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===4) Non-Partisan, Non-Profit "Scholars" Advance Partisan Agenda===
The ''National Review'' notes that the individual SPN member think tanks "develop many of the ideas that rightward candidates can run on."<ref name="NR"/> But this effort goes far beyond generic talking points. In Wisconsin, for instance, the MacIver Institute ran a joint project fueled and funded by the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity group in support of Scott Walker’s recall election. In a $3 million "It's Working!" TV ad campaign with an accompanying website and townhall events, the two organizations touted the successes of Walker's policies, including policies impacting workers, local governments, public education, and social programs. The website echoed many of the claims on Walker's taxpayer-funded "Reforms and Results" website, which had resulted in a complaint to the state ethics board.<ref>Mary Bottari, [httphttps://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/11141/pro-walker-ads-courtesy-koch-industries Pro-Walker Ads, Courtesy of Koch Industries], ''PRWatch.org'', November 30, 2011.</ref>
In many states, there is a revolving door between SPN groups and the Republican establishment. For instance, the staff at the Massachusetts-based [[Pioneer Institute for Public Policy]] has extensive ties to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, [[Pioneer Institute#Ties to Mitt Romney|as documented here]].<ref>Center for Media and Democracy, [https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Pioneer_Institute Pioneer Institute for Public Policy], ''SourceWatch.org'' wiki, accessed April 2013.</ref>
{{#ev:youtube|_eRkDMZvhl4|310|left|Grant Bosse Testimony on HB 630-FN|frame}}Participants in SPN's predecessor organization, known as the Madison Group for its meetings at the ultra-luxurious Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C. (see [[SPN Founders, History, and Staff]] for more), "were active in assisting new state-based think tanks with public relations plans designed to garner press clippings from right-wing publications, along with state, local, and national newspapers and magazines. Despite corporate and conservative foundation support and a conservative agenda, these state-based think tanks were trained by the Madison Group to speak to the media and politicians in populist terms like 'Welfare Reform,' 'Empowerment of the Poor,' 'School Choice,' and now of course 'Paycheck Protection,'" according to a report.<ref>National Education Association, [http://web.archive.org/web/20020211103902/http://www.nea.org/publiced/paycheck/ The Real Story Behind 'Paycheck Protection': The Hidden Link Between Anti-Worker and Anti-Public Education Initiatives: An Anatomy of the Far Right, Chapter 4: "The State-Based Assault: The State Policy Network]," organizational report, 1998.</ref>
Today, SPN think tanks are hiring their own "investigative reporters" or hooking up with right-wing media outlets to push out their message. SPN’s 2007 annual meeting in Portland, Maine, included a session called "Strategies to Bring the Policy Heat: Collaborating with c-4s, Hiring Investigative Reporters and Using Litigation." Two years later, the [[Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity]] -- a national non-profit organization that was created to fill a void in state capitol reporting caused by the loss of a third of the nation’s journalism jobs since 1992 -- was founded.<ref>Rebekah Metzler, [http://www.kjonline.com/news/website-faulted-for-half-reporting-pingree-story_2010-10-01.html?pagenum=2 Website faulted for half-reporting Pingree story: Reports fail to allow other side to be given], ''Kennebec Journal'', October 2, 2010.</ref> The Franklin Center funds state news websites and wire services in more than 40 states. Despite their non-partisan description, many of these “news” websites have received criticism for their conservative bias.<ref>Sara Jerving, [httphttps://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/07/11636/how-right-wing-group-infiltrating-state-news-coverage How a Right-Wing Group Is Infiltrating State News Coverage], ''PRWatch.org'', July 12, 2012.</ref> A majority (37) of SPN think tanks host Franklin "reporters" or publish a Franklin-affiliated publication, according to a review by CMD.
As an example of how these outfits operate, New Hampshire's [[Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy]] (JBCPP) runs the Franklin site ''NewHampshire.Watchdog.org''. The think tank's staffer Grant Bosse edits the publication. Not only does he use the platform to spin disinformation -- such as publishing "news articles" on how the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is "all about money" while the publication and JBCPP strive to repeal it<ref>Grant Bosse, Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, [http://newhampshire.watchdog.org/11771/changes-in-greenhouse-gas-program-are-all-about-money/ Changes in Greenhouse Gas program are all about money], ''New Hampshire Watchdog'' organizational publication, February 19, 2013.</ref> -- but he testifies to the state legislature against policies like RGGI ''without disclosing his ties'' to the JBCPP or the Franklin Center, as shown by the video footage obtained by the organization Granite State Progress (at left).<ref>Granite State Progress, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eRkDMZvhl4 Grant Bosse Testimony on HB 630-FN], organizational video publication, March 21, 2013.</ref>
===9) "Special-Interest, Big Business Lobbying Groups?"===
Susan Goldwater, daughter of Barry Goldwater, the namesake of Arizona’s Goldwater Institute, called the institute “a special-interest, big-business lobbying group.”<ref>Tony Ortega, [http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1999-05-13/news/think-tank-warfare/ Think Tank Warfare], ''Phoenix New Times'', May 13, 1999.</ref> As of 2013, according to a report on the institute, “Goldwater has one registered lobbyist, its Executive Vice President Starlee Rhoades, and although senior staffer Nick Dranias is not registered as a lobbyist, many of his communications would strike a layperson as lobbying, but Arizona law has loopholes for providing ‘technical’ advice about legislation defining that not as lobbying. . . . Despite a steady stream of communication with Arizona state legislators about bills, referenced by number or popular name, that it wants to become law, the Goldwater Institute told the IRS that it spent only $184 on grassroots lobbying and $17,445 on direct lobbying, for a total of $17,669 in lobbying expenses in 2011, well below the permissible ceiling for such expenses as a 501(c)(3).”<ref>Center for Media and Democracy and Arizona Working Families, [httphttps://www.prwatch.org/files/Report_on_the_Goldwater_Institute_final.pdf A Reporter’s Guide to the Goldwater Institute: What Citizens, Policymakers, and Reporters Should Know], organizational report, March 14, 2013.</ref>
==SPN Publications==
