You have to see this video of a Michigan ALEC member trying to weasel out of admitting it

[highplainsdem]

Hector Solon, who posted this at Daily Kos and also posts here at DU, posted the link in my compilation topic on the American Legislative Exchange Council. Hector mentioned it in replies 159 and 164 there, but it deserves a topic of its own here. (My reply 162 there links to an ALEC press release about that state senator.)

Here's the link to Hector's Daily Kos diary about this:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/30/961742/-Michigan-State-Senator-Tom-McMillin-Denies-ALEC-Membership-at-Townhall-

Wed Mar 30, 2011 at 07:42 PM EDT
Michigan State Senator Tom McMillin Denies ALEC Membership at Townhall
by Hector Solon


The fact that corporations are writing America’s laws through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is starting to alarm many, including ALEC members who are passing the ALEC content-driven legislation in state house across the country.

At a Town Hall meeting on March 28, 2011 with a couple dozen concerned constitutions in attendance, Republican State Senator Tom McMillin denied membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and was according to eyewitnesses at the event ‘evasive” and "nervous" in his responses to multiple questions about his membership in ALEC and sponsorship of several ALEC-based bills introduced recently in the Michigan Legislature in Lansing.

-snip-

After repeated questioning by informed citizens Tom McMillin’s only response concerning his ties with the ‘secretive’ ALEC boiled down to “It doesn’t matter….”

McMillin: "Yeah saw some liberal blogs talking about that..."

-snip-

See Hector's diary for the video and much more information on McMillin.

[annm4peace]

1. YES! We have someone else getting out the info of A.L.E.C !

I just found out about it last week. When you look at the templete bills you can see how there are similar bills all over this country.

We know that in MN State Rep Mary Kiffmeyer is the head A.L.E.C. leader in MN. She used to be the GOP MN Secretary of State who tried change our voting here in MN

One Bill she authored and continues to push is Voter IDs,

Sadly she is also on the Health and Human Services Finance.

so if you go to A.L.E.C you can determind what bills are going to be "authored"

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Why would ALEC make them more nervous than any other right-wing think tank

that has done the same?

[highplainsdem]

3. Because those legislators are often introducing legislation and resolutions from ALEC that were

written or cowritten by corporations. ALEC is less about ideology than about bringing corporations and legislators together to draft laws that favor corporations and the rich, and that just doesn't look good to most voters.

The fact this is cookie-cutter legislation, in some cases drafted years earlier, also undercuts any state legislator or governor's argument that a bill that obviously hurts many people in a state is supposedly a response to a current problem in that state.

ALEC members have been aware for a long time that it doesn't look good for them to do this. Which is why they don't publish a complete list of their members, and why such former members as WI's Tommy Thompson said he'd try to "disguise" ALEC bills he took back to WI and make voters there think it was his own idea. (The quote is in that compilation topic.)

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Isn't this what has been happening for quite a while?

Legislators accepting bills written by lobbyists who are getting paid by corporations that provide big campaign donations?

Is ALEC high profile now because they've cut out the middle man?