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Free Congress Research and Education Foundation
The Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, also known as the Free Congress Foundation or FCF, was an American conservative think tank founded by Paul Weyrich and based near Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
After Weyrich's death in 2008, the Foundation was headed by former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore. Under Gilmore's leadership, the Free Congress Foundation was refocused on economic issues and not social issues. Eventually, the entire organization was renamed to American Opportunity, and is now based in Alexandria, Virginia.
In the 1970s, the AFL-CIO-backed National Committee for an Effective Congress was highly influential. In 1974, in part to counteract its influence, Paul Weyrich founded the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (CSFC). The name was created in response to AFL-CIO leader George Meaney's brag that he wanted to elect a "veto-proof Congress".
CSFC was incorporated as a Political Action Committee. The post-Nixon Campaign Finance Reform law had recently created the political action committee as a legal entity. It was the second conservative PAC, the first being Terry Dolan's NCPAC - National Conservative PAC. Paul Weyrich had grown up in blue-collar labor union Racine, Wisconsin, and seen how labor unions did grassroots politics. Through CSFC, Weyrich taught Republicans how to do grassroots electoral politics.
Prior to CSFC, Weyrich had co-founded The Heritage Foundation a 501(c) (3) think tank. The board of Heritage was predominantly northeastern fiscal conservatives, and after Roe v. Wade was decided, they refused to engage on the abortion issue. That prompted Weyrich's organization of a PAC. CSFC was a pioneer in political direct mail fundraising.
The Political Report was published weekly by CSFC. Edited initially by Susan Marshner Arico and later by Stuart Rothenberg, t was a highly accurate, thoroughly objective analysis of different Congressional and Senate races, so objective that it became the first project of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) which Weyrich organized in 1979. A few years later Coalitions for America was organized as a 501(c)(4) lobby organization.
Since its inception, FCF has trained conservatives in basic techniques of activism and election campaigns.
In 2001, the Foundation published "The Integration of Theory and Practice", an activist strategic plan which called for a new approach to activism and the creation of conservative parallel institutions as a counter to existing institutions, which it argued were dominated by the Left.
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Free Congress Research and Education Foundation
The Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, also known as the Free Congress Foundation or FCF, was an American conservative think tank founded by Paul Weyrich and based near Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
After Weyrich's death in 2008, the Foundation was headed by former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore. Under Gilmore's leadership, the Free Congress Foundation was refocused on economic issues and not social issues. Eventually, the entire organization was renamed to American Opportunity, and is now based in Alexandria, Virginia.
In the 1970s, the AFL-CIO-backed National Committee for an Effective Congress was highly influential. In 1974, in part to counteract its influence, Paul Weyrich founded the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (CSFC). The name was created in response to AFL-CIO leader George Meaney's brag that he wanted to elect a "veto-proof Congress".
CSFC was incorporated as a Political Action Committee. The post-Nixon Campaign Finance Reform law had recently created the political action committee as a legal entity. It was the second conservative PAC, the first being Terry Dolan's NCPAC - National Conservative PAC. Paul Weyrich had grown up in blue-collar labor union Racine, Wisconsin, and seen how labor unions did grassroots politics. Through CSFC, Weyrich taught Republicans how to do grassroots electoral politics.
Prior to CSFC, Weyrich had co-founded The Heritage Foundation a 501(c) (3) think tank. The board of Heritage was predominantly northeastern fiscal conservatives, and after Roe v. Wade was decided, they refused to engage on the abortion issue. That prompted Weyrich's organization of a PAC. CSFC was a pioneer in political direct mail fundraising.
The Political Report was published weekly by CSFC. Edited initially by Susan Marshner Arico and later by Stuart Rothenberg, t was a highly accurate, thoroughly objective analysis of different Congressional and Senate races, so objective that it became the first project of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) which Weyrich organized in 1979. A few years later Coalitions for America was organized as a 501(c)(4) lobby organization.
Since its inception, FCF has trained conservatives in basic techniques of activism and election campaigns.
In 2001, the Foundation published "The Integration of Theory and Practice", an activist strategic plan which called for a new approach to activism and the creation of conservative parallel institutions as a counter to existing institutions, which it argued were dominated by the Left.