ALEC - Very Important Threat To US Liberties Exposed!

[Peter Lemkin]

93-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Who Cleaned State Capitol For 30 Years Denied Voter ID

By Marie Diamond on Dec 26, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Tennessee's Capitol building in Nashville.

A 93-year-old Tennessee woman who cleaned the state Capitol for 30 years, including the governor's office, says she won't be able to vote for the first time in decades after being told this week that her old state ID failed to meet new voter ID regulations. Thelma Mitchell was even accused of being an undocumented immigrant because she couldn't produce a birth certificate:

Mitchell, who was delivered by a midwife in Alabama in 1918, has never had a birth certificate. But when she told that to a drivers' license clerk, he suggested she might be an illegal immigrant.
Thelma Mitchell told WSMV-TV that she went to a state drivers' license center last week after being told that her old state ID from her cleaning job would not meet new regulations for voter identification.

A spokesman for the House Republican Caucus insisted that Mitchell was given bad information and should've been allowed to vote, even with an expired state ID. But even if that's the case, her ordeal illustrates the inevitable disenfranchisements that result when confusing voting laws enable state officials to apply the law inconsistently.
The incident is the just latest in a series of reports of senior citizens being denied their constitutional right to vote under restrictive new voter ID laws pushed by Republican governors and legislatures. These laws are a transparent attempt to target Democrat constituencies who are less likely to have photo ID's, and disproportionately affect seniors, college students, the poor and minorities.
As ThinkProgress reported, one 96-year-old Tennessee woman was denied a voter ID because she didn't have her marriage license. Another senior citizen in Tennessee, 91-year-old Virginia Lasater, couldn't get the ID she needed to vote because she wasn't able to stand in a long line at the DMV. A Tennessee agency even told a 86-year-old World War II veteran that he had to pay an unconstitutional poll tax if he wanted to obtain an ID.

[Peter Lemkin]

NERMEEN SHAIKH: In the wake of a national outcry over the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the secretive right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC, is halting its push for Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law. Florida passed the law in 2005 after massive lobbying by the National Rifle Association. Shortly afterward, a nearly identical bill was adopted by ALEC as model legislation, and [ALEC] went on to push the law in multiple states. The group also drafted voter identification measures that passed across the country.

Well, on Tuesday, ALEC announced it would shift its focus away from social issues. ALEC chairman and Indiana State Representative David Frizzell said, quote, "We are eliminating the ALEC Public Safety and Elections task force that dealt with non-economic issues, and reinvesting these resources in the task forces that focus on the economy."

AMY GOODMAN: The announcement comes on the heels of an exodus from the corporate lobbying group. Snack food giant Mars, as well as Wendy's, McDonald's, Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Intuit, they've all recently declined to renew their membership in ALEC. In addition, the Gates Foundation has announced it will not continue to fund ALEC.

Meanwhile, at an event during last weekend's National Rifle Association annual meeting, NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox said the group doesn't "apologize" for its support for Stand Your Ground self-defense legislation, as he put it.

CHRIS COX: There's support across the board for the Second Amendment. There's support across the boardeven post-media hysteria over the last few weeks, there's support across the board for legitimate self-defense, that we don't apologize for supporting ourwhether you call it a national right or a God-given rightthat we don't apologize for supporting legislation that recognizes our right to defend ourselves.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more, we're joined now by two guests: from Washington, D.C., Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, which built ALEC Exposed, a website showcasing more than 800 of the group's model bills; here in New York, we're joined by Rashad Robinson, executive director of Color of Change, which has criticized corporations for working with ALEC to pass laws that hurt people of color, young people and the elderly.

Lisa Graves, Rashad Robinson, we welcome you both to Democracy Now! I want to begin with Lisa Graves. The significance of the announcement by ALEC itself this week?

LISA GRAVES: It shows the potency of the tremendous grassroots outpouring of objection to ALEC's agenda and ALEC's procedures, where corporate lobbyists and politicians actually vote behind closed doors on these proposed model legislation without the press or public present on this extreme agenda. And groups like Color of Change and others have really helped spearhead a breakthrough here on ALEC, based in part in the work we've done through ALEC Exposed to expose these bills and help connect the dots between the corporations, the politicians and this extraordinarily extreme agenda.

But I also think it's a PR maneuver by ALEC to try to keep its donors and try to have the press move along, because, quite frankly, ALEC's broader agenda, which it calls its jobs agenda, is extraordinarily extreme itself. For example, one of its bills would cut off your right to sue if your loved one, if your spouse or your child, is killed by a drug that was approved by the FDA, even if that drug was later recalled. And so, their agenda is not just about making it harder for American citizens to vote, and it's not just about pushing thesethe NRA agenda to dramatically expand traditional self-defense rules so that you have shoot-first or kill-at-will laws. Instead, their agenda is actually extreme on all sorts of measures.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Rashad Robinson, I want to ask you how significant you think the work of organizations, the advocacy work done by organizations such as yours, Color of Change, was in bringing ALEC to make this decision.

