State Groups That Fight for Mom and Dad
by Charmaine Crouse Yoest
Rudy Gonzalez, a "cowboy poet" with a handlebar mustache and a home-on-the-range accent, strummed his guitar, then launched into a joke. The crowd relaxed into laughter as he regaled them with tall tales and folk wisdom.
This is the Idaho Family Forum's annual summer fundraiser, the Spud Bake, where this group of moms and dads marks the end of summer by eating baked potatoes. Lots of them. Followed by spud-shaped ice cream.
But cowboy poetry soon gave way to public policy. U.S. Senator Larry Craig rose to address the group, and the question-and-answer session that followed was brisk and well informed. The Idaho Family Forum (IFF) and its supporters are dedicated to changing cultural trends that are undermining the stability of families -- from no-fault divorce to teen pregnancy to chronic welfare dependency.
Led by executive director Dennis Mansfield, a former businessman, the IFF is part of a growing national movement of independent, state-based policy organizations called Family Policy Councils (FPCs). There are now more than 30 such organizations across the country, loosely affiliated by shared goals, common strategies, and mutual support. In order to win the ears of lawmakers, the media, and academics, they prefer research over rallies and education over activism.
"We are involved in an intellectually muscular and principled persuasion--almost like miniature Crossfires across the nation," says Mansfield. "We're not going to back down from anybody but we're going to use principled persuasion. We believe the weight of the facts wins the day."
Like other FPC leaders, Mansfield is a familiar sight in the halls of his state capitol. But there's more to the movement than old-fashioned buttonholing. Legislative battles are really the "outworking of . . . intellectual battles," says Matt Daniels, the executive director of the Massachusetts Family Institute. That means fighting those battles at both the popular and academic levels--from public-service announcements about the benefits of fatherhood to thick policy papers on the social consequences of divorce.
Steve Knudsen, the director of state and local affairs at the Family Research Council, in Washington, D.C., says that the FPCs exemplify the Jeffersonian ideal of the states as "laboratories of democracy." Now, in the era of devolution--the shifting of resources and responsibility out of Washington--they are strategically placed.
"Our focus is on the long term," says Gary Palmer, the executive director of the Alabama Family Alliance. "We work on building relationships with policy-makers. We want to be the ones they turn to when they need accurate, reliable information." In more and more states around the country, FPCs and their staff are playing precisely that role. They advise governors and help craft legislation, they appear on talk shows and write syndicated columns, and they recruit the business and professional community as board members and supporters.
In the last decade, 25 new family policy councils have been established, and have been deeply involved in some of their states' most significant battles over policy. The following are a few of their success stories:
The voice is a dead giveaway. With that familiar, dynamic, raspy Kempian voice, Jeff Kemp couldn't escape identification as the son of the Republican vice presidential nominee if he wanted to. Kemp has followed his father -- first into professional football, and now into politics -- but Jeff has put his own imprimatur on political activism since taking the helm of the Washington Family Council (WFC), an organization with eight full-time employees and a budget of $600,000.
Before helping his father campaign, Kemp was busy barnstorming the state promoting the WFC's Fatherhood Initiative. Patterned on the National Fatherhood Initiative, the WFC's effort began with a statewide media barrage about the virtues of being a father. "We wanted to raise the bar for fatherhood," explains Randy Hicks, the WFC's associate director. They ran well-received radio ads produced by James Dobson's Focus on the Family and print ads created by the Family Research Council. Both were tailored to address Washington state concerns. ABC's TV affiliate in Seattle soon invited Kemp to join a panel discussion with David Blankenhorn, a leading authority on fatherhood and the author of Fatherless America.
So far, there is no legislative component to the initiative, but the campaign has had far-reaching results. The TV station was flooded with more than 500 calls -- more than it had ever received for any program. WFC prepared "fatherhood packets" -- information about how to strengthen the vital role of fathers in their families -- for these callers. The station then asked the WFC to produce a public-service announcement on fatherhood.
Soon Kemp and Hicks were traveling the state, meeting with managers of television stations to promote the PSA. Eventually every network affiliate in the state (at least a dozen stations) ran the ad. One station alone donated more than $250,000 in air time; a Seattle station was running the ad four times a day.
