Beyond the confines of the Capitol, conservatives regroup

[This story first appeared in the May 8, 2009 edition of the Weekly Report.]

One of the trends in modern
American political history is that the party out of power channels its
energy and resources into think tanks, political action committees, new
party organizations and advocacy groups. That’s certainly the case in
Minnesota with Democrats holding five of eight congressional seats and
overwhelming majorities in the legislature.

The newest group making making the biggest splash so far is the Freedom
Foundation of Minnesota (FFM), which was founded and is run by Annette Meeks and wonderfully staffed with Tom Steward and Jonathan Blake. The FFM roared out of the box with a study showing that municipal golf courses are losing millions of dollars a year that got great press.
The FFM has carved out a much needed niche in conservative interest
groups: in-depth study and analysis of local units of government.

Another group is a spin-off of the state’s best-known conservative
think tanks, the Center of the American Experiment, founded by Mitch Pearlstein.
In 2003, the Center of the American Experiment (CAE) started a project called
"Intellectual Takeout," which was a resource for students searching for
information on conservative issues. The Center has recently spun off
Intellectual Takeout into its own 501(c)(3), where it will exist as an
online-only think tank. Ronald James Schutz, former chair and CEO of American Experiment, will be the chair of the new organization.

This reforming of Intellectual Takeout is the product of a $40,000
grant the CAE received for purposes of redeveloping college student
involvement in their free-market mission.

The site is still in "beta," so a few areas aren’t
fleshed out completely. But as a stopping point for young people
interested in conservative politics, Takeout should be a useful
resource. The site was constructed to target the "preferred method of
consumption" for college students, and looks like a good start in that
regard. The Library section of the site has informative white papers
categorized by topic, with lots of auxiliary data tidbits.

On the new party front, the "Republican Metropolitan Committee" had its first event several weeks ago at the Minneapolis Club where GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty
was the featured speaker. The party is organized along Metropolitan
Council lines, and "the Committee will develop organizational
strategies and administrative structures keyed to election success, not specific ideologies
[emphasis ours]. Hundreds attended the event including many Minneapolis
GOP moderates - some very prominent ones who sort of dropped out in the
last decade or so. Named Committee founders include Mary Belfry, Carleton Crawford, Heather Flannery, Scott King-Ellison, Bill Opsahl, Jim Patterson, Chuck Shreffler, Kathryn Schroeder, Lyall Schwarzkopf, Denise Sheehy, Mike Vekich.

Finally, the Freedom Club has new leadership. Not surprisingly, there
is no Website to link to this highly influential group of (mostly) men
with money who fund GOP candidates and causes. Founded by Phil Gramm for president supporters, by businessman Bob Cummins and others, including Mike Wigley and Bill Cooper, the group carries enormous clout in MN GOP circles. Powerline blogger John Hinderaker is handing over leadership of the group to Harold Hamilton. We first wrote about Hamilton a few weeks ago, noting that the speaker schedule at the Minnesota Tea Party wasn’t that inspiring, except for Hamilton. The Micro Control Co. founder and Minnesota Watchdog blog author
was the perfect person to deliver a "this [the federal debt, an
out-of-control government] is not a Republican or Democratic issue,
it’s everybody’s issue" message.

Hamilton has a compelling
personal history. He grew up in rural Nebraska where he rode a horse to
school, joined the Navy and learned electronics, was laid off by a
company at the age of 43 and then started his own company, Micro
Control, located in Fridley, where he now employs 160.

As an aside, here’s a fun tidbit I bet you didn’t know. The Freedom
Club supports candidates on the basis of their fiscal conservatism. In
2008, the group was divided about whether to support then-GOP U.S. Sen.
Norm Coleman. By a mere one vote, the group did ultimately support Coleman.