Conservative Leadership PAC

Conservative Leadership Political Action Committee (CLPAC) was founded in 1972 by its chairman Morton C. Blackwell and is one of the oldest conservative political action committees.
CLPAC's mission is to identify young conservative leaders and place them as ‘youth coordinators’ on hotly contested statewide and congressional campaigns.
History
Initially created as the “Committee for Responsible Youth Politics,” Blackwell had developed a youth coordinator school when he was Executive Director of the College Republican National Committee. After leaving the CRNC Blackwell created this independent political action committee to advance conservative youth activism.
The PAC initially held training for young conservative activists and helped the activists get jobs on campaigns running youth efforts. However, in 1979 Blackwell created The Leadership Institute. One of the main goals of the Institute is to train youth activists.
Since then, CLPAC has focused on identifying the best conservative youth activists and placing them on hotly contested conservative campaigns. Typically, the PAC focuses on statewide and Congressional races.
Notable Successes
Many youth coordinators placed on campaigns by CLPAC have helped conservative candidates achieve success in close elections.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was hired as a youth coordinator and placed on a race in Kentucky while in college.
Karl Rove, a graduate of Morton Blackwell's training, ran the youth campaign for Richard Nixon in 1972.
In 1978 John Warner carried Virginia by 4,721 votes. His full-time youth coordinator produced over 9,000 absentee ballots for the GOP candidate.
Perhaps the most successful youth campaign was the Youth for Ronald Reagan campaign of 1980 run by Blackwell himself. Blackwell's youth effort led to a tremendous amount of youth support for Ronald Reagan throughout the country. In Massachusetts the facts suggest that incumbent President Jimmy Carter would have won the state if not for the youth effort. 105 mock elections were held on college campuses in targeted states throughout the country. Reagan won 98 of these. (Blackwell was not placed on this campaign by CLPAC. He was recruited as a volunteer by Reagan Campaign Manager Bill Casey)
In 1984, Joe Barton won his Texas congressional seat with the help of a mass-based youth effort that featured the registration of 9,500 students at Texas A&M University. Two years later that same youth coordinator registered more than 50,000 students to vote as a part of the Bill Clements gubernatorial campaign.
In 2000 Adam Guillette was placed as a youth coordinator on the Mike Rogers Congressional race in Lansing, Michigan. Rogers ended up winning by 111 votes in a recount.
Current Leadership
Morton C. Blackwell serves as the Chairman of CLPAC. Adam Guillette is the PAC's Executive Director.

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