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Last edited Mon Mar 24, 2014, 10:18 AM - Edit history (2)
ALEC Goes Hyper Local With New Nationwide Network
March 7, 2014
The American Legislative Exchange Council ALEC has had quite a bit of success writing model bills that advance the interests of its corporate backers and then wining and dining friendly state lawmakers to grease the wheels for their passage. Now, the organization is looking to replicate that success on the local level with a new sister organization, according to a report by Ed Pilkington in The Guardian.
Pilkington writes:
The American Legislative Exchange Council, founded in 1973, has become one of the most pervasive advocacy operations in the nation. It brings elected officials together with representatives of major corporations, giving those companies a direct channel into legislation in the form of ALEC model bills.
Critics have decried the network as a corporate bill mill that has spread uniformly-drafted rightwing legislation from state to state. ALEC has been seminal, for instance, in the replication of Floridas controversial stand-your-ground gun law in more than 20 states.
Now the council is looking to take its blueprint for influence over statewide lawmaking and drill it down to the local level. It has already quietly set up, and is making plans for the public launch of, an offshoot called the American City County Exchange (ACCE) that will target policymakers from villages, towns, cities and counties.
The new organization will offer corporate America a direct conduit into the policy making process of city councils and municipalities. Lobbyists acting on behalf of major businesses will be able to propose resolutions and argue for new profit-enhancing legislation in front of elected city officials, who will then return to their council chambers and seek to implement the proposals.
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023257445
Full Show: United States of ALEC A Follow-Up
June 21, 2013
A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC the American Legislative Exchange Council 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.
In state houses around the country, hundreds of pieces of boilerplate ALEC legislation are proposed or enacted that would, among other things, dilute collective bargaining rights, make it harder for some Americans to vote, and limit corporate liability for harm caused to consumers each accomplished without the public ever knowing whos behind it. Using interviews, documents, and field reporting, the episode explores ALECs self-serving machine at work, acting in a way one Wisconsin politician describes as a corporate dating service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests.
Former health care industry executive Wendell Potter says, Even though Id known of [ALEC] for a long time, I was astonished. Just about everything that I knew that the health insurance industry wanted out of any state lawmaker was included in that package of bills.
Following up on a 2012 report, this update includes new examples of corporate influence on state legislation and lawmakers, the growing public protest against ALECs big business-serving agenda, and internal tactics ALEC is instituting to further shroud its actions and intentions.
United States of ALEC Executive Producer Tom Casciato says people who saw the first report might be surprised to learn that, despite more than 40 companies having dropped out of ALEC, the organization is still going very strong. He adds, ALEC doesnt publish a list of its members, so covering will always be hard, but in a democracy its a good idea for people to know where their laws originate.
United States of ALEC is a collaboration between Okapi Productions LLC (filmmakers Tom Casciato and Kathleen Hughes) and the Schumann Media Center, headed by Bill Moyers, which supports independent journalism and public watchdogs including the Center for Media and Democracy, and Common Cause, whose investigators are featured in the report.
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http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/05/17/shining-sunlight-on-a-secretive-lobby-group/
Shining sunlight on a secretive lobby group
Published on May 17th, 2013
Written by: Nancy MacLean
<snip>
As a U. S. historian, I am deeply alarmed at the growing power of this secretive body, founded by the longtime right-wing strategist Paul Weyrich in 1973 and bankrolled by some of the largest corporations in America.
<snip>
Breathtakingly unethical and cynical in the extreme, the effort worked. It helped build a mass base for the Republican right. As the religious right turned citizens against one another through a deliberately amped-up culture war, ALEC quietly built a powerhouse out of the limelight.
Today, as we have witnessed in North Carolina, the group can move the same legislation in dozens of states at once. In neighboring Virginia, Weyrichs and Falwells home state, ALECs minions in the General Assembly have been even more audacious: as the New York Times reported in February of this year, Virginia GOP legislators introduced more than 50 ALEC-proposed laws, many practically word for word.
