Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research

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{{#badges:AEX}} The Pioneer Institute (PI) is a conservative think tank that describes itself as "committed to individual freedom and responsibility, limited and accountable government, and the application of free market principles to state and local policy".[1] It houses and runs the Center for School Reform,[2] the Shamie Center for Better Government,[3] and the Center for Economic Opportunity.[4] It is known for having a staff that has served in various positions in the recent Republican Massachusetts governors’ administrations (Weld, Cellucci, Swift,[5] and Romney).[6]

Controversies

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

The Pioneer Institute is a state think tank member of the State Policy Network, which is a private sector member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

PI is also a member of the ALEC Education Task Force.[7][8]

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 ExposedbyCMD.org site.

Ties to Mitt Romney

The following are known connections between the Pioneer Institute and 2012 U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney:

  • Charles Chieppo, the institute’s current Senior Media Fellow and former director of the Pioneer Institute’s Shamie Center for Restructuring Government, was Romney’s Policy Director in the Executive Office of Administration and Finance.[6]
  • Jim Peyser, the institute’s Executive Director from 1993-2000, is a member of Romney’s 2012 campaign’s education policy advisory committee, was chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education during Romney’s administration, and was an education advisor to Romney during his time as governor.[6]
  • Steve Poftak, the institute’s current Research Director, was head of the Executive Office of Administration and Finance in the Romney administration, where he oversaw the state budget.
  • Charles Baker, former executive director of the Pioneer Institute, was a Romney advisor in 2003 and chaired his transition advisory committee on healthcare before he became governor. Baker would go on to be the Republican Party’s gubernatorial nominee in 2010.
  • Kerry Healey, Romney’s Lieutenant Governor, is a current member of the Pioneer Institute’s Board of Directors.
  • Peter Nessen simultaneously served on the Pioneer Institute’s Board of Directors and as the chief education advisor to Romney during his time as governor.
  • Erin Blake, Pioneer Institute’s development director, worked on Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign.
  • Mary Z. Connaughton, Pioneer Institute’s Director of Finance and Administration, was appointed by then-Governor Romney to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board of directors.
  • Josh Archambault, current Director of Health Care Policy at the Pioneer Institute, was a senior legislative aide in the Massachusetts Governor’s Office during the Romney administration.
  • Former District Court Judge Daniel B. Winslow, who served as then-Gov. Romney’s chief legal counsel, won the institute’s “Better Government” competition for proposals to reform the judiciary.

Ties to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity

The Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research is listed as hosting Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity "investigative journalists." [9] The Franklin Center funds reporters in over 40 states.[10] Despite their non-partisan description, many of the websites funded by the Franklin Center have received criticism for their conservative bias.[11][12] On it's website, the Franklin Center claims that it "provides 10 percent of all daily reporting from state capitals nationwide." [13]

Funding

The Franklin Center was launched by the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance (SAM),[14] a 501(c)(3) devoted to pushing free-market ideals. SAM gets funding from the State Policy Network,[15] which is partially funded by The Claude R. Lambe Foundation.[16] Charles Koch, one of the billionaire brothers who co-own Koch Industries, sits on the board of this foundation.[17] SAM also receives funding from the Rodney Fund. The Franklin Center also receives funding from the Wisconsin-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation,[18] a conservative grant-making organization.[19]

Pioneer's History: Ties to Oil and Gas Magnate and GOP Apparatchiks

The Pioneer Institute was founded with a $160,000 grant (and matching grants requested from personal friends)[20] in 1988 by businessman Lovett C. Peters (1913-2010), who made his millions in the oil and gas industry, including at Energy Ventures, Conoco and Bankers Trust. Civil rights attorney Harvey A. Silverglate told the Boston Globe upon Peters' death in 2010, "His creature, the Pioneer Institute, follows Pete’s lead . . ." Peters' son Daniel runs the Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation, a major donor to the cause of education privatization.[21] Peters received the "Roe Award" -- named after SPN founder Thomas A. Roe -- from SPN and the "Champions of Freedom Award" from SPN member the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan. He was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society[22] (a right-wing "free market" organization convened in 1947 by economist F.A. Hayek that counts among its current and former members Charles G. Koch[23] and Thomas A. Roe).[24]

According to the Boston Globe, "the Shamie Foundation . . . is actually the forebear of the Pioneer Institute, which took over its registration number with the secretary of state's office and the attorney general's division of public charities. [Prominent Massachusetts Republican politician Raymond] Shamie is a contributor to Pioneer." Shamie was chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party when Pioneer was founded in 1988. The Institute spent the two years between its founding and the election of Massachusetts' first Republican governor in 16 years, William F. Weld, "trash[ing] state programs," and the Globe called the organization "an agenda-setting forum for the administration" of then-Governor-elect Weld.[20]

The Institute has focused on charter schools and education reform in Massachusetts since the early 1990s.[25] The organization also focuses on government transparency, privatization, economic development, government spending, and healthcare.

