IN THE PREDAWN TWILIGHT of December 4,Randy Richardvillethe Republican majority leader of the Michigan Senate, called an old friend to deliver some grim news. None more so than Mike Jackson. Jackson and Richardville had grown up in the auto town of Monroe, 40 miles south of Detroit. Since the election a few weeks earlier, Republicans had been aiming to use the current lame-duck session to ram through a controversial piece of legislation known as right-to-work.

Such laws, already on the books in 23 states, outlawed contracts requiring all employees in a unionized workplace to pay dues for union representation. Jackson and other labor leaders were scrambling to head off the bill, widely regarded as a disaster for unions.

At one point during the event, he was escorted into a private room where a dozen wealthy business moguls were waiting for him. Some he recognized as heavy hitters in Michigan politics; others had flown in from out of state. One of the men in the room glared at Richardville.

Had he ever run for office? The man said no. Jackson was wide awake now.

Meet the New Kochs: The DeVos Clan’s Plan to Defund the Left – Mother Jones

The pressure came largely from one man present at that fundraiser: The year-old scion of the Amway Corporation, DeVos had arm-twisted Richardville repeatedly to support right-to-work. After six years of biding their time, DeVos and his allies believed the lame duck was the time to strike. They had formulated a single, all-encompassing strategy: They had a fusillade of TV, radio, and internet ads in the works.

They had even reserved the lawn around the state capitol for a month to keep protesters at bay. With a stroke of his pen on December 11, Gov. The governor marked the occasion by reciting, nearly verbatim, talking points that DeVos and his allies had distributed.

THE DEVOSES sit alongside the Kochsthe Bradleysand the Coorses as founding families of the modern conservative movement. They have helped fund nearly every prominent Republican running for national office and underwritten a laundry list of conservative campaigns on issues ranging from charter schools and vouchers to anti-gay-marriage and anti-tax ballot measures. The family fortune flows from year-old Richard DeVos Sr.

The son of poor Dutch immigrants, he cofounded the multilevel-marketing giant Amway with Jay Van Andela high school pal, in Amway has earned DeVos Sr. The Koch brothers can usually expect Richard and his wife, Helen, to attend their biannual donor meetings.

He is a lifelong Christian conservative and crusader for free markets and small government, values he passed down to his four children.

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Today, his eldest son, Dickis the face of the DeVos political dynasty. Passing right-to-work in Michigan was more than a policy victory. It was a major score for Republicans who have long sought to weaken the Democratic Party by attacking its sources of funding and organizing muscle. More broadly, the Michigan fight has given hope—and a road map—to conservatives across the country working to cripple organized labor and defund the left.

Whereas party activists had for years viewed right-to-work as a pipe dream, a determined and very wealthy family, putting in place all the elements of a classic political campaign, was able to move the needle in a matter of months. STEP OFF THE JET BRIDGE at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, and the DeVos imprimatur is everywhere. Leaving the airport you pass the West Michigan Aviation Academya charter school founded by Dick DeVos in I grew up not far from Grand Rapids, and the DeVos name was never far from mind.

In western Michigan, the DeVoses were the closest thing we had to Carnegies or Rockefellers. The company formulated the business model now used by the likes of Mary Kay, Avon, and Herbalife, in which salespeople earn money by recruiting others into the business.

Inthe Federal Trade Commission accused Amway of operating a pyramid scheme, but after a years-long investigation the agency rescinded the charge.

During the s, Amway bought ads in major newspapers that railed against taxation and regulation. Van Andel, who died inchaired the US Chamber of Commerce in andand he gave millions to Republican and conservative organizations in his lifetime. DeVos, meanwhile, was an early member and funder of the Besides the stock market crash what else caused the great depression for National Policy, a secretive network of hardline conservative leaders founded by Left Behind author Tim LaHaye.

He fit the part of GOP rainmaker-in-chief, wearing a diamond pinkie ring and Gucci loafers, driving a Gold forex al khaleej, and frequently commuting to his nearby office by helicopter. DeVos was also a strident voice within the party: In an era when Republicans still courted labor, he urged the GOP to ignore union members.

Amway also galvanized its ,plus sales force into a massive political network, drumming up hundreds pfg binary options thousands of dollars in contributions for favored candidates like Rep.

His wife, Betsyan heiress to a Michigan auto parts fortune, hailed from a conservative dynasty of her own; her father, Edgar Princewas a founder of the Family Research Council.

Betsy, who is 56, is the political junkie in the relationship. The DeVos name carried plenty of weight in Washington, but the clan loomed especially large in Michigan, and had opportunities to exert its influence in ways big and small. The reporter had taken the language out of an official Michigan GOP press release and had even given Betsy a chance to respond to her own words.

InDick and Betsy helped underwrite a ballot initiative to expand the use of vouchers and lost badly. And though he eked out a victory, the DeVoses got the final word. It would piss off the DeVoses.

Johnson did not respond to requests for comment. InPumford quit politics in disgust. Billionaires tend to bully with their pocketbooks. FOR DICK DEVOS, ib commissions forex fight over right-to-work started with a humbling defeat. His timing was terrible: Thanks to Iraq War weariness and a series of GOP scandals, not one Republican beat an incumbent Democrat in a congressional or gubernatorial race anywhere in America that year.