<snip>
Our nation has never seen a bolder private bid to transform public lifeeven in the heyday of corporate influence, the Gilded Age. Every school child (at least in public schools) encounters the irrefutable evidence that this period between the overthrow of Reconstruction in 1877 and the progressive reforms of the early 1900s was the nadir of American democracy; a period in which corporations controlled both major parties, virtually ran the Congress, and produced corruption on a scale that left even brilliant humorists like Mark Twain at a loss for words. What most people today dont understand, though, is that this dismal era was the golden age of the ALEC version of liberty.
..more..
stillwaiting
(3,795 posts)Not surprising in the least. Thank you for sharing. We must be able to expose them for what they are doing.
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)They didn't succeed, mainly because of the progressives.
rurallib
(62,387 posts)I am pretty sure the group involved in Coralville was Americans for Prosperity. For all practical purposes same group.
ALEC usually wines, dines and bribes after they are elected.
AFP spends big bucks and lies constantly to get their chosen elected.
If I recall every body except for a few were pissed that the Kochs were throwing such crap into a little local election. They will be back and you can be sure next time the candidates will help pick candidates that will be more open.
Watch out for county supervisor and school board elections.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)Check this blog for articles on pushback.
http://www.blogforiowa.com/tag/alec-in-iowa/
rurallib
(62,387 posts)I believe Trish and I were among the early ones to expose ALEC in Iowa. Kind of proud of it.
But boy-oh-boy they are non-stop.
When you ask a Republican about ALEC they claim ALEC is just like the National Council of State Legislators.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)Last edited Mon Mar 24, 2014, 07:11 PM - Edit history (1)
Well done. I check it periodically for updates. I love this state and I don't want to see the sense of fairness here lost. I like our caucuses and redistricting process. I worry that Branstad will weasel out another election and then go dark. I think he has shown restraint because he wants another term so badly. I don't like him at all.
rurallib
(62,387 posts)into Wisconsin or Michigan.
I believe most people in Iowa want fairness which is why there was such an uproar in Coralville.
But 99% of Iowans have no idea who ALEC is or what they do. So like all repug operatives they sound so good on paper and through their spokes people.
BFIA - I am the weekend person. I do Saturday and Sunday including the quiz. I love playing with that. We would love to get more people who want to write to get some more opinions/news out there.
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)that he wasn't truthful. Actually, I think I probably brushed him off as ineffective and not the brightest street lamp in the block.
Now, I find myself questioning his denials of certain accusations, such as the supposed buyout of Democrats. I'm beginning to think he may have taken the same Governing:101 course as Scott Walker and that is unsettling.
Surely he won't be reelected...AGAIN!
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)I think he is a slightly more low key version of Bush with a smaller sphere of influence. I remember when he was in back in the day and he started austerity back then. He was the first governor to empty the state's rainy day funds on purpose. He also tried to break AFSCME by ignorning binding arbitration.
I've seen Bill Moyers documentary on ALEC twice. It's a must watch. Thanks for the info.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... faced a Tea Party challenge in the primary last week in her bid to win re-election as a Township Committeeman. This is a small position in a rural area; she won her primary with 32 votes. Not by 32 votes, with 32 votes. That's how small we're talking.
But her opponent spent an estimated $4,000 - $6,000 on flyers, yard signs and newspaper ads, all to garner 26 votes. My friend knows her opponent well, a man who had never showed an interest in politics before and who clearly was not in a position to finance or run his own campaign. His key issues: school "reform" and cutting property taxes.
ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)Botany
(70,447 posts)These people are very un-American.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts).....thanks for sharing that.
Botany
(70,447 posts)John sold the state of Ohio 480 million $s of junk paper from Lehman Brothers in 2004 / 05
to the public employees retirement account. To this day John will not say how much of
a commission he walked away with either.
John does not live in the Governor's mansion (5 minutes from his office) but instead he
lives 45 minutes away in his private house @ a much greater cost to the people of Ohio.
