The true goals of Americans for Prosperity

On Sept. 23, The Post ran two pieces that made a serious unsubstantiated allegation against Americans for Prosperity (AFP). An op-ed by Obama strategist David Axelrod ["The election campaigners we can't see"] and an editorial ["Democracy in the dark"] asserted that AFP is engaged in election activities designed to support favored congressional candidates. That is contrary to fact.

All of AFP's citizen-education efforts -- including our television advertising -- have been bona fide issue advocacy designed to advance our mission of promoting limited government fiscal and economic policies, lower taxes, less spending and less onerous regulation. Because we engage in no electioneering, we have done nothing after the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that we were not already doing before.

Moreover, the relevant Supreme Court decision that allows us to protect the privacy of our supporters from forced disclosure is more than 50 years old. It was the landmark civil rights case NAACP v. Alabama, which recognized that forced disclosure would chill the free speech rights of members of organizations like ours by subjecting them to potential retribution. Given the amount of space The Post has dedicated to spurious attacks on us, that fear of retribution seems particularly well-founded at the present time.

Phil Kerpen, Washington

The writer is vice president for policy at Americans for Prosperity.