The American Conservative Union (ACU) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 political

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

 organization advocating conservative policies

American conservatism

Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...

, and is the oldest such conservative lobbying organization in the country.

Organization

The ACU is divided into three entities that share the same staff but maintain separate budgets:

• The American Conservative Union is a 501(c)4 organization that is responsible for many of ACU's activities.
• The American Conservative Union Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization that is best known for putting on the Conservative Political Action Conference
  Conservative Political Action Conference
  The Conservative Political Action Conference is an annual political conference attended by conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States....
  
  .
• The American Conservative Union Political Action Committee is a PAC
  Political action committee
  In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
  
   that formally endorses and funds conservative candidates for federal office.

Activities

ACU is well-known for its annual ranking of politicians according to how they voted on key issues, providing a numerical indicator of how much the lawmakers agreed with conservative ideals. These scores are often used in political science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 research, in news stories and in election campaigns.

ACU publishes Battleline, an online e-magazine every few weeks on issues that are important to the conservative movement.

ACU's most well-known event is the Conservative Political Action Conference

Conservative Political Action Conference

The Conservative Political Action Conference is an annual political conference attended by conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States....

 (CPAC) which according to their press releases is put on by the ACUF, a foundation within the group. CPAC has an annual attendance of many thousands. Speakers regularly include sitting and former presidents and other famous conservatives. In 2009 the most viewed speaker was Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh

Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...

, who spoke last, and whose speech was covered live on multiple cable news networks and CSPAN.

History

Founded in December 1964 by author and commentator William F Buckley Jr, the ACU was established after the defeat of Barry Goldwater

Barry Goldwater

Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...

. By 1974, ACU had roughly 70,000 members.

In 1984, David Keene

David Keene

David A. Keene , President of the National Rifle Association as of May 2, 2011, was the chairman of the American Conservative Union, from 1984 to 2011. Additionally, he is the managing associate at the Carmen Group Lobbying, a lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C...

, the current chairman of the ACU, assumed that position. He is also the managing associate of Carmen Group Lobbying

Carmen Group Lobbying

Carmen Group is a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C..Carmen Group was founded by David Carmen in 1985. He has advised many United States Governors, Mayors, Congressmen and Senators on policy and served as a political advisor to former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush...

, a Washington, DC-based lobbying firm.

FedEx controversy

In a letter dated June 30, 2009, ACU offered FedEx

FedEx

FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee...

 the option of paying as much as $3.4 million for e-mail and other services for "an aggressive grass-roots campaign" to stop a legislative provision being considered by the U.S. Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

. The letter said the ACU's campaign could include "Producing op-ed

Op-ed

An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...

s and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and/or other members of the ACU’s Board of Directors."

On July 15, Keene and leaders of five other conservative organizations issued a letter saying that FedEx was mischaracterizing the legislative situation and was unfairly trying to tap into public resentment against federal bailouts to attack its competition. The letter included, at its top, logos from ACU and the other organizations. Whitfield said on July 16 that Keene had endorsed the second letter as an individual, even though the letter bore the logo of ACU. On July 17, ACU issued a press release saying that permission to use the logo had not been given by ACU, and that the ACU continued to stand with the policy supported by FedEx.