John's "Jobs Ohio" which replaced the Department of Development and through it
"they" borrowed 4 billion from wall street / banks and bought ALL THE PROFITS TO STATE
LIQUOR SALES for the next 10 years and that is worth $15 billion on the low end.
John is a slimy con man ..... if the people of OH really knew about him he would lose in
landslide.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts).....how he's bowing to the fracking lobby. Happy that he backed off leasing out the Ohio Turnpike. Pretty despicable how he cut income taxes and raised the sales tax shifting the burden more onto the middle class. Sad thing is, the polls show he's likely to be re-elected.
Botany
(70,447 posts)Our job is get the real story out about Kasich ..... his scams would make Bernie Maddof
blush. And please remember Kasich is nowhere near as strong as he is made out to be.
He got his ass kicked on issue 5.
Also remember we are the majority in this state ..... Obama won by a nice margin and
so did Sen. Brown too.
this is important
/understatement
glinda
(14,807 posts)then the candidates need to be outed. I think this goes for Koch (& similar) funded folks as well. Education, information and public ads. This is horrible.....
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)That's what happened at the state level.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
kristopher
(29,798 posts)The only way this is going to be addressed successfully is by building on Dean's idea for a 50 state strategy. ALEC pushes ideas this way precisely because the ideas themselves can't gain popular support. With a Dem organization capable coordinated action at all levels these corporations might as well be flushing their money down the toilet.
However, as things stand they pose a real threat.
Chathamization
(1,638 posts)Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)......that more power to the states will result in more freedom. I watched Moyer's 56 minute video and found it well worth the time. Thanks for offering that resource G_J.
certainot
(9,090 posts)it. much of their success is tied to their close relationships with local blowhards and their stations, facilitated through the ALEC GOP stink tanks.
here are two ways the left can challenge it:
put what the main local talkers are saying into a readable searchable form so it can be monitored and responded to within the week in other media. and protests at the stations if it warrants it to challenge attacks and lying. transcription software is getting better and all new macs with the mavericks OS can download the free apple transcription software.
protest state funded schools that broadcast sports on rw radio. over 28% of limbaugh stations piggyback over 70 universities that way https://sites.google.com/site/universitiesforrushlimbaugh/ they get community credibility and ad dollars with those associations and the money the school is paid for the licensing rights is miniscule compared to the money the damage those stations do to the schools with anti science, attacking and defunding teachers and public ed, etc. a few schools shamed into honoring their mission statements and pulling out of those associations could start a trend. most stations might have to change formats.
nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)this is our alt-weekly's local column called Happytown, covering a recent POWER GRAB in Orange County that has ALEC written all over it. Read the whole piece, it's worth it for a view into how this plays out on a local stage.
http://orlandoweekly.com/news/alec-resurfaces-with-local-angle-1.1648742
ALEC resurfaces with local angle
New city and county focus by bill mill raises more questions about corporate influence in Orange County government
I wouldnt be surprised if our [board of county commissioners] didnt serve as a model for this sort of lobbyist interference in policy-making. In the [Guardian] article they mention giving corporate America a direct conduit to the policy-making process, she says in an email. Thats exactly what we saw in textgate, where each commissioner and the Mayor had a different corporate lobbyist (or lawyer, or special friend) giving them marching orders during the public hearing on how to derail the ballot measure.
Now we see that these same corporate interests are using Fred Brummer as a conduit for a huge power grab that would shut citizens out of the policy process altogether while delivering a partisan victory to Rick Scott, as hell be able to appoint new Hispanic commissioners if this passes, she continues. The power grab is partisan, its anti-voter and its goal is to make big business the only voice heard in our local government. This is what ALEC and their new local-level group would like to see everywhere.
G_j
(40,366 posts)Though that is putting it nicely. They are essentially trying to undermine any remaining vestages of the goverenment being by and for the people.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)so they get reinforcements...