Citizens For America

citizens for america  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_for_America">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_for_America</a>

<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading">Citizens for America</h1>

Citizens for America (CFA) was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_States" title="Conservatism in the United States">conservative</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grassroots_democracy" title="Grassroots democracy">grass-roots</a> organization founded by President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan" title="Ronald Reagan">Ronald Reagan</a>'s "Kitchen Cabinet" (principally Jacqueline “Jack” Hume, CEO of Basic American Foods of San Francisco, and including Southern California car dealer Holmes Tuttle and others) to support President Reagan's national defense and economic initiatives. CFA called itself "President Reagan's Lobby" and was lead first by drugstore magnate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_E._Lehrman" title="Lewis E. Lehrman" class="mw-redirect">Lewis E. Lehrman</a> and later by Gerald P. Carmen, who had served as administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations mission in Geneva, Switzerland. CFA was organized as an IRS 501 (C) (3) and (4) non-profit. Among the early employees was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff" title="Jack Abramoff">Jack Abramoff</a>, who was later terminated for cause.

Citizens for America staged an unprecedented meeting of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-communism" title="Anti-communism">anti-Communist</a> rebel leaders called the "Democratic International", including Nicaraguan, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laos" title="Laos">Laotian</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angola" title="Angola">Angolan</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan" title="Afghanistan">Afghan</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mujahideen" title="Mujahideen">Mujahideen</a>) rebels in 1985 in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamba" title="Jamba">Jamba</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angola" title="Angola">Angola</a>. The meeting was held in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Union_for_Total_Independence_of_Angola" title="National Union for Total Independence of Angola" class="mw-redirect">UNITA</a> headquarters of Angolan rebel <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Savimbi" title="Jonas Savimbi">Jonas Savimbi</a>. The guerrilla leaders were presented with a copy of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence" title="United States Declaration of Independence">United States Declaration of Independence</a>, and a letter from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POTUS" title="POTUS" class="mw-redirect">President</a> Reagan supporting CFA was read, although the Reagan administration refused to officially support all of the guerrilla groups.

Mark Holtzman (who later ran for governor of Colorado) served as CFA's first executive director. He resigned in 1985 and was replaced by Abramoff, who had been director of College Republicans. Lehrman fired Abramoff after only nine months due to his mismanagement of the organization’s $3 million budget and his hiring of friends and cronies.

Abramoff was replaced as executive director by Bill Wilson, formerly of Right to Work. He served for a year, after which attorney and writer Jack R. Stevens became the executive director. Stevens served for two years and was the organization’s executive director in its final days under President Reagan. Wilson and Stevens (who had earlier served as CFA’s western regional director) were credited with restoring CFA's finances and reputation after Abramoff’s brief but damaging tenure.

CFA supported its grass-roots lobbying campaigns by hosting two fundraisers annually. The "Founder's Circle" required a contribution of $25,000 per year and included donors like Joseph and Holly Coors, Holmes Tuttle and Jack Hume. President Reagan hosted CFA donors and staff regularly at the White House. At one such session in 1987, he recognized CFA National Director Gerald P. Carmen and Executive Director Jack Stevens for their efforts in orchestrating the organization’s successful campaign to secure $100 million in congressional aid to the Nicaraguan Contras. CFA staff met in the White House with Reagan Administration officials on a weekly basis to coordinate field activities.

Stevens hired Liam Weston, who later became Mayor Pro Tem of El Segundo, California and now a columnist for the Sacramento Union [1], as CFA’s eastern regional director in 1987. Weston later served as a Republican staff member in the 104th U.S. Congress. He left Congress and moved to Central America to administer the U.S. aid to the Nicaraguan Resistance 1989-1991. In 1991-1993, he was posted to Africa, where he managed an aid program for the Angolan UNITA rebels.

President Reagan credited CFA's extensive field operations, and cited field leaders Weston; Gordon Bloyer;(now an Internet blogger and video commentator); Kelly Cardwell of Alabama; Cecil Martin “Bud” Starr, III (now a Kern County, California prosecutor); Robert Miltenberg (now a Los Angeles advertising executive); former California legislator Doug Carter (now deceased); and San Francisco activist Dorothy Vuksich (now deceased) with having helped secure congressional support for Afghan rebel aid, Contra aid, and tax reduction and simplification, among other issues. CFA organized volunteer committees and chairmen in each congressional district to conduct grass-roots campaigns in support of Reagan's strategic and economic agenda. The organization was able to unite all segments of the conservative movement, though it took no position on social issues.

