Here are some selected opinions on ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) from an ALEC insider, as recently posted on the rightwing blog Redstate.com:
The Truth About ALEC
by positiveenerg, redstate.com -- Feb 27, 2012
I’ve been intimately involved with ALEC for over fifteen years. I thought I’d share an honest perspective about ALEC and what it is and isn’t, rather than have you fall prey to the nonsense-chanting, drum-beaters in the tin foil hats. [...]
And, ALEC is different. It’s different in that it adheres to it’s very open and publicly-stated philosophy of advancing the “Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government and the general public.” [...]
Many of the recent attacks on ALEC seem to focus to a great extent on ALEC’s work to promote “model legislation” to be considered in states across the country as some sort of devious plot to avoid the legislative process in the states. [...]
[...] And these “model bills,” if introduced by a legislator in a particular state, have no special status or fast-track to becoming law. They are merely bills written and introduced by a legislator, that must go through the exact same legislative process as any other bill introduced in that state. [...]
There is nothing nefarious or scary about ALEC [...].
I have served as a state private sector chairman for ALEC and I’ve previously served over ten years on both ALEC’s “Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development” and “Tax & Fiscal Policy” task forces. I’ve worked to support model resolutions for consideration, given presentations to task forces and been involved in the shaping of policy.[...]
Much of the criticism you may have seen or will continue to see about ALEC seems to be centered around the fact that the private sector is involved in ALEC and the ALEC process. [...]
The end result? Those legislators who serve on that ALEC task forces are vastly better informed than they otherwise would be. [...]
And despite the nonsense you may hear from ALEC critics, if these task forces reach consensus and agree on “model legislation” or a “resolution” or “statement of principles” related to a policy challenge, does the legislation get any special treatment if they choose to introduce it in their states? Nope. It’s introduced. It’s discussed in committee. It’s debated. [...]
So when you see the well-funded and coordinated attacks against ALEC that you are likely to see in the coming months, please recognize them for what they are — a misleading, unfair, inaccurate political attacks and nothing more.
Nope,
"nothing nefarious or scary about ALEC" at all
-- it's just your average libertarian-corporate interest group on steroids ...
those $25K a corporate-member steroids ...
There's nothing to see here people ... move along now ...
Who is in that little-old "public interest group" called ALEC, and what do they really want ... beside immunity from critical scrutiny?
ALEC: Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America
May 2010 -- American Association for Justice
[pg 3]
Behind the scenes at ALEC, the nuts and bolts of lobbying and crafting legislation is done by large corporate defense firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon. A law firm with strong ties to the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries, it has long used ALEC’s ability to get a wide swath of state laws enacted to further the interests of its corporate clients.
ALEC’s campaigns and model legislation have run the gamut of issues, but all have either protected or promoted a corporate revenue stream, often at the expense of consumers. For example, ALEC has worked on behalf of:
-- Oil companies to undermine climate change proponents;
-- Pharmaceutical manufacturers, arguing that states should be banned from importing prescription drugs;
-- Telecom firms to block local authorities from offering cheap or free municipally-owned broadband;
-- Insurance companies to prevent state insurance commissioners from requiring insurers to meet strengthened accounting and auditing rules;
-- Big banks, recommending that seniors be forced to give up their homes via reverse mortgages in order to receive Medicaid;
-- The asbestos industry, trying to shut the courthouse door to Americans suffering from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases; and,
-- Enron to deregulate the utility industries, which eventually caused the U.S. to lose what the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) estimated as $5 Trillion in market value.
[pg 16]
Companies and Groups Known to Have Been ALEC Members
-- Abbot Laboratories
-- Air Transport Association of America
-- Alliant Utilities -Interstate Power Company
-- American Council of Life Insurance
-- American Express Company
-- American Plastics Council
-- American Stores-Jewel/OSCO
-- American Trucking Association
-- Amoco Corporation
-- Amway Corporation
-- ARCO
-- Arthur Anderson
-- Arizona Public Service
-- Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois
-- Bank of America
-- Baxter Healthcare Corporation
-- Bayer Corporation
-- Bell Atlantic PA
-- BellSouth
-- Blue Cross & Blue Shield Association
-- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas
-- The Boeing Company
-- BP America, Inc.
-- Caliber System, Inc.
-- Cargill, Inc.
-- Caterpillar, Inc.
