History

Founding

Emil Frankel and the Bow Group

Emil Frankel was a Harvard law student in the early 1960s. He had studied in England on a Fulbright scholarship. While in England, he met members of a group called the Bow Group. The Bow Group founders had been "dissatisfied with the Conservative Party's image as 'the Stupid Party'." The Bow Group impressed Frankel, particularly regarding the level of detail that its members applied to study public policy problems and the proactive way its members became experts on policy topics.

At the same time John S. Saloma III was a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Like Frankel, Saloma had studied in England on a Fulbright scholarship. Both Frankel and Saloma became editors at Advance magazine. Newspapers around the U.S. published highlights of the manifesto. The New York Herald Tribune published it in full.

Another voice was President (and Republican) Dwight D. Eisenhower, who wrote "my delight that an obviously intelligent group of people has taken the trouble to voice its consensus on this important subject, and also to express my basic agreement in the mainstream of its thinking."

The Ripon Papers

The Ripon Society wrote its first public statement in the weeks that followed Kennedy's assassination and published the statement on January 6, 1964:

<blockquote>While we yet sorrow, so must we seize this moment before our thoughts slip away to be lost in the noise of 'life as usual.' It is in this context that we have chosen to speak. We speak as a group of young Republicans to that generation which must bear the responsibility for guiding our party and our country over the coming decades. We speak for a point of view in the Republican Party that has too long been silent.

We believe that the future of our party lies not in extremism, but in moderation. The moderate course offers the Republican Party the best chance to build a durable majority position in American politics. This is the direction the party must take if it is to win the confidence of the "new Americans" who are not at home in the politics of another generation: the new middle classes of the suburbs of the North and West – who have left the Democratic cities but have not yet found a home in the Republican party; the young college graduates and professional men and women of our great university centers – more concerned with "opportunity" than "security", the moderate of the new South – who represent the hope for peaceful racial adjustment and who are insulted by a racist appeal more fitting another generation. These and others like them hold the key to the future of our politics.

We believe that the Republican Party should accept the challenge to fight for the middle ground of American politics. The party that will not acknowledge this political fact of life and courageously enter the contest for power does not merit and cannot possibly win the majority support of the American people. In 1962, Saloma founded the American Bow Group, a society of university intellectuals. In 1963, the American Bow Group became the Ripon Society.

In his career, Saloma's work focused mainly on the American political party system. Participating in a project studying the U.S. Congress sponsored by the American Political Science Association and the Carnegie Foundation, he published Congress and the New Politics in 1969 which dealt with the workloads in the offices of members of Congress. This led to an interest in the congressional budget process and the possibilities of computer use in the daily job of a representative. a U.S. congressman, and Lee Huebner.

Former leaders

  • Auspitz, Josiah Lee
  • Frenzel, Bill. Chairman Emeritus. Former U.S. Congressman.
  • Dubke, Michael
  • Gerstell, Glenn S.
  • Gillette, Howard F. National president 1971–1972.
  • Huebner, Lee. Co-founder and former president. Former special assistant to President Nixon.
  • Kellogg, Frederick R.
  • Kessler, Rick. From 2004 to 2009, Rick Kessler served as the Ripon Society's president. When he retired from the position in 2009, he became the group's president emeritus. Kessler began working for the group in 1981 as the executive director. Previously, he worked on the presidential campaign of John Anderson and served on the inaugural committee for newly elected President Ronald Reagan in 1980–1981.
  • Leach, Jim. U.S. Congressman from Iowa.
  • Petri, Tom. U.S. Congressman from Wisconsin. Co-founder.
  • Saloma III, John S. Founding President.
  • Smith, Peter, U.S. Congressman from Vermont.

