A L E C - The American Legislative Exchange Council.

[AVG-JOE]

Comprised mostly of Republican State Legislators, Governors and Corporate Sponsors, ALEC is a clearinghouse for legal corruption, diverting millions in state tax dollars to corporate members through tax favoritism and no-bid privatization of government services. This group brings corporate cronyism, corruption and mercenary lobbying to a whole new level.

Preview: United States of ALEC | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com

This week, Moyers & Company reports on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of America has never heard of — ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a “nonpartisan public-private partnership”. But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge.

ALEC, which is registered as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code, traces its roots to 1973, when the conservative activist Paul M. Weyrich and several other Republicans sought to create a state-level clearinghouse for conservative ideas. Although its board is made up of legislators, who pay $50 a year to belong, ALEC is primarily financed by more than 200 private-sector members, whose annual dues of $7,000 to $25,000 accounted for most of its $7 million budget in 2010.

Some companies give much more, all of it tax deductible: AT&T, Pfizer and Reynolds American each contributed $130,000 to $398,000, according to a copy of ALEC’s 2010 tax returns, obtained by The Times, that included donors’ names, which are normally withheld from public inspection. The returns show that corporate members pay stipends — it calls them “scholarships” — for lawmakers to travel to annual conferences, including a four-day retreat where ALEC spends as much as $250,000 on child care for members’ families.

“We know its mission is to bring together corporations and state legislators to draft profit-driven, anti-public-interest legislation, and then help those elected officials pass the bills in statehouses from coast to coast,” said the president of Common Cause, Bob Edgar. “If that’s not lobbying, what is?”

ALEC, a Tax-Exempt Group, Mixes Legislators and Lobbyists - NYTimes.com

ALEC Is a Lobby, Not a Charity - WSJ.com - The evidence is overwhelming: This nonprofit is not entitled to tax-exempt status.

A lot of ALEC legislation appears to have been drafted by companies that are members of the organization to enhance their profits. It's understandable, and not necessarily bad, that companies support legislation that benefits them. But the way ALEC hides its initiatives—wining and dining state legislators behind closed doors at resort hotels and then stepping into the background as those legislators introduce the bills under their own names—is deceptive.

More...

ALEC: The Voice of Corporate Special Interests In State Legislatures | People For the American Way

What is ALEC? - Alec Exposed

ALEC Gets a Break From State Lobbying Laws | Mother Jones



Fair and simple taxes...

Public budgets that are balanced by law...​

Transparency in all things politics.​

Then, build an economy that your kids can drive to the stars.

It ain't rocket science, y'all.

 

[kiwiman127]

Yup, these bad boys were behind the Stand Your Ground legislation, the Voter ID laws and are fighting pollution laws like crazy among other issues.
ALEC is a Koch Brothers tool and it's up to no good. It's the far right's very own ACORN is a sense except much more powerful because of all the corporate money flowing into it. It certainly represents Plutocracy which threatens our Democratic process by drowning out the people's voices with Big Money..

 

[AVG-JOE]

Corporate List:

ALEC corporations - Common Cause

_______________

Corporations who have deserted ALEC (Current through 07/2012)

Corporations that have left ALEC - Common Cause

 

[Wry Catcher]

ALEC is a neo-fascist organization. It's members are wrapped in our flag and carrying the cross, yet are opposed to the values both represent.

 

[Katzndogz]

Sounds like ALEC is just what we need. Republicans need to cut the democrat controlled government loose and start seeing up alternative bodies. A shadow government specifically designed to interfere with the obama regime.

 

[kiwiman127]

Sounds like ALEC is just what we need. Republicans need to cut the democrat controlled government loose and start seeing up alternative bodies. A shadow government specifically designed to interfere with the obama regime.

^^^^^
Now there's a fella that just loves the concept of Plutocracy.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Sounds like ALEC is just what we need. Republicans need to cut the democrat controlled government loose and start seeing up alternative bodies. A shadow government specifically designed to interfere with the obama regime.

Did you actually read what you wrote?!?

Shadow government? Pass!

No wonder the Republicans are slipping closer and closer towards irrelevance with every passing day.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Comprised mostly of Republican State Legislators, Governors and Corporate Sponsors, ALEC is a clearinghouse for legal corruption, diverting millions in state tax dollars to corporate members through tax favoritism and no-bid privatization of government services. This group brings corporate cronyism, corruption and mercenary lobbying to a whole new level.

