GOPAC is a Republican (GOP) state and local political training organization. Although often thought of as a PAC, or Political Action Committee

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...

, it is actually a 527 organization. It describes itself as "the premier training organization for Republican candidates in elected office on the state and local levels".

GOPAC was founded by Delaware

Delaware

Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...

 Governor Pierre S. du Pont, IV

Pierre S. du Pont, IV

Pierre Samuel "Pete" du Pont IV is an American lawyer and politician from Rockland, in New Castle County, Delaware, near Wilmington. He is a member of the Republican Party, who served three terms as U.S...

 in 1978 in "an effort to build a farm team of Republican officeholders who could then run for congress or higher state offices later". On February 1, 2007, former Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

 Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele

Michael S. Steele

Michael Stephen Steele is an American politician who served as the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee from January 2009 until January 2011. From 2003 to 2007, he was the seventh Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, the first African American elected to statewide...

 became the chairman and served until his election as chairman of the Republican National Committee

Republican National Committee

The Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...

 in January, 2009. The current chairman on GOPAC is Frank Donatelli

Frank Donatelli

Frank Donatelli is a Republican Party political consultant and lawyer.-Biography:A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and American University Law School, Donatelli served in various positions in the Reagan administration including Assistant to the President for Political and Intergovernmental...

.

Others who have chaired GOPAC include former Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 Governor Frank Keating

Frank Keating

Francis Anthony "Frank" Keating is an American politician from Oklahoma. Keating served as the 25th Governor of Oklahoma. His first term began in 1995 and ended in 1999...

, former Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

 Representative and Secretary of the Army

United States Secretary of the Army

The Secretary of the Army is a civilian official within the Department of Defense of the United States of America with statutory responsibility for all matters relating to the United States Army: manpower, personnel, reserve affairs, installations, environmental issues, weapons systems and...

 Bo Callaway

Howard Callaway

Howard Hollis "Bo" Callaway is a businessman and former politician from the state of Georgia.-Early life and education:Callaway was born in LaGrange, Georgia, west of Atlanta. His grandfather was Fuller Earle Callaway. He attended Georgia Tech and graduated from the United States Military Academy...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 Representative David Dreier

David Dreier

David Timothy Dreier is the U.S. Representative for , serving in Congress since 1981. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education, and business career:...

, Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

 Representative John Shadegg

John Shadegg

John Barden Shadegg is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1995 until 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party.The district, numbered as the 4th District before the 2000 Census, includes much of northern Phoenix....

, former Oklahoma Representative J.C. Watts

J.C. Watts

Julius Caesar "J. C." Watts, Jr. is an American politician from Oklahoma who was a college football quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners and professionally in the Canadian Football League. Watts served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003 as a Republican, representing the 4th...

, and former Speaker of the House

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...

 Newt Gingrich of Georgia.

Instructional tapes used to train aspiring Republican politicians from 1986 to 1994 were selected by the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry

National Recording Registry

The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, which created the National Recording...

 for their influence in "shaping political discourse". The Library of Congress selects recordings annually that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

GOPAC memo

The "GOPAC memo", called "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control", was written and distributed to members of the Republican Party by U.S. Rep. Gingrich (R-Georgia) in 1994. It contained a list of words with positive and negative connotations that Gingrich recommended for use in describing Republicans and Democrats, respectively.

The cover page of the memo had the sentence: "The words in that paper are tested language from a recent series of focus groups where we actually tested ideas and language."

In popular culture

The comic strip Doonsbury mentions the memo in a strip, calling it the "Magna Carta

Magna Carta

Magna Carta is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215 and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions, which included the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority to date. The charter first passed into law in 1225...

of attack politics."