RASHAD ROBINSON: Absolutely. You know, we started this campaign last year, last December, as we were trying to bring voices of everyday people to the conversation around discriminatory voter ID. And we went out to our membership. Color of Change is the largest online black political organization. We have over 900,000 members nationally. And there's nothing more important than sort of the right to vote when you're doing civic participation work. I think the work that's happened here, not just by Color of Change, but by a number of organizations, really does show the power that everyday people's voices can have in our democracy, and that even while corporations continue to have more power in our political process, we can still hold them accountable.

And this was really about letting folks like Coca-Cola and Pepsi and Kraft know that they can't come for black folks' money by day and try to take away our vote by night. And by pushing these corporations to make a different decision about their relationship with ALEC, we've also shined the light on ALEC, making it much harder for them to do what they do in state legislatures around the country. And so, this is, I think, not just important in terms of what it tells everyday people about their ability to raise their voices and make a difference, but also about the long-term impact ALEC is going to be able to have in the future.

AMY GOODMAN: You met with heads of corporations? Which ones?

RASHAD ROBINSON: We met with like, you know, senior executives of major corporations, the heads of government affairs offices, the heads of diversities

AMY GOODMAN: Which corporations?

RASHAD ROBINSON: of Coca-Cola, of Pepsi. We had conversations with McDonald's. We

AMY GOODMAN: And what did you tell them?

RASHAD ROBINSON: We told them exactly what I just said here, that you can't come for black folks' money by day and try to, you know, take away our vote by night. Many of the corporations, when we had conversations with them, talked specifically about sort of a narrow slice of ALEC's work. So, like, for instance, the soda companies talked about the soda tax, and that's why they were part of ALEC. We let them know that they couldn't kind of pick and choose what they were involved with with ALEC. Many of the corporations also said that, you know, "We give to this side of the aisle, and we give to that side of the aisle." We let them know very clearly that there are not two sides to black people's right to vote. This is not a debate that we should still be having in this country. This is not about left or right, but this is about the kind of moral issue around the right to vote in this country. I don't think very many of the corporations wanted to defend that.

After the Trayvon Martin tragedy, we started to also bring that into the conversation and remind corporations that they would also have to answer for the Stand Your Ground laws, and was this something that they wanted to defend publicly? Corporations like Pepsi and Kraft actually pulled out before we ever publicly escalated on them. Or companies like Coca-Cola, for instance, we escalated them on at 9:00 on a Wednesday, and by 5:00 they had announced they were pulling out. I think that this shows that there is just some pieces of ALEC's agenda that are simply indefensible. ALEC will no longer defend them, and major corporations don't want to defend them, either.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Lisa, I wanted to ask youmany critics have said about ALEChave objected to ALEC on the grounds that it institutionalizes corruption. Can you explain what that means?

LISA GRAVES: Sure. You know, what ALEC does is really extraordinary to many people who hadn't heard of them before last year when we launched ALEC Exposed. What ALEC does is it provides so-called scholarships to state legislators to travel to fancy resorts, where they go to closed-door meetings of ALEC task forces. And at those closed-door meetings, corporate lobbyists and special interest groups vote, as equals, with state politicians, with our elected officials. And so you have unelected corporate lobbyists voting as equals, behind closed doors, with elected officials with no press and no public present. And then those elected officials go back out in their states. And if they're leaders of that state for ALEC, they have a duty, under ALEC's public bylaws, to get those bills introduced and made into law.

Those bills run the gamut of efforts to basically rework and rewrite our rights in numerous ways, including on the right to vote. Those bills include efforts to strip the rights of workers, both in the public sector and private sector, to organize and even have access to paid sick leave. They include efforts to make it more difficult for us to pass any rules at the state or federal level to deal with climate changes underway. Their agenda includes massive tax giveaways for the biggest corporations and wealthiest individuals in the world. And it also includes a massive privatization scheme to take your tax dollars and redirect them into the private sector, into the private till, through privatizing prisons to for-profit prisons, for-profit school companies, and even the notion that American citizens, that the American people, shouldn't really own public assets or public institutions, that those buildingsour buildingsshould be sold off to the private sector and basically leased back to us.

And so, through ALEC, ALEC has been exerting extraordinary influence on laws in states across the country through this process where corporations have even more influence than through ordinary lobbying. And they do so behind closed doors and in the dark. And so, we've helped shine a light on what ALEC is up to. And I think it does corrupt democracy for these procedures to go on and for these politicians to debase themselves in such a way that they would actually deign to give a corporate lobbyist, unelected official, an equal vote to themselves through the ALEC task forces.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And this is calledI mean, peoplecritics have objected to this by calling it "institutionalized corruption," because in fact what ALEC does is legal?

LISA GRAVES: Well, ALEC has claimed that it's legal. In fact, ALEC is a charity under federal tax law, which means that the donations made by corporations and individuals to ALEC can be claimed as a tax write-off. It doesn't describe what it does as lobbying, even though it claims that over 800 to a thousand bills are introduced every year that are part of the ALEC template or ALEC library, that we've helped expose through alecexposed.org. And they claim that they've had a success rate of up to 20 percent or more of getting these bills made into law. And yet, ALEC contends that it doesn't engage in lobbying, that it's not a lobbying organization, and this is all charitable. Some groups have challenged that, like Common Cause, my group, the Center for Media and Democracy, and PR Watch has joined in those efforts to say that this is wrong. And we've also filed complaints with the ethics boards in Wisconsin, and we're planning other complaints, as well, because what the public record shows is extraordinary efforts by ALEC to get these bills made into law. And if that's not lobbying, I'm not sure what is.

