Josh Barro, Columnist

The Odd Choice of Jim DeMint at Heritage

December 6, 2012 at 9:52 PM UTC

Josh Barro is the lead writer for the Ticker, Bloomberg View's blog on economics, finance and politics. His primary areas of interest include tax and fiscal policy, state and local government, and planning and land use. Previously, Barro was a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and a commercial real estate banker at Wells Fargo. He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard and lives in Queens, New York.

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Earlier this year, Tevi Troy wrote an outstanding essay for National Affairsdiscussing the increasing politicization and decreasing credibility of thinktanks over the last decade or so. This phenomenon is driven by the desires ofdonors who increasingly view think tanks as tax-advantaged vehicles forinfluencing political outcomes.

Today’s appointment of Tea Party Senator Jim DeMint to lead the HeritageFoundation provides an example of this trend, but with a twist. The DeMintchoice signals a shift toward more conservative activism from one of America’slargest think tanks and is sure to please conservative donors. But it’s notlikely to provide donors the political results they want. Instead, it is likelyto reduce the relevance of both DeMint and Heritage.