This web page will expose the ways the Conservative Religious Right is attempting to take control of your lives. 

DISMANTLING PUBLIC EDUCATION

First, they intend to dismantle the Public School System, because if they can brainwash your children in religious and private schools, they can control the future population of the United States. 

How are they going to do this? By following a nationally defined plan.

Their first step is to take political power from the Teachers Unions.  As an example, let's look at local California politics and Proposition 226

Although Proposition 226 was defeated, it was a wakeup call for all those think the Religious Right political movement is dead.  Let's see what Proposition 226 would have done:  

1. It forbid foreign donations, but that was just a smokescreen.  Federal law already prohibits foreign donations to political candidates.  It would not have decreased the amount of foreign donations in any way to political campaigns. But,

2.  It would have set up two sets of rules governing how different types of organizations engage in political campaigns, which is totally unfair.   It would have stopped unions and employee organizations from engaging in politics to protect pensions, health and safety laws, and health care benefits.   Meanwhile big business - which already outspends unions and employee organizations by 11 to 1 - would have been able to freely contribute to politics to influence governmental policy and political decisions.  Hmmmmm  sort of lopsided wasn't it? and,

3.  It would have cost state and local governments and schools millions to implement because of its bureaucratic regulations on employees' political activities.

While noting the right-wing character of those pushing, the initiative, what has received little attention is what may be the primary agenda of the movement. There was a clear reason why conservative organizations from around the country were dedicated to neutralizing the voice of unions, including the National Education Association (NEA), and their allies. And this page offers important information and warnings as similar measures are pushed throughout the country.Who would have benefited?

EXTREME RIGHT PANTHEON

Major contributors who want to keep working Americans from having a voice in state politics: 

• Coors Brewing Co., (Not surprising since the Coors gives to many right wing causes, but they would have benefited by reducing union contributions, while letting them contribute as much as they wanted!)

• The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the group working on getting initiatives like this introduced in state legislatures and on the ballot in other states. The major sources of funds for ALEC include Golden Rule Insurance Co., Coors Brewing Co. and major tobacco and oil interests. ALEC, a project of the Heritage Foundation, drafts and pushes "model" legislation wherever it can. 

• Brothers David and Charles Koch of Koch Industries, a Kansas-based oil company, who are major supporters of ALEC and other anti-union groups. As a vice-presidential candidate in 1980 (on the Libertarian ticket), David Koch called for the abolition of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. 

• Paul Weyrich, the Heritage Foundation, (The Heritage Foundation is a Right Wing think tank and conduit for right wing donations)

• U.S. Chamber of Commerce, (why wouldn't they?  They represent big business!)

• Carl Lindner, top officer at Chiquita Banana, who dropped $100,000 on the initiative.

• Mountaire Corp., an Arkansas food processor whose CEO routinely gives to GOP candidates, $20,000.

• The US Justice Foundation, $20,000.

• Newt Gingrich and his pal Grover Norquist, (They are right Wing Republicans, they hate Unions and wanted their influence reduced)

• David Brennan and the Brenlin Group, Akron, Ohio, $49,000. Brennan has been a major contributor to Gingrich's GOPAC and a backer of school vouchers. 

• Business Roundtable (The Business Roundtable wanted to reduce the influence of Unions) ,

• Pittsburgh billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife gave $50,000 to Prop 174 and $100,000 to Prop 226. Scaife provided funding to several state-based policy groups, including the Reason Foundation, Claremont Institute, and Pacific Research Institute, as well as the Rutherford Institute.

• Howard Ahmanson, Jr. gave $223,000 to Prop 226 and $402,353 to Prop 174. Ahmanson is a founding director of the Rutherford Institute and is on the board of governors of the Council for National Policy and the board of directors of the Claremont Institute, which funded pro-Prop 226 ads.

• Golden Rule Insurance Co. CEO emeritus J. Patrick Rooney gave $49,000 to Prop 226 and $ 100,000 to Prop 174. As the founder of CHOICE Charitable Trust, Rooney is the godfather of the privately funded voucher movement. He is also the chairman of the American Education Reform Foundation, which gave $48,325 to Prop 226.   This is the biggest laugh.   This idiot has been pushing medical vouchers to the federal congress for years and would love to get a vote where only big business was donating money for political races.   He would really benefit because guess what - HE WANTS TO SELL MEDICAL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS!  Who can afford them?  Only those who make a lot of money or less than 10% of the population!

• John Walton, of the Wal-Mart fortune, Arkansas, gave $250,250 to Prop 174 and $360,000 to Prop 226. He also --ave $137,000 to the Claremont Institute, which paid for pro-Prop 226 ads. Working with Ted Forstmann, Walton in June launched a $200 million national voucher effort.

• James Leininger, chairman of Kinetic Concepts in Austin, Texas, contributed $49,000 to Prop 226. He played a key role in founding the pro-voucher organization CEO America, a member of the State Policy Network whose board of directors includes Rooney and Walton. In May, CEO America announced a $50 million program to fund vouchers in San Antonio in an attempt to persuade Texas legislators to support a statewide voucher bill. He is also a major source of funding for a PAC for Parental School Choice, which supports conservative candidates in school board elections.

Among the other positions he's staked out, Norquist believes social security should be replaced with individual investments in the stock market. "If you privatize social security, if you voucher-ize education, if you sell $270 billion worth of airports and wastewater treatment plants, eliminate welfare, and so on, you can cut the government to basically half its present size," Norquist believes. 

Norquist is busily raising money -- he said he plans to raise millions  -- to promote similar initiatives on next November's ballot in at least eight states and to lobby for passage of such bills in every state where legislatures meet in 2000. Norquist adds:  "Incidentally, there's an added bonus. It also de-funds the GOP's best-financed and most implacable opponents." 

This is a message California Gov. Pete Wilson carried as well, to the Republican Governors Association and a meeting with members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  Wilson's anti-union sentiment was no surprise to California workers.  Back in the 1970s, as mayor of San Diego, Wilson was constantly fighting with unionized bus drivers, fire fighters and other employees. 

Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform did much of the heavy lifting on this initiative, paying for a 1.5-million-piece mailing to get the proposition on the June ballot. This group and Norquist contributed $441,000 to the campaign. Not surprising, given the Norquist connection, Americans for Tax Reform is pressing hard for medical savings accounts as a key to "Medicare reform." 

As you can see from this example, the Religious Right through the Republican Party focuses is on making a profit for their contributors who are for the most part - Big Business!  They try to decrease the ballot power of their opponents by legislation.  They want to do away with Social Security and make everyone become involved in the stock market which is not a very good idea given the ups and downs of the stock market, but Big Business will thrive because of the influx of money.   They want to do away with Medicare and Medicaid and just give everyone Medical Savings accounts which can be tax deductible, but only the well off or rich can use them.   They want to give vouchers to students to be used at any public or private school they want to go to, only experience has shown that the religious private schools find ways of keeping the most needy from being accepted and the only ones who get to use these vouchers are the ones who already have their kids in private schools.  Plus the private schools get to force their brand of religion on defenseless children.  Pretty good deal - the rich get richer because the are subsidized in their choice of private schools, and the poor get nothing but the same.  Pretty sick isn't it?  But we will all be suffering if these greedy immoral individuals have their way.

THE RIGHT WING CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT

During the 1970s, an effort to organize social conservatives resulted in a network of activists under the leadership of Paul Weyrich, beer baron Joseph Coors, former presidential candidate Howard Phillips, NCPAC founder Terry Dolan, and direct mail guru Richard Viguerie. It was Weyrich, founder of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, and Viguerie, who first understood the politics of organizing religious leaders around the abortion issue. Weyrich brought in Jerry Falwell with the formation of the Moral Majority and persuaded Pat Robertson to run for president in 1988. Weyrich and Viguerie believed that social conservatives could be organized into a group that would form a following greater than the activist core of either the Democratic or Republican parties. As Richard Viguerie said: "I organize discontent."

