We now have confirmation of the rumors that were flying all weekend: Jim DeMint is out as head of the Heritage Foundation:
The Heritage Foundation’s Board of Trustees, by a unanimous vote, has asked for and received the resignation of Jim DeMint as president and CEO of the organization. The Board elected Heritage Founder Ed Feulner as president and CEO while we conduct a thorough search for his successor.
After a comprehensive and independent review of the entire Heritage organization, the Board determined there were significant and worsening management issues that led to a breakdown of internal communications and cooperation. While the organization has seen many successes, Jim DeMint and a handful of his closest advisers failed to resolve these problems.
This was a difficult and necessary decision for the Board to take. As trustees, we have governance and oversight responsibilities for this organization and our 500,000 members. We were compelled to take action.
Founder Ed Feulner will be reclaiming his old job, thought at 75 it remains to be seen how much gas he has left in the tank.
Many believe that DeMint was ousted for reasons of organization and approach rather than ideology:
DeMint isn’t being forced out because of his politics. The firebrand will be extinguished because of complaints about his leadership, several sources confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
When DeMint left Congress for Heritage in 2013, it seems that he never left the Senate behind. “The reason why the board got upset with him was his mismanagement,” a source with knowledge of the situation explained. “DeMint and his people just tried running the place like a Senate office rather than a think tank. It didn’t work.”
While few fault the South Carolina conservative for mixing it up with Capitol Hill, his critics complain that the former senator didn’t secure a proper policy footing before throwing political punches. That supposed disconnect manifested itself in the apparent disconnect between Heritage and Heritage Action, the organization’s 501(c)4 lobbying arm.
“The board just wants Action to keep doing its job,” the source explained. “But that means they need to be backed up by the think tank side of things.”
Ahead of a massive grassroots army, Heritage Action can easily blow up legislation they find ideologically unacceptable. But after the dust settles, those conservative politicos complain that their corresponding wonks haven’t equipped them with a policy substitute to offer lawmakers.
Others pinned DeMint’s ouster on Mike Needham, CEO of Heritage Action for America, the organization’s political arm, and DeMint’s apparent coziness to the Trump administration. That Atlantic piece says Needham wanted to take over from DeMint. This Washington Examiner piece says no, he was just trying to restore Heritage, having seen it go off the rails. It also paints Heritage as an organization in (cue Scott Adams persuasion word) chaos:
Just as Capitol Hill prepares to tackle healthcare reform, the biggest conservative voice in politics is choking on itself. Already DeMint’s influence seemed like it was waning. The Policy Services and Outreach Department (which DeMint founded and which regularly competed with Heritage Action for influence) curiously stood up congressional staffers for a meeting and inexplicably deleted its Twitter account.
Finally, here DeMint defends his tenure. It’s a bit pro forma.
This is all a shame, and a rather surprising outcome given that DeMint stepped down from the Senate to take the reigns at Heritage.
Heritage was a real powerhouse in the 1980s, providing much of the intellectual underpinning of the Reagan revolution. Their various Mandate for Leadership documents provided blueprints for much of Reagan’s reforms.
I rejoined Heritage as a supporter when DeMint in hopes that he could wake a sleeping giant. But I let my membership lapse because I never saw notable signs of action out here beyond the beltway.
Hopefully whoever takes over Heritage next can restore it to some of its former glory.