Young/College Republs

see YOUNG YR CR 2

NO MERRI

NB this is something of a proxy for a number of gop training orgs

promoted to primary, initially 2nd in deference to YAF, but core of new right came from CR: abramoff, stone, atwater? norquist, black, gingrich, ridenour, rove, reed, ollie, james okeefe

also a training sandbox: Abramoff makes it a free-standing freebooter

yr/cr bkup 715

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College Republican Group Names Groyper Kai Schwemmer As Political Director | People For

RWW 3 26

---

https://theintercept.com/2022/12/18/college-republicans-fascist-nazi-song/

AN 3 26

Kai Schwemmer, political director of College Republicans of America (CRA), was attempting damage control when he stated that he was "not a groyper" — a reference to followers of white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

Schwemmer drew criticism from Jewish groups for streams on Cozy.tv, a platform founded by Fuentes — and Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, in a March 13 post on X, formerly Twitter, warned, "Appointing Kai Schwemmer, a longtime ally of white supremacist Nick Fuentes, as political director signals the College Republicans of America is normalizing antisemitism and white supremacy, full stop. Fuentes holds strong influence over his fans, the 'Groyper Army,' and regularly jokes about the Holocaust. Schwemmer has appeared at Fuentes' conferences, streams on his platform and has spread conspiracy theories about 'Zionists' in America."

CRA President Martin Bertao is doubling down on his decision to hire Schwemmer as political director, writing that he will "apologize…. to absolutely NOBODY."

In an article published on March 30, however, The Guardian's Jason Wilson stresses that Schwemmer has become a liability for Republicans on college campuses.

"The newly appointed College Republicans of America Political Director Kai Schwemmer has made racist, antisemitic, homophobic and sexist statements while espousing extremist right-wing views on abortion, a Guardian review of livestream recordings can reveal," Wilson reports. "Schwemmer said he would accept a world in which slavery was legal if abortion was criminalized, describes himself as 'very much an anti-universal-suffrage guy' and accepts a supporter's description of him as 'our Mormon Nick Fuentes' — referring to the white nationalist influencer whose platform he streamed on for years. The comments were made after Schwemmer's return from a two-year Mormon mission to Argentina, a period he recently claimed had seen him undergo a 'process of growth' that led him to abandon previous racist beliefs."

Wilson adds, "Schwemmer had previously expressed extremist and bigoted views. The streams, many of which are not publicly available but remain accessible behind a paywall on Schwemmer's Gumroad page, also contain previously unreported material from his earlier broadcasts. In one, he walks a user through a sequence of antisemitic leading questions on the Omegle platform before directing her to Fuentes' streaming site. In others, he claims gay men are 'weaponizing' gyms 'to give you AIDS' and celebrates a DNA test he says proved 'I'm 0% Jewish.'"

Jeff Tischauser, a senior researcher for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), is skeptical about claims that Schwemmer is distancing himself from Fuentes and the groyper movement.

Tischauser told The Guardian, "Any time someone claims they have left the movement, you need to watch them closely to see if their actions match their rhetoric, and if they are being sincere. It does not seem like Kai Schwemmer is being sincere."

---

had to go harder rt (with young ppl?) b/c groyper spat?

an 12 22

Christian nationalist **U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene**‘s remarks at the New YorkYoung Republican Club’s Saturday night gala have elicited massive response – and condemnation – from many after she insisted had she been “in charge” of the January 6, 2021 insurrection the rioters “would’ve been armed” and they “would have won.”

“I want to tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, we would’ve been armed,” Greene, a Republican from Georgia, told the group (video below). Some of the rioters and attendees were armed.

In addition to Greene and Bannon, Donald Trump, Jr. and far-right agitator Jack Posobiec were also in attendance, as was disgraced former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.

The Southern Poverty Law Center described the New York Young Republican Club’s gala attendees as a “collection of radical right figures including white nationalists and ultranationalist European leaders” and noted the “group’s president declared ‘total war’ on perceived enemies.”

Some are questioning how Greene can retain her congressional seat given the oath of office she swore to, which in part reads: “I, __, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Former Democratic U.S. Senator from California Barbara Boxer tweeted: “If you’re in Congress and swore to protect the Constitution & you’re asked if you had anything to do with 1/6 insurrection, you say something like: I would NEVER partake in violence against America. You wouldn’t say something like: if I did it I would’ve been armed!”

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) quoting Greene, tweeted that winning is “overturning an election,” and “Being armed = using force to do it.”

Congresswoman Greene “represents today’s Republican party and defines a coup as ‘winning,'” she stressed.

“This is un-American and dangerous,” Escobar added. “And Republican silence is complicity.”

Veteran journalist and SiriusXM Progress host Michelangelo Signorile called Greene’s remarks, “Treason out loud.”

“Marjorie Taylor Greene tells extremist confab that if she organized Jan 6 ‘we would’ve won’ and ‘we would’ve been armed.’ Take it as a plan for the next assault on democracy, which Trump is right now inciting,” he warned.

Gun violence prevention activist Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action observed this is a “Member of Congress fantasizing about killing her colleagues.”

Former Obama White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod, now the director of the non-partisan University of Chicago Institute of Politics, quoted Greene and called her one of House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s “new top apparatchiks.”

Watch the video via Kyle Mazza below or at this link.

Kaplan: A Disgrace to Discourse

I was the Dartmouth College Republicans' treasurer. Here's why I quit.

by Alec Kaplan | 3/26/19

On Oct. 23, 2018, the Dartmouth College Republicans hosted controversial speaker David Horowitz in an event titled “Identity Politics and the Totalitarian Threat from the Left.” Horowitz, founder of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, has a history of comparing Muslims to Nazis and believes that universities brainwash students with leftist propaganda. The talk received numerous protestors. Some highlights of the event included Horowitz stating that “the only serious race war in America is against white males” and telling a student “I wouldn’t help you if you were drowning” in response to being told that black Americans do not need his help.