AMY GOODMAN: Last Thursday, Virginia House Speaker Bill Howell blamed Anna Scholl, the executive director of ProgressVA, for allegedly spreading misinformation about ALEC. Howell used to lead ALEC, and Scholl helped release a report critical of ALEC back in January. Part of their exchange was caught on camera.

ANNA SCHOLL: I'd love to get information from you on what you think is inaccurate, so we can correct it. We're

REP. WILLIAM HOWELL: Well

ANNA SCHOLL: very concerned about making sure that we're giving correct information to the public.

REP. WILLIAM HOWELL: The articles that Anita wrotethey were based on your reportwas full of either half-truths or untruths. And I'll give you a good example.

ANNA SCHOLL: That would be helpful.

REP. WILLIAM HOWELL: Everybody has highlighted the fact that the Commonwealth pays about $230,000 over the last 10 years for expenses for legislators to attend ALEC meetings.

ANNA SCHOLL: Is that not accurate?

REP. WILLIAM HOWELL: What's not accurate is the fact that during that same period of time, the Commonwealth has paid $2.5 million for those same legislators or other legislators to go to NCSL, a more moderate group, to be sure.

ANNA SCHOLL: So, I'm sorry. I understand. I'm just curious about which part of the report you found to be inaccurate.

REP. WILLIAM HOWELL: The part where you say they got $230,000 over 10 years

ANNA SCHOLL: So the state didn't spend $230,000

REP. WILLIAM HOWELL: No.

ANNA SCHOLL: sending legislators to ALEC conferences.

REP. WILLIAM HOWELL: No. I guess I'm not speaking in little enough words for you to understand. What I'm trying to tell you

ANNA SCHOLL: I'm a smart girl, actually. I went to the University of Virginia. I benefited from public education.

REP. WILLIAM HOWELL: Well, good for you.

ANNA SCHOLL: I think words with multiple syllables will be just fine for me.

AMY GOODMAN: Rashad Robinson of Color of Change, can you talk about ALEC's response to its supporters, to these disclosures by groups like Center for Media and Democracy and your group and others?

RASHAD ROBINSON: Well, ALEC'sactually, their public relations has been all over the place for the last couple of weeks. Initially, they ignored the campaign. Then, as corporations started pulling out, they called us a wellthey called us a "well-funded, expertly coordinated campaign." My staff really appreciated the "expertly coordinated" but were a little shocked about the "well-funded," considering our small staff size and office space.

Then, sort of over the next couple of days, you know, the conservative press started rallying around ALEC, doing the attack ads on Fox News on Color of Change and other organizations. And then, you know, ALEC, late last week, put out a statement basically saying that they werethat they only concentrate on, you know, free market economic issues, and really tried to push this, that that's what they do, and we're attacking free market and economicand organizations that want to work on the economy in this climate.

Our simple message to the corporations that still fund ALEC was, what about voter suppression and what about Stand Your Ground laws is in their economic interest? And then, this week we hear that ALEC now is dropping those as policies. They've essentially went outbasically went out into a body of water and dumped a lot of oil, and now they're wiping their hands off and saying, "Well, we won't dump any more oil." They're not saying

AMY GOODMAN: Well, you know, BP is doing pretty well right now.

RASHAD ROBINSON: BP is doing well, and maybe that's what they're following, right? But they're not saying they're going to clean up the oil, right? So now we have these laws that people are going to be dealingmillions of people are dealing with all around the country, and they're not saying what they're going to do about it. So, they may not continue to push these laws, but Americans are going to still be dealing with discriminatory voter ID laws. They're still going to be dealing with Stand Your Ground laws. And ALEC has real nono response for it. And that's why we're going to continue our efforts to hold these corporations accountable.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, we invited the American Legislative Exchange Council to join us on the program today, but no one from the organization responded to our inquires. Last Wednesday, Ron Scheberle, executive director of ALEC, issued a response to what ALEC described as a, quote, "coordinated and well-funded intimidation campaign against corporate members of the organization." Scheberle said, quote, "At a time when job creation, real solutions and improved dialogue among political leaders is needed most, ALEC's mission has never been more important. This is why we are redoubling our commitment to these essential priorities. We are not and will not be defined by ideological special interests who would like to eliminate discourse that leads to economic vitality, jobs and fiscal stability for the states." Lisa Graves, can you comment on this statement from ALEC?