-- Chevron Corporation
-- Chlorine Chemistry Council
-- Chrysler Corporation
-- Cigar Association of America, Inc.
-- Commonwealth Edison Company
-- Coors Brewing Company
-- Deere & Company
-- Distilled Spirits Council
-- DuPont
-- Electricity Consumers Research Council
-- Enron Corporation
-- Environmental Management Corporation
-- Exxon Corporation
-- Fidelity Investments
-- Fruit of the Loom
-- Gaylord Container
-- GEICO
-- General Motors Corporation
-- George K. Baum & Company
-- Glaxco Wellcome Inc.
-- Grocery Manufacturers of America
-- GTE Corporation
-- Harris Trust and Savings Bank
-- Hoffman-La Roche, Inc.
-- Illinois Corn Marketing Board
-- Illinois Energy Association
-- Illinois Financial Services Association
-- Illinois Petroleum Council
-- Illinois Power Company
-- Illinois Retail Merchants Association
-- Illinois State Medical Society
-- Inland Steel Industries
-- International Game Technology
-- International Paper
-- Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Inc.
-- LaSalle National Bank
-- Logix Solutions, Inc.
-- McDonalds Corporation
-- MEGA Life & Health Insurance
-- Microsoft Corporation
-- MidAmerican Energy Company
-- Miller Brewing Company
-- Motorola, Inc.
-- Mt. Carmel Public Utility Company
-- National Association of Bail Insurance Companies
-- National Beer Wholesalers Association
-- National Pork Producers Association
-- National Rifle Association
-- Novartis
-- Peoples Energy Corporation
-- Pfizer Inc.
-- Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
-- Pharmacia & Upjohn
-- Philip Morris Corporation
-- Phillips Petroleum Company
-- Rhone-Poulenc Rorer
-- R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
-- R.R. Donnelley & Sons
-- Sara Lee Corporation
-- SBC Communications
-- Sprint / United Telephone Company of Texas
-- State Farm Insurance Companies
-- Steel Recycling Institute
-- Texaco Inc.
-- Tobacco Institute
-- Union Pacific Corporation
-- United Airlines
-- U.S. Generating Company
-- US West, Inc.
-- UST Public Affairs Inc.
-- Wackenhut Corrections
-- Washington Times
-- Wausau Insurance Companies
-- Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories
-- Zurich Insurance.
And how much are the ALEC corporate-players
willing to pay, to see their many corporate agendas become reality?
Apparently whatever it takes ...
Corporations Represented on ALEC's Private Enterprise Board Are Big Spenders in Washington
by Brad Hooker, opensecrets.org -- Sept 12, 2011
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is an ideologically conservative consortium of state legislators and business interests known to draft model legislation for state lawmakers across the country.
[...]
On the national level, the companies involved in ALEC’s private enterprise board have also been mustering a juggernaut of lobbyists to target congressional initiatives, as well as federal departments like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
[...]
Here is a table showing the lobbying expenditures of each of these 23 companies since 2009. Note: figures for 2011 are through the end of June, the most recently available data:
Organization
|
2009
|
2010
|
2011
|
Altria Group
|
$12,770,000
|
$10,360,000
|
$5,480,000
|
American Bail Coalition |
$0 |
$80,000 |
$35,000 |
AT&T Inc. |
$14,729,673 |
$15,395,078 |
$11,690,000 |
Bayer AG |
$8,478,512 |
$4,903,640 |
$3,380,000 |
Coca-Cola Co. |
$9,390,000 |
$7,352,795 |
$3,450,000 |
Diageo PLC |
$2,250,000 |
$2,620,000 |
$1,100,000 |
Energy Future Holdings Corp. |
$3,974,014 |
$4,731,228 |
$2,770,000 |
Exxon Mobil |
$27,430,000 |
$12,450,000 |
$6,820,000 |
GlaxoSmithKline |
$8,760,000 |
$6,070,000 |
$2,650,000 |
Intuit Inc. |
$2,142,000 |
$2,249,000 |
$1,589,000 |
Johnson & Johnson |
$6,560,000 |
$6,700,000 |
$3,106,000 |
Koch Industries |
$12,450,000 |
$8,070,000 |
$4,060,000 |
Kraft Foods |
$3,390,000 |
$3,000,000 |
$1,450,000 |
Peabody Energy |
$5,835,000 |
$6,591,000 |
$3,727,000 |
Pfizer Inc. |
$25,819,268 |
$13,380,000 |
$7,440,000 |
PhRMA |
$26,150,520 |
$21,740,000 |
$9,290,000 |
Reed Elsevier Inc. |
$2,130,000 |
$1,670,000 |
$810,000 |
Reynolds American |
$4,556,215 |
$4,323,293 |
$1,728,305 |
Salt River Project |
$1,170,000 |
$870,000 |
$370,000 |
State Farm Insurance |
$3,420,000 |
$3,620,000 |
$1,540,000 |
United Parcel Service |
$8,430,526 |
$5,587,349 |
$2,642,399 |
Wal-Mart Stores |
$7,390,000 |
$6,160,000 |
$4,070,000 |
Sounds harmless enough right, afterall those Corporate-persons need their unique market interests to be heard too.
