegis Strategic, which employs Crow and shares an address with Trees of Liberty.” [Politico, 11/12/15]
Barbara Comstock Received $46,274 From Victory Trust 2014. [OpenSecrets, accessed 11/13/15]
IWF Is Part of Koch Industries Political Network. According to the New Yorker, “The Kochs have funded many sources of environmental skepticism, such as the Heritage Foundation, which has argued that “scientific facts gathered in the past 10 years do not support the notion of catastrophic human-made warming.” The brothers have given money to more obscure groups, too, such as the Independent Women’s Forum, which opposes the presentation of global warming as a scientific fact in American public schools. Until 2008, the group was run by Nancy Pfotenhauer, a former lobbyist for Koch Industries. Mary Beth Jarvis, a vice-president of a Koch subsidiary, is on the group’s board.” [New Yorker, 8/30/10]
IWF Opposed Paycheck Fairness Act. “Clearly, sex-based wage discrimination is wrong. Furthermore, it’s already illegal. Employers know that, and employees should too. This latest legislation – the Paycheck Fairness Act – won’t lead to more fairness or better pay. It will lead to more lawsuits, more red tape and fewer job opportunities for women and men. The bill has a nice name, but the Paycheck Fairness Act is not good for paychecks, or for fairness.” [Independent Women’s Forum Blog, 4/07/14]
IWF Opposed Reauthorizing VAWA. “Using federal agencies to fund the routine operations of domestic violence programs that state and local governments could provide is a misuse of federal resources and a distraction from concerns that truly are the province of the federal government. Simply expanding the VAWA framework with extensive new provisions and programs that have been inadequately assessed is sure to facilitate waste, fraud, and abuse and will not better protect women or victims of violence generally.” [Independent Women’s Forum Publications, 3/29/12]