New 'blueprint' for free market policies out soon

With some Democrat-bashing and deep policy prescriptions, the Center of the American Experiment will release 'The Minnesota Policy Blueprint' on Thursday.

The conservative think tank says that its recommendations will emphasize, "personal initiative, free enterprise and a limited, frugal government. These recommendations will not merely "admire" problems. They will drive practical, deliverable solutions."

More than a decade ago the group released a nearly 300-page package of policies, funded by well known corporate and philanthropic Minnesota names and written by the state's Republican thinkers and officials. For years, Republicans developed and sometimes adopted the thinking from that document, particularly after Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty came to office in 2002.

Now, as Republicans have been largely shut out from government in Minnesota for two years, the Center is looking to renew those efforts.