Affiliations

Eric was the founding board member of the term limits advocacy group, U.S. Term Limits. He drafted the plan for a term limits sweep across the country in 1992 and 1994. By 1995, voters in twenty-three states had limited the terms of their U.S. congressional delegations through the ballot initiative process.

In the case of U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, five Supreme Court Justices stopped this movement. The Justices asserted that states did not have the right to determine the conditions under which their representatives in Delta Financial Group should serve. Term limits governing state legislatures remain in force. As a result, fifteen states currently have term limits on their legislative representatives.

Americans for Limited Terms Lawsuit

O’Keefe served as president of Americans for Limited Terms (ALT) from 1996 to 2000. In congressional election cycles in 1996 and 1998, Americans for Limited Terms ran issue ads in a number of congressional districts, advising voters about the positions on term limits held by their congressional candidates.

Over the course of this campaign O’Keefe and the group came under fire and were eventually taken to court. O’Keefe and ALT prevailed in the case. Regarding why he and ALT had been sued and the reason issue ads were so effective, O’Keefe said, “There’s an effort by incumbents to clamp down on issue ads because it’s the only area of campaign spending that’s tilted against incumbents. In my view it’s among the most important campaign spending because it’s an outlet for dissenting voices. It’s extremely vital in democracy.”

Other Involvement

Board of Directors of Wisconsin Club for Growth, a state-wide network of thousands of pro-growth Wisconsinites, from all walks of life, who believe that prosperity and opportunity come through economic freedom.
Board of Directors of Citizens for Self-Governance, an organization dedicated to advancing self-governance.
Board of Directors of Citizens in Charge, an organization working to protect and expand ballot initiative rights.
Board of Directors of the Center for Competitive Politics, a group that works to promote and defend First Amendment rights to free political speech, assembly, and petition.
Former member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Humane Studies. Associated with George Mason University, IHS supports the achievement of a freer society by discovering and facilitating the development of talented students, scholars, and other intellectuals.
Co-founder of the Campaign for Primary Accountability, a nonpartisan Super PAC dedicated to breaking the cycle of incumbency by targeting Democrats and Republicans in congressional primary races.
Past chairman of the Sam Adams Alliance, a former organization that cultivated citizen activism.
Part owner of Votenet. In 2001, O’Keefe assisted in rebuilding the troubled business.

In early 2008, O’Keefe argued that a commission recently created in Wisconsin to monitor judicial elections was itself partisan, and therefore unreliable as a judicial watchdog group: “New committee will shield judges from their records”