Up until that day, I had served as both the treasurer of the Dartmouth College Republicans and a member of the College Republicans’ executive board. Many of my friends, both liberal and conservative, asked me why College Republicans chose to invite Horowitz. After all, Horowitz spoke at the end of October, just two weeks before the 2018 midterm elections. The Dartmouth College Democrats had already hosted both Molly Kelly, the Democratic nominee in the New Hampshire gubernatorial election, and Congresswoman Annie Kuster ’78, who represents New Hampshire’s 2nd District. The College Republicans were certainly not short of options. Two local Republican governors, New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu and Vermont’s Phil Scott, both faced reelection. Meanwhile, Republican nominee Steve Negron challenged Annie Kuster for the 2nd District, and Eddie Edwards sought to reclaim the nearby 1st District, which had turned blue in 2016. But the Dartmouth College Republicans didn’t invite any of these promising Republican speakers. They invited David Horowitz.

Members of the College Republicans, myself included, found the decision shocking. I heard nothing about Horowitz’s invitation until a week before the event. That lack of transparency, coupled with the decision by the College Republicans’ to invite him, prompted me to step down as treasurer and quit the organization. My replacement, current treasurer Eashwar Sivarajan, joined the Groupme of the Dartmouth chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, where he encouraged members to “organize some resistance” to the Horowitz talk.

The College Republicans aren’t the organization I used to know. During the 2017-18 academic year, Dartmouth College Republicans created a welcoming community for conservative students while encouraging dialogue with other groups on campus. The club welcomed input from all members during meetings. We organized a number of events, including meetings with officials from the New Hampshire Republican Party and multiple dinner discussions, co-hosted with College Democrats, on issues like the Antifa movement and climate change. In April, College Republicans came together with College Democrats for a debate on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as well as other economic issues in America.

Since this fall, however, the College Republicans have shifted away from respectful discourse and abandoned the community they supposedly represent. The last meeting with an open invitation to campus happened in September, and the College Republicans’ only messages to the campus events listserv during winter term concerned the club’s most recent speaker. The College Republicans haven’t hosted a single recent event with College Democrats, and dialogue between the two groups appears to be finished. Instead of reaching out to campus and trying to bring more students in, as it used to, the College Republicans have shut their doors to anyone who does not follow its newfound fringe ideology.

On Feb. 11, College Republicans brought Dinesh D’Souza’83 to campus. D’Souza, a convicted felon, pleaded guilty in 2014 to making illegal campaign contributions. He also wrote a book in 2007 called “The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11.” In February 2018, D’Souza mocked survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on his Twitter account. The College Republicans’ decision to invite him only confirmed the disconcerting shifts within the organization.

Meanwhile, the Dartmouth College Democrats brought multiple presidential hopefuls to campus, including New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand ’88 and Washington Governor Jay Inslee. New Jersey’s Senator Cory Booker and New Hampshire Representative Annie Kuster visited in October, less than a week after the David Horowitz talk. While the College Democrats invite high-profile political leaders, the College Republicans brings in far-right provocateurs. The College Republicans must do better if they hope to make meaningful contributions to Dartmouth’s campus.

Last month, the current treasurer of College Republicans, my successor, wrote an opinion piece attacking the editorial board of The Dartmouth and the larger Dartmouth community for not respecting the “conservative minority.” He claims that The Dartmouth’s opinion writers remain dominated by “pernicious progressivism” and were “too busy complaining about alleged oppression to devote time to actually listening to what D’Souza had to say.” I agree that conservative students are the political minority at Dartmouth. However, suggesting that we face open hostility from campus institutions is an overstatement. The current treasurer’s claim reinforces a false narrative pushed by David Horowitz that conservatives face persecution on university campuses across the United States. What’s more, my successor implies that D’Souza and the College Republicans, in their new, far-right form, still represent the conservative community. This is, sadly, no longer true. Until the leadership of the College Republicans stops complaining about its alleged victimhood and recommits itself to respectful dialogue, it will continue to lack both legitimacy and dignity.

Kaplan is the former treasurer of the Dartmouth College Republicans.

may 16

any high-powered Republicans who have previously stated they would never support Republican nominee Donald Trump are now walking back and bowing down to His Royal Whiteness. But there is one Republican who, on Monday, decided to leave her position as Communications Chair of the Young Republicans National Federation. Think Progress reports Katrina Elaine Jorgensen will no longer lead the organization of 18 to 40-year-old Republicans who give grassroots support to GOP candidates and conservative causes.

Jorgensen writes that in her quest to become a part of the White House conversation, she never could have imagined this outcome and can no longer use her skills to head the Young Republicans without “losing her soul.” She adds that it’s the prerogative of others to support Trump, but she will not support a candidate who endorses “bigotry and lawlessness” with little comprehension of the fiscal policies long associated with the conservative party. In a final blow, Jorgensen said she will not fall in line, will not give up her principles, and will remain #NeverTrump.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/5/24/1530463/-Head-of-Young-Republicans-National-Federation-resigns-I-will-not-fall-in-line-for-Donald-Trump

ran ads for north iran contra?

http://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/

June 01, 2006

College Republicans Call for Beach Parties to Mock Global Warming

[The piece below was published this week by syndicated columnist Ed Flattau of Global Horizons]

Whatever happened to the Republican Party of Teddy Roosevelt, a political party distinguished by its forward-looking environmental policy? Today, we have the College Republican National Committee (CRNC) urging its 200,000 student members on 1500 campuses to hold beach parties to mock the threat of global warming. If this is representative of the generation that is going to inherit the earth, the earth is in trouble big-time.

