Errors in report on group's ties to Romney bid

YOUR NOV. 20 article "Some recipients of Romney's charity are boosting his bid" (Page A14) errs both in its facts and its insinuation regarding the Heritage Foundation.

For starters, Heritage is boosting nobody's bid. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education institute. We don't engage in politicking.

Second, the person you cite as boosting Mitt Romney's campaign for president has not been connected with Heritage for more than 30 years. Paul Weyrich helped launch Heritage in 1973. He left Heritage the following year, and has had no affiliation since. (He was a cofounder, not, as reported, "its founder.")

Yet the article insinuates an unseemly quid pro quo between a 2006 donation to Heritage from Romney's foundation and Weyrich's recent endorsement of the candidate. We are grateful for the donations we received from Romney last year. But, generous though they were, these contributions combined represent less than one-tenth of 1 percent of our 2006 budget - hardly an amount that would tempt Heritage to jeopardize its status as a charitable organization by engaging in political activity.

JIM WEIDMAN
Director of editorial services
The Heritage Foundation
Washington