Family Research Council names leader

Kenneth L. Connor

Family Research Council, one of the nation’s largest and most well-known traditional-values advocacy organizations, today announced the election of its new president, activist and trial attorney Kenneth L. Connor.

Formerly headed by ex-presidential candidate Gary Bauer, Family Research Council is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to “reaffirm and promote nationally, and particularly in Washington, D.C., the traditional family unit and the Judeo-Christian value system upon which it is built,” according to the group’s website. Its researchers and analysts develop public policy friendly to traditional families and publish educational material on a variety of issues.

Originally founded in 1983, FRC merged with Focus on the Family from 1988-1992, separating in October 1992 as an independently incorporated 501(c)(3) group in the District of Columbia. FRC is primarily supported by donations.

Connor’s warm demeanor and slow southern drawl belie his tenacity and effectiveness as a legal advocate and moral activist. He is a proven force when it comes to defending the rights of the unborn, the elderly and the disabled, as proven by his record as a Florida trial attorney, his involvement in “right to life” organizations and the legislative influence he has gained over the years.

The 53-year-old lawyer’s appointment has prompted endorsements from well-known colleagues. Former rival for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, wrote, “Ken Connor has been a friend and defender of the family in Florida for many years. I believe that America’s families are fortunate to have Ken lead the Family Research Council into the new millennium.”

Mike Maher, former president of the

American Trial Lawyers
Association, praised Connor for his “deep and abiding faith in the legal system that is fundamentally based on his belief in the integrity of the individual. His constancy of vision will serve not just FRC well, but all who hear him speak and learn from his wisdom.”

Since Bauer resigned more than two years ago to devote full attention to his presidential bid, FRC has been under the direction of Executive Vice President Chuck Donovan. Connor said he credits Donovan for the good state FRC is in after two years without a public leader.

“The morale of the staff is high. The quality of the people is just really quite remarkable. They have a very clear vision about the direction in which they want to move and have been moving that way,” Connor told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview. “The funding base has been remarkably stable for the lack of a public leader, which I think reflects well on the institution as well as on the commitment of the donors to continue to help advance the issues that FRC supports.”

Along with Family Research Council’s commitment to securing the rights of the unborn, upholding heterosexual marriage and promoting the reduction of tax burdens, Connor brings his own set of priorities to the organization.

“There are a couple of new areas where I expect we’ll see special emphasis that are in part a product of my background and experience,” he remarked. Some of those areas include judicial activism, adoption and long-term care.

“I intend to be aggressive in exposing areas of judicial activism by the courts. And I think the Supreme Court is exhibit A as an institution that has usurped authority that does not rightly belong to it and has distorted the language and meaning of the Constitution to promote social and philosophical objectives that are in line with the Justices’ own thinking and that don’t conform with the Constitution,” he said.

A Republican gubernatorial candidate for Florida in 1994, Connor expects FRC to continue educating Americans as to the proper roles and functions of the branches of government. He added that one branch’s encroachment on another’s role “contributes to tyranny.”

Adoption is another issue Connor champions.

“We will begin moving in the area to advance a national adoption initiative,” he continued. “I’m an adoptive parent. Any time that you speak out against something like abortion, for instance, I think it’s important that you demonstrate that you have positive alternatives which involve better choices for people. And I know from experience as an adoptive parent that just because a child is not wanted by someone doesn’t mean they’re not wanted by everyone. And I believe that adoption is a loving alternative to abortion and that Americans’ hearts are big enough to love a mother and her child, and we don’t have to choose sides between them.”

A member of the “Governor’s Partnership for Adoption” and formerly part of the “Governor’s Constituency for Children” in Florida, the political reformer has made a major contribution to reducing the state’s backlog of children ready to be adopted.

Said Connor, “I saw firsthand what an impact a leader can have in calling on the business and professional community to generate public service advertisements to provide incentives for adoption.”

Connor and Amy, his wife of 29 years, adopted their first child, Kathryn, now 24. The couple also have three additional children ranging in age from 18 to 21. The couple’s youngest, Joshua, graduates from high school in June, after which time the Connors will relocate to the Washington, D.C., area.

Admitted to the Florida State Bar in 1972 after obtaining his law degree cum laude from Florida State University, the young lawyer jumped right into the world of high-pressure law firms. He worked as a trial attorney for more than 25 years and began to specialize in long-term care cases.

