Herman Cain, deeply tied to the Koch brothers? Say it ain’t so!

Cain allegedly has deep ties to the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity. The currently-soaring presidential candidate has built up his base with GOP voters through an image that he’s a non-politician who’s not beholden to anyone (and makes a good pizza). But Cain has a history with the controversy-laden Koch brothers that he does not promote very heavily — at least not as heavily as his business career. The Associated Press’s article on Cain’s deep ties to Americans for Prosperity found some fairly surprising things:

• surface Cain has a campaign manager, as well as a number of campaign aides, who once worked for Americans for Prosperity.
• deeper Rich Lowrie, the apparent Sim City player behind Cain’s easy-to-follow 999 plan, served on AFP’s board of advisors from 2005 to 2008.
• deepest Cain himself built up AFP in 2005 and 2006, collaborating with Mark Block to build local chapters throughout the country. source

» Ties that still stand: While Cain no longer gets paid for his appearances with AFP (he used to, before he started running for president), he is still active with the group. For example, Cain will speak at an AFP event in DC on November 4, despite the fact that most of the other presidential candidates will be at a dinner in Iowa. The caucus is in Iowa; what’s this guy doing in Washington? Wait a second! (photo by Flickr user Gage Skidmore)

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