Ralph Reed | |
|---|---|
 Reed in February 2011 | |
| Chair of theGeorgia Republican Party | |
| In office May 6, 2001 – February 21, 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Chuck Clay[1] |
| Succeeded by | Alec Poitevint[2][3] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ralph Eugene Reed Jr. (1961-06-24)June 24, 1961 (age 64) Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S. |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | University of Georgia (AB) Emory University (MA,PhD) |
Ralph Eugene Reed Jr. (born June 24, 1961) is an Americanpolitical consultant andlobbyist, best known as the first executive director of theChristian Coalition during the early 1990s. He sought theRepublican nomination forLieutenant Governor of Georgia but lost theprimary election on July 18, 2006, to State SenatorCasey Cagle. Reed started theFaith and Freedom Coalition in June 2009. He is a member of theCouncil for National Policy.[4]
Born inPortsmouth, Virginia, toNavyophthalmologist Ralph Reed and mother Marcy Reed, Ralph Jr. moved often as a child, but spent most of his childhood inMiami, Florida. He moved with his family toToccoa, Georgia, in 1976, earningEagle Scout at BSA Troop 77[5] and graduating fromStephens County High School in 1979. He graduated from theUniversity of Georgia with aBA in history in 1985. Reed served as a columnist and editor of the college newspaper,The Red & Black. In 1983, Reed, then a senior at the University of Georgia, wrote a column forThe Red & Black with the headline "Gandhi: Ninny of the Twentieth Century." Shortly after the article ran, another student wrote that "every assertion, every quote, and several seemingly original Reed phrases may be found directly or in slightly modified form" in a commentary article byRichard Grenier. Reed was then discharged from his role on the college newspaper forplagiarism.[6] He was a member of theDemosthenian Literary Society, the Jasper Dorsey IntercollegiateDebate Society, andCollege Republicans. He is also an alumnus of theLeadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia,[7][8] an organization that teaches conservative Americans to influence public policy through activism and leadership.[9] Reed obtained hisPhD in American history fromEmory University in 1991.[10]
Reed spent much of his college career as a political activist, taking six years to earn his undergraduate degree. He started with theUniversity of GeorgiaCollege Republicans, steadily rising to state and then national leadership. He was later profiled inGang of Five byNina Easton, along withGrover Norquist and other young activists who got their start in the 1980s.[11]
In 1981, Reed moved toWashington, D.C., to intern at theCollege Republican National Committee (CRNC). At the CRNC,Jack Abramoff, Norquist, and Reed formed what was known as the "Abramoff-Norquist-Reedtriumvirate." Abramoff promoted Reed in 1983, appointing him to succeed Norquist as Executive Director of the CRNC. Norquist later served as president ofAmericans for Tax Reform, in Washington, D.C.[citation needed]
Reed has said that, in September 1983, he had a religious experience while atBullfeathers, anupscale pub inCapitol Hill popular with staffers (and, to a lesser extent, members) of theHouse of Representatives. Of the experience, Reed said, "theHoly Spirit simply demanded me to come toJesus". He walked outside the pub to aphone booth, thumbed through theyellow pages under "Churches," and found the EvangelicalAssembly of God Church inCamp Springs,Maryland.[12] He visited the next morning and became aborn-again Christian.[13]
After receiving his AB he moved toRaleigh, North Carolina to help start and leadStudents for America (SFA), a conservative activist group supported by U.S. SenatorJesse Helms. SFA became largely dominated by members ofMaranatha Campus Ministries, and this brought Reed into contact withEd Buckham and Jim Backlin, the current Legislative Director of theChristian Coalition. Reed's links toTom DeLay were forged through his association with Buckham and Backlin.[citation needed]
SFA established chapters on college campuses up and down the East Coast and held conferences. Among other issues, SFA supported Helms' bid for re-election and organizedabortion clinic protests. Reed was temporarily arrested during an abortion protest at the Fleming Center Abortion Clinic in Raleigh but was not charged with any crime. After Reed left SFA for a bigger job at theChristian Coalition, SFA faded out of existence by the early 1990s.[citation needed]
Reed was hired by religious broadcaster and Presidential candidatePat Robertson as executive director of theChristian Coalition inVirginia Beach, Virginia. Robertson, his son,Gordon P. Robertson, Dick Weinold, a Robertson activist fromTexas, andBilly McCormack, a pastor fromShreveport,Louisiana, were the original four directors of the organization. McCormack also held the title of "vice president" and had been his state director of "Americans for Robertson" in 1988.[14]
