In 1994, six weeks before the midterm congressional elections in November, the Republican Party released a document it called the†Contract with America, a blueprint for the legislative initiatives the Republicans proposed taking if they were to win a majority in the House and Senate in the upcoming elections. The contract was written by Larry Hunter, who worked in the White House of President Ronald Reagan and was the chief economist of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Assisting him was House of Representatives minority whip Newt Gingrich, along with other Republican legislators such as Richard Armey, Bill Paxon, Tom DeLay, Robert Walker, John Boehner, and Jim Nussle. On September 27, 1994, the contract was inked by all but two Republican members of the House of Representatives and all of the Republican nonincumbent congressional candidates—a total of 367—in a mass signing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.