LOS ANGELES COUNTY LEADS LINCOLN CLUB MOVEMENT

The Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs has taken the overall state financial lead among Lincoln Clubs in California. The San Diego County Lincoln Club also surged past traditional powerhouses Orange County and Northern California Lincoln Clubs in 2002 and 2004 according to the state campaign finance disclosure website “cal access” maintained by the California Secretary of State. You can view the reports by typing “cal access” into the search engine of your computer.

A review of the dozen Lincoln Club organizations in California over the last three election cycles showed these four to be the only ones with six-figure receipts and expenditures. Other Lincoln Club organizations in California include Ventura, Santa Barbara, Fresno, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Palm Springs and Coachella Valley among others. Each Lincoln Club is independent of the others, and of the official Republican Party organization in their area. Some, such as the Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs, work closely with their county Republican central committee, while others have less involvement.

The charts show the performance of each of the four major Lincoln Club organizations in this decade.

Today, the Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs have more currently paid members (352) in more chapters (11) than any other Lincoln Club organization in California. We have also raised and spent more money in this decade than any other Lincoln Club.
Over the last three full election cycles of 2000, 2002, and 2004, the Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs spent $880,269. The Orange County Lincoln Club spent $868,185 while the San Diego County Lincoln Club spent $806,647.

The fourth place Lincoln Club organization was the Northern California Lincoln Club at $515,877 expended during the same period.

“Lincoln Clubs have become an increasingly powerful influence in California Republican politics over the past 30 years,” commented Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs Chairman Robert A. Virtue. “We approach politics in a business like manner. Lincoln Clubs provide a stable and congenial forum for consideration and support of Republican candidates, voter registration programs, and other ways of influencing the public policy debate”.

“The consistent, healthy growth of the Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs is a tribute to the leadership of Chairman Virtue and the Board of Governors”, said Doug Boyd, L.A. County Lincoln Clubs Treasurer for the past nineteen years. “We look forward to continuing to build a strong Los Angeles County Republican presence in cooperation with the excellent grassroots leadership of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County (RPLAC)”.

The Lincoln Club movement was started in the early 1970’s when Orange County major donors hired pioneering fundraiser Price Sanders away from the Las Vegas area and asked him to create an ongoing Republican major donor organization. The resultant Orange County Lincoln Club quickly became a major success.

It attracted the attention of Reagan “Kitchen Cabinet” members in the Los Angeles area who were increasingly dissatisfied with control of the United Republican Finance Committee (URFC) by the Los Angeles County Republican Central Committee. The URFC hired Sanders away from Orange County in 1975, and asked him to build a similar Lincoln Club organization in addition to the other fundraising components of URFC. Under the leadership of then-URFC Chairman Julian Virtue, William T. Huston, Bob Bauer, Tex Thornton, Gen. Jim Lindberg, Leo Thorsness, Dr. Forest Tennant, Holmes Tuttle and others, Lincoln Club chapters blossomed around Los Angeles County.

Deterioration of central committee leadership and questions of control over funds raised led Julian Virtue and Price Sanders to take the Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs independent of the county party as a federal and state PAC in 1979. Julian Virtue turned the reins over to Bill Huston in 1984. In January 1998, Mr. Huston retired in favor of current LCLAC Chairman Robert A. Virtue, son of Julian Virtue and successor to him as CEO of Virco Mfg. Corporation.