Reed led the organization from 1989 to 1997. After Republicans lost in the 1996 elections many thought Reed would not be long for the Coalition, and would soon depart seeking new challenges.[15] Some alleged that another factor in Reed's decision was an investigation by federal prosecutors due to charges made by the Christian Coalition's formerchief financial officer, Judy Liebert.[16] Reed resigned from his post, and moved toGeorgia. The Coalition's finances were collapsing, and theInternal Revenue Service andFederal Election Commission were investigating.[citation needed]
The Coalition organized former Robertson supporters and other religious conservatives to opposepolitical liberalism. Eschewing confrontational tactics of street protest learned in college, Reed attempted to project a "softer" public face for Christian conservatism, self-described as "guerrilla", putting "enemies" in "body bags" before they even realized he had struck.[17]
In the 1990s, Reed and the coalition protested theClinton administration's policies. They were credited with mobilizing Christian conservatives in support of Republican candidates in the1994 Congressional elections.[citation needed] Reed appeared on the cover ofTime on May 15, 1995, under the title "The Right Hand of God: Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition."
In 1996, theFederal Election Commission (FEC) brought an enforcement action in United States District Court,[18] alleging Reed and the coalition "violated federalcampaign finance laws during congressional elections in 1990, 1992 and 1994, and the presidential election in 1992." After a three-year investigation and lawsuit, a federal court ordered the Coalition to pay a small fine for two minor infractions, significantly less than the FEC had called for.[19]
On resigning as executive director of the Christian Coalition, Reed moved to theAtlanta, Georgia, suburb ofDuluth to begin a career as a political consultant and lobbyist.[citation needed]
In late 1997, Reed joined the campaign of Fulton County Commission ChairmanMitch Skandalakis forlieutenant governor of Georgia, becoming its general consultant. In addition to planning campaign strategy, Reed appeared in advertisements, identifying himself as the former head of the Christian Coalition and vouching for Skandalakis's conservative credentials and personal integrity.[citation needed]
In the primary, Skandalakis placed first among the five Republican candidates, but did not receive a majority of the vote and was forced into arun-off with second-place finisher State Senator Clint Day. Reed planned a series of advertisements that included charges that Day had "desecrated Indian graves" on a plot of land owned by a Day family foundation. The Skandalakis campaign held a conference at which tribal leaders, wearing headdress and other ceremonial clothing, attacked Day as a "vandal" and "grave robber."[citation needed]
Reed's strategy initially met with success, as Skandalakis narrowly defeated Day in the Republican primary run-off. But Skandalakis lost the general election.[citation needed]
While running the Skandalakis campaign in 1997, Reed co-founded Century Strategies with political strategistTim Phillips.[20] Century Strategies describes itself as "one of the nation's leading public affairs andpublic relations firms." While initially engaged primarily in campaign consulting for Republican candidates its mission evolved into advocacy and lobbying.[citation needed]
Reed helpedAlabama GovernorFob James win renomination in a bitterly contested Republican primary, only to become the first Republican in over a decade to lose the Alabama governor's election. Immediately after the 1998 election, Reed shifted gears to corporate work. In 1999, Abramoff helped Reed get hired[21] as a consultant subcontractor forPreston Gates & Ellis.[citation needed]
Reed is credited with attacks on SenatorJohn McCain in the 2000South Carolina presidential primary, together with Roberta Combs, then head of the South Carolina Christian Coalition, who later took over the national Christian Coalition. Bush's defeat of McCain in that primary came at a key moment and ended McCain's early momentum from anupset victory in theNew Hampshire primary.[citation needed]
Reed's $20,000 per month contract with Microsoft[22] proved a minor embarrassment to the Bush campaign in the summer of 2000 when it was revealed that the software giant, which was being prosecuted forantitrust violations, had hired a number of Bush aides as consultants and lobbyists. Reed apologized for the "appearance of conflict" but continued to accept the money until 2005, when Microsoft terminated Reed amid the Indian gaming scandal.[citation needed]
