Grover Norquist

Norquist graduated from Harvard in 1978 and began work at the National Taxpayers' Union, where he traveled the country pushing to get 34 states to approve a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. He also became, at age 22, a quote-ready spokesman for the group. "The facts are that government is not a benevolent charity," Norquist said in 1978. "You go to city hall or the post office and what do you see? Bureaucrats pushing papers, drinking coffee and harassing the people." In 1979, Norquist returned to Cambridge to attend Harvard Business School, and in 1980 he campaigned for Ronald Reagan. "I went with a Puerto Rican street organizer to all the Hispanic bars in Lowell," Norquist remembered in 2009. "They were anti-communists, and they didn't like taxes."

College Republicans

When Norquist graduated in 1981 he returned to Washington and joined Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed in a successful takeover of the College Republicans, where he spent six months as executive director and helped conservatives consolidate control of the organization. "If you could look at the crap they had before," Norquist said in 2009, "pictures of dancing elephants with the slogan 'The Best Party in Town!'" Norquist led a campaign to sign up new members in solidaritywith Polish resistance to communism. "Guess who comes to sign up when you have pro-democracy in Poland and pro-Reagan posters? Conservatives."

Americans for Tax Reform

In the early 1980s, Norquist worked as a speechwriter for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a staffer at the election-focused Americans for the Reagan Agenda, and a staffer at the conservative Citizens for America. He spent time out of Washington lobbying for American interests in Afghanistan, in southern Africa and in Eastern Europe.

In 1985, Reagan's White House began laying the groundwork for a fundamental rewrite of the U.S. tax code and Norquist was asked to lead a new organization - Americans for Tax Reform. With funding from Republican donors and leadership from Norquist, ATR campaigned for the passage of the landmark 1986 Tax Reform Act. In that year, Norquist himself wrote a short pledge that, if taken by lawmakers, would cut through the clutter. The pledge has evolved into a staple of every campaign season, with ATR asking all candidates for federal and state office of both parties to sign it, including most Republicans who win and most Republicans who don't.

"I _____ pledge to the taxpayers of the __________ district, of the state of __________, and to all the people of this state, that I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes."

The pledge immediately put Republicans on the record against tax increases and aided in the passage of tax reform. (One of the first things visitors in ATR's 12th street office see is a photograph of President Reagan signing the pledge.) More Republicans took the pledge in the 1988 elections, most notably President George H.W. Bush, in what aides later recounted as a tortured decision. What "gave it teeth," according to Norquist, was President George H.W. Bush's approval of the 1990 tax increase. Norquist pinned Bush's 1992 defeat at the hands of Bill Clinton on Bush's betrayal of ATR's no-new-taxes pledge and thus his conservative base.

"Wednesday" Meetings

ATR hit the ground running after Clinton's victory. In January 1993, Norquist sponsored his first Wednesday meeting of conservative activists, drawing a dozen people to strategize against President Clinton's health- care plans. The meeting grew in size as Norquist explained to his fellow travelers that "you had to slow everything down to stop health care--his gun stuff, his spending stuff, his midnight basketball."

After the defeat of Clinton's plan and the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, ATR's meetings grew larger and more influential, and it collected more money from the Republican National Committee to defeat Democrats to the tune of$4.6 million to try and defeat Clinton in 1996.

Clinton was re-elected anyway, and ATR began to evolve into what it is today-a powerhouse conservative group with connections to nearly every powerful Washington Republican, Republican leaders in the states and grassroots activists across the country. In 1997, Norquist launched the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, a campaign to name at least one place after the 40th president in every county. Re-naming National Airport outside of Washington was the first major victory; eventually putting Reagan on Mount Rushmore, said Norquist, was "a long-term debate, but doable."

In 1998, Norquist and ATR pushed for state ballot amendments that, if passed, would have prevented unions from using their members' dues for political campaigns. It was an obscure issue, but it was a political winner, said Norquist: "As soon as you ask the question, you've won the argument." In 1999 and 2000, Norquist backed George W. Bush over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in large part because of McCain's fitful economic progressivism. He went so far as to run ads in New Hampshire that morphed McCain into Bill Clinton.