LISA GRAVES: Well, sure. This is just more misinformation and disinformation from ALEC, and it echoes some of the disinformation by William Howell in Virginia when he attacked Progressone of the Progress Now groups in that state and nationally suggested that ALEC is open and open to the press. It's simply not true. They have small portions of their effort that are open to the press. Most of their business is actually behind closed doors. They say that they want to have a dialog. That's different than what they're doing. What they're actually doing is putting these legislators in closed-door meetings at fancy resorts where they're voting as equals with corporate lobbyists, unelected corporate lobbyists, and special interest groups. They have kicked the press out of theseout of even access to some of the ALEC meetings, even the public portions of the meetings. They are very closed. And they've operated successfully because they've been in the dark, because they've been able to have their fingerprints all over legislation across the country that dramatically changes the rights of American citizens.

These things like the tort reform, so-called tort reform agenda of ALEC, that make it harder for Americans to get justice in our court system when they lose their loved one or lose the main wage earner in their family, that's about corporate irresponsibility. That's not about creating jobs. You can look through their agenda, point by point by point, and see how this claim about their jobs agenda is simply delusion and misdirection, because so much of the ALEC agenda is about protecting corporations and corporate giveaways, keeping them from being held to account. And that's why the Center for Media and Democracy, along with People for the American Way, Common Cause, the Progress groups, and also with the tremendous efforts of Color of Change on the issues of suppressing the right of Americans to vote and making it more difficult for Americans to vote, as well as the NRA's agenda, have come together to call out the ALEC corporation.

AMY GOODMAN: The NRA is clearly angry. The Secret Service is now investigating the musician Ted Nugent for making potentially threatening comments about President Obama. He was speaking at the annual NRA meeting last weekend and said, quote, "If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will be either dead or in jail by this time next year. ... We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November. Any questions?" He added, "It isn't the enemy that ruined America. It's good people who bent over and let the enemy in. If the coyote's in your living room pissing on your couch, it's not the coyote's fault. It's your fault for not shooting him."

Rashad Robinson, we're going to wrap up with your response to this and whether you have faith that these corporations that have pulled outdo you believe that they'll come back in once ALEC has said that they're going to drop their so-called Stand Your Ground, what others called "shoot first," laws and voter ID laws? But respond to Nugent's comments.

RASHAD ROBINSON: You know, these type of comments and these type of rhetorics are really sort of a throwback to days when folks could make these type of comments. It's particularly aboutaround black leaders in America. The Republican Party and Mitt Romney, in particular, need to respond to this.

AMY GOODMAN: Because he is a Mitt Romney supporter.

RASHAD ROBINSON: He's a Mitt Romney supporter, and they're associated with him. And theyand Mitt Romney, if he wants to run a campaign that's about representing all of America, then he absolutely needs to respond and needs to disassociate himself.

But it also, I think, speaks to a larger problem that we have in this country with, you know, the glorification of guns and the glorification of violence. And I absolutely think that sort of the way in which the NRA has been able to work with ALEC over the years, the way that Wal-Mart has been able to serve on the committee, does speak to the underlying problem. I think Lisa outlined all the challenges with ALEC. For us at Color of Change, the corporations that we've worked with to move outside of ALEC and the corporations that we've called out, and who have moved out, need to understand that our organization is not going away, that the voices of our members will continue to be raised when we see injustice, when we see corporations that say one thing to us in our community and do another thing by night with their resources, and we will hold them accountable. And so, they should understand that going back to ALEC will not be good business. It will not be in their best interest, and it certainly will not serve their relationship with the African-American community.

AMY GOODMAN: Romney wanted Nugent's endorsement. When he said this, the campaign didn't mention Nugent by name, but said, "Divisive language is offensive no matter what side of the political aisle it comes from." The spokesperson, Andrea Saul, said, "Mitt Romney believes everyone needs to be civil."

RASHAD ROBINSON: I think this is bigger than being civil. You know, that type of comment, we need leadership. For someone to call out the President and say that weto threaten him or to say that he might shoot him, or to call or to gen up violence in that type of way, Mitt Romney needs to show real leadership, not just simply say that everyone needs to be civil. We need leaders in our president, not just folks who arewant to play the middle ground.

AMY GOODMAN: Rashad Robinson, we want to thank you very much for being with us, executive director of Color of Change, and Lisa Graves, for the Center for Media and Democracy, speaking in Washington, D.C. And Lisa, again, congratulations on your Izzy Award. I just saw you on Tuesday night up at Ithaca College, where the Center for Media and Democracy got the Izzy Award, named for the muckraking journalist I.F. Stone, for your exposing of ALEC.

This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. When we come back

LISA GRAVES: Thank you.

[Magda Hassan]

ALEC Hidden Memberships EXPOSED!

