Club for Growth

The Club for Growth is an organization consisting of 9,000 Americans for low taxes and economic freedom. The organization has been known for endorsing and funding conservative candidates over moderates and Democrats. Club for Growth’s political action committee was heavily involved in funding candidates favoring lower taxes in the 2002, 2004, and the 2006 primary and general elections. Being a “527” organization, Club for Growth can accept unlimited funding without disclosing donors names. The job of president is currently held by Patrick Toomey. In 2005, the organization came under criticism for falling back on its core principals, this led to the founding of another organization by some former members, Free Enterprise Fund.

Goals

According to the organizations website [1], its goals are:

• Making the Bush tax cuts permanent
• Death tax repeal
• Cutting and limiting government spending
• Social Security reform with personal retirement accounts
• Expanding free trade
• Legal reform to end abusive lawsuits
• Replacing the current tax code
• School choice
• Regulatory reform and deregulation

History

The Club for Growth was founded in 1999 by Stephen Moore; a senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee and a senior fellow at the CATO institute. The organization called on candidates to return to Ronald Reagan’s “vision of limited government and lower taxes.” . In 2002, the organization raised $9.2 million for the 2002 campaigns, and in the 2004 election, the Club for Growth heavily campaigned for low tax candidates; spending a total of $20 million to GOP candidates. They even aired a 30-secound television commercial which depicted Democrat candidate, John Kerry as a spinning weather vane. To increase influence on sitting candidates after the 2004 election, the organization hired its first lobbyist. Soon after, former conservative Congressman, Patrick Toomey, replaced Stephen Moore as organization leader.

Controversy

In 2005, the organization became rifted as accusations of betrayed principals and stolen donor list. Many of the problems were came about after a disappointing primary race between Congressman, Patrick Toomey, and moderate, Arlen Specter. Some former leading members and Moore started another organization, Free Enterprise Fund. Moore stated,

“

"To see the club splintered this way was a heart-breaking tragedy, but the good news is most of the original founding committee members of the old Club for Growth that we built into such a political juggernaut helped me launch the Free Enterprise Fund,"

”

The organization showed its support for its core principals, when it heavily campaigned against liberal Republican candidate, Lincoln Chafee, in his primary race against conservative Steven Laffey in the 2006 Rhode Island Republican senate primary election.

External Link

Official Website of the Club For Growth