GOPAC is a Republican (GOP) state and local political training organization. Although often thought of as a PAC, or

political action committee In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...

, it is actually a 527 organization.

History

GOPAC was founded by

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

Governor Pierre S. du Pont, IV in 1978 in "an effort to build a farm team of Republican officeholders who could then run for congress or higher state offices later". On February 1, 2007, former

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele became the chairman and served until his election as chairman of the Republican National Committee in January 2009. The current chairman of GOPAC is David Avella. Others who have chaired GOPAC include former

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

Governor Frank Keating, former

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Representative and Secretary of the Army Bo Callaway,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Representative David Dreier,

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

Representative John Shadegg, former Oklahoma Representative J.C. Watts, Gay Gaines, and former Speaker of the House

Newt Gingrich Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1 ...

of Georgia. Instructional tapes used to train aspiring Republican politicians from 1986 to 1994 were selected by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry for their influence in "shaping political discourse". The Library of Congress selects recordings annually that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

GOPAC memo of 1990

Drawing rhetorical inspiration from Newt Gingrich, GOPAC wrote and distributed a memo to Republican Party legislative candidates in 1990. The memo, which came from a list drawn up by Frank Luntz, called "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control", contained a list of "contrasting words" and "optimistic positive governing words" that Gingrich recommended for use in describing Democrats and Republicans, respectively. For example, words to use against opponents include decay, failure (fail), collapse(ing), deeper, crisis, urgent(cy), destructive, destroy, sick, pathetic, lie, radical, liberal, they/them, unionized bureaucracy, betray, consequences, limit(s), shallow, traitors, sensationalists,"compassion" is not enough; words to use in defining a candidate's own campaign and vision included share, change, opportunity, legacy, challenge, control, truth, moral, courage, reform, prosperity, crusade, movement, children, family, debate, compete, active(ly), we/us/our, candid(ly), humane, pristine, provide. The cover page of the memo said: "The words in that paper are tested language from a recent series of focus groups where we actually tested ideas and language." The comic strip '' Doonesbury '' mentions the memo in a strip, calling it the "Magna Carta of attack politics." Al Franken, a comedian and later a U.S. senator from Minnesota, wrote that GOP candidates were drilled to adopt three basic techniques in debating: "Go Negative Early"; "Don't Try to Educate"; "Never Back Off". Minor details were relevant only to 'demolish the opposition'.

References

External links

* *GOPAC's 2013 990 Form
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gopac Republican Party (United States) organizations 527 organizations Memoranda United States National Recording Registry recordings