Progressive Groups Merge in Effort to Counter ALEC in State Capitols
For more than 40 years the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council has pushed conservative ideas in state capitols – and on Wednesday two relatively young progressive organizations announced they are merging to try to push back.
The Progressives States Network and the American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange – ALICE, compared to the conservative ALEC – are merging in order to push state-level progressive legislation.
“For nearly a generation, conservatives have outpaced us at the business of movement-building in states,” ALICE Executive Director Nick Rathod wrote in an email sent Wednesday to would-be donors and friendly lawmakers. “They have focused hard on it, poured resources into it, and have been ruthlessly efficient at it. Starting now, we will do the same.”
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Mr. Rathod, who previously worked in the first-term Obama White House, the Center for American Progress and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, called the merger “a serious move” to build a liberal version of the corporate- and Koch-funded ALEC, which pushes similar conservative legislation simultaneously across the country. The 39-year-old will serve as executive director of the merged groups, which will assume a new name later this year.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/07/16/progressive-groups-merge-in-effort-to-counter-koch-backed-alec/
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