Corporations ARE People ... according to the GOP's "inevitable" spokesman. And I suspect most Red-staters will agree.
What harm could there be, if ALEC gets involved in drafting, "shaping," and strongly suggesting our future legislation ... most people likely will never even notice ... A bill, is a bill, is a bill ...
In this Press Release done by Weber, we see the influence of the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical industries on repealing recent national health care legislation “ALEC Applauds Repeal of ObamaCare and Provides a ‘Repeal Blueprint’ for State Legislators” January 19, 2011:
“ALEC has played a key role in galvanizing state pushback against ObamaCare. In 2010, legislators in 42 states have introduced or announced their intention to introduce ALEC's Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, model legislation mirrored on Arizona Proposition 101 and designed to block an individual mandate…”
as further explained here by fellow dailykos poster:
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Releases FULL Donor and Membership Lists -- by Hector Solon -- Apr 01, 2011
What harm could there be, if these little-seen -- but often followed -- libertarian-corporate interests, systematically tinker with our voting system, too?
Afterall, who needs all those seniors, and students, and minorities, and poverty-stricken people -- out there Voting anyways?
Certainly not this inconsequential -- "task force reaching consensus and agreement on 'model legislation' and 'resolutions' and 'statement of principles' " -- that our feckless reps can easily adopt as their own.
And those ALEC coat-tail slackers know how to play this game -- just like did with all those "pesky term-papers" back in their college days. ... "Isn't there a website for that?"
Who will be the wiser? The 'profs' never caught on ... neither will the American people.
and so far we haven't ...
Nonprofit ALEC Seen as Force behind Voter ID Push
Minnesota Public Radio -- March 4, 2012
There is a movement underfoot in state legislatures nationwide to craft laws requiring presentation of photo IDs at the polls, and the nonprofit policy group firmly behind the trend is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). In 2011, six states, including Texas and Wisconsin, enacted stringent voter ID laws. Most legislators responsible for passing these bills confirm or report ties to ALEC, and similar measures are in the hopper in 31 additional state halls, at various stages of the legislative process. Minnesota’s legislature has now resorted to proposing a constitutional amendment after Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed its version of the law last year.
ALEC generates model bills on hundreds of issues. Operating largely under the radar of public scrutiny, ALEC’s civic methodology is a popular tool for right-leaning lawmakers, of whom 2,000 are ALEC members, as are 300 corporate and private participants who pay upwards of $25,000 to join, and additional sums to sit on individual task forces responsible for drafting model laws of interest to them. ALEC’s generic voter ID measure was hammered out in 2009, and the legislative push to codify the requirement gained traction in 2010 when Republicans achieved majority representation in numerous state houses.
[...]
It's a good thing those
human-reps swept into office during the
Tea Party surge, have someone like the American Legislative Exchange Council in their corner to
"inform them" (according to the RedState author) on what they should think,
and to hand them the tailor-made bills, which they can submit in their individual state legislatures
as their own creative work.
Afterall Tea Party reps wouldn't want their district constituents to think, they got their fancy important jobs and stuff -- without a clue in the world on what to do, now that they got there.
And thanks to ALEC, those Tea Party freshmen now have an instant "rollback" Agenda -- that they can call their own. No "extra homework," or "independent thinking" required ... just sign on the ALEC dotted line.
No worries newbie reps -- there's even more ready-made bills where those came from, if you ever run out ... just think of it as your "one-stop legislative shopping" specially designed to help you fast-track your guvminting careers.
ALEC has got you covered. ... And remember: "Mum" is the tin-foil word.
Shhhh! ... there's "nothing nefarious" is going on here, at all. Nod, nod. Wink, wink.