Back in 1968, Jim Lucier, Sr. was a young aide to Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC). Victor Fediay, who has since died, was a researcher at the Library of Congress. I was an aide to Senator
Gordon Allott (R-CO). We visited frequently about what was going on in the world. Most of it wasn't good. Conservatives were being killed politically and the left was constantly advancing. After some time, Lucier and Fediay let me in on their
plans. We had watched how the left operated and in those days, conservatives weren't even in the ballgame. What was needed, Lucier and Fediay told me, was an outside operation that could
provide timely information to Members of Congress from a principled perspective. Such an organization could supply witnesses for hearings and experts to privately brief senators and
congressmen. They told me that when they were able to put this together they wanted me to join them in the endeavor. They said they had been making presentations to businessmen about the
need for such an operation and so I joined in on that effort as well. A couple of years went by with lots of presentations but no success.

But the Lord works in mysterious ways. Senator Allott had a long-time employee by the name of Barbara Hughes. She handled the mail and the filing for the office. Well, Barbara was
sick one day so an intern handled the mail. She had a chart on the wall for such times that told the substitute where to direct the mail. All media letters were to go to Weyrich, the chart said. The
young man opened a letter that began "Dear Senator Allott. You
may remember me. I was news Director at KBTR in Denver...." The young man saw the call letters and sent the letter to me. The letter went on to say "I have been hired by Joe Coors to help him determine where he should put his money so it can further the conservative cause." My hands began to tremble. Had Barbara Hughes been well, I most likely would never have seen that letter, which was signed by Jack Wilson. I called Jack and
told him he needed to come back to Washington as we had a story to tell him. He came a couple of weeks later. And we explained to him how the left operated and how an outside operation could counter that. He got very excited and said he
would get Joe back to hear the story. Jack told me to get senators and congressmen to support the idea.

We put together a program that included Sen. Thurmond, arranged by Lucier, Sen. Cliff Hansen (R-WY), arranged by me, Rep. Ed Foreman (R-NM), brought in by Fediay, and my hometown congressman, Henry Schadeberg (R-WI). In
addition, they met with Walter Mote, Administrative Assistant to Vice President Spiro Agnew. They all said the same thing. We need an outside organization to counter the left and these fellows
are the right people to make it happen.

It so happened that Fritz Rench was in town that day. Fritz had been my political mentor. A businessman from my hometown, he and I had worked together on some political projects beginning in 1960. I told him about Joe's request, and he cancelled his plans. For the next three days, Fritz pulled out of us what it was we wanted to do and what it would cost. He got on the phone and found out what rent on Capitol Hill cost, how much it cost to buy furniture, the cost of multiple telephone lines, etc.

He put together a prospectus that Coors told me reassured him that we really knew what we were doing. If he only knew how and when it was put together.

We didn't know about foundations and how they operated. So the initial operation was a subsidiary of the Coors Corporation. It was called The Analysis and Research Association. As things progressed, Coors confided in me that he was dissatisfied with Victor Fediay. He wanted a new organization. He urged me to put that together. By this time we had learned about tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations. That is where Ed Feulner came into the picture. I confided to Ed, then Chief of Staff to Rep. Phil Crane (R-IL.), on a trip to Taiwan about the situation and urged him to consider joining the new entity.

Jack Wilson to talk at chamber luncheon (Golden Transcript, Volume 111, Number 238, November 16, 1977)