Maple Grove, MN – The Rush Creek Golf Club’s event space was filled with the din of knives and forks, scraping and tapping ceramic to the tune of conspiratorial chit chat, as a fluorescent white audience –mostly over the retirement age — shared with one another the latest misinformation to come across their Facebook feeds.

At one of the many tables in the room, an old man in a trucker hat broke the ice with the man sitting next to him by diving right into the assassination of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman. For him, it was just another example of how the Democrats will stop at nothing to steal his tax dollars.

“That was just the illegals,” the man said between bites of food. “Can you imagine where else they’re putting money?”

The other man listened attentively, eating the complimentary lunch that was included with the $20 entrance fee.

At the very front of the space, blocking the room’s view of white men in polo shirts cruising around on golf carts outside, was a projector screen displaying a title slide with the stamp-like logo of the event’s purpose: the so-called ‘Minnesota Department of Government Efficiency,’ or ‘MN DOGE.’

This was the thirteenth of such events held by the Center of the American Experiment, Minnesota’s largest right-wing think tank. Before Maple Grove, the tour made appearances in such cities as St. Cloud, Duluth and Brainerd.

In the demonstration at the golf club, the Center’s representatives had a plexiglass tube set up with a bunch of red, white and blue balls. Each color of ball represented an amount in imagined savings, and when the tube filled the room would celebrate the thought of a $2 billion surplus.

As they went through a series of hypothetical budget cuts, the audience would murmur and act outraged.

“The first $2 billion in cuts balance the budget,” Center President John Hinderaker said. “With another $2 billion in cuts, we can pay for some modest tax cuts.”

Hinderaker went through budget items one after another that the Center considers wasteful. After a number of cuts to public education and health care, he proposed $200 million in cuts be put back into the budget to pad out spending on law enforcement.

Minnesota ranked first in spending on people with disabilities, $15,000 more than the next state, according to Martha Njolomole, the Center’s economist. According to Njolomole, more than half of the respondents in a recent poll published by the Center said they were aware of this.

“Minnesotans are really proud to be the state that cares,” Njolomole said. “But too much generosity gets you into trouble, and that’s what we have going on right now.”

The presenters went from one proposed budget cut to another, chipping away at the fiscal generosity that the presenter had just said enjoys popular support. After each dollar amount was nominated for the tube, gasps and murmurs could be heard from the audience, making clear they were in the minority of Minnesotans who were unaware of the state’s spending.

“Jesus Christ,” one audience member could be heard saying after each number was read off.

The Center is one well-connected node in a large network of right-wing money moving through Minnesota and the United States, with unfettered access to the billfolds of billionaire donors and the bent ears of Republican legislators. The Center lately attempted to repurpose DOGE branding to attack public spending in Minnesota.

According to its own website, the Center is “more than a think tank. It not only researches and produces papers on Minnesota’s economy, education, health care, the family, employee freedom and state and local governance. It also crafts and proposes creative solutions that emphasize free enterprise, limited government, personal responsibility and government accountability.”

Last year’s annual dinner gala held by the Center featured former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as the keynote speaker and hundreds of pro-Palestinian counter protesters outside the venue.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Greeted by Hundreds of Protesters in Minneapolis – June 2024

The Center counted over $1 million in assets on its 2024 tax form, in addition to $4.3 million in revenue and $4.15 million in expenditures. Since 2021, the Center has had an average of $1.43 million in assets each year and typically sees over $4 million in revenue and expenditures.

The Center is not relegated to the margins, riling up retired cranks at golf courses. The group appeared in front of Minnesota’s House Ways and Means Committee in February to present its tirade on public spending to a room full of the state’s legislative leadership on behalf of the committee’s chairman, Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Lake Hanska). The Center was the first group invited to speak as the committee to discuss the state’s budget.

“Obviously we hit some sore spots on the other side of the aisle, and that’s just fine by me,” Torkelson said at the end of the committee meeting. “Efficiency in government is critical to serving people well.”