As one of the most influential conservative groups in the city, ATR welcomed the presidency of George W. Bush. Wednesday meetings swelled to more than 100 people, with representatives from the White House present. ATR was vital to the campaign for Bush's 2001 tax cuts, and for the tax cut battles that followed.

But complete Republican control of Washington cut both ways for ATR. After the 9/11 attacks, Norquist was pilloried by some conservatives for his political alliances with Muslim leaders such as Abdurahman Alamoudi, the founder of the American Muslim Council. Norquist's bridge-building had helped win Muslim votes for George W. Bush, but in the backlash to 9/11 and to Alamoudi's response, Norquist alienated some neo-conservatives. Several of Norquist's allies were ensnared when Norquist's old friend Jack Abramoff imploded in a series of scandals, including David Safavian, who served on Norquist's Islamic Free Market Institute.

On other issues, Norquist and ATR alternately clashed with the White House and sided with it against the Republican base. Norquist was an early opponent of the USA Patriot Act that strengthened the government's ability to monitor private communications.

He joined the campaign for some Social Security privatization, arguing that Americans who owned stock were likely to become or stay Republican. Writing before the 2004 election, Norquist argued that "four more years of more and bigger individual retirement accounts, health savings accounts, RSAs, and LSAs means four more years of more Republicans and fewer Democrats."But privately, Norquist told Karl Rove in a post-election phone call that Social Security privatization was politically impossible. In the summers of 2006 and 2007, when immigration reform bills came to the floor of the Senate, Norquist supported reform- the White House's position - and pilloried conservatives who thought that the issue was an election-winner outside of the core conservative base.

ATR Today

Since the mid-90s, ATR's weekly meetings have grown to more than 160 regular attendees, now located in a new office in downtown Washington. ATR has also expanded its reach by helping to start "center-right meetings" in the states and starting "affiliates" that use ATR's office space to push for special projects. There are currently seven affiliates:

- The Ronald Reagan Legacy Project (1997), headed by Nathan Pick, which lobbies for counties to dedicate public works and spaces to the 40th president.

- The American Shareholders Association (2000), headed by Ryan Ellis, which lobbies for more investor-friendly policies, such as capital gains tax cuts.

- The Alliance for Worker Freedom (2003), headed by Brian Johnson, which opposes pro-union labor reforms such as the Employee Free Choice Act.

- The Property Rights Alliance (2005), headed by Kelsey Zahourek, which lobbies for land and intellectual property rights.

- The Media Freedom Project (2005), headed by Derek Hunter, which advocates media deregulation and opposes the "Fairness Doctrine" for equal time on the airwaves.

- The Center for Fiscal Accountability (2008), headed by Sandra Fabry, which keeps track of, and advocates for more transparency in, government spending.

Norquist and ATR have encouraged, and kept tabs on, a current total of 50 center-right meetings in 46 states, with only Vermont, South Dakota, Wyoming and South Carolina meeting-less as of April 2009. They happen every week when legislatures are in session, and every month when they're not. Internationally, ATR has helped to start meetings in Canada, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Norquist's current goals are modest: blocking labor reform spearheaded by President Obama and the Democratic Congress and any other fundamental changes to the economy, and winning the 2010 elections. "What's the key fight? Take the House back. What's the key fight? Don't let the Democrats get to 60 in the Senate."

After years of bachelor living, Norquist married the former Samah Alrayyes in April 2005, and the couple adopted a daughter, Grace, from Bethelem, Israel, in 2008. Having never joined the old Washington establishment ("Those of us who are part of the revolution . . . didn't come to get invitations to their dinner parties or their receptions," he said in 1996. Norquist is still a fixture at conservative events.

In 2008 he published "Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives," the most definitive statement of his thinking and political strategy.

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