Type of organization: Super PAC
Supports candidate: Conservative
Founded: Aug. 9, 2010
Website: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/action/
Social media: YouTube, Twitter, Facebook (all accounts jointly operated with Club for Growth Inc.)
Principals:
- Chris Chocola (treasurer, president): Chocola runs the Club for Growth network. He was CEO at CTB, a manufacturing corporation in Indiana, and from 2003 to 2007, he represented Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Profile:
Club for Growth Action is the sister super PAC to free-market nonprofit Club for Growth Inc., founded by economist Stephen Moore in 1999.
The super PAC’s website says “its sole mission is to defeat big-government politicians and replace them with economic conservatives.”
The Club for Growth network’s platform of “economic freedom” includes a flat tax, lower income tax, school choice, deregulation, social security reform, free trade and the repeal of the estate tax, according to its website.
To this end, Club for Growth Action has spent millions on tea party-aligned candidates in GOP primaries across the country. The group showered millions on Texas GOP primary candidate Ted Cruz, who ultimately won the primary runoff against establishment favorite Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Club for Growth Action spent $5 million opposing Dewhurst and an additional $606,000 supporting Cruz.
The group was also active in the Indiana primary, which saw tea party-aligned (and Club for Growth-backed) Richard Mourdock beat out longtime incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., in the first contested GOP primary in the state in decades.
Hoping to replay its victories in Indiana and Texas, Club for Growth Action was the top outside spender in the Wisconsin GOP primary on Aug. 14 at $1.7 million. The group’s favored candidate, former congressman Mark Neumann, did not win.
Some of the super PAC’s top donors are members of Club for Growth’s board of directors:
- John Childs, the founder of JW Childs Associates, a private equity firm, sits on the board and has given the super PAC $1.1 million.
- Jackson T. Stephens Jr., who has given $525,000, is chairman of the board.
- Virginia James, a New Jersey-based investor, contributed $1 million and is on the leadership council.
Advertisements:
- “Moderate” slams Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for not being conservative enough. Club for Growth Action favored Ted Cruz, who won the primary runoff.
- “Only Worse” attacks former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson and Eric Hovde. Thompson won the GOP nomination for Senate. Club for Growth Action favored former congressman Mark Neumann.
- “Choice” attacked Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar, a moderate Republican, for supporting some of President Barack Obama’s policies. The ad urged voters to choose Richard Mourdock, the tea party favorite who went on to defeat Lugar in the Indiana GOP primary.
- For more ads, see Club for Growth Action’s YouTube page.
Last updated: August 22, 2012