In 1973, Paul Weyrich and Joseph Coors created The Heritage Foundation to develop public policy.   Weyrich also established the Free Congress Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization created to disseminate public policy from the right. The Heritage Foundation, under Weyrichs direction, then organized the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Washington-based association whose membership is made up primarily of conservative Republican state legislators. Together the three founded the State Policy Network to oversee an association of state-based think tanks that function as Heritage-like organizations at the state level.

To summarize, the Right Wing Conservative movement is disciplined, organized and extremely well funded. It has a national reach and management with a local presence. This movement is:

• grounded in the Religious Right, representing millions of grassroots members;

• coordinated through the Council for National Policy, representing the nation's leading conservative activists;

• funded by wealthy Conservative Philanthropic Foundations;

• guided by high-profile national policy organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Americans for Tax Reform, Center for the Study of Popular Culture, and the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution;

• executed locally with lobbying, research, and media spin through the conservative think ranks that are members of the State Policy Network;

• largely controlled by a small group of individuals and organizations representing some of the wealthiest people in the country.

This movement has swept through the states of Washington and California and is now at work in more than two dozen other states.  What this alliance has movement to achieve in California and the U.S. House and Senate, it is attempting to achieve in each of the other states. Just as devolution has shifted power from Washington, DC, to the 50 states, so too does this movement seek to empower its supporters in methodically accomplishing their agenda on a state-b)r-state basis.

This page will expose the efforts of this national coalition of Right Wing groups in its efforts to: Take over public education,  as well as revoke First Amendment guarantees, including the separation of church and state and freedom of speech; Mandate sectarian prayer in schools; Deny civil rights to all Americans; Fight gun safety; Fight campaign finance reform, and Fight efforts to protect the environment.

To find out how we can stop this insideous cancer from spreading any further, we will look at the operations and policies of the following organizations and individuals which provide the policy direction, funding, and framework for the Christian Conservative movement. They often have interrelated boards and funding sources. They include:

• The Religious Right which is the heart which produces the grassroots support, this includes focus on the family, Christian Coalition, etc.

• The Council for National Policy is the Nervous System, it provides the networking resource where all the individuals and groups can meet in secrecy and map out their insidious plot to take over the minds and hearts of every American.  The Council is the principal coordinating body-and funding mechanism-for political projects of religious conservatives.

• The many Conservative philanthropic foundations and organizations are the Energy of the beast. they provide the financial resources needed to influence elections.

• The Heritage Foundation is the brains of the beast, it dispenses the philosophical direction.  This organization is by far the largest and best funded "think tank' in the country, and with the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, it has been the most influential conservative voice in Congress. On the issue of "paycheck protection," Heritage has been playing a supportive public relations role to Americans for Tax Reform, ALEC, and members of the State Policy Network. To foster legislation on the state level, Heritage has worked with ALEC, the Family Research Council, and other conservative and religious policy organizations to create. a network of state-based think tanks that provide some of the most effective arms and legs for the conservative movement.  Some of its co-conspirators are:  The Americans for Tax Reform - Among the most active organizations, Americans for Tax Reform was the largest donor in support of California Prop 226 (contributing, $441,000);  the National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation - As the law firm for the National Right to Work Committee, the Foundation has taken an active role around the country by supplying the legal muscle for "paycheck protection' drives and has worked closely with Americans for Tax Reform and ALEC. It claims to have more than 400 court cases pending nationwide; The Center for the Study of Popular Culture - David Horowitz, the president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, has long been an adversary of the NEA. In a September 1996 Los Angeles Times interview he said, "'We want to take them out of politics, not just in California, but in every state in the Union."; The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution - One of the most aggressively pro-voucher groups, the institution recruits high-profile figure ' s to promote its agenda. It specifically targets the NEA for criticism and was rated by the National Journal as one of the "up and coming think tanks" in Washington, DC.

• The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the Skeleton, which furnishes the framework for legislative initiatives.  Although nominally a bipartisan organization, ALECs strong conservative bent accounts for the bulk of its membership (of 3,000 state legislators) being from the Republican side of the aisle. Working with the other organizations listed here and the State Policy Network, ALEC has circulated model "paycheck protection' and other conservative legislation to states.

• The State Policy Network is the Arms and Legs, which supply support to legislators committed to conservative ballot initiatives or legislative action.

Playing a leading role (politically and financially) are seven individuals:

* Grover Norquist - president of Americans for Tax Reform, which was the single biggest contributor to Prop 226-$441,000. Norquist has pled-,ed to spend $10 million to put anti-worker measures on ballots in up to eight states this year.

* Bob Williams - president of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, which spearheaded the Washington paycheck protection effort.

* Howard Ahmanson, Jr. - Religious Right California philanthropist.

* J. Patrick Rooney - Golden Rule Insurance Company CEO Emeritus.

* Richard Scaife - Pittsburgh billionaire and owner of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

* James R. Leininger - Conservative Texas philanthropist.

* John Walton - of the Wal-Mart fortune.

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THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT

The "heart" of this network of conservative organizations working to take away our religious freedom is the Religious Right. Made up of dozens of religious groups around the country, this network has supplied leadership, staff, money, and grassroots power to many conservative causes in the past two decades. The most active and well-funded of these religious organizations are Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and the Christian Coalition. Each plays a role by either mobilizing members or contributing directly to the effort.  They provide the leadership, staff, money, and grassroots power to many conservative causes.

Due to the nonprofit status of religious right groups, it is difficult to pinpoint the extent of their involvement in various political initiatives. But it is clear that groups associated with the religious right paid for mailings, phone banks, voter guides, and get-out-the-vote efforts.

The Christian Coalition, for example, said it would distribute two million voter guides in churches the Sunday before the June 2 vote on Prop 226, according to The Washington Post. A letter from Focus on the Family president James Dobson was mailed to thousands of Californians, urging their support for the initiative. The Family Research Council, through its "advocacy" arm American Renewal, contributed $10,000 during the final days of the campaign.

FOCUS ON THE FAMILY

Dr. James Dobson has lobbied Washington more powerfully than any single person or organization on the religious right today and is arguably the most respected man in the social conservative movement. Dobson is president of Focus on the Family, the largest and strongest Religious Right organization both financially and in terms of its grassroots strength and impact. He has the media arm, the ua-,sroots organization, and the lobbying arm to exert his influence. Focus on the Family, plus his Washin6,ton lobbying group, the Family Research Council, raised approximately $125 million in 1996, reporting gross receipts of nearly $1 1 0 million with assets of some $72 million.

Dobson is effectively getting his message out to a worldwide audience. Focus on the Family reaches more than six million people through its 15 monthly and bimonthly magazines and newsletters. In 1996, Focus published and distributed more than 78 million items.

A daily radio audience of nearly six ml I Ilion people listen to Focus radio programs on more than two thousand TJ.S. stations and 1,500 stations internationally. The organization publishes books as well, including Gary Bauer's biography, Our Home, Our Dream Dobson, himself, has written 14 books on child rearing and discipline.

Dobson, who claims 3.5 million families on his mailing list, reaches his many followers through his folksy radio program, which deals primarily with child rearing and family counseling. Ofien, families initially come to Focus on the Family for advice and grief counseling. The staff then converts that initial contact into contributions and grassroots action with sophisticated product marketing, premiums, and political messages that advance Dobson's agenda.

