Summary

Mayer opens her third and final section of the book by detailing the spoils enjoyed by the financiers of the 2010 midterm elections. In the title of this chapter, Mayer implies that the prize or the spoils of the 2010 midterm elections for wealthy conservatives like the Koch brothers was the opportunity to plunder Congress. The primary group of congressmen focused on by wealthy far-right backers was the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which wielded control over the regulations most detrimental to the Kochs’ bottom line as fossil fuel tycoons.

Due to the unprecedented and unpredictable success of the midterm elections, Charles and David Koch were confident enough to enter more frequently into the public eye. However, as Mayer notes and family patriarch Fred Koch warned, “the downside to the brothers’ increasing visibility was growing public scrutiny” (278). In response to this scrutiny, the...