At one point during the meeting, Rep. Ginny Klevorn (DFL-Plymouth) questioned presenters about the source of the Center’s funding and its affiliation with donors and other right-wing groups. Chairman Torkelson took issue with this line of questioning.

“We all have axes to grind and you’ve done a nice job of grinding today. I would encourage members not to disparage the presenters, that’s not really acceptable,” Torkelson said. “Questioning their motives by questioning their resources is not appropriate.”

“I did not impugn motives,” Klevorn interjected.

A month later, the Center’s representatives were brought into the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, where they went over the Center’s waste and abuse tracker. Members of the DFL went in on the presenter for picking arbitrary numbers to represent the fraud, including one figure that was disputed by the Office of the Legislative Auditor.

“The definition of fraud, deception that is wrongful and results in gain; this is a deception,” Rep. Dave Pinto (DFL-St. Paul) said, holding up a paper copy of the Center’s waste and abuse tracker. “What has just happened here has been fraud. I hope this is the last time this committee or any other serves as a conduit for deceptive information from the Center of the American Experiment. This should be the last time.”

That would not be the last time the Center would appear before a legislative committee. Former representative Matt Dean would testify before the House Health Finance and Policy Committee on April 2.

Beyond the Center’s appearances in the halls of power, a number of Republican legislators have appeared on The Center of the American Experiment Podcast. Guests include current Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring), as well as a number of committee chairs.

During the meeting at the golf course, Sen. Warren Limmer (R-Maple Grove) was given a shoutout by the presenters, and the rest of the audience applauded him. In 2012, Limmer was the author of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, which was ultimately rejected by a majority of voters.

That the Center is so well connected with the state’s Republican Party is the product of years of lobbying, network building and millions of dollars in political expenditures from its board members and related organizations. It was founded in 1990 and is a registered 501(c)(3) nonpartisan entity.

The Center is an affiliate of the State Policy Network (SPN), a nation-wide network of right-wing think tanks. Currently, SPN has 65 total affiliated think tanks, including the Center, in 50 states and Washington, D.C.

SPN acts as the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) policy, communications and litigation arm, “giving the cookie-cutter ALEC agenda a sheen of academic legitimacy and state-based support,” according to the Center for Media and Democracy.

ALEC is a nonprofit composed of state legislators and private sector representatives that draft and distribute model legislation for state governments throughout the United States. Its many legislative priorities include fighting unions, undercutting healthcare reform, privatizing schools and denying climate change.

At SPN’s 21^st Annual Meeting in 2013, President Tracie Sharp referred to the non-profit’s strategy as the “IKEA Model,” according to a 2013 New Yorker article. Like IKEA, the model entails a catalog of state policy projects that contribute to SPN’s agenda, such as material on fighting teachers’ unions.

“Pick what you need and customize it for what works best for you,” Sharp said, referring to the raw material and service support offered by SPN to its affiliated think tanks.

SPN’s network also includes partnerships with Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, DonorsTrust, the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation among many others.

But the Center is not wholly reliant on SPN for funding. In 2022, the Center received a $250,000 grant from Charles Koch’s Stand Together Trust.

Between 2019 and 2023, the Center received $345,000 in contributions from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a Milwaukee-based grantmaking organization that purports to support limited government. In 2021, Unicorn Riot reported on money from the Bradley Foundation causing increased conflict at school board meetings.

School Board Disruptions Escalate, Funded By Conservative Dark Money – Sept. 2021

Alongside its grants to the Center of the American Experiment, the Bradley Foundation also gave more than $1.1 million to the State Policy Network and $2.6 million to the American Legislative Exchange Council during the same five-year period.

The Bradley foundation contributed $2.5 million to climate change denial movements from 2014 to 2020, making it the sixth largest donor to such movements in the United States, according to a report from the Center for Media and Democracy.