"Until recants [Dobson] was regarded among many on Capitol Hill as a bumpkin wbo imagines himself to be a political leader Conservatives know better.   Washington Post

 Dobson also commands a network of family policy councils in more than 30 states. These councils comprise the grassroots arm of Dobson's network, even though the individual councils claim to be totally independent. Focus delivers these councils' literature tucked into Dobso@s letters. Focus employees travel around the country to lead Community Impact Seminars, which are really grassroots training seminars. Some of the Family Policy Councils-including the Alabama Family Alliance and the Capital Resource Institute-also belong to the State Policy Network, whose supporters include activists involved in national anti-employee initiatives. Dobson, used the Capitol Resource Institute to distribute a letter urging voters to support Prop 226.

"If I go, I'll take as many people with me as possible." James Dobson

In July 1996, Dobson was highly critical of Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, who declared he would have no litmus test on abortion. Dobson described his constituency at that time: "Their views are not represented ... by The New York 7z-mes or by what goes on on Capitol Hill. ...They are concerned about same sex ideology and what their kids are being taught in school. Theyre waiting for some political Figure to articulate those views. And no one does."

That political figure could have included Dobson, before his stroke, but more likely will be his man Gary Bauer, who appears to be raising his profile and2-lready is holding fundraisers to test the waters. Addressing about 300 members of the secretive Council for National Policy in 1997, Dobson said that Christians have been betrayed by the Republican party. In his remarks before the Council, DobsonDlecIge to personally lead a national campaign to weed out GOP-elecred officials who have failed to keep promises to uphold strict Bible-based principles as part of their lawmaking activities. His call, which he likened to the voter revolt that overthrew the @ig Parry in the 1800s, was delivered to the Southern Baptist Convention, which met June 9-1 1, 1998, in Salt L-ake City.

On March 5, Dobson sent a scathing letter to Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK) in reply to -a request from House Speaker Newt Gingrich for Dr. Dobsoa's top legislative priorities. Speaking on behalf of the "pro-rrioral" community, Dobson writes, "It would be refreshing, indeed, to have a senior politician devote even a single speech to the value system from which this list is drawn. No such speech has been given to my knowledge and virtually none of our objectives has been met. Thus, it is curious that the Speaker is asking now for confirmation of the principles and policies that have been emphasized ... etc. etc." Educational issues cited are: school vouchers, opposition to national testing, opposition to Goals 2000, and eliminating the Department of Education.

After a litany of priorities, Dobson delivers the emotional example, which links education and homosexuality: "No better examples exists than the complete silence amon@ Republican leaders after the President gave the credibility of his office to homosexual activists, and then called for 2, revamping of school curricula to include homosexual propaganda. That was outrageous.),

Dobson believes comprehensive sex education is a tool of homosexuals and leftists. Focus on the Family is a member of the National Coalition for Abstinence Education, made up of 62 grassroots groups, including Phyllis Sclilafly's Eagle Forum.

Observers believe that if their demands are not met, Dobson and his followers could lead a revolt that would spell disaster for the Republican party in the 2003 elections, and if not that, in the presidential election of 2004.

At this writing, there is a likely possibility Bauer will run, with Dobso@s backingkicking the campaign off in Iowa-and using the -,-ay/education issue as far as he can go with it.

FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL (FRC)

Family Research Council (FRC) is a "nonprofit, non-partisan educational organization," originally founded in 1983. Today it operates as the lobbving arm for Focus on the Family and carries out much of Dobson's political work. Fic merged with Focus on the Family from 1988 to 1992, then reorganized and incorporated as a separate nonprofit corporation based in Washington, DC. James Dobson, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, hired Gary Bauer to run the Family Research Council in 1989.

FRC exists to reaffirm and promote nationally, and particularly in Washington, DC, "the traditional family unit and the Judeo-Christian value system upon which it is built." While the Council distanced itself from Focus on the Family in 1992 for tax purposes-so as not to jeopardize Focus' tax status-the two organizations are legally separate but "spiritually one," according to Dobson. Bauer has access to Dobson's powerful radio network and Dobson serves on FRC's board of directors. Other board members include: Ronald Blue, Lee Eaton, Edgar Prince, Larry Smith.

FRC has 90 employees, 455,000 members and a $14 million annual budget. Bauer sends a daily fax to 7,000 people and delivers a radio message on about 300 Christian stations. Bauer's wealthy backers include the DeVos family of Amway Corp. and Howard Ahmanson, a millionaire California religious conservative.

FRC officers include: Gary L. Bauer, president; Philip Olsen, vice president of education and development; Charles A. Donovan, vice president for program planning; Kristi Stone Hamrick, director of communications; Robert H. Knight, director of cultural studies.

According to The Weekly Standard, Bauer has transformed himself into the "most influential social conservative in Washington-and perhaps in America." Gary Bauer is a lawyer who held several posts in the Reagan Administration, including director of the White House Office of Policy Development., undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Education, undersecretary for planning, budget and evaluation for the Education Department, and senior policy analyst for the Reagan-Bush campaign.

"With Ralph Reed gone and his successors at the Christian Coalition, Don Hodel and Randy Tate, unable to match his sway, Bauer is the number one social conservat ive, according to The Weekly Standard. Supporters are already holding fundraisers for Bauer's presidential bid in 2000.

Bauer has made a habit lateiv of bucking Washingtons conservative establishment. First, it was Bauer who launcheg the partial-birth abortion litmus test for candidates backed by the Republican National Committee. Second, it was Bauer who mounted a campaign to block most favored nation status for China.

On the issue of Social Security privatization, Bauer broke with m conservative Grover Norquist, promoting a "family friendly' tax, rather than the flat tax proposed by Dick Armey and Steve Forbes or the national sales tax pushed by Bill Archer. And it was Bauer who launched an independent expenditures effort in the special California election to replace Congressman Walter Capps, going against the GOP-liandpicked candidate Brooks Firestone, who lost in the primary. In May, American Renewal, Inc.-an arm of Bauer's FRC based at FRCs Washington headquarrers@ontributed $10,000 to Prop 226.

Bauer's prominence has invited comparisons to Ralph Reed, the charismatic former executive director of the Christian Coalition. The most important difference between the two men, according to the Wall Streetjournal, may be stylistic. "Many Republicans see Mr. Bauer as more rigid and uncompromising than Mr. Reed. He's also more ready to openly criticize Republicans. Reed is a pragmatist. Bauer is a rabble rouser."

Bauer is placing increasing emphasis on the anti-homosexual activities of FRC. Last spring, FRC launched "CultureFacts," edited by Peter LaBarbera, under the supervision of Robert Knight. LaBarbera is a former reporter for the Washing-ton Times and now publisher of the Lambda Report on Homosexual Activism. Robert Knight is the director of cultural studies at FRC and was instrumental in crafting the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, according to his biography.

Bauer says he wants politicians to "speak out for normalcy and for the values the overwhelming number of their voters have." Bauer says sexual preferences should not be protected under civil rights laws or receive federal subsidies. He rails against the "gay rights agenda' and demands that the "Secretary of Education stop the pressure on school officials to introduce gay issues in the c@sroom." In July 1998, the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family led a coalition of religious groups that launched an anti-homosexuality campaign through newspaper ads that describe homosexuality as a sin and a mental illness.

FRC offers a fax service called EdFacts. There, one finds the widest possible range of Religious Right commentary on Congressional legislative issues concerning education. Focusing on the NEA, a recent banner headline read, "NEA & AFT on Verge of Merge .... the new mega-union would be a lobbying superpower'in Washington." The publication expressed FRCs concern about the merger. "In years past, these unions have opposed the most basic pro-family education reforms. They bitterly oppose parental choice in education, disdain phonics, and promote gay rights."