1964 Presidential campaign

A Slate article in 1998 attributed the Ripon's founding, in part, to "Republicans put off by the vulgarity of the Goldwater campaign ..." In 1964, conservative activists within the Republican Party nominated Barry Goldwater for president. The Ripon Society argued against Goldwater, writing:<blockquote>We believe that the future of our party lies not in extremism, but in moderation. The moderate course offers the Republican Party the best chance to build a durable majority position in American politics. This is the direction the party must take if it is to win the confidence of the 'new Americans' who are not at home in the politics of another generation: the new middle classes of the suburbs of the North and West – who have left the Democratic cities but have not yet found a home in the Republican party; the young college graduates and professional men and women of our great university centers – more concerned with 'opportunity' than 'security'; the moderates of the new South – who represent the hope for peaceful racial adjustment and who are insulted by a racist appeal more fitting another generation. These and others like them hold the key to the future of our politics. that features articles from a variety of contributors, is published quarterly by the Ripon Society. It has been described as "... the only national magazine expressing a progressive Republican view."

Ripon Advance

The Ripon Advance is a daily publication that provides news and information about public policy and highlights the work of state and federal elected officials.

Summary of major historical events

{| border="1" class="wikitable" style="font-size:88%;"

|+The Ripon Society has played a role in major political and policy events in America since the 1960s

|-

! scope="col" width="10%" | Year

! scope="col" width="20%" | Event or Issue

! scope="col" width="10%" | Image

! scope="col" width="60%" | Details

|-

| 1966

| Military draft

|

150px|center

| In 1966, the society publicly announced its support of stopping the U.S. military draft at the conclusion of the Vietnam War. The society published an essay on its ideas for ending the draft. Ideas included increasing military salaries, paying volunteers higher salaries than draftees, and getting rid of "irrelevant induction standards to increase the flow of volunteers."

|-

| 1967

| Negative income tax

|

150px|center

| In 1967, Ripon proposed a new tax overhaul plan. Certain families would not pay taxes; instead, the government would send payments to the families. To qualify, families had to have low incomes. At the time, the proposed income cutoff was $6,000 (equivalent to $42,000 in 2014 dollars). Ripon released a report detailing the proposal. In the report, the society said, "The negative income tax encourages families to move up the income scale until they can begin to pay positive income taxes."

|-

| 1970

| Changes to GOP's "Southern Strategy"

|

150px|center

| During President Nixon's first term, the Ripon Society publicly asked Nixon to change the Republican Party's political tactics by getting rid of what was known as the "southern strategy." The Society arrived at this position because George Wallace had won the vote in Alabama, and the Society believed that Wallace's victory "killed it [the southern strategy] as a national tactic", the Kentucky New Era wrote in 1970.

|-

| 1970

| Senatorial rating system

|

150px|center

| In 1970, the Society created its first system to rate Members of Congress' voting records. The system rated the votes of U.S. Senators on key issues. The Society said that the goal of the rating system was to help people distinguish between liberal and conservative politicians. In that first year of rating, two senators received a near-perfect rating record: Senator Charles A. Goodell (R-NY) and Senator John Sherman Cooper (R-KY). The rating system was based on 29 specific roll call votes in the U.S. Senate.

|-

| 1971

| Interior Secretary Hickel "Man of the Year"

|

150px|center

| In November 1970, President Nixon fired his Secretary of the Interior, Walter J. Hickel. In April 1971, the Ripon Society gave Hickel the Ripon Society Man of the Year award. The Society made its decision by looking at the results of a poll it had taken of the readers of its magazine, The Ripon Forum.

|-

| 1972

| George Romney, Republican of the Year

|

150px|center

| In 1972, the Ripon Society awarded George Romney the Ripon Society "Republican of the Year" award. George Romney is Mitt Romney's father. At that time, George Romney served in as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The Society used a number of criteria when selecting Romney. For example, the Society supported Romney's work in the areas of "new housing, metropolitan planning, and federal revenue sharing with state and local governments," according to the Rome News-Tribune.

