The Many Fronts of Grover Norquist

If there is any question but that Grover Norquist is in the business of lobbying, using a variety of front organizations, just do a Google search for "'1920 L Street, N.W.' 200" (the full address is 1920 L Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036) and see what you can come up with operating out of the same office suite:

• The lead organization, Americans for Tax Reform--(as noted previously, both a 501(c)(3) and a 501(c)(4)--This is the organization that Norquist is most openly associated with)
  
  
• American Shareholders Association--(Not clear whether it is a 501(c)(3) or a 501(c)(4), but the IRS website does not list it as a 501(c)(3)--Norquist was previously identified as the President of this this organization, but his name does not appear prominently on the website, you have to do a Google search or go back to links on the site to early press releases to find his association with the organization)
  


• United for Jobs--(Not clear whether it is either a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4), but the IRS website does not list it as a 501(c)(3)--UFJ website does not appear to link Norquist directly to the organization, but see here)
  


• Islamic Free Market Institute Foundation--(Listed by the IRS as a 501(c)(3)--According to a letter dated February 7, 2003, Frank Gaffney, whose office is at Suite 210 of 1920 L Street, on the same floor as the offices of Norquist's organizations, Norquist was the "Chairman Emeritus" of this organization)
  


• Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council--(Not clear whether it is either a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4), but the IRS website does not list it as a 501(c)(3)--SBEC website does not appear to link Norquist directly to the organization--But see the analysis from Source Watch, which deals with probable predecessor entities or the same entity under a different name)


• Property Rights Alliance--(Not clear whether it is either a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4), but the IRS website does not list it as a 501(c)(3)--PRA website does not appear to link Norquist directly to the organization)


• Uhuru Policy Group--(Not clear whether it is either a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4), but the IRS website does not list it as a 501(c)(3)--Uhuru website does not appear to link Norquist directly to the organization)

The above may only be a partial listing of the various organizations associated with Norquist that operate out of the suite. (If any readers want to give me the names of additional organizations and their URLs, I will publish them.) It is unclear to me whether the IRS website's search engine gives totally accurate results with respect to 501(c)(3)'s. Some of the organizations that are not listed above as having 501(c)(3) status, may, in fact, be 501(c)(3)'s, but the IRS website search failed to turn up the information.

In my previous posting on the IRS's CPE paper on Affiliations Among Political, Lobbying and Educational Organizations, I noted that the Service requires clear lines of demarcation between the economic operations of the various sorts of exempt organizations and between exempt organizations and non-exempt organizations, with appropriate allocations of expenses and costs. In this regard, I should also note that the organizations seem to share personnel, including executive personnel. Under these circumstances, is it even reasonable to analyse each entity separately? Given the likely high degree of policy coordination among them, aren't they really constituent parts of a single enterprise that could more correctly be dubbed "Norquist Lobbying, Inc."?