In Bauer's book, Our Hopes and Dreams, published by Focus on the Family, he poses five questions to ask of "Those Who Would Lead Us" in the chapter entitled "Schools That Teach Again."

Question #5.- 'Will you support the eight of teachers to teach withoutjoining the National Education Association or American Federation of Teachers? According to Forbes magazine, the NF,4 collcts some $750 million in annual dues from all Levels of the union. A significant portion of that money is spent on partisan political activity and efforts to oppose educational reforms ranging from parental choice to parental ?lights and limits on value-free sex educational.  Bauer issued a press release in November 1997 stating, "Students at the elementary and high school levels are being denied the right to receive the best possible education by defenders of a failing status quo who insist on propping up a monopolistic education lobby."

CAMPAIGN FOR WORKING FAMILIES

To raise money for its political activities, FRC has formed a political action committee, Campaign for Working Families. In 1997, it raised some $2 million. In the first Seven months of 1998, it has raised $2.1 million. The PAC weighed in heavily in the March 10 California special election to replace Rep. Walter Capps. It waged an aggressive independent expenditure campaign backing Tom J. Bordonaro, Jr. With FRC's backing, Bordonaro defeated the GOP- backed (and Gingrich-backed) candidate, Brooks Firestone. FRC was behind television ads on the partial birth abortion issue, deemed "too craphic" to run by all three of the local Santa Barbara television network affiliates.

Other major contributions from the Campaign for Working Families PAC include: $12,500 to Mark Earley for Attorney General (R-VA); $4,000 to Mike Pappas for Congress (R-Nj); $4,000 to Helen Chenowerli for Congress (R-ID); and Bordonaro for Congress ($5,000).  The president of Campaign for Working Families is Jeffrey Bell, a former Federal Reserve Board economist and Wall Street analyst. Bell was unsuccessful in his campaign for U.S. Senate in New Jersey in 1978. He is the author of Populism and Elitism and was the prime mover behind the Colorado ballot initiative to add a Parental Rights Amendment to Colorado's state constitution in 1996. Explaining his strong support for the amendment that would give parents the right "to direct and control the upbringing education, values, and discipline of their children," Bell proclaimed that "victory here could be more important than Dole's election or the control of Congress." Speaking at a Christian Coalition conference, Bell referred to opponents of the Amendment as "people who believe the measure is about a small group suing teachers, doctors, nurses, librarians, movie theaters, and schools to impose their views on everyone else."

In 1993, Bell founded a parental rights group, Of the People, in Arlington, Viroinia.  He has also served on the Advisory Board of Rev. Pat RobertsoZs Catholic Alliance.

Recognizing the essential role of fundraising in his lobbying efforts, Bauer plans to emphasize the role of his PAC in the future. "Over the next couple of years, I've decided to lay down some important markers," says Bauer. "'We've got to show some of these thick-headed politicians, the ones who just don't get it, that values issues should be at the center of the national debate. Our PAC will help the politicians who believe these thin without shame and embarrassment, and work a-,ainst those who don't."

Throughout the Family Research Council activities, homosexuality and education are central issues. In a Capitol Hill briefing in support of the Defense of Marriace Act, representatives of the FRC denounced what they see as homosexual correctness advancing in Americas schools. The FRC stated, "The campaign to teach school children and teens that gay is OK benefits from the usual coordination of a united gay movement, which has the advantage of pressing for a single radical goal, versus its pro-family opponents who face a multiplicity of challenges...Parents who simply want a good education for their children are increasingly confronted with the prospect of seeing precious educational resources spent on talking about homosexuality, and they are drawn into time-consuming and divisive debates over this issue."

Singled out in FRCs attacks on homosexuality are Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the promoting of "Gay History Month," and GIAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation).

The Family Research Council often allies itself with other Religious Right organizations on specific projects. Last year, FRC joined with the Southern Baptist Convention, Focus on the Family, Donald Wildmon's American Family Association, Beverly LaHaye's Concerned Women of America, and the Rev. James Kennedys Coral Ridge Ministries in a letter-writing protest of American Airlines' gay policies. Alliances with other Religious Right organizations are established by Bauer's activities on their behalf. He now serves on the executive committee of the Council for National Policy and is also on the board of directors of the Declaration Foundation. Founded by Alan Keyes, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for president in 1996, the Declaration Foundation is dedicated to "restoring" America by returning to the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

Among his other activities: Bauer serves on the advisory board of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA), along with Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum and Bay Buchanan. NFRA is the umbrella organization for state-based groups, the first of which was the California Republican Assembly (CPA), a Religious Right Republican "caucus" that has taken control of the statewide party and holds a dozen top positions in the party structure, including the chairmanship. CRA takes credit for winning the ballot initiatives Prop 187 and Prop 209; and supports actively the California Reform Initiative. Nearly 40 states now have religious-conservative Republican Assemblies.

A presidential campaign in 2000 by Bauer should be anticipated. Bauer has ind:,cared his intention to run for president. He has been coordinating at least the Iowa caucuses portion of such a move with Bill Horn, the most rabidly anti-gay crusader in Iowa. Horn produced the videotape, The Gay Agenda; and recently produced and now actively promotes another new videotape: NF-4: Abuse of power.

A Bauer presidential run would leverage off some 30 state "family policy councils" created by and tied to Dobson's Focus on the Family, giving him a built-in national network.

 CHRISTIAN COALITION

Founded by Christian broadcaster, the Rev. M. G. "Pat" Robertson in 1989 in the wake of his failed 1988 presidential bid, the Chesapeake, Virginia-based Christian Coalition claims 1.7 million members and more than 1,000 chapters nationwide.

Working through its state-based Coalition groups and with "pro-family" groups including organizations allied with Focus on the Family, the Family Foundation, and, at one time, the Robertson- founded Catholic Alliance, the Christian Coalition has been one of the most effective mobilization networks in the country. Yet in 1997,. contributions dropped to $17 million after the record-high $26 million in 1996, forcing the Coalition to lay off twenty of'its one hundred staffers, suspend publication of its magazine, and generally reorganize its activities. After a change in leadership in 1997, the Coalition is looking to the future with plans announced this year to strengthen its network for the next two election cycles.

 While Focus on the Family has its radio network, Robertson has worked effectively through television. Supporters are encouraged by Robertson and others through The 700 Club and through extensive mail solicitation to lobby on "family' issues, such as abortion, vouchers, parental rights, and sex education before legislatures, and to ,et involved in local, state, and federal elections.

Though the Christian Coalition steadfastly proclaims that its political and legislative efforts are simply "voter educatio@' and participation in 'Public policy," the Christian Federal Election Commission has challenged the Coalitio@s level of political involvement in a pending lawsuit. Its tax-exempt status remains under review by the Internal Revenue Service.

Political consultant Ralph Reed served as executive clirector of the Christian Coalition until 1997. Robertson split Rced's job and brought on former U.S. Rep. Randy Tate as executive director and Don Hodel as president. In addition to serving on the board and sta-ff of Focus on the Family, Hodel once chaired the Independence Institute of Colorado. Hodel has been active in the Council for National Policy, serving as vice chairman.

Operating as a 501 (c) (4)-a provisional status that is still under review by the Internal Revenue Service-the Christian Coalition reported a record- high $26,487,746 in total revenues in 1996. Nearly $15 million of its revenue came from direct mail solicitations and $4 million from telemar",-ting. In 1996, expenses totaled $27,041,692, with legislative efforts accounting for about $12 million of all expenses and field and education together accounting for another $5 million.

