Center of the American Experiment

Learn more about corporations VOTING to rewrite our laws.

Learn more about how the State Policy Network aids ALEC and spins disinformation in the states.

The Center of the American Experiment (CAE) is a "conservative and free market" think tank in Minnesota. It is a member of the State Policy Network (SPN).

Ties to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity

The Center of the American Experiment hosts writers from the ALEC-connected Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which screens potential reporters on their “free market” views as part of the job application process. The Franklin Center funds reporters in over 40 states. Despite their non-partisan description, many of the websites funded by the Franklin Center have received criticism for their conservative bias. On its website, the Franklin Center claims it "provides 10 percent of all daily reporting from state capitals nationwide."

Franklin Center Funding

Franklin Center Director of Communications Michael Moroney told the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) in 2013 that the source of the Franklin Center's funding "is 100 percent anonymous." But 95 percent of its 2011 funding came from DonorsTrust, a spin-off of the Philanthropy Roundtable that functions as a large "donor-advised fund," cloaking the identity of donors to right-wing causes across the country (CPI did a review of Franklin's Internal Revenue Service records). Mother Jones called DonorsTrust "the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement" in a February 2013 article. Franklin received DonorTrust's second-largest donation in 2011.

The Franklin Center also receives funding from the Wisconsin-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a conservative grant-making organization.

The Franklin Center was launched by the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance (SAM), a 501(c)(3) devoted to pushing free-market ideals. SAM gets funding from the State Policy Network, which is partially funded by The Claude R. Lambe Foundation. Charles Koch, one of the billionaire brothers who co-own Koch Industries, sits on the board of this foundation. SAM also receives funding from the Rodney Fund.

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

SPN is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Additionally, CAE board member, John Gibbs, represents Comcast Corporation on the ALEC Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force.

Please see SPN Ties to ALEC for more.

About ALEC

ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site.

Personnel

Board of Directors

• Keith Kostuch, Chairman and CEO
• Mitchell B. Pearlstein, Ph.D., President
• Kim Crockett, J.D., Chief Operating Officer, Executive Vice President & General Counsel
• Thomas O. Kelly, III, Vice Chairman (Attorney, Dorsey & Whitney)
• Mark S. Larson, Secretary (Attorney, Messerli & Kramer)
• Scott Rile, Treasurer (Principal, Bernstein Global Wealth Management)
• Edward C. Anderson (CEO, National Arbitration Forum)
• Mitchell Davis (Business Leader, Davisco Foods)
• Ronald E. Eibensteiner (Venture Capitalist, Wyncrest Capital, Inc.)
• Carolyn Erickson (Partner, CSM Investments)
• John F. Gibbs (Vice President, Government Affairs, Comcast Corporation)
• Harrison T. Grodnick (Owner & Manager, Minneapolis Portfolio Management Group)
• John W. Hedberg (Retired Business Executive, Hedberg Family Foundation)
• Lowell W. Hellervik (CEO, Personnel Decisions International)
• Robin Norgaard Kelleher (Attorney, Seaton, Beck & Revnew)
• Jack Lanners (CEO & Business Leader, F.T.L. Corporation)
• Rick Leggott (Founder & CEO, Arbor Capital Management)
• Eduard Michel, M.D. (Co-Founder, Virtual Radiologic Corp.)
• Richard G. Morgan (Attorney, Bowman & Brooke)
• Kenneth W. Morris (VP, Author & Speaker, The Apercu Group)
• Rick Penn (Senior VP and President of the Disk Drive Components Division, Hutchinson Technology)
• Thomas J. Rosen (CEO & Business Leader, Rosen's Diversified Inc.)
• Ronald J. Schutz (Attorney, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi)
• Charles E. Spevacek (Attorney, Meagher & Geer, P.L.L.P.)
• Bruce Taher (President & CEO, Taher Inc)

Core Financials

2010:

• Total Revenue: $711,473
• Total Expenses: $651,873
• Net Assets: -$22,834

2009:

• Total Revenue: $744,556
• Total Expenses: $658,994
• Net Assets: -$82,434

Contact Information

12 South 6th Street, Suite 1024
Minneapolis, MN 55402
612-338-3605 (Phone)
612-338-3621 (Fax)
http://www.amexp.org

Articles and Resources

Related SourceWatch Articles

• State Policy Network:
  • SPN Funding
  • SPN Agenda
  • SPN Founders, History, and Staff
  • SPN Members
  • SPN Ties to ALEC
  • Thomas A. Roe
  • Tracie Sharp
  • Byron S. Lamm
  • Roe Foundation
• American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
  • ALEC Non-Profits
• DonorsTrust
• Donors Capital Fund
• Koch Family Foundations
• Koch Industries
• Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity
• Heritage Foundation
• Think tanks
• Whitney Ball
• Adam Meyerson
• Bridgett Wagner

Related PRWatch Articles

• Rebekah Wilce, A Reporters’ Guide to the "State Policy Network": the Right-Wing Think Tanks Spinning Disinformation and Pushing the ALEC Agenda in the States, PRWatch.org, April 4, 2013.
• Sara Jerving, ALEC and Heartland Aim to Crush Renewable Energy Standards in the States, PRWatch.org, November 27, 2012.
• Connor Gibson, Meet the Network Hiding the Koch Money: "Donors Trust" and "Donors Capital Fund", PRWatch.org, October 29, 2012.
• Brendan Fischer, Koch-Funded Mackinac Center Brings Wisconsin Act 10 Provisions to ALEC, PRWatch.org, May 2, 2012.
• Sara Jerving, Franklin Center: Right-Wing Funds State News Source, PRWatch.org, October 31, 2011.

External Resources

• Center for Media and Democracy and Arizona Working Families, A Reporter’s Guide to the Goldwater Institute: What Citizens, Policymakers, and Reporters Should Know, organizational report, March 14, 2013.
• Paul Abowd, Center for Public Integrity, Donors use charity to push free-market policies in states, Consider the Source, February 14, 2013.
• John R. Mashey, Fake science, fakexperts, funny finances, free of tax 2, DeSmog Blog report, updated October 23, 2012, p. 74.
• Andy Kroll, The Right-Wing Network Behind the War on Unions, Mother Jones, April 25, 2011.
• Guidestar, State Policy Network, IRS filings and other organizational information about SPN.
• Center for Policy Alternatives, ALEC and the Extreme Right-Wing Agenda, organizational brochure about ALEC and SPN.
• John J. Miller, Fifty Flowers Bloom: Conservative think tanks — mini–Heritage Foundations — at the state level, National Review, November 19, 2007.
• Bridge Project, State Policy Network, online resource listing grants to SPN and SPN's connections to other groups.
• People for the American Way, State Policy Network, RightWingWatch.org, organizational resource.
• Greenpeace, Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group: State Policy Network (SPN), organizational resource.

References

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