|-

| 1976

| President Ford's reelection

|

150px|center

| In 1976, the Society publicly denounced the idea of President Gerald Ford picking John Connally as Ford's running mate in the 1976 presidential election. "[He] might as well just nominate Rose Mary Woods."

|-

| 1981

| Nuclear sanctions

|

150px|center

| In 1981, the Ripon Society voiced public support for sanctions on nuclear-exporting countries. The society asked President Reagan to sanction any nation that sold weapons-grade nuclear materials or facilities.

|-

| 1984

| Republican party direction

|

150px|center

<!-- Commented out: 150px|center -->

| In 1984, Congressman Jim Leach, who served as head of the Ripon Society at the time, held a press conference on Capitol Hill. At the press conference, Leach said that the Republican Party had been the first party to endorse the Equal Rights Amendment; that the party was founded on the "Lincolnian notion that rights, to be valid, must be color-blind"; and that the party had historically been supportive of the separation of church and state. As the Milwaukee Journal characterized it, "Leach ... had some rough words for the GOP."

|-

| 1985

| George H. W. Bush, Republican of the Year

|

150px|center

| In July 1985, the society awarded its Republican of the Year award to then-Vice President George H. W. Bush.

|-

| 1995

| Welfare reform

|

thumbnail|President Bill Clinton signs the "Welfare to Work" reform legislation.

| In 1995, the Society advocated for changes to the welfare reform bill. The Society called its idea "Work, Not Wait Incentive." The plan would have allowed welfare recipients to keep more of the money they earned from work before losing some of their welfare benefits. Several Members of Congress who served on Ripon's Advisory Board advocated for the "Work, Not Wait Incentive". Those members included Representatives Bill Clinger, Amo Houghton, Nancy Johnson, Susan Molinari, Tillie Fowler, Connie Morella, and Senators John Chafee, Nancy Kassebaum and Arlen Specter. In 2010, the Richard Nixon Foundation published a post on its website that said that "many of the ideas involved in welfare reform came out of the work of economist Milton Friedman, as well as discussions within the Ripon Society and groups affiliated with it, especially Yale Law School's Trumbull Society."

|-

| 2006–2014

| Immigration reform

|

150px|thumbnail|center|An original "green card" issued by the U.S. government in 1946

150px|thumbnail|center|The patch of a United States Border Patrol (USBP) uniform, worn on the right sleeve

150px|thumbnail|center|President George W. Bush addressed the nation on immigration reform on May 15, 2006.

|

In 2006, Tamar Jacoby (a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute) wrote an editorial in the Ripon Society's magazine, The Ripon Forum, about the immigration issue. Jacoby argued that the American public wanted Congress and the President to finally solve the problem of illegal immigration and end it. Jacoby saw three options. First, the "tough" option, would increase border enforcement. Jacoby argued that this option would not work because tough-talking rhetoric and increases in border patrol budgets had not changed the number of illegal immigrants coming into the United States per year. The second option was to do nothing. (Jacoby argued against this option, too). The third option was to reform the systems related to immigration and naturalization, which President George W. Bush had pushed for.

The immigration issue was large enough to come into play as a major topic at a Ripon Society event in Dublin, Ireland in 2013. The Franklin Center for Global Policy Exchange and Ripon hosted a policy conference in September 2013. Irish politicians and business people, plus 11 Members of Congress, participated. The panel discussed a problem known as "brain drain" that was affecting both Ireland and the United States: high-skilled workers were moving to other countries. Panel members pushed for the inclusion of a solution to this problem in any immigration reform package passed by Congress.

The Ripon Society throughout 2014 hosted a series of public forums about the issue of immigration reform. Former Republican presidential nominee John McCain headlined a forum in April. McCain encouraged Congress to pass an immigration reform bill; he said that doing so would improve the economy, make the country safer and make the Republican Party perform stronger with Hispanic voters. "I've been to Iraq and Afghanistan many times, and I can assure you that we have the technology to secure our border," McCain said. McCain warned the audience that the Republican Party will not be able to win another presidential race unless the party supported immigration reform.

