Maine Heritage Policy Center

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 Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) is a conservative think tank based in Portland, Main. MHPC states as its mission to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise; limited, constitutional government; individual freedom; and traditional American values--all for the purpose of providing public policy solutions that benefit the people of Maine." MHPC is a member of the State Policy Network (SPN).

Funding

In its 2006 annual report the Cato Institute states that it made a grant of $50,000 to the Maine Heritage Policy Center.

Ties to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity

Through its media project The Maine Wire, The Maine Heritage Policy Center is listed as a Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity "Statehouse News Bureau". 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 ALEC

The Maine Heritage Policy Center is a state think tank member of SPN, which is a private sector member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). MHPC also has ties to ALEC through its efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act. MPHC hosted the director of ALEC's Health and Human Services Task Force, Christie Herrera, at a 2010 event it held in Portland: “ObamaCare: How Maine Can Fight Back.”

MHPC has also participated in the ALEC Education Task Force. Stephen Bowen represented the Maine Heritage Policy Center at the task force meeting during ALEC's 2010 annual meeting..

Bowen went on to become Commissioner of the Maine Department of Education in 2011.

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

Staff

• J. Scott Moody, Chief Executive Officer
• David Crocker, Director, Center for Constitutional Government
• Joel Allumbaugh, Director, Center for Health Reform Initiatives
• Peter A. Steele, Director of Communications
• Heather Noyes, Director of Development
• Sam Adolphsen, Director of Government and External Affairs
• Amanda Clark, Development and Research Associate

Board of Directors

• Peter Anania, President, Anania & Associates
• John Chandler, Managing Partner, BerryDunn
• Jinger Duryea, President, C. N. Brown Company
• Hon. Neal B. Freeman, Chairman, The Blackwell Corporation
• W. R. Jackson, Jr., Retired President, Pitt-Des Moines
• Jeff Kane, President, National Distributors
• James Ward, JD, President and Principal, Patient Advocates

Board of Advisors

• Joel Allumbaugh, National Worksite Benefit Group
• Deborah Dunlap Avasthi, HRH Northern New England
• Hon. Joe Bruno, Community Pharmacies
• David Crocker, Esq., Solicitor
• Ronald Drouin, Retired
• Scott Fish, As Maine Goes
• Susan Hamill, The Dette Company
• Hon. Philip E. Harriman, Lebel & Harriman
• Chet Jordan, Digital Architecture
• Lisa G. Martin, Manufacturers Association of Maine

Board of Adjunct Fellows

• Joe Crosby, Council on State Taxation
• James Frogue, Center for Health Transformation/Gingrich Group
• James Hamilton, For Our Grandchildren
• Roy W. Lenardson, Strategic Advocacy
• Kyle Pomerleau, Georgetown University
• John Reisman, University of Maine, Machias
• Dr. Margo Thorning, American Council for Capital Formation
• Dr. Wendy P. Warcholik, Public Choice Analytics for the U.S. States

Core Financials

2010:

• Total Revenue: $1,071,606
• Total Expenses: $1,153,631
• Net Assets: $216,943

2009:

• Total Revenue: $1,306,093
• Total Expenses: $1,291,520
• Net Assets: $298,968

Contact Details

P.O. Box 7829
Portland, Maine 04112
Phone: 207 321 2550
Fax: 207 773 4385
E-Mail: info At mainepolicy.org
Website: http://www.mainepolicy.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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