In essence corporations writing Federal and state laws regulating corporations.

Republican members of Congress and in other legislative venues should simply turn over their seats to the CEOs, and cut out the middleman altogether.

This also exhibits the idiocy of the right’s whining about America becoming ‘socialist.’

 

[Seawytch]

Comprised mostly of Republican State Legislators, Governors and Corporate Sponsors, ALEC is a clearinghouse for legal corruption, diverting millions in state tax dollars to corporate members through tax favoritism and no-bid privatization of government services. This group brings corporate cronyism, corruption and mercenary lobbying to a whole new level.

In essence corporations writing Federal and state laws regulating corporations.

Republican members of Congress and in other legislative venues should simply turn over their seats to the CEOs, and cut out the middleman altogether.

This also exhibits the idiocy of the right’s whining about America becoming ‘socialist.’

^^^^^ This ^^^^^

Corporate interests are WRITING the laws and handing them over to RW legislators who get them passed. Imagine if it were the Sierra Club doing the same?

 

[AVG-JOE]

Democracy ROCKS!!

ALEC, Meet ALICE | ACS

This new awareness and scrutiny of ALEC is all to the good. But even better would be a progressive counter to its influence. What that would really require is probably beyond anyone’s immediate means, as it would mean matching the vast political infrastructure the Right has built in states over the last 40 years. Along with ALEC’s conferences and library of model bills, this includes broad and deep networks for mass and internal communication, staff and leadership development, candidate recruitment and training, enough recognized leadership to permit assessments of progress and strategy discussion, and a dedicated pool of patient capital for all these things. National progressive donors and institutions have never shown commitment to matching this machine, much less the coordination that such matching would require.

Recently, however, that may have begun to change. As Katrina vanden Heuvel reports in The Washington Post, over the past few months a variety of progressives active in state and local politics have come together, with unusual good feeling and focus, to jointly map their assets and develop the coordination routines needed for such infrastructure. A project I’ve helped start is part of this fledgling effort. Called ALICE (American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange), it aims to provide a one-stop, web-based, public library of progressive model law on a wide variety of issues in state and local policy. ALICE won’t be hosting state legislators at all-expenses-paid retreats anytime soon, and as a 501(c)(3), we won’t be involved in any campaigns, but we do think we can match or exceed ALEC’s model bill service. We’ll be providing model bills for local legislators as well as state ones, and models for executive-originating law (regulation and executive orders) and direct citizen-lawmaking (through ballot initiatives or referenda) as well as legislation. And along with model law language, we plan on providing commentary, policy options, and written supports in argument for it (documentation of its positive effects, public support, talking points, etc.).

As long as TRANSPARENCY remains a focal point,

 

[AVG-JOE]

The American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange (ALICE)

ALICE
Here, in one place, sorted by major conventional categories of state and local policy, you’ll find hundreds of examples of “exemplary” laws, meaning good law that’s been introduced or enacted somewhere, worthy of replication. You’ll find a smaller number of “model” laws, meaning suggested general language for a law, ready to be tailored to a particular jurisdiction. And you’ll find different kinds of “support” for both, meaning background research, talking points, and other aids in their effective communication. There are other resources too to help you in your work. Some are on line here. Others are planned.

 

[Seawytch]

What are we paying legislators for?

 

[AVG-JOE]

Same thing that the corporate interests are paying them for I suppose, promoting and protecting our interests in the legislative process. It's the closed doors, special consideration, secret deals and 'Shadow Government' that pisses me off.

Transparency in all things politics. Without it, reaching for the stars will remain a dream.

 

[WillowTree]

Sounds like ALEC is just what we need. Republicans need to cut the democrat controlled government loose and start seeing up alternative bodies. A shadow government specifically designed to interfere with the obama regime.

Did you actually read what you wrote?!?

Shadow government? Pass!

No wonder the Republicans are slipping closer and closer towards irrelevance with every passing day.

I'll be glad when they're gone. For we now know that demoncraps are devoid of corruption and are pure at heart in all things in heaven and earth. Yep we knows it fo sho.

 

[Sallow]

Yup, these bad boys were behind the Stand Your Ground legislation, the Voter ID laws and are fighting pollution laws like crazy among other issues.
ALEC is a Koch Brothers tool and it's up to no good. It's the far right's very own ACORN is a sense except much more powerful because of all the corporate money flowing into it. It certainly represents Plutocracy which threatens our Democratic process by drowning out the people's voices with Big Money..