Postelection, DeVos turned down offers to run the state party and ducked out of the political limelight to ponder his next coles eastgardens australia day trading hours. The following year, he and a close ally, Ron Weiserwhose prolific fundraising had earned him the US ambassadorship to Slovakia under George W.

According stock option qdro Weiser, McInturff came back with a surprising result—his polls showed nearly 70 percent support for right-to-work. DeVos and Weiser shared their findings with donors and operatives statewide, quietly brainstorming about how to capitalize on those numbers. For decades, the lone voice on the issue was the Mackinac Center for Public Policya state-level think tank founded in to spread kenya forex exchange today ideas and antagonize the unions.

In a June email obtained by Progress Michigana Mackinac Center staffer told a state lawmaker: Still, despite a flurry of policy briefs and op-eds produced by the Mackinac Center, the issue remained a nonstarter.

Labor was too strong. Early inthey dined in Washington, DC, with former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keatingwho in became the first governor aapl stock marketwatch nearly a decade to sign a right-to-work bill into law. He knew just how fierce the fight could be. Democrats controlled the state House at the time. A small but vocal group of them had campaigned on right-to-work and agitated for the issue as soon as the session convened.

Are we there yet? As the chorus grew louder, the unions decided to launch a preemptive strike. In Julythey got an amendment on the ballot that would enshrine collective bargaining rights in the state constitution. They gladly took on the job—DeVos called Prop. With McNeilly, who managed the anti-Prop. They also strategized about every other possible obstacle: They began the anti-Prop. Polls showed that 60 percent of voters supported the measure, but DeVos and Weiser tapped their national donor networks, hauling in work from home flyers herbalife from Las Vegas gambling tycoon Sheldon AdelsonTexas investor Harold Simmonsand a slew of Michigan business groups.

DeVos and Weiser wasted no time moving to the next phase of their plan. DESPITE THE DEFEAT of Prop. Most Republican lawmakers seemed to have no stomach for another battle with organized labor. Other Republicans worried that a right-to-work push could lead to recalls.

In public, Snyder insisted that right-to-work was still not on his agenda. Privately, his aides met with labor and suggested that concessions on other issues would keep the bill off the table. All the while, though, DeVos and his team were furiously whipping the vote. In the weeks before the start of the lame-duck session, DeVos personally called dozens of state lawmakers, pledging his support if the unions threatened recalls or primary challenges.

A week before the lame duck began, on November 20,DeVos and Weiser met with members of the Republican leadership, business bigwigs, and the top legislative aide to Gov. Snyder to pitch their plan. Snyder and the GOP leadership were still queasy, fearing a Wisconsin-style revolt; where the protesters in Madison had ultimately failed, in Michigan, a labor stronghold, they just might prevail.

He had recently formed a nonprofit group called the Michigan Freedom Fund. It planned to raise millions from the DeVos family and other donors. And the group was plotting a statewide ad blitz to give air cover to Republican lawmakers. By the time McNeilly finished talking, the mood in the room had shifted from apprehensive to optimistic.

By now it was down to a few Republicans on the fence, and the heavy artillery came in. According to labor lobbyists and House and Senate Republican staffers, several undecided GOP lawmakers received threats of primary challenges from Team DeVos if they opposed right-to-work. In early December, the Michigan Freedom Fund unleashed its freedom-to-work ad campaign. Freedom-to-work is about restoring workplace fairness and equality, not curtailing unions. This is your chance to make history, Luntz exhorted them.

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On December 6, Snyder shocked the state by announcing that lawmakers would vote on right-to-work that day and that he would sign the legislation when it got to his desk. DeVos worked the phones all the way to the end, even calling several lawmakers on their cellphones as they prepared to cast their votes.

The gathering is always held at the Grand Hotel, an extravagant, year-old landmark with sweeping views of Lake Huron. The guest list was packed with prominent names and hopefuls: Bobby Jindal, Wisconsin Gov.

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Scott Walker, and Karl Rove all had keynote speaking slots. One of the main attractions was a Saturday morning panel on the right-to-work victory. Dick and Betsy DeVos watched from the front row. But, he added, conservatives in those states were waiting to see if Michigan Republicans could hold on to their law—and their majority—in Scott Walker did in Wisconsin, you give courage pills to every state legislator and every state legislature across the country.

DeVos and his allies had long since started working toward that goal. Their Michigan Freedom Fund is now a conglomerate of political vehicles, including a charitable foundation, a c 4 advocacy group, and a political committee. The fund will recruit and groom candidates and campaign to send those politicians to Lansing. The ambitious project is more than a state-level power play: DeVos is part of a wave of superwealthy political activists—think the Koch brothers on the right, the billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer on the left—who are operating outside the traditional party system.

They are financing their own political infrastructure and setting their own agenda. And it seems to be working. By pulling off the unthinkable, DeVos and his allies have emboldened conservatives around the country to go on the offensive.

Invest in the infrastructure necessary to leverage an opportunity when it presents itself. Andy Kroll is an investigative reporter at Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here. Follow him on Twitter here.

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Many buildings in Grand Rapids, like the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, bear the name of Richard DeVos Sr. Dick DeVos concedes the gubernatorial election, accompanied by his wife, Betsy, and three of their children. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter. Andy Kroll Andy Kroll is an investigative reporter at Mother Jones. Bill Gross on Getting Rich at the Expense of Labor Kevin Drum. About Us Store Donate Subscribe Advertise with us Customer Service. Contact Us Terms of Service Privacy Policy.