Lamm, B

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Byron_S.Lamm" title="Byron S. Lamm">Byron S. Lamm</a> was the founding executive director of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/State_Policy_Network" title="State Policy Network">State Policy Network</a> (SPN), from 1992<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-SPN2002-0">[1]</a> until January 2000.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-SPN-4">[5]</a> According to a 1994 article in The Boston Globe, Lamm was a talk-radio show host, and he told the Globe that SPN often broadcast its messages via talk radio.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,_and_Staff#cite_note-14">[15]</a>

Lamm is a managing partner of Pin Oak Group, LLC, an investment firm in Fort Wayne, Indiana.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-Bio-15">[16]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-16">[17]</a> He co-founded<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-Bio-15">[16]</a> and is president of the board of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Indiana_Policy_Review_Foundation" title="Indiana Policy Review Foundation">Indiana Policy Review Foundation</a>, an SPN-member think tank founded in 1989.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-17">[18]</a> He is on the board of directors of the Roe Foundation.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-18">[19]</a> He has previously been chairman of the board of the Center for Education Reform, a group committed to education privatization;<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-Bio-15">[16]</a> and on the board of directors of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Property_and_Environment_Research_Center" title="Property and Environment Research Center">Property and Environment Research Center</a>

(PERC, formerly the Political Economy Research Center), which describes

itself as a “free market environmental” group committed to deregulation

of industry and to the privatization of public assets;<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-19">[20]</a> and the Center for Civic Renewal.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-20">[21]</a> He has funded the Heartland Institute.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-21">[22]</a>

Lamm has personally given $56,455 to Republican and Libertarian

politicians and PACS from 1998 to September 2012, including $1,500 to

the influential right-wing political group Club for Growth and its PAC.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-22">[23]</a>

Please see <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Byron_S._Lamm" title="Byron S. Lamm">Byron S. Lamm</a> for more.

<h3> Tracie Sharp</h3>

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Tracie_Sharp" title="Tracie Sharp">Tracie Sharp</a> , president of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/State_Policy_Network" title="State Policy Network">State Policy Network</a>

(SPN) since January 2000, had previously served on its board of

directors for 14 years. She was the executive director and one of the

founders of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Cascade_Policy_Institute" title="Cascade Policy Institute">Cascade Policy Institute</a>,

Oregon's market-oriented think tank, from 1991 to 1999. She worked in

the areas of education and social security privatization.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-SPN-4">[5]</a>

In 2012, a list of 2010 funders of an SPN member think tank in Texas, the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Texas_Public_Policy_Foundation" title="Texas Public Policy Foundation">Texas Public Policy Foundation</a>

(TPPF), that was disclosed to the IRS was inadvertently made public.

The list of funders revealed is an important case study in how SPN's

member think tanks are funded, and by whom. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch_Industries" title="Koch Industries">Koch Industries</a>, for example, gave $159,834 directly to TPPF, in addition to $69,788.61 from the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Claude_R._Lambe_Foundation" title="Claude R. Lambe Foundation" class="mw-redirect">Claude R. Lambe Foundation</a>, which is a Koch Family Foundation. SPN itself gave TPPF $49,306.90, but what's more, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Tracie_Sharp" title="Tracie Sharp">Tracie Sharp</a>,

SPN's executive director, was the contact person for an additional

$495,000. These two grants, for $300,000 and $195,000, were listed as

being received from the "State Think Tank Fund" and the "Government

Transparency Fund," respectively -- two funds about which virtually

nothing is known.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-23">[24]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-24">[25]</a>

Sharp represents SPN as a member of the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> (ALEC). She is a member of ALEC's <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Education_Task_Force" title="Education Task Force">Education Task Force</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-25">[26]</a> and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Health_and_Human_Services_Task_Force" title="Health and Human Services Task Force">Health and Human Services Task Force</a>.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-26">[27]</a> She was the recipient of ALEC's 2009 <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Award_Winners" title="ALEC Award Winners">Private Sector Member of the Year Award</a>.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-27">[28]</a>

Sharp is also a trustee to the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Roe_Foundation" title="Roe Foundation">Roe Foundation</a> and to the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Special_Hope_Foundation&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Special Hope Foundation (page does not exist)">Special Hope Foundation</a>,

a "family foundation supporting innovative projects to assist the

causes of the physically, emotionally, and developmentally disabled," a

biographical note states. In 1993, Sharp founded HOPE-Oregon, a

Portland, Oregon-based "private volunteer effort to provide health care

education services to low-income families."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-SPN-4">[5]</a>

"Previously, Ms. Sharp worked with Washington State radio commentator and Republican Party leader <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Carlson&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="John Carlson (page does not exist)">John Carlson</a> as director of programs at the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Washington_Institute_for_Policy_Studies" title="Washington Institute for Policy Studies" class="mw-redirect">Washington Institute for Policy Studies</a> in Seattle."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SPN_Founders,History,and_Staff#cite_note-SPN-4">[5]</a> Please see <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Tracie_Sharp" title="Tracie Sharp">Tracie Sharp</a> for more.