http://www.ucumberlands.edu/media/release.php?rk=871That particular article is about an award given by that university. The detail that interested me is several paragraphs down:
Mr. Williams was named the Republican Legislative Leader of the Year by the National Republican Legislators Association and also served as the group’s president. The non-partisan American Legislative Exchange Council also recognized him as Legislator of the Year.
As a 2011 gubernatorial candidate, running with Commissioner Richie Farmer, Mr. Williams hopes to broaden his service to Kentuckians.
I haven't been able to find out yet which year he was one of ALEC's Legislators of the Year. That information isn't even on his page on the Kentucky legislature's website:
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/legislator/s016.htmBut for him to get this kind of award from ALEC, it's a safe bet that he was instrumental in getting some of ALEC's model legislation through the Kentucky legislature.
Model legislation that can probably be traced to particular private-sector members of the ALEC task force the legislation emerged from.
I hope Kentucky Democrats will look into this closely and bring it up during the campaign.
Editing to add a link to the long compilation topic on the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where reply 106 quotes an ALEC document listing Kentucky as one of the states where ALEC's anti-HCR model bill, the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, has been introduced.
Kentucky is also part of ALEC's anti-EPA campaign:
http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=EPATrainWreck&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=15466http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/11RS/SR116.htm