Americans for Prosperity

Americans for Prosperity
Americans for Prosperity logo
Formation	2004
Type	non-profit political advocacy group
Purpose/focus	AFP is committed to educating citizens about economic policy and mobilizing those citizens as advocates in the public policy process.[1]
Headquarters	Arlington, VA, U.S.
President	Tim Phillips
Executive Vice President	Tracy Henke
Website	www.americansforprosperity.org

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is an American political advocacy group headquartered in Arlington, VA. AFP’s stated mission is “educating citizens about economic policy and mobilizing citizens as advocates in the public policy process.”^[1] The group played a major role in the Republicans’ 2010 takeover of the House of Representatives,^[2] and has been called “one of the most powerful conservative organizations in electoral politics.”^[3]

Background

AFP was founded in 2004 when Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) split into FreedomWorks (formerly Citizens for a Sound Economy) and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation (formerly the Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation). Dick Armey, who had become chair of CSE in 2003 after retiring from Congress,^[4] remained chairman of FreedomWorks, while David H. Koch remained chairman of the AFP Foundation. Like CSE, AFP was founded with the support of David H. Koch and Charles G. Koch, both of Koch Industries.^[5][6][7]

Mission

AFP describes its mission as educating citizens about economic policy and mobilizing them as advocates of lower taxes and limited government. The organization focuses on eight issue areas: budget and spending; taxes; property rights; health care and entitlements; banking and financial services; labor, education, and pensions; energy and environment; and technology.^[1]

Leadership and structure

Like its predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy, and other advocacy groups (for example, the National Taxpayers Union and American Cancer Society), Americans for Prosperity consists of two separate entities: Americans for Prosperity (a 501(c)(4) organization established in 2004) and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation (a 501(c)(3) organization established in 1984.

On the national level, AFP is led by its president, Tim Phillips. From 2003-2007, AFP was led by Nancy Pfotenhauer, the chief lobbyist for Koch Industries from 1996-2001. Other current executive staff include Chief Operating Officer Tracy Henke and Vice President of State Operations Alan Cobb. Art Pope,^[8][9] James C. Miller, James E. Stephenson, and Frayda Levy serve on the board of directors.

As of March 2012, AFP had 1.9 million members.^[10] AFP had its headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, which oversees 35 state chapters.^[1]

Funding

In its 2007 annual tax return, the AFP Foundation reported revenue of $5.7 million with expenditures of nearly $6.8 million. Of these expenditures, $2.1 million went to national office operations and $2.9 million went to the state-based chapters. By 2010, AFP’s and the AFP Foundation’s combined budget was $40 million.^[11]

Based on the AFP Foundation's financial operations and programs, the independent nonprofit review organization, Charity Navigator, gave it a three-star rating out of four stars and 58 out of a possible 60 points.^[12]

According to AFP, 90,000 people across 50 states have donated to AFP or the AFP Foundation.^[13]

Events

Since 2007, the AFP Foundation has hosted the “Defending the American Dream Summit,” which is now the second largest annual gathering of conservatives in Washington, DC (the first is the Conservative Political Action Conference). Topics have included government spending and taxation, health care reform legislation, economic policy, and proposed energy legislation. Presidential candidates who attended the inaugural event included Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul, Sam Brownback, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson. 2,000 people attended the 2011 summit.^[14]

To "send a message to the bureaucrats that energy rationing will kill jobs, raise taxes, and crush our freedoms,”^[15] AFP created the Cost of Hot Air Tour, a nationwide tour that included webcasts from the United Nations meetings COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009^[16] and COP16 in Cancun in 2010.

In 2008, in the same city (Austin, Texas) and at the same time (July) as the liberal Netroots Nation conference, AFP hosted RightOnline, a conference of conservative bloggers and activists that aimed to develop conservative social media strategies.^[17][18] RightOnline has since become an annual event, with 1,500 attendees in 2011.^[19]

In 2011, in conjunction with Sarah Palin,^[20] AFP helped lead a counterprotest in Madison, Wisconsin, where Governor Scott Walker's budget and labor-law initiatives had drawn considerable opposition in the streets. AFP’s president, Tim Phillips, said Walker’s proposed cuts were necessary and "represented the start of a much-needed nationwide move to slash public-sector union benefits."^[21] After the budget reforms in Wisconsin passed, the AFP Foundation initiated an advertising and town-hall effort called “It’s Working!” to promote them.^[22]

Also in 2011, AFP sponsored the first debate among the Republican presidential candidates in New Hampshire. Candidates who participated included Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Herman Cain.^[23]

AFP has announced that it intends to participate in a rally protesting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act during the Supreme Court's oral arguments regarding the constitutionality of the law.^[24]

Programs

No Climate Tax Pledge

In 2008, AFP circulated an anti-tax pledge to government officials at the federal, state, and local levels. A candidate who signs the "No Climate Tax Pledge"# vows to “oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in state or local government revenue."^[25]

