Howard Phillips | |
|---|---|
 Phillips in 2008 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Howard Jay Phillips (1941-02-03)February 3, 1941 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | April 20, 2013(2013-04-20) (aged 72) Vienna, Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican(before 1974) Democratic(1974–1991) Constitution(1991–2013) |
| Spouse | Peggy Blanchard(1964–2013) |
| Children | 6, includingDoug |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Website | Official website |
Howard Jay Phillips (February 3, 1941 – April 20, 2013) was an American politician and activist. A politicalconservative, Phillips was aUnited Statespresidential candidate who served as the chairman ofThe Conservative Caucus, aconservative public policy advocacy group which he founded in 1974. Phillips was a founding member of theU.S. Taxpayers Party, which later became known as theConstitution Party.
Phillips was born into aJewish family in Boston in 1941,[1] Phillipsconverted toevangelical Christianity as an adult in the 1970s[2][3][4] and was subsequently associated withChristian Reconstructionism.[5]
A 1962 graduate ofHarvard College inCambridge, Massachusetts, he was twice elected chairman of theStudent Council, and was lauded by "The Cross and the Flag," aKu Klux Klan magazine, for his "patriotic" ideological bent. Phillips publicly and immediately disavowed the Klan.[6] Phillips was also president of Policy Analysis, Inc.,[7] a public policy research organization which publishes the bimonthlyIssues and Strategy Bulletin.
Phillips resided inFairfax County,Virginia in theWashington, D.C., suburbs with his wife, the former Margaret "Peggy" Blanchard.
During theNixon Administration, Phillips headed twofederal agencies, ending hisExecutive Branch career as director of the U.S.Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) in theExecutive Office of the President for five months in 1973, a position from which he resigned when U.S. PresidentRichard M. Nixon reneged on his commitment toveto further funding forGreat Society programs begun in the administration of Nixon's predecessor,DemocratLyndon B. Johnson.[8][9]
Nixon's appointment of Phillips asActing Director of OEO in January 1973 touched off a national controversy culminating in a court case in theUnited States District Court for the District of Columbia (Williams v. Phillips, 482 F.2d 669) challenging the legality of Phillips' appointment, since the statute establishing the office did not specifically establish a presidential right to make an interim appointment (one not confirmed by the Senate) under the existing circumstances. The Court ruled (and the2nd Circuit subsequently affirmed) that the President had no right to make the interim appointment and voided it, declaring his time in it to have been illegal.[10]
Phillips left theRepublican Party in 1974 after some two decades of service to the GOP as precinct worker, election warden, campaign manager,congressional aide, Boston municipal Republican chairman, and assistant to the chairman of theRepublican National Committee. In1970, he was the Republican nominee forMassachusetts's 6th congressional district. In1978, Phillips finished fourth in the Democraticprimary for theU.S. Senate in Massachusetts.[4]
In 1974, Phillips founded the Conservative Caucus, a nationwide, grass-roots public policy advocacy group.[4][11] The group opposed the 1978Panama Canal treaties and theJimmy Carter-Leonid BrezhnevSALT II treaties in 1979, supported theStrategic Defense Initiative and major tax reductions during the 1980s, and fought to end Federal subsidies to activist groups under the banner of "defunding theLeft."[8]
The fight against Baker was not Phillips' first clash with Reagan. In 1981, he had joined other conservatives, including the ReverendJerry Falwell, in opposing the nomination ofSandra Day O'Connor to theUnited States Supreme Court. According to Phillips, "People say you can't tell how a Supreme Court nominee will turn out once on the bench. I respectfully disagree. In most cases, it's very clear. I opposed the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor because it was very clear that she had a pro-abortion record in theArizona State Senate and as a judge inArizona. She was also allied withPlanned Parenthood."[8][12] In 1990, Phillips opposed the first President Bush's nomination ofDavid Souter ofNew Hampshire to the high court.[8] Phillips said that he opposed Souter because "I read his senior thesis at Harvard in which he said he was alegal positivist and one of his heroes wasOliver Wendell Holmes Jr., and that he rejected all higher law theories, such as those spelled out in ourDeclaration of Independence. In addition, he was a trustee of two hospitals: Dartmouth Hitchcock and Concord Memorial. He successfully changed the policy of those two hospitals from zero abortion to convenience abortion."[12]
Other Conservative Caucus campaigns have involved opposition to theNorth American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and theWorld Trade Organization, support for a national version ofCalifornia'sProposition 187 (to end mandated subsidies forillegal aliens), as well as continuing efforts to opposepublicly funded health care,abortion andgay rights.[13] Phillips was the host ofConservative Roundtable, a weeklypublic affairstelevision program.
Phillips played an instrumental role in the leadership of theNew Right, and in the founding of thereligious right in the 1970s.[8] He worked with fellow conservativesPaul Weyrich ofThe Heritage Foundation and both formerChristian Voice co-activistsRichard Viguerie andTerry Dolan to persuade the ReverendJerry Falwell to form theMoral Majority, and helpedJudie Brown form theAmerican Life League.[8]
Later, Phillips continued to support the New Right by helping found theCouncil for National Policy withDr. Tim LaHaye.[14][15][16]
Phillips was one of the founders of theU.S. Taxpayers Party (which changed its name to theConstitution Party in 1999), athird party associated with conservative,anti-abortion issues, andconstitutional government ideas on both social and fiscal issues.[11] He was that party'spresidential candidate in the1992,1996 and2000 elections for U.S. president.[4][17]
Phillips first campaigned for president in1992, as an independent. He refused to support the re-election of RepublicanGeorge H. W. Bush or Democratic challengerBill Clinton. He finished in seventh place in the popular vote. The campaign received 43,369 votes for 0.04% of the total vote.[18]
Phillips was chosen by an overwhelming majority of delegates at the National Convention of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, inSan Diego,California, on August 17, 1996, to serve as its presidential candidate in the1996 election. Phillips finished sixth, with 184,656 votes, for 0.19% of the total vote.[19]
In the2000 U.S presidential election, Phillips received 98,020 votes for 0.1% of the total vote and a sixth-place finish.[20]
Phillips died at his home inVienna, Virginia, on April 20, 2013, at the age of 72 after a battle withfrontotemporal dementia andAlzheimer's disease.[3][4] A private service was held on April 29, 2013[8] withChuck Baldwin, the2008 Constitution Party presidential nominee, officiating.[21]
| Party political offices | ||
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| First | Constitution nominee forPresident of the United States 1992,1996,2000 | Succeeded by |
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| primaries | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