According to the Bradley Impact Fund, the donor-advised fund affiliated with the Bradley Foundation, SPN’s mission is “to catalyze thriving, durable freedom movements in every state, anchored with high-performing, independent think tanks.”

The State Policy Network will hold its 32nd annual meeting this August in New Orleans, where thousands are expected to attend. It will likely have a price tag in the millions.

Such an event would likely not be possible but for its 70 different corporate sponsors, including; Chase, Citibank — both contributing $50,000 each — Meta ($25,000) and Google ($10,000).

John Hinderaker has been president of the Center since 2016. He was previously a practicing lawyer known for running the Power Line conservative blog under the moniker “Hindrocket.”

In addition to his current position, Hinderaker serves as secretary and treasurer for the Minnesota Parents Alliance and the president and treasurer for the American Experiment Foundation.

Hinderaker has sat on the board of directors for the Freedom Club, a Minnesota-based 501(c)(4) non-profit. Its political action committee, since its founding in 2011, has been a major contributor to Republican candidates in Minnesota. The Freedom Club’s executive director is Alex Kharam, the president of Alpha News.

From 2019 to 2023, the Center provided Alpha News with 15% of its total revenue through grants. Alpha News includes a tag for the Center on its website and regularly receives favorable coverage from the news organization.

Media Bias/Fact Check rates Alpha News’ factual reporting as low and places them on the extreme right of political bias.

Also on the Freedom Club’s board of directors is the Center’s chairman, Ron Eibensteiner, a venture capitalist with a long history in Minnesota’s Republican politics.

Eibensteiner served as the chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party from 1999 to 2005, failing in his bid to seek reelection after being indicted on campaign finance law violations (he was eventually acquitted).

Eibensteiner’s name can be found all over the network of right-wing groups in the state. In addition to his positions at the Center of the American Experiment and the Freedom Club, Eibensteiner is the secretary and treasurer of Take Charge Minnesota, the chairman of the Minnesota Parents Alliance, the chairman of the American Experiment Foundation — the Center’s fundraising arm — the director of the Upper Midwest Law Center — the Center’s legal arm — and the treasurer for the Minnesota Private Business Council.

The Minnesota Private Business Council (MPBC) was started by the GOP’s state attorney general candidate James Schultz in 2023.

Renew Minnesota is an independent expenditure committee that belongs to MPBC, and during the 2024 election it spent roughly $1.2 million, making it one of the top spenders during that election cycle. Because of his role as treasurer, Eibensteiner’s signature is on every transfer of money from MPBC to Renew Minnesota.

One year before Renew Minnesota was formed, another independent expenditure committee existed with the same name, though it did not see any fund move through it and was terminated before the year ended. Ron Eibensteiner was listed as its chair.

In the five-year period between 2020 and 2024, members of the Center’s current board of directors have spent nearly $1 million in total on elections in Minnesota, with more than 98% going toward Republican candidates or Republican committees. Nearly 70% of those donations went to one of the four committees: the House Republican Campaign Committee, the Senate Victory Fund (Republican), the Republican Party of Minnesota and Right Now MN — a Republican-aligned Super PAC.

Among those board members, Tom Rosen stands out for contributing nearly half of the total amount spent during that period. Rosen is the CEO of Rosen’s Diversified, Inc, an agricultural holding company that includes such agricultural names as American Foods Group, Scientific Life Solutions and Rosen’s Inc. 

Back in Maple Grove at the very end of the meeting at the golf club, Hinderaker implored his audience to make donations. According to him, the Center has 10,000 individual donors across the state, with a median donation of $50.

“So, we welcome grassroots support,” Hinderaker said. “We depend on grassroots support.”

About the author: L. Cam Anderson lives in Minneapolis and is a journalism student at the University of Minnesota.

Cover image created and contributed by L. Cam Anderson.

---

Follow us on X (aka Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, BlueSky and Patreon.

Please consider a tax-deductible donation to help sustain our horizontally-organized, non-profit media organization: