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Obama Nominates Former Koch Exec for Federal Post

AP
September 18, 2014

President Barack Obama nominated a former Koch Industries executive and grant-maker at the Charles Koch Foundation to an administration post on Thursday.

Obama tapped Victoria Hughes for a spot on the Corporation for National and Community Service’s board of directors, according to a White House statement released on Thursday.

Hughes is currently a development officer at Ashland University. Prior to that position, she served in senior roles at Koch Industries, the company owned by libertarian philanthropists Charles and David Koch, and for a number of Koch-affiliated groups.

The White House touted those positions in their release:

Ms. Hughes was Vice President for Development at the Reason Foundation and Executive Vice President of A.C. Fitzgerald & Associates from 2010 to 2012.  She was Founding President and Senior Advisor at the Bill of Rights Institute from 1999 to 2010.  From 1994 to 1999, she was Vice President for Grants at the Charles G. Koch, Claude R. Lambe, Fred and Mary Koch Foundations and Director of Corporate Philanthropy at Koch Industries, Inc.

It was not immediately clear whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), who believes that the Kochs and everyone affiliated with them embody everything wrong with the American political system, would allow the nomination to proceed.