Wealthy Conservatives Gather in Dana Point

A private gathering of some the nation’s wealthiest conservatives -- featuring a forum with a handful of GOP presidential hopefuls - - will be held at a luxury resort in Dana Point this weekend.

The Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce summer meeting will be held at the St. Regis Monarch Beach resort, according to campaign officials for various candidates set to appear at the event.

The group, a free-market advocacy nonprofit founded by billionaire conservative activists Charles and David Koch, announced this week that its summer meeting will feature policy discussions with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Jeb Bush; Gov. Scott Walker; Carly Fiorina; and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida.

While Freedom Partners has invited the media to view a live webcast of the event in an effort to pull back the curtain on the secretive gatherings, the organization does not disclose the locations of its meetings, nor its members or donors, and would only confirm that the upcoming confab will be held in Southern California.

It was widely reported that the group’s last meeting in January -- featuring Cruz, Rubio and Rand Paul -- was the latest of several such events to be held at an unspecified luxury resort in the Palm Springs area. The Koch brothers both own homes at The Vintage Club in Indian Wells.

Requests for information about the venue via telephone and email went unanswered.

Freedom Partners officials have said this year’s winter meeting drew about 450 of the country’s most successful business and philanthropic leaders. According to published reports, the meeting raised about $900 million to be used to advance the group’s conservative agenda.

This weekend’s meeting, themed “Unleashing A Free Society: Expanding Opportunity for All Americans,” will be moderated by Politico’s chief White House correspondent, Mike Allen.

Allen will host a 25-minute policy discussion with each of the invited presidential hopefuls, with two appearing on Saturday afternoon and three others on Sunday.

--City News Service