Posted on June 27, 2012 by BobSloan

Over the past year, much information about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has come to light. The public learned of ALEC; model legislation, secret membership lists and denial of media access to ALEC events and meetings. A complete website dedicated to exposing "everything ALEC" has been created helping to inform about ALEC.
Daily Kos and VLTP Researchers have been continuously digging through thousands of pages of FOIA's, articles and documents. These efforts have revealed some important facts involving ALEC.
In addition to the standard Legislative and Corporate memberships, ALEC offers several additional "types" of membership; Legacy, Full and Subscription memberships. Some individuals previously thought of as ALEC "alumni" are in fact important but undisclosed card carrying members foreign lawmakers may also hold such memberships.
Full Membership
ALEC's 2009 revised bylaws offer "full" memberships to current or former state, US and foreign lawmakers:

Section 3.03 Qualifications for Membership.
Full Membership shall be open to persons dedicated to the preservation of individual liberty, basic American values and institutions, productive free enterprise, and limited representative government, who support the purposes of ALEC, and who serve, or formerly served as members of a state or territorial legislature, the United States congress, or similar bodies outside the United States of America. (emphasis added) (Source: http://www.scribd.com/…)

Discovering that sitting Congressional members are eligible to maintain full membership in ALEC is more than worrisome, it is outright frightening with 98 known ALEC "alumni" holding seats in Congress today without our knowing how many of those are actually ALEC members with another 60+ Tea Party members, elected with Koch money.
Finding that Governors, heads of departments and Congressional members loyal to ALEC may secretly be a lifetime member was unexpected and disturbing. The very real possibility that foreign politicians also have the ability to hold full memberships in ALEC and discuss and contribute to the development of laws implemented at any level in the U.S., sends my level of concern off the scale. Most of us have the belief that our U.S. State Department is the agency responsible for foreign policy determinations. We were unaware that ALEC was involved in helping set U.S policy by giving foreign nations a voice in our legislative processes.
Identifying individuals with full membership in addition to current serving state legislators is difficult to obtain. We are still researching this particular style of membership. It is suspected foreign members with ALEC memberships include Roger Helmer and/or Liam Fox from the UK (both MP's with Fox being the former Minister of Defence that resigned due to the ALEC/Atlantic Bridge Charity scandal). Roger Helmer is a frequent attendee and speaker at ALEC functions.
ALEC has eighteen foreign "delegates" but it is not known if they have full memberships. Many have attended ALEC conferences and meetings held in the U.S. The Atlantic Bridge affairexposed ALEC for its relationship with their British counterpart:

"In 2003, Fox and Werritty officially partnered with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to form the Atlantic Bridge nonprofit. The relationship flourished; ALEC supplied staff to the Atlantic Bridge, and Fox and his associates frequently spoke at ALEC events, which are comprised of meetings between American politicians and business lobbyists. But with the implosion of the Atlantic Bridge, which has already ensnared lobbyists for Pfizer and several defense firms, the controversy has brought ALEC into the limelight.

Speaking at a 2008 ALEC conference in Chicago, Secretary Fox said,

"We at Atlantic Bridge have been delighted at the success of our partnership with ALEC and we're excited about what we might achieve together in the future." "In particular," he added, "we are patting ourselves on the back at having chosen such adisguised and solid values-based organization to be our partner because the values that you have need to be embedded at every level of government not just national or federal government." Given the way Fox exported ALEC's stealth lobbying agenda to the UK, one must wonder when the Atlantic Bridge corruption scandal will hit the United States."

"Disguised…organization" was a curious choice of words for Fox, but appropriate. The discovery that ALEC had an affiliated organization in the UK which had been cleverly hidden and disguised for eight years was unknown to most. The UK scandal revealed the affiliation between the Atlantic Bridge and ALEC "Charities".
Legacy Membership
The second less known ALEC membership is called "Legacy" (or lifetime). This option is also available to current or former ALEC members and at least one former state lawmaker holding a legacy membership is now working on behalf of an ALEC Corporate member (see: Drozda below).
This is the most expensive and prestigious individual membership offered by ALEC. Cost is $5,000.00 paid in one of three options:
One payment of $5,000
Two consecutive annual payments of $2,500 ea.
Five consecutive annual payments of $1,000 ea.
We've begun compiling a list of those holding Legacy memberships and believe Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina holds an ALEC lifetime membership. In 2008 then a SC State Rep., Haley applied for a Legacy membership by making the first payment of $1,000.00 to ALEC as reported to the S.C. ethics commission.

We believe the $1,000 payment listed by Haley as an "Annual membership payment" was for the lifetime membership. The normal annual membership fee to an ALEC state lawmaker is/was $50.00 per year paid every two years in amounts of $100.00. If Rep. Haley was not paying for a legacy/life membership, she was paying for 20 years of membership. Other lawmakers paying for a lifetime membership submitted payments in the same manner as Governor Haley did.
To clarify the reason for the expenditure was an installment of a Legacy membership; this author contacted the Governor's press office and sent an email query to the Governor for explanation or comment. Both requests went without response or comment from the Governor or her representatives.
Below is the ALEC "Legacy Brochure" :




I contacted Kaitlyn Buss, ALEC's Director of Communications with a list of questions regarding the Legacy Membership program and whether or not Governor Haley had continued her lifetime membership in ALEC and/or had attended ALEC meetings/conferences since becoming governor of S.C. Ms. Buss also failed to respond to my queries or offer any response.
As noted in the actual application, ALEC Legacy "benefits" begin with the first installment; "Legacy Membership Program and benefits become effective after receipt of the first contribution" stated at the bottom of the application form. State Rep. Haley was an active and acknowledged lifetime member of ALEC with all the rights and benefits available at the time she subsequently announced her candidacy for Governor of South Carolina. It is unknown which of ALEC's nine task forces Governor Haley chose to become an advisor to.
South Carolina Rep. Liston Barfield was seen wearing a Legacy member badge at the ALEC Annual Conference in New Orleans in August 2011:

Possibly looking at key legislation proposed in SC by Barfield and other known ALEC members and/or signed into law by Governor Haley, will help us answer the question about whether the Governor's loyalties are to constituents or to ALEC.
Exempting ALEC from the state lobbying laws:

SECTION 2-17-5. Transfer of duties and powers from Secretary of State to State Ethics Commission. This 2011 legislation exempts ALEC from S.C.'s lobbying laws:
"SECTION 2-17-90. Acts prohibited of lobbyists' principals; acts prohibited of public officials and employees; exceptions; disclosure requirements.,,
"…(1) In addition, invitations may be extended and accepted when the invitation is extended to all members in attendance at (a) national and regional conventions and conferences of organizations for which the General Assembly pays annual dues as a membership requirement and (b) American Legislative Exchange Council conventions and conferences;"

ALEC styled legislation was introduced last year by ALEC member, Senator Rose (in Jan. 2011) titled:

"Council on Efficient Government Act", (S. 177). This closely resembles ALEC's model legislation by the same name; "Council on Efficient Government Act". This legislation is currently residing in the Senate Committee on Finance. The bill is described as: "…TO PROVIDE THE REQUIREMENTS OF A STATE AGENCY PROPOSAL TO OUTSOURCE GOODS OR SERVICES, TO PROVIDE FOR AN ACCOUNTING METHOD TO BE USED BY THE COUNCIL, AND TO PROVIDE EXCEPTIONS".
"Voter ID" legislation of 2011(H-3003) that again closely resembles ALEC's "Voter ID Act", was introduced or sponsored by S.C. ALEC members (Clemmons, Barfield, Sandifer, etc.) and was passed and signed into law by Governor Haley.
The "EDUCATION FINANCE ACT OF 2011" (H-3002), "Income tax credit" for tutoring expenses (up to $2,000) incurred by the taxpayer in a taxable year for the tutoring of an eligible student. This also closely resembles ALEC's "The Family Education Tax Credit Program Act"
Another Bill "TO PROVIDE THAT A LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT IS EXEMPT FROM STATE STATUTES AND REGULATIONS PROMULGATED BY THE STATE BOARD UPON MEETING CERTAIN CONDITIONS", and
Legislation "RELATING TO THE DEFINITION OF "TEACHER", SO AS TO REVISE THE DEFINITION BY REQUIRING CERTAIN MINIMUM TIME IN THE CLASSROOM AMONG OTHER CRITERIA" (H-3018).
ALEC member Rep. Clemmons also introduced "Teacher contracts" legislation (H-3028) extending teacher induction period from one to three years. This means teachers can be forced to work as an Induction teacher for three years before applying for or receiving a permanent position and contract salary. Again some of the language and intent is similar to ALEC's "Career Ladder Opportunities Act."
The legislature (through ALEC members Rep. Smith and Rep. Loftis) proposed legislation establishing the "S.C. College and University Board of Regents" (H-3025). This proposed legislation would eliminate the South Carolina State Commission on Higher Education and the State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education, replacing it with a Board of Regents. Not surprisingly, this legislation contains much of the same wording as ALEC's "Resolution Supporting Training and Continuing Education for Higher Education Governing Boards".
A "Private School Tax Credit" bill to provide a tax credit of $100.00 per child for purchase of books or supplies used for home schooling or attending Charter Schools.
A Constitutional Amendment to remove the Superintendent of Education as an elected post, and make that position one of gubernatorial appointment, with duties, compensation and oversight controlled by the General assembly.

Repealing the Patient Affordable Care Act is also a key ALEC pursuit.

S.C. ALEC members proposed a "Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act" (H-3011, sponsor Rep. G. Smith) that is titled exactly the same as ALEC's "Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act."

From the foregoing it can be determined that the S. C. ALEC state chairmen, Rep. Barfield and Sen. Alexander have been fulfilling their duties under ALEC's bylaws requiring state chairmen to "ensure introduction of model legislation":

Section 10.03 Duties:
"State Chairmen duties shall include recruiting new members, working to ensure introduction of model legislation, suggesting task force membership, establishing state steering committees, planning issue events, and working with the Private Enterprise State Chairman to raise and oversee expenditures of legislative scholarship funds."