ALEC is nothing like ACORN. ACORN was interested in housing poor people and getting them involved in the political process. Giving the poor a "buy in" to society generally helps them out of poverty.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Sounds like ALEC is just what we need. Republicans need to cut the democrat controlled government loose and start seeing up alternative bodies. A shadow government specifically designed to interfere with the obama regime.

Did you actually read what you wrote?!?

Shadow government? Pass!

No wonder the Republicans are slipping closer and closer towards irrelevance with every passing day.

I'll be glad when they're gone. For we now know that demoncraps are devoid of corruption and are pure at heart in all things in heaven and earth. Yep we knows it fo sho.

Sarcasm not withstanding Willow, you're wrong.

It's up to us, We, The People, to INSIST on transparency in the legislative process from all sides. The Democrats have proven that they are just as susceptible to graft and corruption as anyone, and ALICE needs to be watched and kept in the front row just like ALEC should have been all these years.

The base problem is not a Republican one, it's a willingness to sell legislation to the highest bidder, and a system that promotes that behavior.

Transparency for the Right...

Transparency for the Left...​

Transparency for all of Government.​

 

[PredFan]

Comprised mostly of Republican State Legislators, Governors and Corporate Sponsors, ALEC is a clearinghouse for legal corruption, diverting millions in state tax dollars to corporate members through tax favoritism and no-bid privatization of government services. This group brings corporate cronyism, corruption and mercenary lobbying to a whole new level.

Preview: United States of ALEC | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com

This week, Moyers & Company reports on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of America has never heard of — ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a “nonpartisan public-private partnership”. But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge.

ALEC, which is registered as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code, traces its roots to 1973, when the conservative activist Paul M. Weyrich and several other Republicans sought to create a state-level clearinghouse for conservative ideas. Although its board is made up of legislators, who pay $50 a year to belong, ALEC is primarily financed by more than 200 private-sector members, whose annual dues of $7,000 to $25,000 accounted for most of its $7 million budget in 2010.

Some companies give much more, all of it tax deductible: AT&T, Pfizer and Reynolds American each contributed $130,000 to $398,000, according to a copy of ALEC’s 2010 tax returns, obtained by The Times, that included donors’ names, which are normally withheld from public inspection. The returns show that corporate members pay stipends — it calls them “scholarships” — for lawmakers to travel to annual conferences, including a four-day retreat where ALEC spends as much as $250,000 on child care for members’ families.

“We know its mission is to bring together corporations and state legislators to draft profit-driven, anti-public-interest legislation, and then help those elected officials pass the bills in statehouses from coast to coast,” said the president of Common Cause, Bob Edgar. “If that’s not lobbying, what is?”

ALEC, a Tax-Exempt Group, Mixes Legislators and Lobbyists - NYTimes.com

ALEC Is a Lobby, Not a Charity - WSJ.com - The evidence is overwhelming: This nonprofit is not entitled to tax-exempt status.

A lot of ALEC legislation appears to have been drafted by companies that are members of the organization to enhance their profits. It's understandable, and not necessarily bad, that companies support legislation that benefits them. But the way ALEC hides its initiatives—wining and dining state legislators behind closed doors at resort hotels and then stepping into the background as those legislators introduce the bills under their own names—is deceptive.

More...

ALEC: The Voice of Corporate Special Interests In State Legislatures | People For the American Way

What is ALEC? - Alec Exposed

ALEC Gets a Break From State Lobbying Laws | Mother Jones



Fair and simple taxes...

Public budgets that are balanced by law...​

Transparency in all things politics.​

Then, build an economy that your kids can drive to the stars.

It ain't rocket science, y'all.

Yay! Good for them.

 

[PredFan]

Yup, these bad boys were behind the Stand Your Ground legislation, the Voter ID laws and are fighting pollution laws like crazy among other issues.
ALEC is a Koch Brothers tool and it's up to no good. It's the far right's very own ACORN is a sense except much more powerful because of all the corporate money flowing into it. It certainly represents Plutocracy which threatens our Democratic process by drowning out the people's voices with Big Money..

Woot woot! Yay Koch Brothers!

 

[PredFan]

Sounds like ALEC is just what we need. Republicans need to cut the democrat controlled government loose and start seeing up alternative bodies. A shadow government specifically designed to interfere with the obama regime.

Good idea, I like it.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Why?