Indeed, deriding climate change is the last thing we need from the age group that could well have the last best chance to atone for the environmental sins of the past.

So the question becomes: is the CRNC’S stance of self-destructive denial a preview of the future identity of the Republican Party? If CRNC’S call to revelry has any traction, you’ve got to wonder what in heaven’s name is being taught in colleges these days regarding science, moral values, and social responsibility. The CRNC derives its dismissive view of global warming from a small clique of increasingly discredited scientists who claim the climate change threat is an exercise in scaremongering. It is a claim that is refuted by the weight of evidence, and subsequently by a consensus of scientists (including leading climatologists) throughout the world.

Global warming may not signal the end of civilization, but nor should it be the target of ridicule. Responsible political leaders cannot afford to sit idly by and wait for proof of a false alarm while the average global temperature is rising with rapidity unprecedented in memory. They don’t have the luxury of wallowing in pedantry at the inconclusiveness of the evidence when ice is melting at a record clip at both poles. They would be derelict to procrastinate because of the complexity of the issue. Uncertainty is no excuse for apathy, and reflection without action is not the answer, when significant impacts from climate change are being abruptly felt by man, beast, and plants in many places around the world.

Facing such a potentially calamitous condition, governments have a moral obligation to implement whatever cost-effective precautionary measures are available. These are measures (e.g. energy conservation, reforestation) that standing alone make sense even if global warming turns out not to be as menacing as originally thought.

As for college age Republicans, if they blindly follow the titular head of their party and thumb their noses at reality, let us pray they don’t end up in political office. On a more contemporary note, should the Republican students choose to frolic on a beach to celebrate rising sea levels and killer heat waves, let’s hope they don’t forget their sunblock.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080512151454/http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000312.php

wreck crew:

JA win Mass for RR; cr foot soldiers

bto back belly to b, burtn their bodies with napalm jelly yaf

got own Dir mkt funding,

then USAF discover an indiv cd make $; hit campus groups amway coors funded, campbell's to hit students supporting union workers; oil co, bottlers

then refined get corp $ to hit PIRGs (cheaper to nip in bud) 89 before staged antiussr demos b/c old farts liked

CFACT is rothbard spinoff for energy co's WA times

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Republicans

todd whitman

Notable CRs

Former First Lady and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was elected president of her College Republican chapter at Wellesley College in her freshman year before switching parties due to the war in Vietnam. President Calvin Coolidge is the only College Republican ever to be elected President of the United States. Karl Rove, a Senior Bush Advisor and currently a contributor on Fox News Channel is probably one of the most famous College Republican leaders, having served as executive director, and then national chairman, of the CRNC during his time in the organization. ^{[5]^}(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Republicans#cite_note-thesis-4)

^=^

^see ^other ^training

Koch and George Mason University

Funding and Connections

Since 1985, George Mason University (GMU), and its associated institutes and centers, has received more funding from the Koch Family Charitable Foundations than any other organization--a total of $29,604,354. The George Mason University Foundation has received the most funding, $20,297,143, while the Institute for Humane Studies has been directly given $3,111,457, the Mercatus Center $1,442,000, and George Mason University itself has received $4,753,754.

In addition to financial ties, Koch also has personnel involved with the university. Richard Fink, the vice president of Koch Industries, Inc., and the former president of the Charles G. Koch Foundation and the Claude R. Lambe Foundation, serves on the board of directors of the George Mason University Foundation and the Mercatus Center. Fink's connection to George Mason University is strong. Besides teaching at the university from 1980-1986, Fink has also served on a number of boards at the university including the Institute for Humane Studies and the Center for the Study of Public Choice, the Board of Visitors, and the Student Affairs Committee.

The Institute for Humane Studies

The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) was founded by F.A. Harper in 1961 and has been associated with George Mason University since 1985. The mission of the IHS is "to support the achievement of a free society by discovering and facilitating the development of talented, productive students, scholars and other intellectuals who share a commitment to liberty and who demonstrate the potential to change significantly the current climate of opinion to one more congenial to the principles and practices of freedom." The Institute for Humane Studies provides $600,000in scholarships each year.

According to SourceWatch, the IHS acts as "a libertarian talent scout, identifying, developing, and supporting the brightest young libertarians it can find who are intent on a leveraged scholarly, or intellectual, career path." In addition to the funding it receives from the Koch Family Foundations, the Institute for Humane Studies also receives donations from conservative foundations such as the Carthage Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

IHS Internships

Charles Koch is the chairman of the Institute for Humane Studies. Every year the IHS hosts the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program which offers an internship in public policy. The internship is a ten-week program that includes an opening seminar, the internship, and a closing seminar. The opening seminar involves lectures on public policy analysis, classical liberalism, and "persuasive communication."

The internship entails working at a public policy think tank, either at the state or national level. Placement organizations include the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, the Mercatus Center, the National Center for Policy Analysis, and the Institute for Justice. Policy interns may tackle a number of issues including environmental policy.

The Institute for Humane Studies also offers a journalism internship for which it seeks "writers for liberty." No formal training in journalism is required and the internship offers a choice of three program areas: investigative, print, and broadcast.

The internship starts with a week-long seminar on journalism and free society, followed by a placement at different locations. Previous placements for print journalist interns have included the Pittsburgh-Tribune--owned by Richard Scaife, who is considered to be one of the founding fathers of the conservative movement in the U.S. Placements for interns in broadcast journalism have included FOX News.

The Institute for Humane Studies and Politopia

The Institute for Humane Studies also runs the website Politopia: The Land of Custom-Made Government. The purpose of this website is to promote a new political model that is different from the "old" left/right political model. In this model, politics are placed in the magical land of Politopia where, depending on where you live (north, west, east, or south), the politics of the land are different.