The foundation's arsenal consisted of carefully crafted arguments -- among them a pamphlet comparing the state goals with standards based on work by former Secretary of Education William Bennett. Policy analyst Martin Cothran produced a blizzard of material for parents and policy-makers. The Lexington Herald-Leader profiled Cothran, calling him the leader of the opposition. Soon, Kentuckians saw newspaper headlines that read "Proof that KERA works still lacking" and "Discontent with KERA growing." In February, Governor Paul Patton established a task force to study whether the reforms were working.
Changing the law is the ultimate goal, but in the meantime, the foundation is happy to have changed the terms of the debate. "If all we had done was to change the law," says executive director Kent Ostrander, "I would be afraid the results wouldn't be long-term."
Family Policy Councils |
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Alabama -- Alabama Family Alliance. (See article.) Gary Palmer at 205-870-9900. Arizona -- Center for Arizona Policy. Helped pass a same-sex marriage ban, parental consent for abortion, and two bills restricting pornography. Coming initiatives: informed consent for abortion, divorce reform. Arkansas -- Arkansas Family Council. Working on a 17-bill pro-family agenda for the new governor, including income tax indexed to inflation and popular election of school boards. California -- Capitol Resource Institute. Working on divorce reform, a fatherhood initiative, and a same-sex marriage ban. Colorado -- Rocky Mountain Family Council. Developed the "Marriage Project" to increase awareness of the effects of no-fault divorce, establish mentoring and counseling programs, and craft a legislative agenda. Florida -- Florida Family Council. Promoted fatherhood campaign; working on education, welfare, divorce reform. Georgia -- Georgia Family Council. Idaho -- Idaho Family Forum. Helped pass "defense of marriage" legislation. Illinois -- Illinois Family Institute. Working on state curriculum standards, a fatherhood initiative, and a law requiring parental involvement in a minor's abortion. Indiana -- Indiana Family Institute. Working on education, welfare, and divorce reform. Kansas -- Kansas Family Research Institute. Developing public-service announcements extolling fatherhood; promotes abstinence-based sex-ed programs. Kentucky -- The Family Foundation. (See article.) Maine -- Christian Civic League. Helped defeat outcome-based education legislation. Working on parental-rights legislation and a ban on same-sex marriage. Massachusetts -- Massachusetts Family Institute. Promotes divorce reform and parental rights, opposes euthanasia movement. Michigan -- Michigan Family Forum. (See article.) |
Minnesota -- Minnesota Family Council. Promotes school choice and opposes campaigns to redefine family. Tom Prichard at 612-789-8811. Mississippi -- Mississippi Family Council. Working on charter-school legislation. Missouri -- Family Policy Center. Helped pass a law defining marriage exclusively as the union of one man and one woman. Working on legislation promoting abstinence-based sex education. North Carolina -- North Carolina Family Policy Council. Helped pass abstinence-based sex-ed law. Promotes school choice, charter schools. North Dakota -- North Dakota Family Alliance. Helped thwart appropriations for Goals 2000. Planning a fatherhood initiative. Pennsylvania -- Pennsylvania Family Institute. Issued report on no-fault divorce that helped spark divorce-reform legislation now under consideration. Working on legislation defining marriage exclusively as the union of one man and one woman. South Carolina -- Palmetto Family Council. Only organization to testify against school-based clinics in public schools, resulting in tabling of school health bill. South Dakota -- South Dakota Family Policy Council. First state to pass legislation defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Developing divorce reform and welfare reform. Tennessee -- Family Institute. Helped pass same-sex marriage ban, and Families First welfare-reform package. Working on legislation eliminating no-fault divorce when children are present. Texas -- Free Market Foundation. Promoting law requiring abortion clinics to meet same medical standards as same-day surgery centers. Virginia -- The Family Foundation. Helped defeat gambling legislation. Waging public education campaign opposing Goals 2000. Washington -- Washington Family Council. (See article.) Wisconsin -- Family Research Institute of Wisconsin. Helped defeat legislation outlawing reasonable parental discipline measures, including spanking. Promoting bill requiring parental permission for school surveys on private family information. |