Guess those tea parties pay off.

According to the latest campaign finance reports, Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker accepted $15,000 in PAC money from Koch Industries.

Koch, as you know, has funded a massive network of ultra-conservative/libertarian organizations that promote its corporate interests. Koch is best known as the funder of global warming-denying think tanks and the right-wing echo chamber that regurgitates their claims. Part of that echo chamber is Americans for Prosperity, the Astro Turf organization hyping the tea parties.

In the New Yorker, Jane Mayer did an excellent job of showing how Koch brothers—who are worth a combined $32 billion, far wealthier than George Soros—have funded these organizations to provide cover for policy changes that the Big Oil company wanted—like relaxed environmental regulations, privatized health care, and low taxes.

Last spring, when the local AFP-Wisconsin was holding tea party rallies around the state, I showed how the group was involved in opposing the Clean Energy Jobs Act. Gee… wonder why. A Koch subsidiary owns a pipeline that runs through Wisconsin. That oil originates in the Canadian tar sands, and if the bill had gone through, it would have been more difficult for the company to sell that fuel in Wisconsin since it probably would not meet the proposed low-carbon standard.

So now Walker’s going to do Koch Industries' bidding. Beware.