For more than six years, Michele Bachmann's strongest political support has come not from the Republican Party of Minnesota, but from members of a national evangelical political movement seeking to introduce its own candidates into federal and state government via the Republican Party.

James Dobson is chairman of Focus on the Family, a nationwide, politically active evangelical group allied with the Republican Party. "(Karl) Rove certainly sees Dobson as the most important and politically influential evangelical leader,'' said Ryan Sager, author of "The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals and the Battle to Control the Republican Party.'', "Dobson is someone who the White House works with extremely closely and constantly.'' 1

Dobson reaches his constituents through his daily "Focus On The Family" radio show, which is syndicated nationwide and reaches an estimated 3.5 million listeners each week. His group is also organizing turnout drives in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey, Montana and Minnesota. 2

In Minnesota, Dobson is trying to engineer a win for 6th District congressional candidate Michele Bachmann. Focus on the Family operatives plan to distribute 250,000 voter guides in Minnesota churches to reach social conservatives, said Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council, a local affiliate of Dobson's group. 3

At least eight of the individual contributors listed in the Bachmann campaign FEC disclosure statements are alleged to be members of the secretive Council For National Policy (CNP). The word "alleged" is used because the CNP will not make its membership list public; its regular meetings are also closed to the public. 4,5

The CNP claims that it is an educational group, but the activities of its influential membership indicate that it is devoted to 1) capturing local political party organizations and offices and 2) reforming the U.S. in accordance with biblical law--as understood by the leaders of the Christian Right. 6

In addition to money contributions, over the past six years candidate Michele Bachmann has received free radio air time to promote her views and agenda in an unchallenged format on local Christian radio stations here in Minnesota. For example, Bachmann used radio station airtime on AM station KKMS to promote her "Ten Commandments Rally" and her "no gay marriage rallies" in St. Paul. Radio promotions were broadcast by KKMS weeks in advance of these events. KKMS is owned by Salem Communications, a national chain of Christian radio broadcast stations. Salem Communications' founders and management include alleged members and former directors of the secretive Council for National Policy. 7

Money is also funneled to the Bachmann campaign by organizations that are run or dominated by alleged CNP members:

Eagle Forum (Phyllis Schlafly, alleged CNP member.)

Campaign For Working Families Pac (Gary Bauer, alleged CNP member.)

Concerned Women For America (Shirley Dobson is the head of Concerned Women for America; she is the wife of alleged CNP member James Dobson.)

1. William Roberts, "Republicans Falter in Bid to Mobilize Christian Conservatives", Bloomberg.com New, October 19, 2006. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aYrOX2bgWUOY&refer=us

2. William Roberts, "Republicans Falter in Bid to Mobilize Christian Conservatives", Bloomberg.com New, October 19, 2006. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aYrOX2bgWUOY&refer=us

3. William Roberts, "Republicans Falter in Bid to Mobilize Christian Conservative"�, Bloomberg.com New, October 19, 2006. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aYrOX2bgWUOY&refer=us

4. Wikipedia, "Council For National Policy" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_National_Policy#_note-0

5. Suzi Parker, "The Real Convention?", U.S. News and World Report, August 25, 2004, http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whispers/archive/august2004.htm

6. Marc J. Ambinder, "Inside the Council for National Policy: meet the Most Powerful Conservative Group You've Never Heard Of", ABC News, May 5, 2002 - http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121170&page=1

7. "Seek God"website. See entries on "Edward G. Atsinger III,""Stuart Epperson."- http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.a.htm