The Coalition maintains that its principal purpose is to "encourage active citizenship among people professing the Christian faith." Projects it funded in 1996 included:

* Lobbying and grassroots mobilization in states and in Congress for "pro-family, faith.pro-life" issues;

* "Educational" efforts that include "voter guides" detailing candidate positions on issues important to the Coalition (abortion, school vouchers, etc);

* Training for political involvement through the annual "Road to Victory " conference;

* Conducting seminars, such as "Building a Neighborhood Organization", and "Voter Registration," aimed at encouraging involvement in the public policy process;

* Distributing the Christian Coalition Campaign Handbook, with step-by-step instructions for organizing people and communities for candidates and causes.

The Christian Coalition empire includes other notable Virginia-based, Robertson- founded affiliates: Operation Blessing, an international relief organization ($36,325,987 in revenues in 1996), and the Christian Broadcasting Network ($99 million in revenues in 1996),.home of The 700 Club, which claims about 7 million viewers weekly.

Before the Christian Coalition, CBN already had affiliates set up to encourage Christians to get involved in government-the Freedom Council, National Perspectives Institute, and the National Freedom Institute-which afl.stopped operating in October 1986. The three affiliates were targeted in an Internal Revenue Service audit of CBN's activities that was just settled this year. In announcing the settlement of the 12-year-old audit, the IRS said CBN lost its tax-exempt status in 1986 and 1987 because of rules, prohibiting intervention in political ac tivities and had to pav an undisclosed "signiflcant payment" to the IRS.

Robertson founded Regent University (formerly CBN University) and its law school to train a new generation of Christian attorneys. The first dean of the law school was Herb Titus, who caught the beliefs of P-J. Rushdoony, the father of Christian Reconstructionism. Titus is a board member of the Conservative Caucus, based in Washington, DC.

Robertson opened the American Center for Law and Justice ($6,849,036 in revenues in FY 1996; $7,514,461 in expenses) on the Regent campus in 1990 to fight for "religlous liberty, the sanctity of human life, and the two-parent, marriage-bound family." Today the Center's attorneys, led by chief counsel Jay Sekulow, argue cases to uphold parental rights, pro-life positions and religious expression. In 1997, the ACLJ was active in working with churches whose tax status has been challenged by the IRS. Sekulow wrote in August 1997 that "the IRS has been used as a political weapon for far too long."

The Catholic Alliance, founded as part of the Christian Coalition in 1995 but spun off on its own in 1996, was intended to oraanize conservative Catholics to the Coalition ranks. It has, however, drawn criticism from Catholic leaders. The group, which lobbies, distributes voter guides, and has helped run a partial-birth abortion media campaign, claims 50,000 members nationwide, and has outlined a direct mail campai-n to double its revenues to $3.5 million by 2000. Dr. Keith Fournier is president of the Alliance. Advisory board members include Jeffrey Bell, president of the Family Research Council's Campaign for Working Families PAC.

The Christian Coalition faces ongoing tax troubles. Christian Coaiition leaders regularly defend the Coalition's activities as nonpartisan and strictly aimed at voter education. Yet the Federal Election Commission sued the Coalition in July 1996, challenging its distribution of voter guides as a partisan activity and alleging the group worked to defeat congressional candidates in 1990, 1992, and 199't and worked on behalf of George Bush in the presidential race. The FEC charged that voter @des were pro Republican literature and that "cooperation and consultations" with campaigns constituted in-kind contributions. Allegations outlined in the suit began with a 1992 lawsuit filed by the Democratic party of Virginia challenging the Coalitio@s voter guides.

The Coalition continued its voter guide practice, announcing distribution of 2 million pro-Prop 226 voter guides in California churches the Sunday before the June 2 vote.

In the 1997 Virginia governor's race, Coalition members were instructed and mobilized to defeat Democratic candidates for governor and House of Delegates. At one workshop in August 1997, attendees were instructed to work against the Democratic nominee for -overnor, Don Beyer (The Wlashington Post, Sept. 28, 1997). Robertson contributed $50,000 to the Republican candidate, James Gilmore, who won the governor's race. (In March 1998, Gilmore named Robertso@s son, Tim, to a coveted spot on the University of Virginia board of visitors.) In the same race, Virginia members of the Coalition received postcards and raped messages urging them to call the Democratic campaign headquarters to protest television ads. The hundreds of cans effectively shut down the headquarters for several days.

Robertsons "Operation Blessing," an international relief effort intended to distribute food and medical supplies nationally, also drew fire over its tax status in 1997 and 1998. Reports that Robertson used Operation Blessing planes to remove diamonds from Zambia as part of a diamond mining, operation he owns prompted a Virginia state senator to to challenge, without success, Blessing's tax status in the 1998 legislative session.

"I told Don Hodel when he joined us, my dear friend, I want to hold out to you the possibility of selecting the next president of the United States, because I think that's what we have in this organization." Pat Robertson

In September 1997, Robertson caused a flap when his clearly political remarks to supporters in a closed-door meeting in Atlanta were reported. He told the group that it is time the Coalition got something in return for the Republican majority supporters Some of the elected to Congress in 1994. "We just tell these guys, 'Look, we put you in power in 1994 and we want you to deliver ...Don’t give us all this stuff about you've got a country's different agenda. This is what we're going to do this year. And we're going to hold your feet to the fire while you do it.'

The Coalition's plans for this year include a "church-based" strategy to expand its grassroots reach in time for the 1998 and 2000 elections. In February 1998, crowing they were "fresh from victory in Maine"-where Coalition members take credit for mobilizing defeat of a gay-rights measure-Tate announced a new plan to expand its organizational base and recruit 1 00,000 "church liaisons" by November 2000.

The Coalition says the additional partners will be used to lobby for its national agenda: overriding President Clinton's veto of the partial birth abortion ban; adopting Provide legislation creating education scholarships and education savings accounts; eliminating the marriage tax penalty; passing a Religious Freedom Amendment and the Freedom from Religious Persecution Act. State legislative issues targeted in the strategy include funding for parental rights and notification laws and defeating state gay-adoption laws.

In reviewing the announcement, Americans United for Separation of Church and religious State-the group that taped Robertso@s September 1997 remarks and that is a party to challenging the Coalition's tax status-advised churches that the new drive could indanger their tax status if they choose to participate.

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COUNCIL FOR NATIONAL POLICY (CNP)

In addition to heading up the Free Congress Foundation, Weyrich joined Coors and Viguerie as key players in the Council for National Policy (CNP), which began operation in 1982 as the conservative alternative to the Council on Foreign Relations. Membership is by invitation only and dues run $2,000- plus a year. In 1997, the Council for National Policy had income of $617,773 and assets of $74,500.

The Council for National Policy operates as a highly secretive compact that includes conservative activists and intellectuals, former government and military leaders, TV preachers, and state and federal legislators. The Council is the principal coordinating body-and funding mechanism-for political projects of religious conservatives. It also operates a political action committee-CNP Action, Inc.

The Council's membership list includes a who's who of conservative activism and includes representatives from some of America's wealthiest and most politically active families, such as Coors, DeVos, Hunt, and Scaife.

Council members include: Christian Coalition activists Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson, and Don Hodel; Eagle Forums Phyllis Schlafly; James Dobson of Focus on the Family; Congressman Robert K. Dornan (former Republican congressman from California), Congressman William Dannemeyer (R-CA), former U.S. Senate candidate and current talk show host Oliver North (R-VA); Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell; the Rev. Lou Sheldon who heads the Traditional Value Coalition; Ed Feulner of The Heritage Foundation; Burton Pines of Heritage Foundation; John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute; Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council; and Reed Larson of National Right to Work. CNP Executive Director Morton Blackwell was also the founder and president of the Leadership Institute.