Personnel

Staff

  • Jim Stergios, Executive Director
  • Mary Z. Connaughton, Director of Finance and Administration
  • Joshua Archambault, Director of Health Care Policy and Program Manager, Middle Cities Initiative
  • Jamie Gass, Director of the Center for School Reform
  • Shawni Littlehale, Director of Pioneer’s Better Government Competition
  • Erin Elefante, Director of Development
  • Micaela Dawson, Director of Communications
  • Brian Patterson, Development Coordinator
  • Iliya Atanasov, Senior Fellow on Finance
  • Charles D. Chieppo, Senior Media Fellow
  • John Friar, Senior Fellow on Jobs & the Economy
  • Stephen Lisauskas, Senior Fellow on Urban Revitalization
  • Amy Lischko, Senior Fellow on Health Care

Board of Directors

Officers

  • Stephen Fantone, Chairman
  • Lucile Hicks, Vice-Chair
  • C. Bruce Johnstone, Vice-Chair
  • Nancy Anthony, Treasurer
  • Jim Stergios, Executive Director
  • Mary Z. Connaughton, Clerk & Assistant Treasurer

Members

  • Steven Akin
  • Nancy Coolidge
  • Stephen Fantone
  • Douglas Foy
  • Kerry Healey
  • Ellen R. Herzfelder
  • Charles C. Hewitt, III
  • Lucile Hicks
  • C. Bruce Johnstone
  • Preston McSwain
  • Alan Morse
  • Beth Myers
  • Mark Rickabaugh
  • Diane Schmalensee
  • Kristin Servison
  • Brian Shortsleeve
  • Patrick Wilmerding
  • Emmy Lou Hewitt, honorary
  • Edna Shamie, honorary
  • Phyllis M. Stearns, honorary
  • William B. Tyler, Chairman Emeritus

Core Financials

2009[26]:

  • Total Revenue: $1,372,090.00
  • Total Expenses: $1,342,630.00
  • Net Assets: $1,715,824.00

2010[27]:

  • Total Revenue: $1,255,039.00
  • Total Expenses: $1,475,754.00
  • Net Assets: $2,040,246.00

2011[28]:

  • Total Revenue: $1,255,039.00
  • Total Expenses: $1,475,754.00
  • Net Assets:$2,040,246.00

Contact Information

Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research
85 Devonshire Street
Boston, MA 02109
Phone: 617-723-2277
Fax: 617-723-1880
URL: http://www.pioneerinstitute.org

References

  1. ↑ Pioneer Institute, Pioneer Institute, organizational website, accessed 2012
  2. ↑ Pioneer Institute, Staff, organizational website, accessed February 2013.
  3. ↑ Pioneer Institute, Shamie Center for Better Government, organizational website, accessed February 2013.
  4. ↑ Pioneer Institute, Center for Economic Opportunity, organizational website, accessed February 2013.
  5. ↑ Paul Dunphy and Mark Umi Perkings, Political Research Associates, The Pioneer Institute: Privatizing the Common Wealth, book published by research organization, July 2002.
  6. ↑ Jump up to: 6.0 6.1 6.2 Yvonne Abraham, Pioneer Group’s Voice Grows Stronger, Think Tank’s Influence Seen In Romney’s Plan (sub. req'd.), Boston Globe, March 17, 2003.
  7. ↑ American Legislative Exchange Council, Education Task Force Meeting, Spring Task Force Summit, The Westin Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina, May 11, 2012, organizational meeting agenda, May 11, 2012, document obtained and released by Common Cause.
  8. ↑ Pioneer Institute, Rejection of Anti-Common Core Model Legislation a Sad End to Bizarre Process, organizational press release, November 29, 2012.
  9. ↑ Statehouse News Bureaus, Source Watch, accessed March 23, 2012
  10. ↑ The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. Think tank Journalism: The Future of Investigative Journalism. Organizational website. Accessed August 19, 2011.
  11. ↑ The Portland Press Herald. 'Watchdog' website puts a new spin on politics'. News website. Accessed August 19, 2011.
  12. ↑ Truthout. The Koch Spider Web. News website. Accessed August 19, 2011.
  13. ↑ Sara Jerving, Franklin Center: Right-Wing Funds State News Source, PR Watch, October 27, 2011
  14. ↑ Sam Adams Alliance. Sam Adams Alliance Media Kit. Organizational PDF. Accessed August 19, 2011.
  15. ↑ Media Matters Action Network. Sam Adams Alliance. Conservative Transparency. Accessed August 19, 2011.
  16. ↑ Media Matters Action Network. State Policy Network. Conservative Transparency. Accessed August 19, 2011.
  17. ↑ Media Matters Action Network. Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation. Conservative Transparency. Accessed August 19, 2011.
  18. ↑ The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Franklin Center boss wants apology from Democratic staffer. News website. Accessed August 19, 2011.
  19. ↑ The Bradley Foundation. The Bradley Foundation. Organizational website. Accessed August 19, 2011.
  20. ↑ Jump up to: 20.0 20.1 Joan Vennochi, Pioneer Institute, which has the ear of the new governor, emerged from the rubble of conservative think tanks (sub. req'd.), Boston Globe, December 11, 1990.
  21. ↑ J.M. Lawrence, Obituaries: Lovett ‘Pete’ Peters, founder of Pioneer Institute; at 97, Boston Globe, November 19, 2010.
  22. ↑ Pioneer Institute, About: Pioneer's Staff: Lovett C. Peters, organizational website, archived by the WayBack Machine January 10, 2010.
  23. ↑ Mercatus Center, Charles Koch, organizational biography, accessed February 2013.
  24. ↑ John J. Miller, Safeguarding a Conservative Donor’s Intent: The Roe Foundation at 39, Foundation Watch, Capital Research Center publication, May 2007, accessed September 2012
  25. ↑ Pioneer Institute, Pioneer's "Record of Achievement," organizational website, accessed February 2013.
  26. ↑ Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, IRS form 990, 2009. GuideStar.
  27. ↑ Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, IRS form 990, 2010. GuideStar.
  28. ↑ Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, IRS form 990, 2011. GuideStar.
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