User:Orlady/Stuff I'm working on/NCPAC

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The National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC; pronounced "nick-pack") was a conservative political action committee in the United States best known for innovating the use of independent expenditures to circumvent campaign finance restrictions and for being a major contributor to the ascendancy of conservative Republicans in the early 1980s. The New Right succeeded in building a policy approach and electoral apparatus that propelled Ronald Reagan into the White House in the 1980 presidential election. NCPAC sponsorship of attack ads targeting liberal Democratic Party politicians...

NCPAC was founded in 1975 by John Terry Dolan, Charles Black and Roger Stone with the help of Richard Viguerie.

In 1979 Time magazine characterized NCPAC as one of the three most important ultraconservative organizations making up the New Right. ^[1] [The two others listed were the Conservative Caucus and the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (headed by Paul Weyrich). The Moral Majority was also mentioned.]

NCPAC was one of the first groups to circumvent the contribution limits of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) exploiting the "independent expenditure" loophole permitted under a 1976 Supreme Court ruling. A campaign expenditure is considered independent if the activity it finances is not organized by or coordinated with a candidate's campaign. by pooling contributions in order to make independent expenditures on campaign attack ads. Independent expenditures were not subject to the federal restriction that limited one political action committee to $10,000 per candidate. This allows free spending provided that there is no connection between the advertiser and the political beneficiary of the advertising. ^[2]

Regarding the group's strategy, NCPAC Chairman Terry Dolan was quoted as saying, "A group like ours could lie through its teeth, and the candidate it helps stays clean."^[3][4] Dolan later said he was describing a hypothetical situation, not NCPAC's actual tactics.^[5]

NCPAC first used independent expenditures against Sen. Dick Clark (D-Iowa) in 1978.

Clark's defeat, for which NCPAC took credit, encouraged that organization (and, ultimately, others) to air more independent expenditures in 1980, when NCPAC spent at least $1.2 million.^[6] Four of the six Democratic Senators targeted by NCPAC in 1980 - John Culver (Iowa), George McGovern (S.D.), Frank Church (Idaho), and Birch Bayh (Ind.) - were defeated. ^[7] Alan Cranston of California and Thomas Eagleton of Missouri were also targeted, but achieved re-election.^[8] In 1980, when the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC) adapted the concept to U.S. Senate races by targeting liberal Democrats for an onslaught of negative media advertising, the term "hit list" joined the American political lexicon for good. And the committee's sharpshooters hit their marks with stunning accuracy--NCPAC-backed conservatives handily defeated progressive stalwarts like George McGovern, Frank Church and Birch Bayh. The chilling words of NCPAC chief Terry Dolan--"we want people to hate Birch Bayh without even knowing why"--conveyed an unmistakable message to jittery liberals: the age of political mind control had arrived.^[9]

In 1980 a NCPAC target could face as many as 72 negative radio ads a day and 200 television commercials per week, well before the election. A sample of NCPAC ads includes one that called then-Senator Bayh's fight against inflation "One very big piece of baloney;" a campaign that said McGovern was "touring Cuba with Fidel Castro while the energy crisis was brewing;" and an ad depicting an empty missile silo, stating that "Senator Church has always opposed a strong national defense."^[10] Dolan's approach was to start early and hit hard on an incumbent's record. An NCPAC affiliate in Idaho began TV and radio commercials in June 1979. Initially Church was accused of having "almost always opposed a strong national defense." The TV spot was taped in front of an empty ICBM silo. One radio spot was aired 150 times a day throughout the state for five days, for a cost of just $4,000. Dolan predicted: "By 1980 there will be people voting against Church without remembering why."^[11]

NCPAC hoped to repeat its electoral success in 1982. Initially the group targeted a list of 20 Senators for defeat, including Pat Moynihan of New York and 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. ^[12] Sarbanes was charged with being "too liberal for Maryland," but voters did not respond to the NCPAC message. ^[13] Sarbanes made NCPAC's tactics a major issue in his campaign.^[14] In several states, NCPAC commercials were kept off the air by victims' complaints that they were misleading or outright false, prompting NCPAC to file a federal suit charging censorship. Democratic Senator John Melcher, a veterinarian, countered a commercial that claimed he was "too liberal for Montana" with a TV ad of his own featuring cows. After a shot of "out-of-staters" carrying a briefcase full of money off a plane, one cow remarks, "Did ya hear about those city slickers bad-mouthing Doc Melcher? One of 'em was stepping in what they've been trying to sell." ^[15]

NY Times, May 21, 1986: A Federal court has ruled that the National Conservative Political Action Committee illegally aided the brief 1982 campaign of Bruce Caputo against Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Judge Gerard L. Goettel of Federal District Court in Manhattan affirmed last Friday an earlier decision by the Federal Election Commission that while professing to be running an independent campaign against Senator Moynihan, the organization - known as Nicpac - had spent $73,755 that was, in effect, a contribution... NY Times, January 29, 1984: CAPUTO PENALIZED $3,000 FOR CAMPAIGN TIE TO CONSERVATIVE PAC, by MAURICE CARROLL - A conservative group that has worked to defeat liberal United States senators by running negative advertising against them had ties to the 1982 Republican senatorial campaign of Bruce F. Caputo, according to a document signed by the Caputo staff. The link, the Federal Election Commission document says, compromised the independence of the group, the National Conservative Political Action Committee. Under an agreement with the commission, Mr. Caputo agreed to pay a $3,000 civil penalty to...

NY Times, October 23, 1984: The National Conservative Political Action Committee has said it will spend $50,000 to keep Representative Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, from defeating Senator Roger W. Jepsen, Republican of Iowa.

NY Times - BRIEFING; Nuts for Sale, By WAYNE KING AND WARREN WEAVER JR., Published: April 9, 1986 - The National Conservative Political Action Committee announced this year that it planned to spend $250,000 to defeat the Senate bid of Representative Timothy E. Wirth, Democrat of Colorado.

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

The organization is based in Alexandria, Virginia.

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