Grover Norquist,, Power Broker

We read about Norquist in Off Center.

Here he is in the news:

Special interests aided tax-reform advocate
A range of groups funded Norquist

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | March 31, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Grover G. Norquist has become one of the nation's most influential activists by portraying his group, Americans for Tax Reform, as the leading ''grass-roots taxpayers movement," which gets thousands of politicians to sign a pledge against any new tax.

Behind the ''grass-roots" activism, however, is a multimillion-dollar donor list that is the envy of Washington. And the Massachusetts native has always refused to name his financial backers.

But interviews and copies of Norquist's donor lists, obtained by the Globe, show that contributors include an array of special interests ranging from tobacco companies to Indian tribes to a Las Vegas casino.

The biggest surprise is Norquist's largest individual donor: Richard ''Dickie" Scruggs, a Democratic Mississippi trial lawyer, who contributed $4.3 million. Scruggs had received a $1 billion fee in the landmark tobacco case against the same tobacco companies that were also Norquist's donors.

This is the kind of story that seems to support Hacker and Pierson's argument about the coordination between interest groups and parties.