Day late.
Dollar short (where's Soros when you really need him ;-).
I have to get it posted sooner than (perfectly) later.
Many states have already started early voting and my fear is that people who are past or current ALEC members or who have close ties to ALEC are getting votes because people do not know that these people running for office are connected to the heinous American Legislative Exchange Council.
Currently the media is reporting that over 50% of the nasty ALEC Voter ID laws were introduced by ALEC members. I'm pretty sure that if we go back at some time in the future (when we have a more complete list of ALEC members) and check – the despicable ALEC Voter ID Laws that have been passed have mostly - all - been sponsored or co-sponsored by identifiable ALEC members.
It is proven that there are ALEC members that don’t want you to vote – so ...
VOTE – but don’t vote for ALEC members.
The List
Although the list is extensive – it is still incomplete - remember ALEC has hidden their membership lists for almost 40 years and most ALEC members hide the fact that they belong to ALEC.. I also believe that there are individuals in each state that are collecting the names and publishing additional state specific lists somewhere.
The list of those who were/are ALEC members or closely affiliated with ALEC started here on DK in May 2011 - before others started noting which legislators/people had ties to ALEC.
This current list comes from multiple sources
State financial reports
State campaign reports
ALEC documents
State bio webpages
Miscellaneous webpages
AlecExposed webpage
Common Cause Webpage of ALEC Taskforce documents
The list is a composite of my original list, the list from ALEC Exposed (from 2/2012 - I ran out of time and didn't get a chance to look at their new list) and ALEC taskforce members as documented in select meetings from the Common Cause webpage (no, I didn't pull every ALEC member from every taskforce meeting). There were duplications between the lists - in cases like that I used my original list.
For most of everything that I personally pulled came from the web or from ALEC documents. The ALEC Exposed webpage shows the source for the documentation of the people that they have listed. The Common Cause webpage is the task force documents with member lists for the years 2010 and 2011.
Editorial Note: This diary is my sole authorship - there are typos (SD becomes SC with a slip of the finger, dyslexia causes Brian to be typed as Brain) - but for the most part - this is very accurate. There was no collaboration with or cooperation sought from ALEC Exposed or the Center for Media and Democracy or Common Cause for this diary. Basically, I stole the names off their webpage and combined the names with my list and then published the combined list so it would be available in one place. (And no - RWNJ's - Soros did not pay me to collect the names and write this diary.)
How do people get on this list?
That question comes up all the time. The most common are:
They serve on ALEC task forces
They have paid ALEC dues through their campaign finances
They have self identified themselves somewhere , anywhere as an ALEC member.
They have been shown as a signatory on an ALEC letter.
They have been listed by ALEC as a member, in ALEC documents.
They have been “outed” by a credible source, on the web.
They have attended an ALEC meeting.
They previously were employed by ALEC and now work in government.
Because these were pulled from the web and historical documents some of the people listed are no longer living and some of them are claiming they kicked ALEC to the curb – which I question (I think they said that just to get re-elected).
Current ALEC Member/Close Ties Affiliations
This one is pretty evident – the main purpose for knowing the people who are currently affiliated with the American Legislative Exchange Council is to get them out of government.
We must make sure that all current ALEC government employees are not re-elected or not re-appointed.
Some of the names on the list are candidates who ran for office and were not elected. As part of their campaign expenses, they paid for an ALEC membership. We must make sure that these people are never elected to public office and they want to be elected.
Vetting candidates
It is important in the upcoming elections over the next few cycles that all candidates are properly vetted in regards to ALEC.
They must be able to state that neither they nor any member of their campaign are currently ALEC members.
They must be able to commit to the fact that neither the candidate nor any member of their staff will join ALEC.
Past ALEC Member/Close Ties Affiliations
This may seem questionable to some – but it is as important as making sure that current members are not re-elected or elected.
It is important to know past members. Just recently, many past ALEC members crawled out from behind the baseboards (like the Kochroaches they are) to run for office again or for appointments to state and federal commissions and other offices. Because these people were not on the current lists which are posted elsewhere – they went unnoticed as ALEC members.
Past ALEC members are appointed to US government positions.
Past ALEC members are appointed to state positions.
Past ALEC members become lobbyists who have influence on your legislation.
Past ALEC members become judges who have an influence on
your justice system and decisions.
Past ALEC members become regents of your universities who have
an influence on the decisions made in relation to higher education.
Past ALEC members serve on commissions that affect the running of your state.
Past and current ALEC members are generational in some states
– you need to watch what families believe in the ALEC political philosophy.
My belief
It is my belief that the only way we can destroy ALEC is to take away their membership. ALEC corporations can't get their legislasiton passed if there are not ALEC legislators. The only way we can do that is to not re-elect or elect or appoint ALEC members or people who have ties/affiliations with ALEC to any government office. If ALEC does not have any representation in the government – it will be more difficult, almost impossible for ALEC to introduce their agenda at the state and Federal levels.
If you want corporations out of government – getting ALEC members out of the government is a great place to start.
And Finally, Links to the List
For your review and reading enjoyment
3,200+ names of people associated with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
Four lists - 'cause Google docs couldn't upload one or two lists in a timely manner.
Alaska thru Idaho
Illinois thru Montana
North Carolina thru South Carolina
South Dakota thru Wyoming
If you have additional names – please post them in the comments – we have to make sure that ALEC members (past and present) are not elected or re-elected or appointed to public office.
Don’t Know About ALEC?
Some of you may think this is a stupid question – but you have to remember that when posting on Daily Kos – I am “singing to the choir”. Do your neighbors, your family know about ALEC?
Other websites that you can go to - for information and up-to-date reporting on ALEC include (but are not limited to):
Alecexposed.org
Common Cause.org
Voters Legislative Transparency Project
BecauseICan Blogspot
Or two videos you can watch (which I don’t know how to load on DKos.)
This is what ALEC is About - An Interview with Mark Pocan about the ALEC Annual Meeting.
Or watch this 30 mintue expose' on ALEC by Bill Moyers - "The United States of ALEC"