“I have always had deep concerns about the way in which we treat our elderly. And my experience has been that the quality of care that nursing-home residents receive is really scandalous,” he said, noting his belief that lack of quality care for seniors is a result of a “Darwinian ethic that says that there is a sliding scale of dignity that these people have that depends upon their mental capacity or level of physical functions. And when that ethic comes into play, along with the tensions of producing profits in publicly held corporations, oftentimes we see the care of these people suffer.

“I am gravely concerned that this diminished ethic that trivializes human life jeopardizes not only unborn children and handicapped children. I know that it’s having profoundly adverse affects on our frail elderly population.”

The attorney said his typical nursing-home case involved neglect that often led to bedsores and malnutrition.

“We have made nursing homes the first response rather than a last result,” remarked Connor, who serves on a legislative task force in Florida to create a public policy package improving the quality and affordability of long-term care.

“I am going to be increasingly advocating for a system more akin to the school choice model, where we empower families to make more decisions about how their loved ones are cared for.” He described the concept as a type of voucher system wherein families are reimbursed for the costs of caring for a senior.

“We ought to promote families assuming that responsibility, and we ought to examine carefully whether or not the system that we have now just incentivizes warehousing people in nursing homes.”

He also suggested senior care options such as adult daycare and home health care that would “assist families and empower them to keep their families intact without having to warehouse their loved ones.”

Nursing-home care is just one of several issues on which Connor has based many successful bipartisan relationships. One of the most prominent of those was forged in 1984, when he was appointed by Sen. Curtis Peterson — the Democrat president of the state Senate — to serve on the State Commission on Ethics. Known for his strong Christian faith, the political activist cringes at the popular adage, “You can’t legislate morality.”

“It’s nonsense to suggest that you can’t legislate morality. We do so every day. And in a very real sense, the issue boils down to whose morality is going to be legislated. For example,” he explained, “when you criminalize the distribution of tobacco products to minors under the age of 18, you’re making a moral statement. When you make it unlawful to spoil or pollute the environment, you’re making a moral statement. When you criminalize child prostitution or exploitation of children by child pornographers, you’re making a moral statement. So, we make moral decisions which have the force of law every day in state legislatures and in the Congress around the country. And as Martin Luther King once said, while you … can’t make someone love your neighbor, you can certainly pass a law that prevents you from killing your neighbor.”

“I think it is disingenuous to suggest that morality isn’t foundational (to a system of laws),” he continued. “It absolutely is. For example, I think we make a profound statement in the Defense of Marriage Act when we define marriage as an institution between one man and one woman. And when the gay and lesbian community advocates homosexual marriage, that makes a different kind of moral statement. So it is just simply facetious to say that morals aren’t involved in legislation.”

So how will Connor run the Family Research Council?

“I hope to be able to operate in much the same manner that I have in the past,” he said, indicating his knack for forging bipartisan relationships will be brought to the family-oriented organization. He believes parties on both sides of the political aisle are acting in “good will” when making decisions for constituents.

“There’s no question about the fact that in the Congress today, you still need bipartisan support in order to pass many, many different kinds of issues. For example: the issue relating to permanent normal trading relationships with China. I remember turning on the TV and seeing Janet Parshall, who is spokesperson for FRC, introducing many liberal Democrats with whom the organization often is in opposition on other issues. So I think the key is, again, looking for areas of common ground that reasonable people of good will can identify.”

As for himself, Connor says, “I try to be a person of good will — never to be confused with a lack of will.” That will has been demonstrated not only in his active political roles and legal battles, but also in the ways he invests.

During his run for governor in 1994, the Miami Herald investigated Connor’s financial records, revealing that the wealthy attorney had given away a quarter of the money he’d earned. According to the Herald, the Connors’ tax returns show that in 10 years, the couple gave more money to charity than they paid in federal income tax — $1.036 million and $1.027 million, respectively. In 1992 alone, they gave away $226,913 of the $946,597 earned from Connor’s law practice, building rentals and investments.

Having served as president of Florida Right to Life from 1989-91, Connor donated $125,000 to a Right to Life educational fund, enabling the purchase of billboards featuring a thumb-sucking fetus and the question, “Don’t you think they are forgetting someone?”

The couple also gave $77,000 to one Orlando-based Sunday-school publication ministry; they’ve helped raise funds for a new study Bible; and they’ve contributed to a translation of the Bible into an African language.

Connor officially began his duties as president of Family Research Council today.