IN JULY OF 1999, I began investigating a local Minneapolis Think Tank called the "Center of The American Experiment." Intuitively I had sensed very close connections between the Center, a 501(c)(3) charity, and the Republican Party of Minnesota, which set me out to find what actually was happening there.

To make a long story short, what I discovered was an interconnected web of conservative organizations spanning the gamut from academia to law to publishing to politics, all being funded and coordinated by a relatively small but wealthy group of philanthropies, chief among them the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Though the Center has only received about $241,000 directly from the philanthropies, nearly every one of its speakers and presenters is in some way connected to or funded by this movement.