Politopia is presented as an unbiased educational tool. However, in its model, the role of the government in economic affairs decreases as one moves into the north, and increases as one moves farther south. Similarly, the government's role in an individual's daily affairs decreases as one moves west and increases as one moves east.

Historically, the geopolitical terms "west" and "north" have been identified with prosperity, freedom, affluence, industry, and development; whereas the terms "east" and "south" have been associated with poverty, oppression, communism, failure, disease, and insignificance. Interestingly, Politopia places libertarian and conservative values in the more "ideal" regions of the world.

http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=99703 YR

The College Republicans is a national organization for college and university students who support the Republican Party of the United States.^[1] The organization is known as an active recruiting tool for the Republican Party and has produced many prominent Republican and conservative activists and introduced more party members to the Republican party than any other organization in the nation.^[2]

The organizational structure of the College Republicans has changed significantly since its founding in 1892. Originally founded as an organization for the Republican National Committee and later the Young Republican National Federation, the College Republicans now operate as an independent 527 group.

Contents[hide]

[edit] Governance

[edit] College Republican National Committee

The College Republican National Committee (CRNC), is the national steering organization and oversight body for all 50 state federations, 1,500 campus chapters, and 250,000 College Republicans in the country.^[3][4] The CRNC National Chairman and his or her national leadership team, including an executive director, political director, finance director, national field director, national treasurer, national secretary, and 4 regional vice-presidents, are elected at the bi-annual College Republican Convention and are assisted by a full-time office staff.^[4]

[edit] State federations

There are 51 College Republican state federations, each administering the College Republican activities at the state level and the District of Columbia. The state federation leadership team, which includes a state chairperson and other officers, serve as the primary link between local university chapters and the national College Republican National Committee.^[3] The state chairman serves as the representative for College Republicans when dealing with the state Republican Party, local media, and governmental entities. State federations are responsible for organizing and assisting local chapters with securing proper credentials, recruitment efforts, and campus voter canvasses.^[3] It is a state federation's responsibility to organize and implement activities for state-wide campaigns.^[3] Like the national organization, state federations operate as non-profit associations that are not legally affiliated with the Republican Party.^[3]

[edit] Campus chapters

The college and university-based chapters of the College Republicans operate in a dual capacity as student clubs associated with a particular campus and as members of their state federation and the College Republican National Committee.^[3] Like the state federations and national committee, the campus chapters are affiliated with their local Republican Party, but are not official arms of that organization.^[3] The chapter chairperson and leadership team are responsible for maintaining the campus club's credentials and constitution, and representing the College Republicans when dealing with university administration, other student groups, and in the surrounding community.^[3] The campus chapter leadership team might include many members, with administrative responsibilities delegated to dormitory and Greek chapter chairpersons.^[3]

[edit] Notable CRs

Notable College Republicans have included prominent Republican strategist Lee Atwater, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, North Carolina Congressman Patrick McHenry, conservative activist Morton Blackwell, disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis, lobbyist and McCain advisor Charles R. Black, Jr., Texas Republican Party Chairman Emeritus Tom Pauken, Christian Coalition executive director and political consultant Ralph E. Reed, Jr., New York political consultant Roger Stone and political consultant Joshua Workman. California Republican State Chairman Ron Nehring was President of the College Republicans at Boston University. Former First Lady and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was elected president of her College Republican chapter at Wellesley College in her freshman year before switching parties due to the war in Vietnam. President Calvin Coolidge is the only College Republican ever to be elected President of the United States. Karl Rove, a Senior Bush Advisor and currently a contributor on Fox News Channel is probably one of the most famous College Republican leaders, having served as executive director, and then national chairman, of the CRNC during his time in the organization. ^[5]

[edit] Activities

The CRNC organizes election-year field representative programs to send paid staffers to recruit and train students and chapters nationwide. Former national chair Jack Abramoff founded the field representative program in 1981.^[2] The program faltered during the 1980s and was revived during the late 1990s.

During the election season, campus chapters are responsible for organizing and implementing the campus canvas, running mock elections, managing the local get-out-the-vote efforts. At other times, the campus chapters will organize issue advocacy and lobbying efforts, welcome conservative guest speakers to campus, and organize social events and other recruitment activities.

During the election season, the CRNC focuses on developing a "mass based youth effort" directed toward electing Republican candidates.^[2] The CRNC often sends paid field representatives to individual campuses to assist in organizing the election efforts. Generally the hired field representative or chapter chair begins the school year with membership tables on campus for recruitment. Members use door-to-door canvassing and word of mouth to identify and register as many Republican voters among the student body as possible.^[2] These individuals are encouraged to vote through an absentee ballot and assist the candidates with election day Get Out The Vote efforts. Chapters occasionally run student mock elections and other special events as a means to gain positive earned media attention for a candidate.^[2] At other times, the campus chapters will organize issue advocacy and lobbying efforts, welcome conservative guest speakers to campus, and organize social events and other recruitment activities.^[3]

[edit] History

[edit] Founding and early history

"There is no such school for political education as the college and university. What is inculcated here penetrates every corner of the country where the college man goes. He goes everywhere and where he goes he is a mighty force in making and molding public sentiment."

