Prop. 164 Cash Trail Leads to Billionaires : Term limits: Kansas Libertarians deny link to California measure. But brothers have donated heavily to a group that employs woman who submitted the initiative.

SACRAMENTO â€”  Two out-of-state billionaire brothers known for their extreme anti-government views have links to the California ballot measure to limit congressional terms, even though they continue to deny they are involved in Proposition 164, The Times has learned.

Kansas industrialists Charles and David Koch, major financiers of the Libertarian Party movement, are among the largest donors to the organization that employs Anita Anderson, the official proponent of California’s ballot measure to limit congressional terms.

Charles Koch, chairman of the $19-billion Koch Industries in Wichita, Kan., is a founding director of the Center for Independent Thought, which employs Anderson and lists its purpose as developing “an awareness of Libertarian scholarship.�

The connection between the Kochs and Anderson undermines statements by the initiative’s supporters that it is driven by Californians outraged by entrenched members of the state’s congressional delegation.

As the proponent, Anderson submitted the measure to the state attorney general, paid the $200 filing fee and chose the people who wrote the arguments supporting the measure in the official ballot pamphlet.

Despite links between Anderson and the Koch brothers, spokesmen for Koch Industries denied in a Times article Wednesday and again in an interview Thursday that the Kochs are involved in the California effort to limit congressional terms to six years.

“We provided the seed money in ’91 and that was it,� said Richard Fink, vice president of public affairs at Koch Industries. “There has been no involvement since then. It was a conscious decision.�

A spokesman for U.S. Term Limits also repeated a denial Thursday that the Koch brothers are involved in the campaign.

U.S. Term Limits’ contributions to California’s Proposition 164 total $478,000 and represent 41% of the total donated to the pro-164 campaign.

The Koch brothers, whose combined wealth is estimated at $3 billion, have tried to distance themselves from the term limit issue since becoming the focus of attacks in Washington state, where they openly backed a ballot measure to limit congressional terms last year.

Over the years, the brothers have been major donors to Libertarian causes and free-market think tanks. David Koch ran for vice president on the Libertarian ticket in 1980 on a platform that called for an end to government regulation of business, abolition of taxes, and repeal of laws against drugs, obscenity and prostitution.

Although the Kochs may not be directly funding the campaign, a series of connections between them and backers of Proposition 164 raise new questions about the genesis of the measure.

Since 1987, the Kochs and organizations and people associated with them have donated $259,200 to the Center for Independent Thought, the nonprofit pro-Libertarian corporation for which Anderson works, documents reviewed by The Times show.

They are also connected to Howard Rich, a New York businessman who long has been involved in Libertarian politics. Rich is president of U.S. Term Limits and a friend of Charles Koch’s. He is also the secretary of the Center for Independent Thought, and his wife is president.

Anderson, listed with the attorney general as the official proponent of Proposition 164, runs one of the center’s main operations--a small bookstore called Laissez Faire Books--in a warehouse south of downtown San Francisco.

Anderson could not be reached on Thursday. But in an interview earlier this week, Anderson said her work at Laissez Faire bookstore had nothing to do with her role as the proponent of Proposition 164. Nonprofit entities are barred by law from involvement in political campaigns.

“I’m the proponent, but I’m really not involved too much in the campaign,� Anderson said.

She referred campaign questions to former Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, the most vocal proponent of term limits in California. His pro-164 campaign committee has received $255,000 from Rich’s U.S. Term Limits since Monday.