The Christian Coalition used to be a very serious threat. With a huge budget and a vast army of dedicated conservative activists, the Coalition had the means, clout, and credibility to pursue a fierce religious right agenda.
In fact, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that in the mid-1990s, the Christian Coalition was synonymous with the religious right movement. They were effectively one in the same.
That was then. Since the group’s heyday, the Coalition has fallen apart. Pat Robertson is gone, so is Ralph Reed. A vibrant network of state affiliates dwindled to only a handful. As new religious right groups gained influence (Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Traditional Values Coalition, American Family Association, and others), the Coalition found itself unable to compete in a crowded landscape. Complicating matters, the CC was forced to endure multiple investigations by the IRS and FEC for abusing its tax-exempt status and illegally participating in partisan campaign activities.
By 2000, the group’s membership had gone elsewhere and the Coalition had to start canceling annual national conventions due a lack of interest.
Perhaps most importantly, a group that once enjoyed a robust multi-million dollar budget found itself facing hard financial times, closing offices and laying off staff. The Coalition had gone from being an intimidating conservative force in American politics to a paper tiger. The Christian Coalition still had its famous name, but it lacked the means to capitalize on its notoriety.
And now it appears the group that once had a $25 million budget can no longer even pay its bills (via Salon).
As Pat Robertson’s hometown paper — the Virginian Pilot — reported, the Coalition can’t pay the law firm that has helped the group struggle through a series of self-inflicted scandals, so the firm is taking the Coalition to court.
A local law firm has asked a judge to garnishee the assets of the Christian Coalition of America to collect more than $75,000 in unpaid legal costs.
The order asks that $75,530.96 be paid by June 25 to the Virginia Beach law firm of Huff, Poole and Mahoney. The amount comes from $63,958.44 in unpaid bills, along with $11,512.52 in interest and $60 for garnishment costs.
When the Pilot asked why the Coalition hadn’t paid its bills, a spokesman “would not elaborate.”
This couldn’t come at a worse time for the group. For months, the Christian Coalition has tried desperately to get everyone to believe that 2004 will be the organization’s triumphant return to the spotlight. This is the year, the group’s leaders tell us, that the Coalition will rise from the ashes, so to speak, and reasserts itself as a major political player.
It’s a sad charade based on empty bravado and false pride. The Coalition’s “plan” for 2004 is a strategy predicated on a thinly-veiled shell game. Not only will the CC not follow through on the plan, the group couldn’t, even if it wanted to.
The plan isn’t complicated. As the Weekly Standard reported in January (no link available), the Christian Coalition plans to use its infamous “voter guides” to help elect like-minded Republicans on Election Day.
Coalition officials told the Standard that the group will spend $4.2 million to target voters in 24 swing states. The CC believes the campaign flyers, which are distributed almost exclusively in churches, can make the difference in key elections. Drew McKissick, the Coalition’s latest political director, told the Standard that evangelical voters are more likely to support the favored GOP candidate if they receive materials from the group.
While it’s hard to say if McKissick is right about the effectiveness of the CC’s campaign flyers, I do know there’s good reason to question (read: disbelieve) both parts of the group’s campaign plan for 2004.
First, there’s no way the Christian Coalition will effectively distribute its voter guides in 24 states this November. How do I know? Because the group has exaggerated distribution of the campaign flyers in every election cycle for years.
As the group’s budget and staff dwindled, the Coalition found it impossible to meet its own targets of voter guide distribution. The CC simply couldn’t afford it. In 1998, the group bragged about having distributed more than 40 million voter guides. A former staffer later told the New York Times it was all a lie. “We never distributed 40 million guides,” Dave Welch, the coalition’s former national field director, admitted.
In fact, the group not only lied about voter guide distribution, it lied about its membership. The same NYT article noted that former staffers acknowledged that the group “distorted the size of its base by keeping thousands of names of dead people, wrong addresses and duplicates on its list of supporters.” (Isn’t there some kind of Commandment about bearing false witness? But I digress…)
Second, there’s simply no realistic way the Coalition can spend $4.2 million on just this campaign project this year. Why not? Because the group doesn’t have $4.2 million.
When the Coalition was a major political force, the group enjoyed a $25 million budget. By 1999, after Reed had created his own consulting group and the Coalition’s influence was on the wane, the CC budget had plummeted to $3 million.
What’s the exact budget now? It’s funny you should ask; a lot of people would like to know. While federal law requires all non-profit organizations to provide budgetary data upon request, the Christian Coalition has refused — and continues to refuse — to provide the information to those who ask for it. (I know; I’ve even tried personally.)
Considering that the group’s membership and significance has dwindled, even since 1999, a little common sense tells us that the overall Christian Coalition budget couldn’t be anywhere near $4.2 million. Considering that it’s been millions of dollars in debt for several years — and now the CC can’t even pay its bills — the group is almost certainly teetering on bankruptcy, which would explain why the once proud group has become so shy about providing the financial data it’s legally required to share.
The Christian Coalition wants us all to believe it’s a group on the mend, ready to dominate as it once did. Don’t believe it. This is a paper tiger whose roar just isn’t scary anymore.