National Conservative Political Action Committee

National Conservative Political Action Committee

The National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC; pronounced "nick-pack") was a New Right political action committee in the United States that was a major contributor to the ascendancy of conservative Republicans in the early 1980s, including the election of Ronald Reagan as President, and that innovated the use of independent expenditures to circumvent campaign finance restrictions.

In 1979 Time magazine characterized NCPAC, the Conservative Caucus and the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (headed by Paul Weyrich) as the three most important ultraconservative organizations making up the New Right.[1]

Contents

History

Founding

NCPAC was founded in 1975 by conservative activists John Terry Dolan, Charles Black and Roger Stone, with help from Richard Viguerie and Thomas F. Ellis. The group got its start through direct mail solicitations. "The shriller you are, the better it is to raise money," explained co-founder Terry Dolan.[2]

NCPAC became one of the first groups to circumvent the contribution limits of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) by exploiting the "independent expenditure" loophole permitted under a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Although federal law restricted political action committees' expenditures to $10,000 per candidate, an organization could spend unlimited amounts of money supporting or opposing a particular candidate as long as their campaign activity was not coordinated with a candidate. NCPAC pooled independent contributions in order to make independent expenditures on campaign attack ads.[1] Not only did this circumvent campaign finance restrictions, but it prevented candidates from being associated with advertising created on their behalf. NCPAC Chairman Terry Dolan was quoted as saying, "A group like ours could lie through its teeth, and the candidate it helps stays clean."[2][3][4] Dolan later said he was describing a hypothetical situation, not NCPAC's actual tactics.[5]

1978 election

NCPAC's first major target was Democratic Senator Dick Clark of Iowa in the election of 1978. Three weeks before the November 1978 election, incumbent Clark had a 30 percentage-point lead in campaign polls,[6] but he lost to Republican Roger Jepsen, 52 to 48 percent.[7] Clark's defeat was attributed to intense anti-Clark campaigning conducted by direct mail, mailgrams, and leaflet distribution during the final weeks of the campaign, attacking Clark for his positions on abortion, gun control, and the Panama Canal Treaty.[8] NCPAC took credit for Clark's defeat and was encouraged to expand its efforts in the 1980 election.[9]

1980 election

Clark's defeat, for which NCPAC took credit, encouraged NCPAC and other allied organizations to expand their efforts in the 1980 election, when NCPAC spent at least $1.2 million.[9] Four of the six incumbent Democratic Senators targeted by NCPAC in 1980, John Culver (Iowa), George McGovern (South Dakota), Frank Church (Idaho), and Birch Bayh (Indiana), were defeated.[10] Senators Alan Cranston of California and Thomas Eagleton of Missouri were also targeted, but achieved re-election.[11]

1982 election

NCPAC hoped to repeat its success in the 1982 election. Initially the group targeted a list of 20 Senators for defeat, including Pat Moynihan of New York, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, and John Melcher of Montana. The organization later trimmed its target list to five incumbents, and spent $4.5 million in the 1982 elections. However, only one of its targets, Democrat Howard Cannon of Nevada, failed to win re-election.[9] Sarbanes was charged with being "too liberal for Maryland," but voters did not respond to the NCPAC message.[12] Sarbanes made NCPAC's tactics a major issue in his campaign.[13] Democratic Senator John Melcher, a veterinarian, countered a commercial that claimed he was "too liberal for Montana" by running a TV commercial of his own featuring cows. After a shot of "out-of-staters" carrying a briefcase full of money off an airplane, one cow remarked, "Did ya hear about those city slickers bad-mouthing Doc Melcher? One of 'em was stepping in what they've been trying to sell."[9]

Later years

L. Brent Bozell succeeded Dolan as the group's head after Dolan's death in 1986.

The organization is based in Alexandria, Virginia.

References

  1. ^ a b The New Right Takes Aim, Time magazine, August 20, 1979
  2. ^ a b Thomas Frank, "The Tilting Yard: Charlie Black's Cronies" Wall Street Journal July 2, 2008
  3. ^ Running with the PACs Time magazine, October 25, 1982
  4. ^ The Washington Post, August 10, 1980, p. F1, as cited at http://www.bartleby.com/73/150.html
  5. ^ http://www.bartleby.com/73/150.html
  6. ^ Richard F. Fenno, Jr., Richard F. Fenno, Senators on the Campaign Trail, University of Oklahoma Press, 1998 ISBN 0-8061-3062-8, ISBN 978-0-8061-3062-0, page 111
  7. ^ Richard F. Fenno, Jr., Richard F. Fenno, Senators on the Campaign Trail, University of Oklahoma Press, 1998 ISBN 0-8061-3062-8, ISBN 978-0-8061-3062-0, page 114
  8. ^ Richard F. Fenno, Jr., Richard F. Fenno, Senators on the Campaign Trail, University of Oklahoma Press, 1998 ISBN 0-8061-3062-8, ISBN 978-0-8061-3062-0, page 115
  9. ^ a b c d No Thunder from the Right, by Jane O'Reilly, Time magazine, Nov. 15, 1982
  10. ^ A Bag of Tricks: Independent Expenditures, Center for Responsible Politics opensecrets.org website, archived January 13, 2008.
  11. ^ New Resolve by the New Right, by Edwin Warner, Time magazine, December 1, 1980
  12. ^ NCPAC's Waterloo, by Chuck Lane, The Harvard Crimson, September 25, 1982
  13. ^ Attack PAC Time magazine, Oct. 25, 1982

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie — National Socialist Party v. Skokie Supreme Court of the United States Decided June 14, 1977 …   Wikipedia

  • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. Alabama — NAACP v. Alabama Supreme Court of the United States Argued January 15–16, 1958 Decided June 30, 1958 …   Wikipedia

  • List of political action committees — This list of political action committees is organized by the nature of each particular PAC s work. Environment*Arizona League of Conservation Voters *Coastal Conservation Assn *Connecticut League of Conservation Voters *Friends of the Earth… …   Wikipedia

  • Political positions of Mitt Romney — The political positions of Mitt Romney have developed over the course of his life, both in observing his father George W. Romney in public office, and pursuing his own political ambitions.Fact|date=July 2008 Though there have been some widely… …   Wikipedia

  • National Organization for Marriage — Motto Protecting Marriage and the Faith Communities that Sustain It Formation 2007 Type NPO …   Wikipedia

  • Terry Dolan (US political figure) — John Terrence Terry Dolan (1950 – December 28, 1986) was an American New Right political operative who was co founder and chairman of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC). [The Cautious Closet of the Gay Conservative; In… …   Wikipedia

  • National Caucus of Labor Committees — The National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC) is a political cadre organization in the United States founded and controlled by political activist Lyndon LaRouche, who has sometimes described it as a philosophical association . LaRouche is the… …   Wikipedia

  • Conservative Party (UK) — Conservative Party Conservative and Unionist Party Leader …   Wikipedia

  • Conservative Future — Chairman Ben Howlett [1] …   Wikipedia

  • CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM — (also known as Masorti Judaism), one of the three principal modern Jewish religious denominations, emerging, along with Reform and Orthodoxy, in the 19th century era of emancipation. After the denial of emancipation to Central European Jewry by… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”