In March, the president of the Pew Research Center, Michael Dimock, warned the Republican Party during an address to the Ripon Society to stop advocating small government conservative policies ("Try to take as much of the anti-government rhetoric out," he told the room). Dimock explained the demographic shift that would displace non-white people as the majority of the American population.

In August, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy along with two California House members, Congressman Jeff Denham and Congressman David Valadao, spoke at a Ripon forum. The three emphasized border security as an important issue within immigration reform.

|}

Ripon Society and Federal Election Commission

In 2004, the Ripon Society requested a legal advisory opinion from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Ripon wanted to pay for a TV campaign commercial in favor of the re-election of Congresswoman Sue Kelly (R-NY). Ripon's argument in favor of being allowed to run the commercial was that the commercial would promote homeland security policies that the Ripon Society, and Congresswoman Kelly, supported.

The requested advisory opinion amounted to a request for an interpretation of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 as it applied to the specific details of the proposed campaign advertisement.

Republican of the Year Award

In addition to George H. W. Bush, other Republican of the Year recipients have included former Senator Bob Dole and former Senator Howard Baker

Programs

Lecture series

The Ripon Society hosts a series of lectures known as their "Policy & Politics Dialogue Series", which in 2011 has consisted of over 40 idea-based forums. Speakers have included: Speaker of the House John Boehner, Representatives Kevin Brady and Greg Walden, Senators Rob Portman and John McCain, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. At a Ripon event in January 2013, shortly after President Obama's second inaugural address, Boehner told the audience that President Obama was trying to "annihilate the Republican Party."

Breakfast series

The Ripon Society hosts breakfast forums that feature members of Congress. For example, the breakfast forums have hosted the Republican Women's Policy Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee, and House Ways and Means Committee members.

Rough Rider awards

Between 1999 and 2004, the Society gave what was known as the Rough Rider Awards to recognize public officeholders who have "'stood in the arena, and pushed for innovative policy solutions on a range of issues." Notable recipients included former Wisconsin Governor and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, future House Speaker John Boehner, and White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card.

Bipartisan action

This section summarizes some of the bipartisan legislation and actions led by Members of Congress who sit on Ripon's congressional advisory board.

Congressional Advisory Board

{| class="wikitable"

! U.S. Senate

| colspan=3 |

  • Shelley Moore Capito, Senate Co-Chair (West Virginia)
  • Cory Gardner, Senate Co-Chair (Colorado)
  • Roy Blunt (Missouri)
  • Richard Burr (North Carolina)
  • Susan M. Collins (Maine)
  • Steve Daines (Montana)
  • Joni Ernst (Iowa)
  • Deb Fischer (Nebraska)
  • Orrin G. Hatch (Utah)
  • John Hoeven (North Dakota)
  • Jerry Moran (Kansas)
  • Pat Roberts (Kansas)
  • Mike Rounds (South Dakota)
  • Thom Tillis (North Carolina)
  • Roger Wicker (Mississippi)
  • Todd Young (Indiana)

|-

! rowspan="30" | U.S. House

! rowspan="12" | Midwest

! IL

|

  • Rodney Davis
  • Randy Hultgren
  • Adam Kinzinger
  • Darin LaHood
  • Peter Roskam
  • John Shimkus

|-

! IN

|

  • Susan Brooks, House Chair
  • Larry Bucshon, M.D.
  • Jackie Walorski

|-

! KS

|Lynn Jenkins

|-

! MI

|

  • Mike Bishop
  • Bill Huizenga
  • John Moolenaar
  • Fred Upton

|-

! MN

|

  • Erik Paulsen, Vice Chair-Midwest
  • Tom Emmer

|-

! MO

|

  • Sam Graves
  • Billy Long

|-

! NE

|Don Bacon

|-

! OH

|

  • David Joyce
  • Jim Renacci
  • Steve Stivers
  • Mike Turner
  • Brad Wenstrup