Several active CNP leaders have a mentor in CNP late member Rousas J. Rushdoony, known as the father of Christian Reconstructionism. Rushdoony, who recently passed away in his 80s, founded the Chalcedon Institute in California, espousing the concept that the United states should be governed by Old Testament law. Reconstructionism wants to see the United States become a theocracy much like the Massachusettes Bay Colony. (Remember the Salem Witch Trials?)

Rushdoony has been a major influence in the life of CNP founding member Howard Phillips, whose resume includes serving as chairman of the Conservative Caucus and chairman of the U.S. Taxpayers Alliance. Rushdoony has also received substantial financial support from millionaire Christian conservative Howard Ahmanson of California-a major supporter of the California Prop 226 initiative-who was listed on CNPs board of governors in 1996.

AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM

With leaders and foot soldiers aligned thru a grassroots structure, the network needs only policy and lobbying organizations to carry out the agenda. Among the most active of these organizations, especially in the anti-employee initiative, is Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), first organized in 1985 to build grass-roots support for President Reagan's 1986 tax cut. Since char time, ATR has reorganized into a 501 (c) (4) and set up the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation as a 501 (c)(3). Prior to the anti-employee initiative, ATRs principal missions have been seeking signatures from candidates for public office for its "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," opposing the Value Added Tax in Congress and sponsoring the calculation of National Cost of Government Day.

ATR is headed by President Grover Norquist, who reports to the IRS that he received no salary from ATR and only $12,670 from the ATR Foundation in 1996. Norquist's full compensation is unclear. He receives speaking fees and book royalties and has begun lobbying for the Merritt Group Of Alexandria, Virginia, a move that has generated some criticism among Republicans.

ATR and the ATR Foundation are located together in Washington, DC, and have a combined staff of six employees. ATR and the Foundation share administrative expense, staff, and contributions. According to its 1996 IRS Form 990, ATR had total income of $6,547,008 with assets of $114,552 while the ATR Foundation had total revenues of $3,125,636 with assets of $36,021 in 1996 ' In 1996, ATR spent $2,865,257 on direct mail for the Republican National Committee as an independent expenditure campaign but as much as $4 million in 1996 congressional races.

The ATR Foundation is the principal fund-raising arm of the parent organization and has received major gifts from foundations:

* $100,000 from the John M. Olin Foundation

* $40,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

* $ 1 0,000 from the John William Pope Foundation

* $5,000 from the Roe Foundation

* $15,000 from the J.M. Foundation

The Foundation is the principal means of support for ATR and ran a deficit of $146,353 in 1996.

Over the last five years, contributions and foundation grants have grown at the rate of 35 percent per year. A close associate and political advisor to House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, Grover Norquist holds forth every Wednesday morning before a select group of Republican lobbyists and "true believers" at ATRs offices in what has come to be known as the "Wednesday Group." The purpose of the informal group is to offer suggestions to the Speaker and the House leadership and to network ATR in Washington and around the country.

Americans for Tax Reform was the largest single donor of California's Prop 226 initiative. Before the loss in California, ATR committed to raise and spend as much as $10 million to push similar measures in other states. Norquist met with Governor Pete Wilson in California, along with former Wilson Press Secretary Dan Schnur, who now represents business interests in Silicon Valley, to kick off ATR's California effort to pass Prop 226. He also has visited about a half-dozen other states to encourage similar ballot initiatives and union hostile legislation. Working with ALEC and the National Right to, Work Foundation, which has pledged anti-union legal assistance in states, Norquist has barnstormed his message across the country Norquist participates in Council for National Policy meetings and ATR is an associate member of the State Policy Network.

 ATR contributed $4 million to congressional candidates in 1996

 Norquist worked with Republican political consultant Carolyn Malenick-, president of Triad Management, on the California initiative. Malenick has close personal ties to both the Scaife and Koch families, and worked on the initiative with close friend and California political consultant Carlos Rodriguez. Malenick received criticism during the Senate campaign finance hearings for her role in running soft money independent expenditure campaigns for the Republican National Committee.

Malenick also has close ties to the religious right. She was a consultant for Oliver North and assistant to Richard Viguerie. She has also worked for the Old-Time Gospel Hour and the Moral Majority in Lynchburg, Virginia. In 1996, Malenick and Rodriguez worked for a number of Republican campaigns, including the campaign of Representative Bob Schafer (R-CO), who has taken the lead on "paycheck protection" legislation in the U.S. House. Senator Don Nickels (R-OK) is a close friend of Malenicles and made a promotional video for Triad Management that created controversy over the propriety The Nation of such an endorsement of their services by a U.S. senator. Nickels sponsored "pay- check protection" legislation in the U.S. Senate last year.

Malenick and Rodriguez also worked on Rep. David McIntos@s (R-IN) race. in 1996. Rodriguez is especially close to McIntosh, who is the former staff director of the Bush Administration's Council on Competiveness chaired by Vice President Dan Quayle. McIntosh also spent his first term in the U.S. House holding hearing's on federal legislation that would "de-fund the left."

NATIONAL RIGHT TO WORK LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FOUNDATION

Founded in 1968 as a 501 (c) (3) by the National Right to Work Committee, the provides the National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation functions as the Committee's law firm, filing suits against organizations it believes have violated workers' rights to refuse union membership. In 1988, the foundation won the case of Beck v. Communications Workers of america, which allowed non-union employees in a union shop to pay only for those activities of the union that related to contract negotiations and to refuse to pay for political activities. The Foundation has taken an active role around the country by supplying the legal muscle for "paycheck protection" drives and has worked closely with Americans for Tax Reform and the American Legislative Exchange Council. It claims to have over 400 cases pending nationwide.

On May 5, the Foundation filed a lawsuit on behalf of professors at the University of Alaska seeking a court order to enjoin the local teachers union from collecting dues from university employees' paychecks.

In 1995, the Foundation had revenues of $4,490,369 and expenses of $3,737,546 for an excess of revenue over expenses of $757,823. It reported net assets of $2,262,095. Total salaries and benefits were $2,238,050. The Foundation had program costs of $3,147,910 for 1995. The Foundation shares-office space, equipment, and employees with the National Right to Work Committee and the National Institute for Labor Relations Research. The Foundation employs a staff of five attorneys and in 1995 spent $110,702 on outside counsel and received court-awarded legal fees of $45,114.

Reed Larson serves as president of the Foundation as well as president of the National Right to Work Committee. He is also executive director for the National Institute for Labor Relations Research. Larson receives salary and benefits of $96,497 from the Foundation and $44,168 from the Committee for total compensation of $140,665. Rex H. Reed serves as executive vice president and secretary of the Foundation on a @ll-time basis. Reed receives salary and benefits of $186,728, while Edith Hakola serves as vice president and treasurer, and receives total compensation of $178,347.

The Foundation relies heavily on conservative philanthropic foundations for a major part of its operating budget. In 1995, the Foundation received $100,000 from the John M. Olin Foundation, $60,000 from the Sunmark Foundation, and $50,000 from the J.M. Kirby foundation, with smaller grants from additional foundations.

The Foundation spent most of its $334,512 in fund-raising costs on direct mail in 1995. Those appeals were similar in tone and content to a letter from former Vice President Dan Quayle that was sent March 1998. The letter on behalf of the Foundation said the reason why our "personal goals for the country have been thwarted and why big government and "far left politicians in Washington still [call] the shots" is because of "union boss cash." Quayle asked readers to contribute to the Foundation so it could "mount the legal attack so critical to derail [John] Sweeneys illegal, no-holds barred campaign to buy control of Congress and ram his agenda down our throats," and "to act decisively to shut down Big Labor's plans to retake Congress in the 1998 election."

 CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR CULTURE

David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, has long been an adversary of the National Education Association. In a September 1996 Los Angeles Times interview he said, "We want to take them out of politics, not just in California, but in every state in the union." His comments were in response to an arbitrator's ruling over the use of non-members dues in the 1993 Prop 174 voucher campaign.

The Los Angeles-based 5 01 (c) (3) organization reported total revenue of $2.5 million in 1996 and expenses of $2.6 million, down from the year before when the group took in $3.3 million. The Center's publications, including The Education Report Card, command the largest share of expenses.

Contributor lists available for 1995 shows contributions of $525,000 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Scaife Family Foundation, plus $780,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Horowitz has gone on the attack this year defending the contributions the Center receives from Richard Scaife as being just a portion of the contributions the Center receives from twenty-some foundations and 15,000 individuals. (Los Angeles Times, February 24, 1998). Horowitz says lie is a trustee of the Mart Drudge Legal Fund, to help Drudge in a defamation suit Filed against him by White House aide Sidney Blumenthal.

ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE INSTITUTION

The 12-year-old Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, rated by the National Journal as one of the Five "up and coming" Washington, DC, think tanks, promotes the concept of "classic liberalism" in research, education, taxes, immigration, defense, and deret,)iaation issues. The Institution has selected the NEA as a regular target, producing a report on the "fiscal impact" of NEAS legislative agenda, paid for by a -,rant from the Olin Foundation.

The Institution is also tied to the conservative coalition of pro-voucher groups, including the Coalition to Educate America, the Center for Education Reform, and the @ Challenger Network, coordinated to take on the Washington Education Association.

With assets of $218,925, the Institution raised $565,841 in revenue in 1994. It spent $400,000 on its 'programs that year. In 1995, it received grants from the Lynde p nd Harry Bradley Foundation ($20,000), the John M. Olin Foundation ($1 0,000), and the John William Pope Foundation ($1 0,000).

In addition to its efforts on education issues, the Institution has studied the concept of privatizing the Department of Defense.

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CONSERVATIVE PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS

The lions share of funding for the movement, including the organizations described above, comes from conservative philanthropic foundations financed by a handful of the nation's wealthiest people, including:

* Sarah Scaife Foundation

* Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

* Carthage Foundation

* Earhart Foundation

* Charles G. Koch

* David H. Koch

* Claude R. Lambe

* Philip M. McKenna

* J.M. Foundation

* John M. Olin Foundation

* Henry Salvatori Foundation

* Smith Richardson Foundation

The Claremont Institute, which played a leading role in promoting Prop 226, has received donations from the Sarah Scaife, Carthage, John M. Olin, Philip McKenna, Robert and Janice McNair, J.M., and Roe Foundations. The Bradley Foundation has provided $2.4 million over five years to set up the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a State Policy Network member that pushes vouchers.

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THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION

The Heritage Foundation was established in 1973 under the direction of Paul Weyrich with seed funding from Joseph Coors. The mission of the Foundation is "...To formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense."

Heritage is by far the largest and best-funded "think tank' in the country, and, with the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, it is easily the most influential conservative voice in the Congress.

Heritage is a 501(c)(3) organization with revenues of $28,626,078 in 1996. Expenses for 1996 were $24,195,169 for an excess of revenue over expenses of $4,430,909. Heritage reports total net assets for 1996 of $47,580,039. The Foundation receives 85 percent of its income from grants and contributions from individuals, foundations, and businesses.

Its list of donors reads like a who's who of American conservative philanthropy and American business. Heritage also received program income of $462,214 from subscriptions to Polit), Review (more than 30,000 in circulation) and The Insider magazines and from books like School Choice Programs 1998 - What’s Happening in the States. Heritage also received $12,096 from advertising, $726,070 from the rental of mailing lists, $78,489 from building rental income, $1,138,371 from dividends and interest, and $6,670,253 from the sale of assets.

Direct income is also received from Town Hall, a Web site Heritage has created with National Review. The site was developed with a loan of $500,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Town Hall is a 501 (c) (4) in which Heritage has 50 percent ownership and received income of $376,0 1 0 in 1996. The function of Town Hall is to spread the conservative gospel and network among 35 religious and social conservative "member -,roups" like the American Association of Christian Schools, the American Conservative Union, ALEC, Americans for Tax Reform, Empower America, the Family Research Council, and the Claremont Institute.

Heritage spent $3,091,827 on fund-raising and receives funding from almost all of the conservative foundations in the country. In 1996, Heritage used Factory Direct Limited of Los Angeles ($414,638) and Winchefl and Associates ($309,281) and Precision Marketing ($165,654), both of Arlington, VA, to provide membership services. Public relations services are provided by Newton and Associates ($128,000) of Washington, DC. Outside legal counsel is William Lehrfeld ($126,105), also of Washington. From a pro-ram perspective, the Heritage Foundation spent $10,125,159 on research, $6,003,526 on educational programs, and $4,170,745 on media and government relations for total program costs of $20,299,430.

The president and CEO of Heritage is Edwin J. Feulner, Jr. The former staff director of the House Republican Study Committee, Feulner came to Heritage three years after it,.-,,as founded. Most recently Feulner took a leave of absence from his post at Heritage to serve as staff director and counselor for Jack Kemp's Vice Presidential campaign. During 1996, Feulner was paid $243,953 in salary and benefits and received a bonus of S197,470. Feulner is a member of the executive committee of the Council for National Policy,. Philip N. Treelike, executive vice president, is number two at the Foundation, receiving $184,233 in salar-yr and benefits with a bonus of $81,3@0.

Heritage employs an executive staff of fourteen officers to run the Foundation with a payroll cost of $2,115,858. The Foundation as a whole has more than 160 employees and a total payroll of $10,222,773. Heritage also employs a number of "Distinguished Scholars.' In 1996, they included former Attorney General Edwin Meese (S230,734), former Secretary of Education William Bennett (S215,680), Thomas Atwood ($89,395), David Winston (5 103,857), and Marshall Whiteman ($80,283).

The Board of Directors and Trustees for The Heritage Foundation are a conservative master list of the Republican Pam.

* Chairman - Dr. David R. Brown

* Vice Chairman - Richard Scaife

* Secretary - J. Frederic Reach

* Midge Decker (Institute on Religion and Public Life)

* Thomas L. Rhodes (President,. A,ario?ial Re-zie-u,

* William E. Simon (former Secretary of the Treasury)

* Jay Van Andel (Founder, Amway Corporation)

* Thomas A. Roe (The Roe Foundation)

* J. William Middendorf II (former U.S. Ambassador to the OAS)

* Frank Shakespeare (former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican)

* William J. Hume

* Preston A. Wells

* Edwin J. Feulner, Jr.

* Douglas F. Allison

* Holland H. Coors

* Barb Van Andel-Gaby

The scope of The Heritage Foundation's research, public relations, and conservative issue advocacy dwarfs all its competitors. According to the Wall Street journal, Heritage is the most frequently quoted think tank in America. Heritage has been active on such issues as welfare reform, telecommunications and electric utility reform, agricultural subsidies, budget reform, Medicare reform, regulatory reform, tax reduction, immigration reform, affirmative action, school vouchers, and "Paycheck protection."

On the issue of "paycheck protection," Heritage has been playing a supportive public relations role to Americans for Tax Reform, ALEC, and members of the State Policy Network such as the Evergreen Freedom Foundation in Washington State. In a recent commentary entitled "Give Workers Their Dues" in Policy Review, Heritage President Fe..ulner reported on the progress of their efforts.

