Foundation Pushes Conservative, Libertarian Causes

Editor’s note: This is part of a series of occasional columns on groups attempting to shape public policy in New Mexico.

The Rio Grande Foundation is one of New Mexico’s most prominent public policy advocates, and like some other advocacy groups across the political spectrum, the foundation doesn’t talk about where it gets its money.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization under federal tax law, the Albuquerque-based foundation isn’t legally required to publicly disclose its financial supporters.

President Paul Gessing says donors assume their names will be kept private and that public disclosure of their names could chill future donations.

“We’re all complying with the law,” he says. “The proper issue is policies and moving New Mexico forward.”

But some of the donors to the Rio Grande Foundation are themselves nonprofit foundations, and they must report donations on their own federal tax returns, which are publicly available.

And those tax records reviewed by the Journal show the supporters of the Rio Grande Foundation include one of the country’s biggest donors to libertarian and other conservative organizations.

Tax returns of the Donors Capital Fund in suburban Washington, D.C., show the group gave $297,000 to the Rio Grande Foundation in 2010 and $122,500 in 2009. Its sister organization, DonorsTrust, gave another $7,500 to the Rio Grande Foundation in 2010.

The Donors groups are dedicated to limited government, personal responsibility and free enterprise. DonorsTrust also describes itself as “a conservative free-market alternative to the big liberal foundations.”

The Rio Grande Foundation bills itself as “a research institute dedicated to increasing liberty and prosperity for all of New Mexico’s citizens.”

“We do this by informing New Mexicans of the importance of individual freedom, limited government and economic opportunity,” the group says on its website.

The work of the Rio Grande Foundation includes reports on public policy issues, opinion articles for news outlets around the state and operation of the New Mexico Watchdog and Capitol Report New Mexico websites.

Authors associated with the foundation are frequent contributors to the opinion pages of the Journal, with more than 80 articles appearing since 2001.

The group favors government that is smaller, taxes and regulates less and is more transparent. It opposes collective bargaining and defined pension benefits for government workers, the Rail Runner, the Spaceport, the state’s rebate program for filmmakers and Obamacare. The foundation has been critical of both Republican and Democratic public officials.

Gessing, president of the foundation since 2006, has said liberals “seem to not understand the benefits of work.” He has also written, “Social Security and Medicare ARE welfare.”

Gessing formerly headed the lobbying efforts of the National Taxpayers Union, an anti-tax group, according to his official biography.

Former state Attorney General Hal Stratton, a Republican, formed the Rio Grande Foundation in 2000. It was later headed by John Dendahl, the sharp-tongued former state GOP chairman and unsuccessful candidate for governor.

The foundation had revenues of $450,785 and expenses of $421,834 in 2010, according to its federal tax returns, which are publicly available because the group is a nonprofit. Gessing earned nearly $84,000 in 2010.

As a 501(c)(3) group, the nonprofit can engage in issue advocacy and voter education, but it cannot endorse or oppose candidates in elections.

The foundation can engage in limited lobbying of public officials, but it doesn’t have a registered lobbyist at the state Capitol. Gessing has appeared at news conferences in Santa Fe, and the foundation last year ran radio ads opposed to a health care-related bill.

The foundation is an affiliate of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity in suburban Washington, D.C.

The Franklin Center says it was formed in 2009 because the legacy news media can’t provide the “real information” that voters need to make good decisions.

The center says its affiliates in 39 states are now providing 10 percent of all daily news reported from state capitals.

The Rio Grande Foundation’s New Mexico Watchdog and Capitol Report New Mexico websites feature original news, as well as news generated by other media outlets.

Original news from the websites has at times made its way into the so-called mainstream media.

In 2009, Watchdog reported that then-Lt. Gov. Diane Denish had used federal stimulus money to prepare Christmas cards, conduct a poll and pay for public relations staff.

Denish said the accusations were “reckless manipulations of the truth,” but they became fodder for Susana Martinez in her successful bid to defeat Denish in the 2010 gubernatorial election.

The investigative reporter for the Watchdog is Jim Scarantino, whose official biography says he is an Ivy League-educated lawyer who worked on the campaigns of both Democrats and Republicans before becoming a registered Republican. He worked on the presidential campaign of GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona in 2000.

The managing editor of Capitol Report is Rob Nikolewski, a self-described conservative who also writes a column for The New Mexican newspaper in Santa Fe.

The Rio Grande Foundation is also a member of the State Policy Network, based in suburban Washington, D.C., a 50-state network of members described as free-market think tanks.

The State Policy Network says it was formed in 1992 at the urging of former President Ronald Reagan. Its stated goal is to help its members better educate the public, policy makers and opinion leaders about market-oriented alteratives to state and local policy challenges.

The donors

The Rio Grande Foundation isn’t a membership organization, but Gessing says 450 to 500 individuals have made donations to the group since he took over in 2006.

Much of the money given to the foundation by the Donors groups has gone to fund the Watchdog and Capitol Report news organizations.

Donors Capital reported making grants of $41.1 million in 2010 to about 200 organizations across the country. DonorsTrust gave another $22.2 million.

Whitney Ball, president of Donors Capital and DonorsTrust, is also board member of the State Policy Network, and Donors Capital is a major financial backer of the network, the Franklin Center and other groups related to the Rio Grande Foundation.

Other recipients of grants from Donors Capital and/or DonorsTrust:

♦ The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank whose trustees include former Vice President Dick Cheney.

♦ The American Majority, headed by Ned Ryun, who is described as a rising star in the conservative and tea party movements.

♦ The Center for Competitive Politics, which opposes limits on campaign contributors.

♦ God’s World Publications, which says it trains students in critical thinking with a biblical foundation.

♦ The Acton Institute, which seeks to integrate “Judeo-Christian truths with free market principles.”

♦ The Middle East Forum, which says it protects the freedom of public speech of anti-Islamist authority, activists and publishers.

♦ The Project on Fair Representation, a legal project that has challenged the use of race in university admissions, according to The New York Times.

Others who have publicly disclosed financial support of the Rio Grande Foundation include the JM Foundation of New Jersey — which supports activities to promote self-sufficiency, personal responsibility and private initiative — and the Union Pacific Foundation, the primary philanthropic arm of the parent company of Union Pacific Railroad.

The JM Foundation gave $25,000 to the Rio Grande Foundation in 2011; the Union Pacific Foundation gave $15,000 this year.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Thom Cole at tcole@abqjournal.com or 505-992-6280 in Santa Fe. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal