Richard Viguerie

Life and career

Viguerie was born in Golden Acres, Texas, the son of Elizabeth (née Stoufflet) and Arthur Camile Viguerie. He has Cajun ancestry. Viguerie worked for the Christian evangelist Billy James Hargis in his early career. In an autobiographical note, Viguerie wrote that in 1961 he became executive secretary of the conservative youth group Young Americans for Freedom: "Since 1965, owner of direct marketing/advertising companies such as American Target Advertising. Political/campaign strategist, activist and conservative spokesman and writer."

Viguerie has been dubbed the "funding father" of modern conservative strategy in the United States by some sources.

Viguerie founded Conservative Digest magazine in 1975 and served as its publisher for ten years. Opposing President Gerald Ford's election, Viguerie in 1976 unsuccessfully sought the presidential nomination of the American Independent Party, which had been formed eight years earlier by George Wallace. The party instead nominated former Georgia Governor Lester Maddox, to challenge Ford and Democrat Jimmy Carter, also a former Georgia governor.

Viguerie's development and honing of national direct mail campaigns in the mid-to-late 1970s was considered revolutionary in its approach and was quickly adopted by insurgent conservative political campaigns. Conservative activist and political candidate Jeff Bell applied the strategy in 1978 to unseat longtime liberal Republican Senator Clifford Case in the 1978 New Jersey primary. Bell was defeated in the general election, but his unexpected primary victory was considered a turning point for conservative activist efforts against establishment Republicans.

In 1977, Viguerie worked on a project to raise money for Sun Myung Moon's Children's Relief Fund, which reportedly only received 6.3% of the $1,508,256 raised. $920,000 went to Viguerie according to New York State charity auditors.

Viguerie sought the Republican nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 1985, but did not receive the nomination at the GOP state convention.

Asked by Campaigns and Elections in May 2000 what his immediate goals were, Viguerie answered:

To use the Internet to involve Americans in the political process, to help conservatives gain an advantage over the left. To fight against government's use of power, to fight for individual rights and responsibilities, and to fight to extend the blessings of liberty throughout the world.

Writing in The Nation, David Corn noted that Viguerie "raised money for Judicial Watch" and is associated with Larry Klayman, a conservative lawyer and activist who had been a failed candidate for the Republican nomination for US Senate in Florida in 2004.

Viguerie has long been associated with conservative activist Howard Phillips through creation of the Moral Majority in 1979.

According to CharityWatch.org: "[Roger] Chapin hired his long-time friend and direct mail expert, Richard Viguerie, to conduct fundraising campaigns for HHV, paying Viguerie's company $14 million between 2000 and 2005." HHV is a charity run by Roger Chapin, which according to Charity Watch has made many questionable and apparently unethical payments unrelated to its purported mission.

In January 2008, Viguerie launched ultimateronpaul.com, a website designed to promote the 2008 presidential candidacy of U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, whom Viguerie described as "truly a principled conservative in the grand tradition of Robert A. Taft, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan" and who "has differentiated himself from all the other candidates, whose allegiance is to Big Government Republicanism."

Books

Books by Viguerie include:

Current issues

In May 2006 Viguerie said regarding the ability of conservatives to maintain a majority in the U.S. House and Senate, "There is a growing feeling among conservatives that the only way to cure the problem is for Republicans to lose the Congressional elections this fall."

Viguerie commented on the Mark Foley scandal, "This isn't an isolated situation. It is only the most recent example of Republican House leaders doing whatever it takes to hold onto power. If it means spending billions of taxpayers' dollars on questionable projects, they'll do it. If it means covering up the most despicable actions of a colleague, they'll do it."

Viguerie fought for the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007 through his petition website called Grassroots Freedom.

When Viguerie spoke at a conference of Libertarian Party state chairs in March 2007, he said of the 2006 United States general elections, "Whenever conservatives are unhappy, bad things happen for the Republican Party."

In 2007 Viguerie co-founded the American Freedom Agenda, described as "a coalition established to restore checks and balances and civil liberties protections under assault by the executive branch."

In a July 2009 article for Sojourners Magazine entitled "When Governments Kill," Viguerie spoke strongly against capital punishment, calling for a moratorium on it to discuss its surrounding issues, hoping that will pave a path to abolition.

Clients

Viguerie claims to have raised billions of dollars for conservative causes. His clients have included:

Family

Viguerie and his wife have three children and (as of 2011) six grandchildren.