William McKinley at the founding of the American Republican College League in 1892.^[2]

The College Republicans were founded as the American Republican College League on May 17, 1892 at the University of Michigan.^[2] The organization was spear-headed by law student James Francis Burke, who would later serve as a Congressman from Pennsylvania.^[2] The inaugural meeting was attended by over 1,000 students from across the county, from Stanford University in the west to Harvard University in the east. Contemporary politicians also attended the meeting, including Judge John M. Thurston, Senator Russell A. Alger, Congressman J. Sloat Fassett, Congressman W. E. Mason, John M. Langston, and Abraham Lincoln's successor in the Illinois State Legislature, A. J. Lester. Then-Governor of Ohio William McKinley gave a rousing keynote speech.^[2]

The College Republicans quickly pursued a strategy of sending college students to vote in their home districts and registering others to vote where they schooled to swing closely-contested districts. ^[2] This strategy was successfully implemented for the 1900 presidential election between William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan, helping win Bryan's home state of Nebraska for McKinley.^[2]

The College Republicans were financed, at least in part, by the Republican National Committee throughout much of its history. James Francis Burke received significant funding from the RNC to support the American Republican College League's founding and to maintain the organization's early offices in New York and Chicago.^[2] By 1924, the organization was operating directly under the auspices of the RNC as the Associated University Republican Clubs.^[2]

The relative dominance of the Democratic party through the 1930s through the 1960s coincided with a precipitous drop in the membership and effectiveness of the College Republicans.^[2] In 1931, the College Republicans were absorbed as an arm of the Hoover campaign.^[6] For the next several years the organization operated alternately under the auspices of the "Republican National League," "Young Republican National Committee," and the "Division of Young Republican Activities."^[6] In 1935, the College Republicans were merged into the newly created Young Republican National Federation, encompassing both college students and young professionals.^[6] College Republican operations continued under the Young Republicans until the 1965 founding of the "College Republican National Committee."^[6]

[edit] Modern history

In 1967, Morton Blackwell, then a field representative for the CRNC to Kentucky, developed many of the principles now used by the College Republicans. As the college organizer supporting Louie Nunn's campaign for Governor of Kentucky, Blackwell organized approximately 5,000 college student volunteers who dropped 93,000 pieces of literature, posted 20,000 flyers, mailed 15,000 hand-addressed and signed postcards to friends of known student supporters of Nunn, and processed over 8,000 absentee ballots.^[2] On election day, Nunn became the first Republican Governor of Kentucky in 20 years. The New York Times and Louie Nunn himself credited the efforts of Blackwell's volunteers.

In 1970, the Young Republican National Federation was permanently spun off from the College Republicans in 1970 to prevent counter-productive infighting among the two groups.^[2] In 1972 the Republican National Committee made the College Republican National Committee an auxiliary arm of the RNC.^[2]

In 1973, Karl Rove ran for chair of the College Republicans. He challenged the front-runner’s delegates, throwing the national convention into disarray, after which both he and his opponent, Robert Edgeworth, claimed victory. The dispute was resolved when Rove was selected through the direct order of the chairman of the Republican National Committee, who at the time was George H W Bush.^[7]

"College Republicans are a vital force in conservative politics. You are the vanguard of the Republican Party. I know that the strength of young people's support for our Party will ensure the continued success of Republican goals as you begin to assume leadership roles in the Party and in our Nation."

Ronald Reagan to the College Republican National Committee, June 2, 1987^[2]

By 1980, only 20 active College Republican chapters remained. By the US Presidential election in 1980, that number had increased to 1,000 active clubs, helping Reagan win 98 of 105 mock elections and recruiting thousands of voters. This success led to $290,000 in financial assistance from the RNC, mainly to implement Jack Abramoff's field representative program.^[2] Abramoff's fund-raising efforts brought in an additional $1,160,000 during the next two years. By 1983, only 10% of the CRNC's budget came from the RNC.^[2]

Prompted by the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, the CRNC officially left the control of the RNC by reforming as a 527 group, allowing it to operate independently and raise unlimited amount of money for issue-advocacy work. As a 527 group, the organization is prohibited from coordinating directly with a particular campaign and its recent focus has turned towards developing volunteers and other support activities rather than outright campaigning. The shift has allowed the CRNC to vastly expand its fundraising efforts. During its first two years, the CRNC raised $17.3 million, most going to pay fundraising costs and other administrative costs, while leaving more than $2 million to expand the field representative program and to improve pay for the full-time positions.^[8]

The CRNC was criticized for its relationship with Response Dynamics, a Virginia-based direct mail company. ^[9] The relationship became an issue during the 2005 election for National Chairman, which was won by former CRNC Treasurer, Paul Gourley, whose signature was on the questionable fundraising letters.^[10]

Morgan Wilkins, a CRNC field representative for election 2006 was placed on probation by the CRNC after suggesting several controversial events might be held on the University of Michigan -- Ann Arbor Campus, to that school's student newspaper, the Michigan Daily. The events included, "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day" and "Fun with Guns Day," where students were to shoot cardboard cutouts of prominent Democrats.^[11] This incident ultimately became a major news story on several national media outlets.^[12][13] Several sources, including the Michigan Daily incorrectly identified Ms. Wilkins as an employee of the Republican National Committee, rather than the CRNC, eliciting an outcry from Democratic National Committee Chairman, Howard Dean.^[14] In return, GOP Chairman Ken Mehlman condemned Wilkins' activities, as well as Governor Dean.^[15] Keith Olbermann named Wilkins his "Worst Person in the World."^[16] She was suspended for the incident, and later fired by the CRNC for later creating a Facebook group in which she promised to make out with individuals who signed up volunteers for get out the vote efforts.^[17]

The Collegiate Network - "the home of conservative college journalism" - a part of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, provides assistance including funding and ideological direction to more than 70 conservative student newspapers in the United States.

Contents[hide]

History

According to its website, the Collegiate Network (CN) has its origins in a decision by the Institute for Educational Affairs (IEA) to approve a grant to a conservative newspaper at the University of Chicago, Counterpoint, in 1979. Subsequently the IEA formally established the CN network and expanded the funding program to include internships and operating grants to conservative student newspapers.