Some conservatives have criticized Reed's choice of clients and suggested that he has inappropriately profited from his credentials as a conservative Christian leader. The conservative Alabama group Obligation, Inc. is a fierce critic of Reed's clientChannel One News, arguing that the company pumps classrooms full of "commercials for junk food and sleazy movies."[citation needed]
In 1999, Reed's firm sent out a mailer to Alabama conservative Christians asking them to call then-RepresentativeBob Riley and tell him to vote against legislation that would have madethe Northern Mariana Islands subject to federal wage and worker safety laws. Abramoff represented the commonwealth as a partner ofGreenberg Traurig and received $4.04 million from 1998 to 2002. Greenberg Traurig, in turn, hired Reed's firm to print the mailing.[citation needed]
In 2001, Reed mounted a campaign for State Chairman of theGeorgia Republican Party, a volunteer job. His candidacy attracted national media attention, and challenges from three opponents.[citation needed]
Reed's principal opponent wasDavid Shafer, a former executive director of the Georgia Republican Party recruited to the race by CongressmanJohn Linder. Shafer campaigned on Republican gains made when he served as state executive director in the early 1990s, but was hampered by his subsequent association with the failed campaigns ofMack Mattingly,Guy Millner andClint Day in the later half of the decade.[citation needed]
The state convention, held at the Cobb Galleria in May 2001, was the most heavily attended and longest running in the history of the party. Reed won on the first ballot, capturing almost 60% of the delegate vote to Shafer's 40%. Lobbyist Maria Rose Strollo won 1%.[citation needed]
Reed was endorsed by the "Confederate Republican Caucus," a block of almost 500 "heritage" activists who had participated in the state convention as a protest against the removal of theConfederate battle emblem from theState Flag. The organization later claimed it had been "double-crossed" by Reed.[23]
Documents released by federal investigators in 2005 show that Reed's 2001 campaign for State Chairman was partially financed with contributions from theChoctaws, an Indian gaming tribe represented by Abramoff.[citation needed]
The party experienced success in the 2002 elections under Reed's leadership.Saxby Chambliss was elected U.S. senator andSonny Perdue was elected governor. Reed, however, was asked to relinquish his job as State Chairman by Perdue, whose long-shot candidacy was largely ignored by Reed in favor of Chambliss.[citation needed]
Reed supported the candidacy of CongressmanBob Barr, who had moved into the neighboring district of CongressmanJohn Linder and challenged his renomination. Linder decisively defeated Barr.[citation needed]
Speculation about a Reed candidacy for Lieutenant Governor began building shortly after the2004 general election. Republican party leaders were unenthusiastic about the candidacy of Insurance CommissionerJohn Oxendine, who had been "exploring" a race for Lieutenant Governor for over a year. Aides to GovernorSonny Perdue tried to recruit House Republican Leader Jerry Keen as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor, while State Senators Casey Cagle and Bill Stephens jockeyed for support among Senate Republicans.[citation needed]
Reed claimed support of the White House, access to the Bush fundraising apparatus and command of a large grass roots organization. His official declaration of candidacy on February 17, 2005 largely cleared the field of opposition; Keen, Stephens and Oxendine all left the race. Keen, a former state chairman of the Christian Coalition, was the first to drop, followed quickly by Stephens. Although insisting at the time of Reed's entry into the race that he would "never" withdraw, Oxendine ended his candidacy two weeks later. Only Cagle, a relatively unknown lawmaker, remained in the race to challenge Reed.[citation needed]
A poll conducted for Oxendine was the first indication of trouble for Reed.[24] Released shortly before Oxendine's exit from the race, the poll showed Oxendine defeating Reed among likely Republican voters by a large margin. It also showed Reed losing the general election to the only announced Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, former State SenatorGreg Hecht. Little attention was paid to the poll because Oxendine folded his own candidacy shortly after it was released. Reed himself dismissed the poll as a face-saving gesture by an embarrassed Oxendine.[citation needed]
Reed's campaign experienced a loss of momentum with revelations about his role in theJack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal. Email documents released in the investigation revealed details about Reed's financial relationships with Abramoff.[25]
Reed's early lead in fund-raising evaporated by December 31, 2005, when disclosure reports showed Cagle raising almost twice as much money as Reed in the last six months of the year.[citation needed]
