Meet ALICE, The American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange, a non-corporate funded progressive group that provides "model bills" for free to state and national legislatures.
ALEC, Meet ALICE
This new awareness and scrutiny of ALEC is all to the good. But even better would be a progressive counter to its influence. What that would really require is probably beyond anyone’s immediate means, as it would mean matching the vast political infrastructure the Right has built in states over the last 40 years. Along with ALEC’s conferences and library of model bills, this includes broad and deep networks for mass and internal communication, staff and leadership development, candidate recruitment and training, enough recognized leadership to permit assessments of progress and strategy discussion, and a dedicated pool of patient capital for all these things. National progressive donors and institutions have never shown commitment to matching this machine, much less the coordination that such matching would require.
Recently, however, that may have begun to change. As Katrina vanden Heuvel reports in The Washington Post, over the past few months a variety of progressives active in state and local politics have come together, with unusual good feeling and focus, to jointly map their assets and develop the coordination routines needed for such infrastructure. A project I’ve helped start is part of this fledgling effort. Called ALICE (American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange), it aims to provide a one-stop, web-based, public library of progressive model law on a wide variety of issues in state and local policy. ALICE won’t be hosting state legislators at all-expenses-paid retreats anytime soon, and as a 501(c)(3), we won’t be involved in any campaigns, but we do think we can match or exceed ALEC’s model bill service. We’ll be providing model bills for local legislators as well as state ones, and models for executive-originating law (regulation and executive orders) and direct citizen-lawmaking (through ballot initiatives or referenda) as well as legislation. And along with model law language, we plan on providing commentary, policy options, and written supports in argument for it (documentation of its positive effects, public support, talking points, etc.).
Thanks to
Bill Moyers and
The Bill Moyers and Company Show for bringing attention to the quantitatively less funded group.
[Moyers & Company Video]
But let's see what they have to say about themselves and their "Support."
ALICE
More Through The Looking Glass... (Yes, it is that corny and no, I could not help myself.)
Update: RandomNonviolence Points out another ALEC fighting group, Progressive States Network. A fight against a Goliath is in need of as many slings as possible to bring the giant down. Nice catch, RandomNonviolence!
Welcome to ALICE!
Welcome to the American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange (ALICE), your public library of progressive state and local law.
Here, in one place, sorted by major conventional categories of state and local policy, you’ll find hundreds of examples of “exemplary” laws, meaning good law that’s been introduced or enacted somewhere, worthy of replication. You’ll find a smaller number of “model” laws, meaning suggested general language for a law, ready to be tailored to a particular jurisdiction. And you’ll find different kinds of “support” for both, meaning background research, talking points, and other aids in their effective communication. There are other resources too to help you in your work. Some are on line here. Others are planned.
We’re delighted to finally launch this website, but well aware of its limits in content and functionality. Please help us improve both by looking around the site and sending suggestions on things we’ve missed, messed up, or both.
(From their front page)
NOTE: The exemplary materials in the ALICE library are meant to provide a large range of progressive ideas and legal language, but the inclusion of exemplary legislation in the library is not an endorsement of a specific bill in a specific state from ALICE or from any of the organizations listed on the ALICE Contributors or Resource Organizations pages.
(Not A Lobbyist Group!)
Countering the Rightwing Policy Machine with a Deeper Progressive Bench
On the policy front, the centerpiece of the effort is an initiative called the American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange (ALICE), started by Center on Wisconsin Strategy director Joel Rogers. ALICE would offer model laws for both state and local legislators and support citizen-directed efforts like ballot initiatives, all based on the values of equity, sustainability and responsible government.
But much more is needed. To successfully counter ALEC, the progressive movement also needs troops on the ground to complement the work of legislators. While conservatives may have built the best movement that money can buy, progressives build movements fueled by what politicians need more than money: people and their votes.
[Emphasis Added]
Progressive Legislation: Introducing ALICE & Innovative Model Laws to Support the Movement The Society of American Law Teachers
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