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That was a problem. U.S. tax law provides a way for people to make tax-deductible donations to certain groups as long as those groups stay away from partisan politics. The groups are often called 501c3s because that's the section of the IRS code that gives them tax-exempt status. Gingrich's TV show and college course originally were a project of his GOPAC political action committee. But after they started consuming a substantial portion of the political committee's revenues, Gingrich and others transferred the project to the Abraham Lincoln Opportunity Foundation. The foundation was a tax-exempt 501(c)3 group that had been dormant but was revived to sponsor the televised workshop. The foundation operated out of GOPAC's offices, and virtually all its officers and employers were simultaneously GOPAC officers or employees. The main difference between GOPAC and the foundation was the $260,000 in tax-deductible contributions the foundation raised to fund the TV program and the workshops. Gingrich tried to protect his donors' tax deductions by keeping out references to Republicans and partisan politics in the TV show and college course. The course was taught originally at the public Kennesaw State College in Georgia in 1993 and the private Reinhardt College in 1994 and 1995. Gingrich and another professor each taught 20 hours. The partisanship came in when Gingrich arranged "workshops" across the country for people to see his lectures and the TV show. A purpose of the workshops was to recruit voters who would support Republicans, the ethics committee said. It cited documents in which Gingrich describes the purpose of the TV show and college course. "The objective measurable goal is the maximum growth of news coverage of our vision and ideas, the maximum recruitment of new candidates, voters and resources, and the maximum electoral success in winning seats from the most local office to the White House," Gingrich wrote. He said in numerous writings that the college course was part of his "Renewing American Civilization" movement to replace the "welfare state." The course and the movement had the same name. In a 1993 document Gingrich said the goal of the movement was "replacing the welfare state, recruit, discover, arouse and network together 200,000 activists including candidates for elected office at all levels" leading to "a sweeping victory in 1996." He didn't have to wait that long. In the 1994 election, Gingrich engineered a Republican takeover of the House. The GOP held the House majority for a dozen years until Democrats regained it in 2006. Last year, Republicans took it back.
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