By the time the Madison Center for Educational Affairs merged with the IEA in 1990 the number of newspaper supported had grown to 57. In 1995 Intercollegiate Studies Institute took over CN and moved it from Washington D.C. to Delaware. CN now boasts that it supports 80 publications.[1]

CN boasts that "free from reliance on student government approval and unconstrained by faculty 'oversight boards', they (CN supported publications) are often the only truly independent student voices on campus".

"When alternative publications do receive student fees, they are typically awarded with suffocating restrictions disabling publications from serious investigative work or voicing unpopular opinions. Grants are intended to subsidize free speech on campus by way of promising and enduring publications at our nation's finest institutions," CN claims.

However, funding from CN doesn't give the publications independence from what CN decides is appropriate content and standards. "Though the CN does not exercise editorial control over its member papers, it will expel a member publication should it threaten the credibility of the organization or other member papers," the website cautions. [2]

CN critic, Jeff Barea, founder of rival Association of Conservative Student Newspapers [3] describes the grant program as "conservative welfare" and "their key to trying to run the papers without any formal legal ties."

Indeed, CN recipients acknowledge that without its financial drip feed the papers would collapse. "The financial backing of CN operating grants is what keeps the papers operating. Without them, the conservative voice would be largely lost on college campuses," the Michigan Review from the University of Michigan is quoted stating on the CN website.

Aside from CN's financial support for conservative student newspapers it also provide other support services including:

an annual training conference for student newspaper editors concentrating on practical skills;
sponsoring nine paid internships "at national publications in New York City and Washington, D.C. available to editors and reporters of CN member papers";
establishing a "Geostrategic Correspondent Course" in June 2001 to cater for international reporting. The course has been developed in close collaboration with :{Heritage Foundation:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: with one part of its program undertaken at the :{Prague Security Studies Institute:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: in the Czech Republic;
visits by CN staff to participating publications, including 'troubleshooting' support if necessary.

In June 1998, the conservative Media Research Center - headed by L. Brent Bozell III - established the web-based conservative wire service :{CNSNews.com:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:. :{[4]:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:. Subsequently MRC has developed a partnership with :{Intercollegiate Studies Institute:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: and the Collegiate Network to provide the wire service free to CN member newspapers. :{[5]:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:

Presenters to the annual conference have included

U.S. News and World Report columnist :{John Leo:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:;
Village Voice columnist :{Nat Hentoff:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:;
Weekly Standard editor :{Fred Barnes:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:;
:{Wall Street Journal:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: editorial writers :{John Fund:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:, :{William McGurn:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:, and :{Robert Bartley:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:;
:{Forbes:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: editor :{Tim Ferguson:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:, authors :{Harry Stein:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: and :{Richard Steinberg:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:; and
other leading conservatives including :{Thomas Sowell:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:, :{Robert Bork:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:, and Supreme Court Justice :{Antonin Scalia:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:.

Executive Director of the Collegiate Network, Bryan Auchterlonie, told a journalist that he also provides advice to campus conservatives on selling their message: "Then there's the sort of ad hoc, off-the-radar-screen type of stuff … It's basically general P.R. advice on how to spin their messages on campus."

"What conservatives really need help on is how to be cool on campus … 'We're easily pigeonholed as loafer-wearing jerks," he said. Auchterlonie suggests conservative student activists need to break with the stereotypical image of a conservative student: "You don't have to adopt, hook, line and sinker, the conservative outfits, conservative haircut, conservative philosophy, conservative everything," he counsels. [6]

Personnel (Past and Present)

Bryan J. Auchterlonie (Executive Director). According to a biographical note on CN's website, he "also serves on the Advisory Council of the Young Britons Foundation, a London-based educational and training organization. Bryan graduated in 2001 from Kenyon College with a degree in political science. At Kenyon, he served as editor of the Kenyon Observer, a monthly opinion magazine, and was co-president of the College Republicans'.
Sarah Longwell (Senior Program Officer). According to her biographical note, "is responsible for managing the campus mentoring program ... A staff writer for the Kenyon Observer, Sarah majored in political science with concentrated study in the declining standards and politicization of college curricula".
J. Justin Wilson (Program Officer) According to his biographical note he is "a 2003 graduate of the University of Michigan where he edited the Michigan Review, which, in 2002, celebrated its 20th anniversary. Justin is responsible for campus mentoring visits, technical instruction for publications, grant administration, and website administration". He has been published in conservative publications including National Review and TechCentralstation.com.
Stephen M. Klugewicz (Executive Director). According to his biographical note he "served as Director of Education Programs for the Bill Of Rights Institute in Arlington, Virginia. In 2002, Steve received his Ph.D. in American history from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, studying there under the eminent historian of the Founding era, Forrest McDonald. Steve is a member of the Philadelphia Society and the recipient of several awards and honors, including two Earhart Foundation fellowships. His writing has been published in several prominent academic journals. Steve was also a classroom teacher for seven years at prestigious private schools in Alabama, Washington, D.C., and Maryland. As an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary, Steve co-founded the William and Mary Observer, a conservative student newspaper, and was active in the campus chapters of the College Republicans and Young Americans for Freedom."

