'''Paul M. Weyrich '''[http://www.freecongress.org/about/pweyrich.asp] was a founder of the [[Heritage Foundation]] with Ed Fuelner Feulner and with the financial support of rightwing millionaire Joseph Coors, of the Coors beer fortune.
Almost two years after the [[American Legislative Exchange Council]] was founded in Illinois in 1973, Weyrich took over its operations and moved the group to Washington, DC, co-housing it with the Heritage Foundation, which he founded. He was not a founder of ALEC, but he directed it in the late 1970s and played a key role in advising its operations in its first two decades.