however, are trusted right-wingers like James G. Aldige III." By June 1975 Viguere, who by then occupied four floors of building in Falls Church, Virginia in suburban Washington, D.C., had come to the attention of New York Magazine. He had hired 250 nonunion employees (with "Full benefits. Good pay.") to "tend slowly turning computer reels, collate and update some 250 mailing lists carrying approximately 10 million names, handle the paper flow, and, most important, create the letters which inspire householders to mail in all that money." At the time Viguerie told the magazine that 15% of his business was in straight political campaigning for candidates, 30% in ideological efforts (such as opposing gun control), and the rest in "health and welfare" matters (such as the "Help Hospitalized Veterans" campaign). The article estimated that he would "dispatch some 50 million pieces of mail this year" and stated that "he is a phenomenal fund-raiser for conservative and/or populist causes and candidates. Viguerie is Godfather, Idea Man, And Savior to a gathering band of rightists eager to fund their dreams and vexations. …the people who mail $25 million a year to his clients get riled up over school busing, guns, law and order, pornography, permissive education, and the cause of Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama, whom most of them love." The magazine noted that at that point gearing up for the 1976 Presidential campaign he had "raised $3.5 million by direct mail for Wallace, [and] will hit $12 million by next spring". Direct-mail as a political strategy received a further boost when the Federal Election Campaign Act provided matching funds for small contributions. 1976 presidential primaries In 1976 Viguerie served as a fundraiser for George Wallace's campaign to win the nomination for president of the United States. After Wallace withdrew, Viguerie began to focus on the American Independent Party to oppose Republican President Gerald Ford and Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter. (Ford who had assumed the Presidency on August 9, 1974 when Richard Nixon resigned, had seen his own popularity suffer when on September 8, 1974 he had pardoned ex-president Richard Nixon for his involvement in the Watergate scandal.) George Wallace campaign George Wallace's 1968 presidential candidacy had been the reason the American Independent Party was formed, but he had foregone the party in 1972 to seek the Democratic nomination (in a campaign that ended when he was paralyzed by an assassination attempt).