Funding

Media Transparency lists CN - in addition to the grants received by ISI - as having received $3.9 million since 1955 with the dominant recent funders being the

PR Advisers

In 2008 CN used the PR firm, Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, to distribute a media release for its annual "Campus outrage Award".^[1]

Contact information

3901 Centerville Road

P.O. Box 4431

Wilmington, DE 19807

Phone: 302-652-4600 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 302-652-4600 end_of_the_skype_highlighting and 800-225-2862 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 800-225-2862 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Fax: 302-652-1760

Email:cn@isi.org

Web:http://www.collegiatenetwork.org

External links

John Colapinto, "Armies of the right: the young Hipublicans", New York Times, May 25, 2003, Section 6 , Page 30.
Young Britons Foundation
The Bill of Rights Institute
Bill Berkowitz, "The Kids are all right: Collegiate Network turns 25", Media Transparency, November 30, 2004.
Sarah Longwell, April 1, 2005 Collegiate Network Announces Campus Outrage Awards

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Collegiate_Network

Nina J. Easton, Gang of Five: Leaders at

the Center of the Conservative Crusade,

page 130-31) [NB College GOP]

Weekly Standard publisher Bill Kristol,

Christian Coalition founder Ralph Reed,

antitax lobbyist Grover Norquist,

Congressman David McIntosh and

constitutional lawyer Clint Bolick-

http://books.google.com/books?id=i078vP9j

i7cC&dq=%22bob+jones%22++college+republic

ans+young+\&source=gbs_navlinks_s

review http://www.jstor.org/pss/1049806

One group currently using the services of Response Dynamics is the College Republic National Committee, which appears near the top left corner of the chart. In October 2001, the CRNC separated from the Republican Party, became a Section 527 organization, and launched into direct-mail fundraising targeted at elderly donors. (http://www.publicintegrity.org/527/report.aspx?aid=10 )

However, the CRNC had a long and not altogether savory history prior to that. In 1965-70, their on-and-off executive director was Morton Blackwell. I confess I'd never heard of Blackwell before his stunt with the purple heart band-aids at the Republican convention, but he is a person of some significance on the right -- a close associate of Paul Weyrich, co-founder (with Weyrich, Richard Viguerie, and Jerry Falwell) of the Moral Majority, and executive director since 1991 of the secretive Council for National Policy.

During the Nixon years, the CRNC became notorious for offering courses in dirty tricks and political sabotage, to the point where George H.W. Bush, then chairman of the Republican National Committee, had to promise to investigage and get to the bottom of the charges. At this time, CRNC executive director was none other than Karl Rove. In 1972, Rove ran for chairman against Terry Dolan in a campaign so dirty that Bush had to step in and declare Rove the winner.

Lee Atwater succeeded Rove as executive director. Eventually, Rove would introduce Atwater to George H.W. Bush and he would become Bush's 1988 campaign manager. Atwater died in 1991, but not before repenting of the many dirty tricks he had pulled along the way.

Morton Blackwell went on to found the Leadership Institute, dedicated to training young Republican activists. Karl Rove is its best-known graduate.

This group of dirty tricksters has two areas of connection to the CBS memos flap. One is through Roger Stone, rumored to be the source of the memos, who was a close friend of Terry Dolan (who died of AIDS in 1986.) The other is through Mike Krempasky, who set up a "rathergate.com" site so quickly after the story broke as to raise suspicions that he had inside knowledge. Krempasky is connected in multiple ways with Roger Stone and was also employed from 1999 to 2002 by Blackwell's Leadership Institute.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1154535#1154566

wrecking crew:

Conservatism-as-revolution was not always such a ridiculous idea. In the Fifties and Sixties, conservatism was widely regarded as a deluded relic of an earlier age. The Republican Party itself was dominated at that time by its moderate faction, which conservatives defeated only after a titanic struggle spanning many years. Then, in the Seventies, right-wing insurgencies spread across the country: conservative cliques took control of the Southern Baptists and the National Rifle Association, and in 1978 the first of a wave of tax revolts shook California. In 1981 came the turn of the College Republicans, where the right-wing takeover was led by none other than the future supercorruptionist Jack Abramoff. This uprising holds special significance for the historian, since it not only introduces us to the cast of characters who went on to dominate Washington during the Gingrich and Bush eras but also provides a window into the conservative soul.

The story begins in 1980, the year of the “Reagan Revolution,” when there appeared on the national scene a phenomenon that bewildered political observers: legions of politicized, energetic college students who were conservatives rather than liberals or radicals, as had been typical in the two decades previous. And not only were their politics deeply square but the idol of this unlikely youth craze was the oldest president ever. Reagan’s entire Pennsylvania campaign, for example, was run by a lad of twenty. In 1984, the aged actor won 60 percent of the college-student vote. The historical turnabout was irresistible, and Reagan Youth became one of the great journalistic clichés of the period, powering hundreds of newspaper columns and at least one beloved TV sitcom.

These sons of Reagan had a strong sense of generational self-awareness, and they loudly told the world how they had come by it. In the midst of the interminable Iran hostage crisis, a crowd of them at one college campus were supposedly so moved by a showing of Patton that they demonstrated spontaneously in favor of a nuclear attack on that country, shaking the ivory tower with chants of “First strike now!” Another well-known story of the era was how a bunch of privileged kids at Dartmouth College, a traditional fortress of privilege, decided that embracing the traditional politics of privilege and mimicking the traditional manners of the privileged were actually acts of great daring, exposing them to persecution by tyrannical liberals. Then there was Jack Abramoff, a College Republican leader in the Boston area who gained, according to the John Birch Society’s Review of the News, a “reputation as one of the most innovative of the national Conservative youth leaders” after he mounted such a massive grassroots push for Reagan in 1980 that he almost single-handedly shifted Massachusetts into the Republican column.

Abramoff, a burly fellow from Beverly Hills, came to Washington in 1981 to assume the chairmanship of the College Republican National Committee. Back in the Vietnam days it had been leftists who fought the power, he explained to reporters. But “now we’re the campus radicals.” His newly energized College Republicans (CRs) fanned out across the nation, instructing clean-cut kids on how to use the tactics of the Sixties left for their own causes. A snapshot of Abramoff using a bullhorn to rally a conservative throng was proudly reproduced in the CRs’ Annual Report for 1983, just across the page from a photo of Ralph Reed, who was then Abramoff’s right-hand man, pumping his fist at the head of a swarm of angry, sign-waving conservatives. In both instances the young men had gone into action wearing neckties.