Stevens and Weston, in coordination with Reagan's OMB Director Jim Miller and former CFA communications director David Carmen (now CEO of the Washington, D.C. public affairs firm, The Carmen Group), created the first annual "Pork Barrel" spending awards, a dubious distinction for member's of Congress CFA considered to be profligate spenders. CFA published “The Pork Book” in 1987.. Taxpayers Against Government Fraud and Waste along with other public policy organizations have continued the annual event by recognizing certain congressmen for supporting excessive "pork barrel" spending.

The organization occupied the 4th Floor of the Heritage Foundation building on Massachusetts Ave. in Washington, D.C. Other employees of CFA included fundraiser Abigail Pearlman (now married to Congressman Roy Blunt); office assistant Marjorie Huge; communications director Andre Bogolubov; controller,Mike Russell; research director Peter Conlin (now a Sacramento, California attorney); Texas regional director Gwen Faro (now deceased); eastern regional director Kerry Moody; midwestern regional director Mike Semfenderfer; project manager Mary Ann Gordon; project manager Ed Priola; project manager Brian Malnak; computer operations director Grayden Frick (now deceased), research director Grover Norquist, field director Mathew Tsien, and western regional director and field operations director Carol Hallett. Hallett was appointed U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas during the Reagan Administration. She later served as director of U.S. Customs under President George H.W. Bush. Subsequently, she headed the Air Transport Association in Washington, D.C. and now is a senior officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

<h2>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Citizens_for_America&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: External links">edit</a>] External links</h2>

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<li><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/28/AR2005122801588_2.html" class="external text" rel="nofollow">"The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff"</a> - Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a>, Thursday, December 29, 2005.</li>

<li><a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/019njufy.asp" class="external text" rel="nofollow">"My Dinner with Jack"</a> - Mark Hemingway, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weekly_Standard" title="The Weekly Standard">The Weekly Standard</a>, April 3, 2006.</li>

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iran contra?

<a name="P2528_577507" id="P2528_577507"> </a>Funding: Lehrman and Hume were able to attract major rightwing funders such as Joseph Coors and Ivan Boesky. Many backers of CFA come from the Fortune 500, including the heads of such corporations as Atlantic-Richfield, Shell Oil, Chase Manhattan, Dr. Pepper, W. R. Grace, Amway, and Northrup. (16) Ultra rightwing Texas billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt, Texas financier T. Boone Pickens, and Reagan "kitchen cabinet" members Holmes Tuttle and Earle Jorgensen have also contributed to CFA. (19) The J. E. and L. E. Mabee Fdn donated $20,000 in 1985, and in 1986 the Starr Fdn donated $50,000. (9,10) CFA's 1986 budget was $1. 8 million. (16)

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CFA has been listed among the DC-based political lobbies that provided "private" aid to the contras. (11)

CFA produced slick anticommunist publications targeting the Sandinista government which were distributed to interested audiences along with materials of the State Department, the Defense Department, Heritage Foundation, and the Senate Republican Policy Committee. The group also sponsored a major public relations campaign for the Nicaraguan contras, including a 1985 national tour of contra leaders to 200 congressional districts and a barrage of pro-contra aid radio and newspaper ads in 1986. (16,23) CFA worked closely with Oliver North in North's contra supply efforts."Abramoff and CFA were assigned responsibility for organizing briefings by contra speakers, telephone-trees 'to targeted congressional offices encouraging them to vote for aid to the freedom fighters in Nicaragua'." (Interior quotes are from a declassified "NSC Intelligence Document," Exhibit OLN-217). (24)

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The Washington Post reported that Oliver North has been very close to Jack Abramoff and the CFA. North helped CFA select the contra leaders for the 1985 speaking tour. (25)

Louis "Woody" Jenkins was a Louisiana State Representative. (33)

President Reagan also hosted the top contributors to the CFA at the White House, having a picture made with each guest. (8)

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Jack Abramoff, former executive director of CFA, is the founder and former chairman of the International Freedom Foundation, an aggressive rightwing think tank. (24) Abramoff served as the chairman of the College Republican National Committee from 1981 to 1985 and in 1982 became the executive director of the political action committee of the Conservative Caucus--a position he still held as of early 1990. Abramoff also served as chairman of the United Students of America, a rightist student group based at the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. (24)

CFA was an active participant in the 1986 Conservative Political Action Committee, a group whose membership was a who's who of the far right. (26)

<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-06-abramoff-bush_x.htm">http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/articles/display/Citizens_for_America</a>