Eric O'Keefe

Eric Stephen O'Keefe (born December 14, 1954) is an American political activist.

O'Keefe became national director of the Libertarian Party in 1980.

O'Keefe is a founding board member of Citizens for Self-Governance, an organization that seeks to "elevate awareness and provide resources, advocacy, and education to grassroots organizations and individuals exercising their rights to govern themselves."

O'Keefe is a director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth, a group which has spent $1 million on TV ads to support Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's effort to make state workers "pay their fair share."

O'Keefe is the chairman of the Health Care Compact Alliance, a non-partisan 501(c)(4) organization that works "to create health care compacts that would shift Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care funds to states to use as they wish."

In the 1990s, O'Keefe was involved in efforts to enact congressional term limits.

He is involved as a strategist, board member, and donor with a number of organizations which seek to advance limited government and self-governance.

O'Keefe is a founding board member of Citizens for Self-Governance, co-chairman and co-founder of the Campaign for Primary Accountability Political Action Committee, and chairman of the Health Care Compact Alliance.

He is also a member of the board of directors of the Center for Competitive Politics, the Citizens in Charge Foundation, and the Wisconsin Club for Growth.

He was the chairman and CEO of the Sam Adams Alliance, a former organization that promoted citizen activism.

O'Keefe co-founded CPA with Joe Ricketts, Leo Linbeck III, and Tim Dunn.

He is also co-chairman, and a financial supporter of the Campaign for Primary Accountability.

The group is a political action committee which seeks "to oust entrenched members of Congress in their primary races, regardless of their party."

O'Keefe was a founding board member of term limits advocacy group U.S. Term Limits and the architect of nationwide term limits campaigns in 1992 and 1994.

In the 1994, 1996, and 1998 congressional election cycles, Americans for Limited Terms ran ads in a number of congressional districts, advising voters about the positions on term limits held by their congressional candidates.

By early 1995, voters in 23 states had passed ballot initiatives limiting the terms of elected officials.

In the case of U.S. Term Limits, Inc., v. Thornton, the Supreme Court ruled that states do not have the right to determine the conditions under which their representatives in Congress will serve.

However, term limits governing state legislatures remain in force, and 15 states now have term-limited legislatures.

O'Keefe served as president of Americans for Limited Terms from 1996 to 2000.

In 1996, ALT ran a $24,000 radio ad campaign in a Wisconsin political campaign that noted the opposition of State Assemblyman David Travis to term limits.

Travis and the state board of elections responded by suing Americans for Limited Terms, claiming the ads were "express advocacy" instead of "issue ads."

O'Keefe defended his position saying:"There's an effort by incumbents to clamp down on issue ads because it's the only area of campaign spending that's tilted against incumbents. In my view it's among the most important campaign spending because it's an outlet for dissenting voices. It's extremely vital in democracy."

In 2001, O'Keefe became part-owner of a business, Votenet.

Court records show that Votenet was victimized by two of its employees who were later convicted and imprisoned for financial fraud.

Although an attorney recommended that the company declare bankruptcy to step away from the financial destruction caused by the felonious employees, O'Keefe chose to remain in business so creditors could be repaid.

Prior to 2007, O'Keefe served on the board of directors of Americans for Limited Government.

In 2009, he joined the Board of Trustees of Chicago's Shimer College under then-president Thomas Lindsay.

The Campaign for Primary Accountability has spent $500,000 in 2012 congressional primary elections attempting to unseat both Democratic and Republican incumbents.

The group spent $200,000 against Republican incumbent Jean Schmidt, who lost her primary bid.

The group also spent $239,000 against Republican incumbent Don Manzullo, who lost to primary challenger Adam Kinzinger.

By March 2012, compact legislation had been introduced in 15 states and passed into law in six states: Missouri, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, and Indiana.

O'Keefe served on the board of directors of the Institute for Humane Studies until 2013.

In October 2013, it was revealed that John Chisholm, the Democratic District Attorney of Milwaukee County, had launched a secret "John Doe investigation" into the activities of Wisconsin conservatives.

Wisconsin is one of three states that allow John Doe investigations, in which prosecutors are allowed to compel people to produce documents and give testimony as well as bar them from talking publicly about the investigation.

These types of investigations are called "John Doe probes" as their purpose is to determine whether a crime has been committed, and if so, by whom.

Prosecutors are allowed to conduct their investigation in secret and can order targets and witnesses not to tell anyone about the matter.

O'Keefe was involved in the movement to stop Donald Trump from becoming the Republican presidential nominee in 2016.

With attorney David B. Rivkin, he penned a column in The Wall Street Journal encouraging Republican delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention to "recognize that they are bound only by their consciences."

According to O'Keefe and Rivkin, "state laws that purport to bind delegates can't be enforced without violating the First Amendment."

O'Keefe formed a group called Delegates Unbound, which CNN described as "a robust effort to convince delegates that they have the authority and the ability to vote for whomever they want."