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This story is a collaboration between In These Times and the Center for Media and Democracy of Madison, Wis.
With the 2012 legislative season and another episode of the Great American Campaign Circus dawning over the nation, Arizona may find itself the proving grounds for possible reform in the age of pay-to-play politics.
In January, Arizona Rep. Steve Farley (D-Tucson) will introduce the ALEC Accountability Act of 2012, which is aimed squarely at the less-than-transparent American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a national organization that advances corporate-authored model legislation at the state level through the use of a hidden distribution network of special interest cash.
This network, known as the ALEC scholarship fund, holds more than $1 million for state lawmakers to attend various functions (commonly referred to as junkets). At these functions, lawmakers are literally wined and dined by lobbyists seeking to advance the legislative agendas of their clients.
To Farley and proponents of the bill, the problem is absolutely clear. In a nutshell: ALEC is a lobbyist organization, but its corporate backers operate out of public view. If voters knew that [their lawmaker] was receiving a huge donation from BP, for example, then they might be less likely to vote for them, Farley says.
They would understand that their best interests were not necessarily being looked after. We should be as transparent as possible. We cant pretend that [legislation] was our idea when it came from ALEC and from a multinational corporation that had its own interests in mind.
con't
Will Arizona Hold ALEC Accountable? -- In These Times
my gawd, you want us to believe the Democrats aren't doing the same thing?
what do you think of the President meeting with Union leaders?
Show us how that is the same....
Are the meetings with president secret? It's usually in the news.