|-

! OK

|

  • Tom Cole
  • Frank Lucas

|-

! SD

|Kristi Noem

|-

! WI

|Sean Duffy

|-

!WV

|Evan Jenkins

|-

! rowspan=4 | West

! CA

|

  • Ken Calvert
  • Jeff Denham
  • Darrell Issa
  • Kevin McCarthy
  • Mimi Walters

|-

!NV

|Mark Amodei

|-

! OR

|Greg Walden, Vice Chair-West

|-

! WA

|Cathy McMorris Rodgers

|-

! rowspan="10" | South

! AL

|

  • Martha Roby, Vice Chair-South

|-

! AR

|

  • French Hill
  • Steve Womack

|-

! FL

|

  • Vern Buchanan
  • Carlos Curbelo
  • Tom Rooney

|-

! GA

|

  • Doug Collins

|-

! KY

|

  • Andy Barr

|-

! LA

|

  • Steve Scalise

|-

!SC

|Tom Rice

|-

! TN

|

  • Diane Black
  • Marsha Blackburn

|-

! TX

|

  • Michael C. Burgess, M.D.
  • Bill Flores
  • Kay Granger
  • Michael McCaul
  • John Ratcliffe
  • Lamar Smith
  • Mac Thornberry

|-

!VA

|Barbara Comstock

|-

! rowspan="4" |East

!ME

|Bruce Poliquin

|-

! NJ

|

  • Rodney Frelinghuysen
  • Leonard Lance
  • Tom MacArthur

|-

! NY

|

  • Dan Donovan
  • John Katko
  • Tom Reed

|-

! PA

|

  • Bill Shuster, Vice Chair-Northeast
  • Ryan Costello
  • Charlie Dent
  • Mike Kelly
  • Tom Marino
  • Glenn Thompson

|}

The advisory board also includes the following retired Members of Congress:

  • Bill Archer (TX)
  • Henry Bonilla (TX)
  • Michael Castle (DE)
  • Geoff Davis (KY)
  • Mike Ferguson (NJ)
  • David Hobson (OH)
  • Nancy Johnson (CT)
  • Sue Kelly (NY)
  • Scott Klug (WI)
  • Bob Livingston (LA)
  • Jim McCrery (LA)
  • Robert H. Michel (IL)
  • Susan Molinari (NY)
  • Don Nickles (OK)
  • Bill Paxon (NY)
  • Deborah Pryce (OH)
  • Tom Reynolds (NY)
  • Tom Ridge (PA)
  • Gordon Smith (OR)
  • Don Sundquist (TN)
  • Tom Tauke (IA)
  • Robert Walker (PA)

Source: Ripon Society website.

The Ripon Society is a 501(c)(4) incorporated non-profit social welfare organization.

Historical bibliography

1960–1969

  • Gillette, Howard F. "Ripon Society records, 1963-1978". Collection Number 2824. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections (New York, NY: Cornell University Library). "Includes correspondence, research projects, civil rights material, reports, fund raising material, programs, minutes of meetings, financial records, memoranda, press releases, newsletters, publications, correspondence and other material related to various Republican organizations, mailings to potential contributors and subscribers, membership records, research materials and papers, clippings, and other records of the Ripon Society. Also records of the Ripon Society collected by Howard F. Gillette, Jr."
  • Digitized 16 August 2011

1970–1979

  • Auspitz, Josiah Lee (1 March 1970.) Commentary Magazine.
  • Digitized 13 May 2010.

1980–1989

1990–1999

2000–2009

2010–

References

  • Official website
  • The Ripon Forum past editions
  • The Ripon Advance, the official newspaper of the Ripon Society
  • Ripon Society historical news archives at The New York Times
  • Ripon Society events recorded on C-SPAN