"Happily, lawmakers in all 50 states plan to offer legislation prohibiting the use of a union member's dues for political purposes without the member's express permission. In California a 'Paycheck protection initiative, requiring both employers and unions to get workers' written Oks before using their money for politics, is headed for the June ballot. Similar -grassroots drives are moving forward in at least eight other states. In Congress, comparable workers-rights legislation also is in the offing." - Edwin FetAner

Citing Communications Workers of America V. Beck, Feulner noted that under Beck, "A teacher who backs school choice can refuse to allow her union dues to be used in a campaign against educational vouchers." In his opinion therefore, "What's needed to bolster those rights is affirmative legislation."

To foster legislation at the state level, Heritage has worked with A.LEC, the Family Research Council, and other conservative and religious policy organizations to create a network of state-based think tanks in the image of the Heritage Foundation. It is these think tanks that provide some of the most effective arms and legs for the conservative movement in America.

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AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL (ALEC)

Founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, head of the Committee for Survival of a Free Congress and a Principal founder of the Heritage Foundation,. ALEC was created to nurture conservative legislators around the country. ALEC was formed in 1973 in Illinois and relocated to Washington, DC, several years later. For a period of time, it shared a building with the Heritage Foundation. Although nominally a bipartisan organization, ALECs strongly conservative bent results in the bulk of its membership being from the Republican side of the aisle.

ALEC's goal is to make business a natural ally of state legislators and to advance a conservative free-market agenda that is consistent with religious conservatism. ALEC's literature puts it this way: "ALECs credo is that business can, should, and must be an ally of legislators," and that its "...cornerstone is the forum it provides for the private sector to work in a one-on-one relationship with state legislators to develop public policies that are pro-growth, pro-business and pro-freedom."

ALEC is a 501 (c) (3) membership organization, claiming nearly 3,000 state legislators as members from every state (there are about 7,500 state legislators serving in the United States at any one time). In its current literature, ALEC boasts that its membership includes 31 Speakers and Speaker Pro Tems; 37 Senate Presidents and Senate President Pro Tems; 25 Senate Majority and Minority Leaders; and 38 House Majority and Minority Leaders. Among its alumni, ALEC claims 12 sitting governors and more than 80 members of Congress.

ALEC has a senior staff of six people and a total staff complement that has ranged as high as thirty. Former Executive Director, Daniel Denning, had salary and benefits in 1996 totaling $141,969. Denning has since beco@e director of Heritage 25 for the Heritage Foundation. ALEC reported total revenues in 1996 of $5,346,906.

In addition to its membership of elected officials, ALEC includes representatives of the corporate world as both active members and funders of the organization. Literature from their National Orientation Conference lists over 300 corporate sponsors of ALEC.

In its literature, ALEC states that it "ensures loyalty from its legislative and corporate constituencies by involving them directly in the operation of the organization." ALEC accomplishes this by pairing state legislators, who serve as ALEC State Chairs, with representatives of business, who serve as ALEC State Private Sector Chairs. According to current ALEC literature, every state in the nation, as well as Puerto Rico, is represented by at least one legislative ALEC State Chair, and most also have a Private Sector Chair.

ALECs current Private Enterprise Board includes Alan Auger from Coors Brewing Company, who serves as the board's chairman, and Michael Morgan from Koch Industries as first vice chairman. The board draws from a galaxy of corporate America and includes J. Patrick Rooney, CEO emeritus of Golden Rule Insurance Company.

ALEC is unabashedly a pro-business activist organization. In addition to aggressively pairing elected officials with local business representatives in each state, ALEC maintains fifteen task forces to craft model legislation and set the organizations political agenda in specific policy areas. Each of these task forces is chaired by an elected official and a Private Sector Chair. The task forces cover:

* Agriculture

* Business & Labor

* Civil Justice

* Criminal Justice

* Education

* Empowerment, Opportunity, & Urban Poverty.

* Energy, Environment, & Natural Resources

* Health Care

* Insurance

* Real Estate, Banking, Financial Services

* Substance Abuse

* Tax & Fiscal Policy

* Telecommunications

* Trade, Travel, & Tourism

* Transportation & Public Works

In these topic areas, ALEC claims to have developed more than 150 pieces of model legislation. ALEC maintains that in 1995-96 a total of 1,647 bills based on its model legislation were introduced in all 50 states, with 365 bills being enacted-a success rate of 22 percent. In addition to model legislation, ALEC provides its members with dozens of position papers and research reports on topics related to its policy agenda. ALEC claims the most recent round of state legislative sessions was its most successful to date. Research indicates ALEC has grown steadily in recent years, adding members and increasing its budget as well as increasing the number of ALEC-sponsored bills introduced in stare legislatures across the country.

With the recent and continuing shift in legislative priorities and in power from the federal government back to the states, ALEC is in a key position to affect the political direction of public policy in each of its issue areas. ALEC is well-organized, well-funded and poised to take advantage of the resurgence of state power that has come about as a result of the conservative shift in Congress.

ALEC, working in cooperation with Heritage, Americans for Tax Reform, the National Right to Work Foundation, the Alexis de TocqueviBe Institution, and the State Policy Network, has circulated model "paycheck protection' legislation to states for consideration in legislatures this year.

Membership in ALEC is based on the level of funding by a business or individual. The following is a partial list of companies that maintain membership in ALEC and their contribution levels:

Jefferson Club ($50,000)

Koch Industries

Philip Morris Management Corp.

R.J. Reynolds

UPS Foundation

Madison Club ($25,000)

Bayer Corporation

Eli Lilly and Company

Glaxo Wellcome

Shell Oil Company Foundation

State Farm Insurance Company

GTE

Pfizer Inc.

Franklin Club ($15,000)

American Express

Chevron

Coors Brewing

Joseph E. Seagram

Washington Club ($10,000)

Amoco Foundation

Anheuser-Busch

Kraft Foods

Ryder System

Tobacco Institute

Under the general "Members and Contributors" listing are nearly 300 other business and trade associations.

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THE STATE POLICY NETWORK

Providing the arms and legs on the state level for the national conservative movement is a growing web of interrelated think tanks in about 35 states. These think tanks share nearly identical agendas, including the privatization of most public services and a fierce opposition to organized labor. Created in the image of the Heritage Foundation, these state policy institutions-linked as members of 'Most of the money the State Policy Network (SPN)-provide a local tie to media and conservative policy briefings for legislators and business leaders.

Associate members of SPN anchor the network. They include the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Tax Reform, ALEC, the Center for Education Reform, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Golden Rule Insurance Co., and CEO America. ALEC, for example, uses SPN as a clearinghouse to craft model legislation on conservative issues and to provide testimony in state capitols. Heritage serves as a bridge for SPN and its members to other national groups.

Most of the money supporting Prop 226 came from individuals connected with SPN. Richard Mellon Scaife, for example, has funded several SPN groups. J. Patrick RooneVs Golden Rule is the only corporate member of SPN. And CEO America, whose board includes Rooney and John Walton, is a member of SPN.

In California, the leading SPN members include Capitol Resource Institute (affiliated with Focus on the Family), Golden State Center for Public Policy, the Pacific Research Institute, the Reason Foundation, and the California Public Policy Foundation. In recent battles in the State of V7ashin-con, the SPN member Evergreen Freedom Foundation played the leading- role in initiating and publicizing attacks against the Washington Education Association.

 The following sections of this report provide details about the conservative network and its components. Using publicly available sources, we have documented the interrelationships among conservative think tanks, Foundations, legislative and grassroots organizations, and a handful of wealthy individuals.

This report paints a clear picture of the motivation and agenda of the organized effort to push paycheck protection: to reduce the political power of the NEA and others fighting to improve public schools.

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