Bob Irvin, a formerU.S. House of Representatives Republican leader, was the first prominent Republican to publicly call on Reed to withdraw from the race.[26][27] 21 state senators signed a letter in February 2006 calling on Reed to withdraw from the race, "declaring that his ties to Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff could jeopardize the re-election of Gov. Sonny Perdue and the rest of the GOP ticket.” Reed rejected the petition as a useless stunt, and expressed confidence that his record and ideas would prevail.[28]
Aides to Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson, ostensibly neutral in the race, released a poll that showed Reed's mounting negatives could hurt Perdue and the Republican ticket. On March 21, 2006, political consultant Matt Towery of Insider Advantage released a poll showing Reed represented an eight-point drag on the Perdue ticket.[29]
Insurance CommissionerJohn Oxendine, whose ambitions had been upended by Reed's candidacy, endorsed Cagle in June 2006, saying that Reed's nomination threatened the success of the Republican ticket.[citation needed]
Two dozen members of the Reed steering committee, including a Reed State Co-Chairman, resigned from the Reed campaign and endorsed Cagle, but Reed continued his pursuit of the nomination.[citation needed]
New York MayorRudy Giuliani traveled to Georgia to campaign for Reed. A Democrat, conservative former United States SenatorZell Miller, also endorsed Reed.[citation needed]
On July 18, 2006, Reed lost the Republican primary to Cagle with 44% of the vote to Cagle's 56%. According to Politics1.com, Reed indicated he would not likely seek elective office ever again.[30]
Reed was named, but never charged with any wrongdoing, in the scandal arising from lobbying workJack Abramoff performed on behalf of Indian gambling tribes. Emails released by federal investigators in 2005 revealed that Reed secretly accepted payments from Abramoff to lobby against Indian casino gambling and oppose an Alabama education lottery[25] and that Reed also worked for another Abramoff client seeking to block a congressional ban on Internet gambling. These cases are being investigated by multiple federal and state grand juries and by theU.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Abramoff pleaded guilty to threefelony counts in federal court, raising the prospects of Abramoff testifying against others.[citation needed]
Those emails and other evidence revealed the participation of theChristian Coalition in the alleged fraud, particularly its Alabama chapter, which received large amounts of donations from the casino money. It is alleged that Abramoff engaged Reed to set up an anti-gambling campaign to include theU.S. Family Network, the Christian Coalition, andFocus on the Family in order to frighten the tribes into spending as much as $82 million for Abramoff to lobby on their behalf. To represent him in connection with the scandal, Reed retained defense attorneyW. Neil Eggleston, then of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. Eggleston served as White House associate counsel during the administration of PresidentBill Clinton.[citation needed]
In 2004, Reed confirmed that he had been paid more than $1 million in fees by lobbyists working on behalf of American Indian casinos.[31]
In December 2005, threeTexas public interest groups filed a complaint withTravis County AttorneyDavid Escamilla on December 1, 2005, alleging that Reed failed to register as a lobbyist in 2001 or 2002 when he was working for Abramoff.[32] Escamilla said on March 27, 2006, "his office had concluded its investigation—but that a two-year statute of limitations on misdemeanors from 2001 and 2002 had expired."[33]
On June 22, 2006, the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs released its final report on the scandal.[34] It said that Reed had used his contacts to conservative Christian groups to prevent the opening or expansion of casinos competing with the casinos operated by Abramoff's clients from 1998 to 2002 and had been paid $5.3 million through Abramoff's law firm and from organizations controlled by Abramoff's partnerMichael Scanlon.[35][36] The report did not accuse Reed of having known about Abramoff's illegal activities.[35]
The report also says that under the guidance of theMississippiChoctaw tribe's planner, Nell Rogers, the tribe agreed to launder money because "Ralph Reed did not want to be paid directly by a tribe with gaming interests", that Reed used nonprofits likeGrover Norquist'sAmericans for Tax Reform as pass-throughs to disguise the funds' origin, and that "the structure was recommended by Jack Abramoff to accommodate Mr. Reed’s political concerns."[34] Reed was never charged with any wrongdoing in the Indian gambling scandals.[citation needed]
In 2009, Reed founded theFaith and Freedom Coalition, and as of 2025 continues to serve as its chairman.[37]
Reed has written seven books; four non-fiction and three fictionalpolitical thrillers.
He has also written several articles.