As of August 2010, more than 600 lawmakers and candidates, primarily Republicans, had signed the pledge. Prominent signers include Senators Pat Roberts and Roger Wicker and Representatives Michele Bachmann, Jeff Flake, and Fred Upton. Of the 12 Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2011, nine have signed the pledge.^[26]

Health Care

In May 2009, AFP launched Patients United Now, a project to oppose "a government takeover of the United States health care system."^[27]

Patients United Now ran a series of television ads advancing this viewpoint. In one ad, a Canadian woman, Shona Holmes, says she got the runaround for brain tumor surgery and ultimately was treated in the U.S. In response, columnist David Lazarus of the Los Angeles Times wrote that a single-payer, Canadian-style insurance system is not part of any leading reform proposal.^[28] However, "The point of the ad,” said Amy Menefee, a spokeswoman for Patients United Now, was “to show the extremes where things could go. This would be a bigger role for government than we've ever seen. It's a power grab in this area of the economy."^[28]

Also in 2009, AFP initiated the Hands Off My Healthcare Tour, which sponsored 250^[29] rallies and collected signatures in an effort to raise awareness about free-market-based health care reforms.^[30][31]

Activities

During the 2010 election cycle, AFP claims to have spent $40 million dollars on rallies, phone banks, and canvassing. Of the six freshman Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2010, five benefitted from AFP ads and grassroots activity.^[32]

In June 2011, Americans for Prosperity placed a handful of fake eviction notices on people's doors in the Delray neighborhood of Detroit. The group's state director said that the intent was to get peoples' attention and to startle residents into lobbying against the building of the Detroit River International Crossing bridge because, as the flyer stated, "their properties could be taken by the Michigan Department of Transportation to make way for the New International Trade Crossing bridge project."^[33]

In August 2011, AFP "sent absentee voter applications instructing voters to return the paperwork two days late in at least two recall elections."^[34] In addition, the PO Box that was listed on the "Ballot Application" is the address of an anti-abortion group, Wisconsin Family Action, as opposed to an official state address.^[34] AFP responded, claiming that the misleading date was the result of a mistake and "was only intended for voters in the two districts where Democrats are set to face recalls on a later date, August 16."^[35]

In 2011, AFP said that it would review payments it had made to Mark Block's Prosperity USA, which allegedly made improper payments to the Herman Cain presidential campaign, 2012.^[36][37][38] As a tax-exempt charity, Prosperity USA is prohibited from donating money or services to a political campaign.^[39] According to an internal review, the payments were proper since they occurred before Cain launched his campaign.^[40]

From 2011-2012, in what the Wall Street Journal called “perhaps the biggest attack on Mr. Obama so far in the 2012 election campaign,”^[41] AFP spent $8.4 million ($2.4 in 2011^[42] and $6 million^[43]) on television ads that criticized the federal loan to now-bankrupt manufacturer of solar panels, Solyndra.

Criticism

In August 2010, the Democratic Party and the Obama White House argued that AFP and the AFP Foundation are a de facto political action group, thus violating their tax-exempt status.^[44] Said President Obama, "Right now all around this country there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates all across the country. And they don't have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are. You don't know if it's a foreign-controlled corporation. You don't know if it's a big oil company, or a big bank."^[45] The administration later called AFP a “special-interest front group run by the oil billionaire Koch brothers,” who it said are “obsessed with making Barack Obama a one-term president.”^[24] In response, AFP President Tim Phillips called the idea that AFP is taking money from foreign sources “ludicrous.”^[46] He also noted that following the President’s statement, AFP saw an increase in financial contributions, explaining that “they know if the president of the United States is attacking you because you’re opposing his agenda, you’re probably doing something that’s effective.”^[46]

Also in August 2010, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) filed a complaint against AFP for running political advertisements that allegedly constitute intervention in political campaigns. A spokesman for the AFP Foundation said the DCCC complaint was a "nuisance complaint to intimidate" and was without merit.^[47] On May 6, 2011, the Federal Election Commission dismissed the complaint.^[48]

A May 2012 ad criticizing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was rated by the nonpartisan fact checking organization PolitiFact.com as one of "the sneakiest" of the election cycle to that point. Claims from the ad were judged to be "Mostly False",^[49] "False",^[50] and "Pants on Fire",^[51] the organization's lowest rating of truth. A separate analysis of the entire ad showed problems with the truth or transparency of every one of the ad's claims.^[52]

See also

• Political activities of the Koch family
• Tito the Builder^[53]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Americans for Prosperity

• Americans for Prosperity
• Americans for Prosperity Foundation
• File at PolitiFact
• Profile at OpenSecrets.org
• Profile at MediaMatters
• Americans for Prosperity at SourceWatch

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