Ed Crane

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For other uses, see Ed Crane (disambiguation).

Edward H. Crane is the founder and president of the Cato Institute.

In the 1970s, he was one of the most active leaders of the Libertarian Party. He was the Party's national chairman from 1974 to 1977, and managed Ed Clark's high-profile 1978 campaign to be Governor of California.

In 1977, with the funding of Charles Koch and the assistance of Murray Rothbard, Crane established the Cato Institute^{[citation needed]}, which would grow into the best-known libertarian think-tank in the world. Crane and Rothbard later disagreed with regards to Cato, spurring Rothbard to write a scathing indictment of Crane and Cato in the Libertarian Forum[1].

In 1983, Crane, along with many of his supporters, left the Libertarian Party following the Party's nomination of David Bergland, rather than Earl Ravenal, for President.^{[citation needed]}

In addition to his duties at Cato, Crane sits on the boards of many like-minded organizations, including Americans for Limited Government, a group that assists grassroots efforts throughout the country.