Americans for Prosperity

Americans for Prosperity

Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Website	http://www.americansforprosperity.org

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a Washington D.C.-based political advocacy group which describes itself on its Web site as "... an organization of grassroots leaders who engage citizens in the name of limited government and free markets on the local, state and federal levels."

History and Mission

In 2003, an internal rift between Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) and its affiliated Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation led to a split in which the latter organization was renamed as a separate organization, called Americans for Prosperity.

On February 27, 2009, in collaboration with others, the organization sponsored a Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas and Washington, D.C. Tea party protest.

AFP aims to promote a sound economic policy that supports business and regulatory restraint by government, according to its literature. This organization leans conservative. AFP opposed the $787 billion stimulus package for economic recovery.

The organization has chapters in 22 of the 50 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Americans for Prosperity is led by Tim Phillips, who was a former partner with Ralph Reed's Century Strategies. That organization became well-known when it was revealed in a Senate investigation that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff was laundering money through Century Strategies and Americans for Tax Reform to oppose legislation that his Indian tribe clients wanted to defeat.

Leadership

• Art Pope, Director
• James C. Miller, Director
• James E. Stephenson, Director
• Frayda Levy, Director

Other key national staff include Phil Kerpen, director of policy, Daniel Erspamer, director of development, and Erik Telford, director of AFP's RightOnline new media program. Kerpen and Telford have significant ties to other conservative organizations.

Funding

Media Transparency notes that Americans for Prosperity Foundation has received seven grants totaling $1,181,000 between 2004 to 2006. Grants to the foundation have included:

• $1,000 in 2006 from the Roe Foundation;
• $50,000 in 2005 from the Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation;
• $5,000 in 2005 from the Armstrong Foundation;
• $125,000 from three grants over 2004 and 2005 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation; and
• $1,000,000 from the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation.

In its 2007 annual IRS return, the AFP Foundation's reported that its revenue was $5,695,000 with expenditure of $6,768,000. While the AFP Foundation ran at a loss of $1,072,000, it had a further $507,000 in reserves. Of its expenditure, $2,129,000 was spent on national office operations with just over $2.9 million allocated to the state-based chapters.

Activities

Freedom from Foreign Oil Scorecard

The Freedom from Foreign Oil Scorecard is a legislative scorecard released by the Americans for Prosperity. The “Freedom from Foreign Oil” scorecard ranks U.S. Representatives based on their support for – or opposition to – policies that Americans for Prosperity believes would lower gas and energy prices by increasing American supplies and making domestic production less expensive.

The “Freedom from Foreign Oil” scorecard ranks lawmakers based on a composite score of eight roll call votes and co-sponsorship of three initiatives. Co-sponsorships of bills that would allow off-shore and ANWR drilling were scored positively, while co-sponsorship of cap-and-trade legislation was scored negatively. Lawmakers received positive marks for votes against tax hikes on domestic oil and energy, and negative marks for a vote to oppose opening the outer continental shelf to natural gas exploration.

In total, 172 U.S. Representatives were designated “Friends of the American Motorist” for achieving scores of 70 percent or higher, and 117 House lawmakers received perfect scores. The 214 Representatives with scores of 17 percent or lower were named “Friends of Foreign Oil.” Americans for Prosperity distributed t-shirts bearing the OPEC flag to the Capitol Hill offices of 156 lawmakers who scored zero, as well as localized news releases to media in their districts. Among those labeled “Friends of Foreign Oil” were House leadership members Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Steny Hoyer, Rep. James Clyburn, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel.

No Climate Tax Pledge

Americans for Prosperity has circulated a pledge to federal, state, and local officials. The pledge states that the official will oppose any climate change legislation that contains a net increase in federal, state, or local revenue. .

About 150 lawmakers and candidates, primarily republicans, have signed the pledge. Prominent pledge signers include Sens. Pat Roberts and Roger Wicker; U.S. Reps. Michelle Bachmann, John Carter, Jeff Flake, Jim Jordan, Doug Lamborn, Lynn Westmoreland, Phil Gingrey, and Tom Price; and candidates Jack Hoogendyk, Pete Olson, and Greg Davis (all Republicans).

Defending the American Dream Summit

AFP hosted an event in Washington D.C. entitled "Defending the American Dream Summit" on October 5 2007. The topic of was government spending and taxation. Presidential candidates who attended included Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul, Sam Brownback, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson. Other speakers included John Stossel, Steve Lonegan, Dinesh D'Souza, Art Laffer, John Fund, Steve Moore, Herman Cain, Dr. Barry Poulson, and AFP founder David H. Koch.

RightOnline

In July, 2008, Americans for Prosperity hosted RightOnline, a conference of conservative bloggers in Austin, Texas. The conference brought together conservative activists to develop strategies to counter left-wing bloggers and develop conservative New Media techniques. The meeting was held in conjunction with the Texas AFP chapter's conference.

Patients United Now

In May, 2009, Americans for Prosperity launched Patients United Now , a website offering information and propaganda for those opposed to government reform of the United States healthcare system. A subsequent series of television ads in opposition to healthcare reform was launched under the Patients United Now brand.

External links

• Americans for Prosperity Website
• Friends of Foreign Oil Scorecard
• Americans for Prosperity on SourceWatch
• Tim Phillips, AFP President on SourceWatch