Viguerie Receives AAPC Hall of Fame Award

(ConservativeHQ) – CHQ Chairman Richard A. Viguerie last week received the American Association of Political Consultants Lifetime Achievement Award at the Association’s annual Hall of Fame ceremony and luncheon hosted this year in Huntington Beach, California. This is the highest honor bestowed by the Association in recognition of pioneers in the industry who have made a significant and lasting mark in the campaign to professionalize political consulting.

In accepting the award Mr. Viguerie remarked humorously that he has raised millions of dollars campaigning against many of the individuals in the room, but was especially honored to be introduced by his longtime friend Millie Hallow, Vice-Chair of the American Conservative Union Foundation and one of the leaders of the National Rifle Association’s political operation.

In recognizing Mr. Viguerie, the AAPC citation said he transformed American politics in the 1960s and 1970s by pioneering the use of computerized direct marketing in the political and ideological spheres. His innovative skills and groundbreaking marketing strategies helped build the conservative movement, which then contributed to the election of Ronald Reagan as the first conservative president of the modern era.

Viguerie motivated millions of Americans to participate in politics for the first time, greatly expanding the base of active citizenship. He is our era’s equivalent of Tom Paine, using a direct mail letter rather than a pamphlet to deliver his call to arms. George magazine credited this as one of the defining political movements of the 20th century.

Viguerie has mailed more than 4 billion letters in his 50-plus-year direct marketing career. Ronald Reagan’s 1968 campaign manager Cliff White and journalist William Gill wrote in their book Why Reagan Won, “In every election from 1966 onward, the Viguerie Company and its score of imitators brought information to millions of Americans; information that quite often the people could not obtain from newspapers or television or mass-circulation magazines.”

The AFL-CIO News said that Viguerie made it all possible for conservatives, and The Washington Post called him “the conservatives’ Voice of America.” In 1979, Time magazine named him one of 50 future leaders of America. In 1981, People magazine named him one of the 25 most intriguing people of the year. In a December 1999 op-ed for The Washington Times, Dr. Lee Edwards cited Viguerie as one of 13 “Conservatives of the Century.”

Viguerie’s latest book is Takeover. The Republican Party failed to win key elections because it failed to deliver on its promises to roll back the tide of big government. In Takeover, Viguerie outlines the way to establish limited government constitutional conservatism as the governing philosophy of the Republican Party and bring sanity back to Congress and the White House.

Viguerie is the chairman of American Target Advertising, a 52-year-old direct marketing agency based in Northern Virginia.  His pioneering use of direct mail in politics continues to enable candidates and causes to raise money from millions of small contributors, rather than from a few “fat cats.”

“When the history of American Conservatism is written, it should be noted the second most influential man in terms of the Conservative Movement and country, after Ronald Reagan, is direct communication wizard and conservative activist Richard A. Viguerie.”

– Roger Stone
“The father of political DM [direct marketing]”

– Direct Magazine
“Richard understands the values that help our government and economy serve the interests of the people.  And he knows how to put those values into action.”

– Newt Gingrich
“The conservatives’ Voice of America”

– The Washington Post
The “architect of the New Right”

– The Baltimore Sun
One of 13 “Conservatives of the Century”

– Dr. Lee Edwards, The Washington Times
“One of the creators of the modern conservative movement”

– Alexander Cockburn, The Nation
“Richard Viguerie is simply the best! He and his talented staff enabled us to set fundraising records that helped carry us to victory in November.”

* The video was produced through the talent and courtesy of Interface Media Group.

Content originally published at ConservativeHQ.