Cesar Conda

In 1994 Cesar V. Conda was executive director of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (AdTI) listed as "Senior Staff and Contributing Associates" on a Lorillard Tobacco Company paid-for publication titled "Science, economics, and environmental policy: a critical examination" by author Kent Jeffreys (see: AdTI-Funding). Principal Reviewer was listed as S. Fred Singer, and to give this propagandistic tract a sheen of scientific appearance, a loaded gang of "experts" from assorted tobacco-funded front organizations with impressive names was listed: SEPP, Hoover Institution, John M. Olin Center for Policy, George Mason University.

As Executive Director of Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, Conda had more than a casual association with the production of this deception piece. SEPP was certainly known to him, as an article the same year in Commonsense (Fall 1994) "The New Populism: The Rise of the Property Rights Movement," article by Cesar Conda and Mark LaRochelle, mentions SEPP. Kent Jeffreys bonafides would also be known to him. Jeffreys at the time was listed as environmental studies director for Competitive Enterprise Institute, an organization with close ties to Alexis de Tocqueville.

At about this time period, Jack Kemp became co-chairman of Alexis de Tocqueville, while retaining his position as Co-Director of Empower America. Lately Conda has moved into Empower America as a Director on the Board. 

Conda was weaving and bobbing between so many roles that at one time he was a recipient of a lobbying letter while working for Senator Abraham reminding Conda that "A third faction supporting the study includes libertarian think tanks such as Cato, the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, and the Reason Foundation." This statement must have been very amusing to Conda, as essentially he (and his paymaster Koch Family Foundations) were de Tocqueville-Cato-Reason. , .

From a flattering biography we learn: "Cesar Conda served as Vice President Dick Cheney&#8217;s principal adviser on domestic and economic policy issues, supervising the Vice President&#8217;s five person domestic policy staff. Prior to joining the White House in January 2001, Conda served twelve years in various positions in the United States Senate including Administrative Assistant and Legislative Director for U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) (now the Secretary of Energy), Minority Staff Director of the Senate Committee on Small Business, and Legislative Assistant for U.S. Senator Robert W. Kasten, Jr. (R-WI)." 

It is interesting that Kasten was on the payroll of Alexis de Tocqueville Institution for $100,000, as a consultant in 2000 form 990 filing (page 7), down from $138,000 in 1999, $100,500 in 1998 ...

Cesar Conda earned the wrath of the Ludwig von Mises Institute: "Joining in this richly-funded campaign of hysteria and smear was the entire official libertarian (or Left-libertarian) movement, including virtually every "free-market" and "libertarian" think tank except the Mises Institute. ... For their part, the neo-conservative and official libertarian think tanks joined the elite condemnation of Prop. 187. Working closely with Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, Cesar Conda of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution circulated a statement against the measure that was signed by individuals at the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute, the Reason Foundation, and even the Competitive Enterprise Institute." 

Tobacco industry documents on Cesar V. Conda
Cesar Conda has consistently written pieces in support of tobacco industry positions on topics ranging from tobacco taxes to secondhand smoke.
 * 1980 press release opposing increase in tobacco tax.
 * 1994 press release claiming U.S. EPA used "inadequate science" in risk assessments
 * Time to Rationalize EPA Rules (May 1994 editorial critcizing EPA's risk assesment]

Affiliations

 * National Foundation for American Policy – Advisory Board

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