Right Web

PRA's Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.

Highlights & Quotes Bell, the former president of the rightwing Manhattan Institute (called by one writer a "launch pad for conservative writers"), is a long time Republican Party operative. He is associated with several rightwing outfits, including the Project for the New American Century, the American Conservative Union, and the Council for National Policy. Bell has twice run for the U.S. Senate, in 1978 and 1982 (he lost both times), and he worked as a campagin aide to former presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. (8)

Regarding Bell's organization Of The People (OTP) and its proposed Parental Rights Amendment (PRA), People for the American Way opines: "[Greg Erken, OTP executive director] and Jeffrey Bell -- Of The People founder and chairman, anti-abortion activist and former strategist for both President Ronald Reagan and former Congressman (and now vice presidential candidate) Jack Kemp -- generally stick to their claim that the PRA is a simple affirmation of parental rights and responsibilities unconnected to a right-wing agenda. OTP's second national conference in December 1995, featuring speakers from the Family Research Council, National Center for Home Education and the Free Congress Foundation, belied that assertion. OTP's editorial board includes such notable conservatives as William Kristol, former Vice President Dan Quayle's chief of staff and editor of the Weekly Standard, and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and a leader of the effort to 'defund the left.'" (2)

Bell has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Weekly Standard. He also wrote a book in 1992 entitled Populism and Elitism: Politics in the Age of Equality . (1)