It was Abramoff’s friend Grover Norquist, then a recent graduate of Harvard Business School, who came up with a plan for changing the very nature of the College Republicans. Norquist made a study of the CRs, developing a scheme to transform them from “a resume-padding social club,” as one account puts it, into “an ideological, grassroots organization.” Abramoff made Nor-quist the College Republicans’ executive director, and the two put Norquist’s theory into action. They purged the “old guard.” They amended the group’s constitution, establishing a structure that made the Washington office more powerful, and rewarded proselytizing on campus.

What the rising conservative sensibility of those years treasured above all else was “confrontation” with the left. It called for a quasi-military victory over liberalism; it would have no truck with civility or fair play; and it made heroes out of outrage-courting lib-fighters like Reagan’s communications director Pat Buchanan, the organizer Howard Phillips, and the young Jack Abramoff.

The first and most noticeable characteristic of this new militancy was an air of swaggering truculence. There are, of course, bullies from every walk of life and every political persuasion, but on the right bullying holds a special, exalted position. It is no accident that two of the movement’s greatest heroes—Tom DeLay and Oliver North—had the same nickname: “the Hammer.”

Jack Abramoff filled this bill perfectly. He had reportedly been something of a bully in high school and had now grown into a “hard-charging” and “dynamic” leader, in the assessment of conservative magazines, an ass-kicking weight lifter who could quiet the commies with his fists if they got out of line. The gangster fetish of his later years is by now familiar to the whole world—his constant references to The Godfather, his black trench coat and fedora, his Meyer Lansky memorabilia, the murderer argot that will no doubt serve him and his friends well during their prison years.

Abramoff himself derided the moderates he had ousted from control of the CRs as “wishy-washy country-clubbers” and insisted that he had transformed the organization into an “ideological, well-trained, aggressive, conservative” outfit. “Fighting the Left with a goal of victory” became the official, stated purpose of his College Republican cadres, according to an essay Abramoff wrote for the group’s 1983 Annual Report. The CRs were “fighting America’s last stand,” he blustered; they would “defund the enemy wherever possible,” one of his lieutenants added. According to the journalist Nina Easton, CR officers had their underlings memorize the gory opening monologue from the movie Patton, only with the word “Demo crat” standing in for the word “Nazi.” Other young rightists of the period went a step further. J. Michael Waller, the editor of the Sequent, a student paper at George Washington University, actually took breaks from red-baiting professors in order to zip down to Central America and hang out with the Nicaraguan Contras and the death-squad faction in El Salvador.

War was the order of the day, from President Reagan’s fight with the air-traffic controllers right down to the college campus, where Abramoff became famous for his declaration: “It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left. Our job is to remove them from power permanently.” War plus revolution, actually. Abramoff liked to describe his CRs as “the sword and shield of the Reagan Revolution,” and in 1984 the young firebrand used his moment at the rostrum of the G.O.P. convention in Dallas to lecture the assembled small-business types on revolutionary theory.

mapcruzin:

New Anti-Enviro Website:

The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative "think-tank" launched their new envirolie.org -- oops, I mean --envirotruth.org website on May 6, 2002. Amy Ridenour, cofounder of the NCPPR, says, "The website will provide details about the "jihad" that environmental organizations are waging against corporate America." Click here for the entire story.

Example of recent NCPPR report: Press Release: Opening the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Storage Facility is Important to National Security; Action Would Eliminate the Only Serious Vulnerability of Nuclear Plants to Terrorism - January 12, 2002. http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA383.html.

NCPPR websites include (descriptions are from the NCPPR web pages):

The National Center for Public Policy Research is a communications and research foundation dedicated to providing free market solutions to today's public policy problems. We believe that the principles of a free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century. http://www.nationalcenter.org/.

Envirotruth is dedicated to injecting badly needed truth into the debate about our environment. For too long, some environmental groups have seized the world stage and the public's attention by distorting facts, bending the truth and even committing acts of terrorism against innocent citizens. http://www.envirotruth.org/.

Project 21 is an initiative of The National Center for Public Policy Research to promote the views of African-Americans whose entrepreneurial spirit, dedication to family and commitment to individual responsibility has not traditionally been echoed by the nation's civil rights establishment. http://www.nationalcenter.org/P21Index.html.

The National Center launched the John P. McGovern M.D. Center for Environmental and Regulatory Affairs, originally named the Environmental Policy Task Force, to help arm conservatives with tools for the environmental policy debate it had been lacking, among them: 1) a forum for coordination and sharing of strategy and information; 2) numerous accounts of how environmental regulations work in practice; 3) explanations of the perspectives of various groups on environmental issues; 4) a marketing apparatus to help grassroots environmental activists, persons knowledgeable about environmental regulations and reputable economists and scientists gain greater access to the media; 5) a system for countering "junk science" when it appears, especially in the media, with accurate facts. http://www.nationalcenter.org/eptf.html.

SCOOP® Newsletter - An Irreverent Look at the Policies Behind the News. http://www.nationalcenter.org/ScoopLtr.html.

The Center for Environmental Justice - Reviewing the impact of environmental policies on minorities and the poor. http://www.nationalcenter.org/CEJ.html.

The Relief Report covers environment issues and monitors regulation of people & the economy. http://www.nationalcenter.org/ReliefRprt.html.

Budget Watch - Providing a truth dectector in the ongoing battle over federal spending. http://www.nationalcenter.org/Watch.html.

Legal Briefs - The newsletter that monitors the legal system that rules our lives. http://www.nationalcenter.org/LegalBriefs.html.

Earth Day Information Center. http://www.nationalcenter.org/EarthDay98.html.

Global Warming Information Center - A project of the John P. McGovern M.D. Center for Environmental and Regulatory Affairs of The National Center for Public Policy Research. http://www.nationalcenter.org/Kyoto.html.