If Governor Haley has maintained her lifetime membership, perhaps she's also been quietly fulfilling her duties as well by quickly signing every piece of ALEC model legislation that lands on her desk? An even more important concern is how many other ALEC "Alum" now holding key offices are also actually loyal "lifetime" members? Kasich, Walker and Brewer are all alumni. How about Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor? Both are known ALEC "alumni" and with the discovery of the Legacy membership program, one or both could be members while serving in the U.S. Congress. ALEC's refusal to release any of their membership lists, forces researchers to spend hours digging out these small bits of evidence which ALEC will neither deny or provide a "no comment" on.
A second important holder of an ALEC Legacy membership is U.S. Representative Alan Nunnelee (R MS), a Legacy member while serving as a MS Senator (1995 2010). Nunnelee won the race for the U.S. House and is now the current incumbent and up for reelection in November, 2012:

Rep Nunnelle is currently the only confirmed Legacy member out of 97 ALEC alumni serving in Congress.
Known Legacy members from Indiana (four) where RTW just passed, school reform including charter schools passed in 2011, the first ALEC voter ID law was passed in 2007-2008 and in 2010 Governor Daniels signed legislation (similar to S.C.'s exempting ALEC from Indiana lobbying laws). IN. Legacy members include:

Rep Dave Frizzell (R IN) became a lifetime member in 2004 (now serving as current ALEC National Chairman) listing his member payments as operations or contributions:

Rep James R. Buck (R IN) became a lifetime ALEC member in 2007 listing his membership payment(s) for "operations":

Rep. P. Eric Turner (R IN) became a lifetime ALEC member in 2009 listing his membership payments as "contributions":

Senator Jeff Drozda (R IN) became a lifetime member with his initial payment of $2,500 to ALEC on March 20, 2006:

Rep Ronald Forster (R GA) became a lifetime ALEC member in 2006:

Rep. Harold Brubaker (R NC) (ALEC Public Sector board member) became a lifetime member by paying the full $5,000 on May 24, 2004, listing it as an operations expense:

Rep. Julia Howard (R NC) who paid the first $2,500 lifetime membership installment on January 20, 2010 again listing her member payments as an Operating expense:

Sen. Jerome Delvin (R WA) became a lifetime member in 2008:

Rep. William Howell (R VA & Speaker of the VA. House) became a lifetime member in 2005:

Rep John Cosgrove (R VA) became a lifetime member in 2005:

Sen Val Stevens, (R WA) proclaims herself to be an ALEC Legacy member in her official bio:"Leadership: Legacy member and a former National Board Director of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization whose mission is to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism and individual liberty among America's state legislators."

Senator Bob Burns (R-AZ) is a Legacy Member and former Senate President, succeeded by Sen. Russell Pearce as President and defeated in 2011 by Rick Murphy :

In our research we discovered ALEC made changes to their IRS 990 reporting in regard to Legacy memberships. They have been doing this since 2005, reducing the amount of accounts receivable and changing funds from legacy memberships back and forth between listing them as contributions and donations.
Below is the 2008 change taken from ALEC's "Notes to Financial Statements":

This follows earlier changes regarding memberships specifically Legacy memberships from 2005 through 2007:


The foregoing may explain why legacy membership payments over the years are listed differently; as contributions, operating expenses, etc. What impact, if any this could have in the ongoing IRS complaint for review of ALEC's tax exempt status is unknown at this time.
In addition to the real possibility Governor Haley's ALEC membership may be influencing her decisions in South Carolina and Rep Nunnellee's may be influencing his decisions in Congress; another ALEC Legacy member (Jeff Drozda) has been using his loyalty to ALEC and connections to ALEC corporate members to his and their benefit.
After serving one full term, Drozda was reelected in 2006 then resigned midterm in 2008. While a state Senator he was employed by United Healthcare (UH a division of the United Health Group, a long time ALEC corporate member/sponsor). In 2008 Drozda became UH's Vice President of State Government Affairs and with the promotion Drozda was ordered to relocate to South Carolina. He immediately resigned his Senate post.
In 2010-2011 Drozda registered with Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi as a lobbyist for United Healthcare. In February 2012, Drozda was selected as CEO of the Louisiana Association of Health Plans (LAHP), the state trade association for the health benefits industry. The selection of Drozda was made by J Pegues, CEO of Coventry Health Care of Louisiana and president of the LAHP Board of Directors. Like UHG, Coventry is also an ALEC corporate member.
UH and LAHP are working to provide privatized Medicaid services to Louisiana and Mississippi, the latter under a program titled "MississippiCAN" and so far this program is failing miserably,while generating large profits for UH and its subsidiary, Golden Rule Insurance.
The foregoing example of coordination and loyalties exhibited by ALEC's collective membership demonstrates how closely woven their interests and activities are and why ALEC corporations flourish. Low income families as in Louisiana are usually the loser in services when these efforts of privatization are accomplished through legislation.
Subscription Membership
The remaining relatively unknown type of affiliation is termed a "Subscription" membership costing $250.00 annually. We learned that this is offered to ALEC state lawmaker members who have been selected and appointed to head a state department or agency.
One corroborated case of ALEC offering such a membership to a recently appointed former ALEC member is that of Rep. Todd Snitchler, (R-OH). He was appointed by Governor Kasich (an ALEC alum) to the position of Chairman of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUCO).
We have no documents showing Snitchler accepted the subscription membership offered by ALEC and or not. However as in the case with Governor Haley and Drozda we ascertained just how loyal Snitchler remains to ALEC's corporate members once he became the PUCO Chairman. He favored the same ALEC member companies that contributed to his election campaigns; American Electric Power, Duke Energy.
In an email from ALEC's Board liaison and Donor Relations Coordinator, Briana Mulder offered Snitchler a subscription membership:
Mulder's discussion about subscription memberships, provisions and benefits was provided so matter-of-factly, ALEC has obviously provided similar memberships before this offer was made.
Again, due to secrecy surrounding ALEC memberships it is difficult to ascertain which "alumni" are instead still active ALEC subscription members serving as directors or chairmen of important state and/or federal agencies or departments serving in some capacity.
With regard to AEP and Duke Energy we discovered in December 2011 PUCO approved a new energy security plan submitted by AEP.
Simultaneously Snitchler and the PUCO Board worked with Duke Energy on another ESPfor an auction system that would determine energy and ultimately the cost of that energy to consumers through 2015. The Duke ESP was approved by the PUCO the same month as the AEP plan.
The rate increases authorized for American Electric Power under the December ESP resulted in double digit increases in energy costs to private consumers and as high as 50% to public school customers.
On February 29, 2012 Chairman Snitchler revoked the AEP energy plan by a unanimous vote of the Commission.
In November 2011, ALEC members, Sen. Kris Jordan (R OH) and Sen. Seitz (R OH) sponsoredS.B. 216 that would repeal S.B. 121 requiring electric distribution utilities and electric services companies provide 25% of their retail power supplies from advanced and renewable energy resources by 2025. Governor Kasich proposed a legislative measure (S.B. 315) this past April that would allow cogeneration systems in the definition of "renewable energy resource" under Ohio's renewable portfolio standard. Critics of the proposal have warned that the inclusion of cogeneration in the RPS could harm the development of other renewable energy systems, particularly wind.
This past February, PJM filed two measures with the Federal Regulatory Commission(FERC) arising from their stakeholder process. These are designed to reform the generation interconnection process and include public policy requirements in regional transmission planning.
In May, Chairman Snitchler was a speaker at the 2012 PJM Interconnection Member Meeting. PJM is a regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia, serving 60 million customers. Duke Energy and AEP are both members of PJM Interconnections and PJM is a client of Shook, Hardy and Bacon (operating ALEC's Civil Justice Task Force through Victor Schwartz as Director and Mark Behrens as Advisor).
PJM, Duke and AEP have keen interests in reducing government regulations on energy, and object to the new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's focus on renewable energy and environment.
In Ohio, an ALEC Alum Governor, ALEC influenced General Assembly and ALEC alum Chair of PUCO coordinated legislation and policies beneficial to ALEC member companies. Their actions cost customers of AEP and Duke Energy huge increases in energy costs, while generating higher profits to the ALEC companies. Whether similar manipulations are ongoing in other states, enabled by hidden ALEC members placed in key positions, is unknown at this time. But this one exposure in Ohio demonstrates exactly how ALEC members are able to impact energy pricing and regulations over an entire state to the benefit of the corporate members of the cabal. I'm hopeful that other researchers will take the time to delve into their state records and determine whether or not this is happening in their locales.
CONCLUSION
The foregoing interconnections are shown to demonstrate a paradigm operating within all levels of government; state, federal and international. All funded by major U.S. and multi-national corporations, utilizing current and former lawmakers in diverse ways to implement policies that enrich and empower. True competing small businesses, taxpayers and consumers collectively provide that enrichment and fall prey to the legislative and financial power generated through this agenda.
This insight into previously unknown activities and influence through ALEC presents a clearer picture of how democracy in America is compromised through a well planned, comprehensive and highly organized and coordinated manner. With ALEC members in our legislatures, sitting as Governors, Congressmen and as heads of key state departments such as education and energy critical systems and services are completely compromised.
When corporations have lawmakers writing favorable legislation, governors signing those into law and heads of government departments and regulatory agencies all serving under the ALEC "flag", consumers are continuously at risk of exploitation as we're now experiencing in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and several other states with GOP "Super majorities".
There are certainly many more Legacy and Subscription members yet to be identified and reported. The foregoing list combined with the actual Legacy brochure and ALEC documents, establishes for a certainty the existence of these types of memberships within ALEC. The legislation presented, passed and signed into law by GOP Governors demonstrates clearly the power and influence wielded by ALEC members nationwide used to advance a pro-corporate agenda.
I want to include the great work of other DK Abolish ALEC members who participated in the research used to compile this expose; MNDem999, Ron1951, Hector Solon and the cooperative efforts of the Center for Media and Democracy. We tried to provide the tax information to a member of Common Cause in DC so it could be looked at in regard to their IRS complaint about ALEC's tax exempt status. Our phone call was not returned.

[Peter Lemkin]

NERMEEN SHAIKH: This summer, Americans can cut their grass with a John Deere mower, drink a cold Miller High Life beer, and buy sunscreen from CVS without fear that their consumer dollars will be used to fund policies like voter suppression and climate change denial. Those three companies, along with computer maker Hewlett-Packard and electronics retailer Best Buy are the latest entities to sever ties with the secretive, right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC. In fact, the future of ALEC is more precarious than ever before. A grand total of 25 corporations have dropped ALEC membership, as well as four major nonprofit organizations and 55 elected officials.
AMY GOODMAN: ALEC has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months as the public has become aware of its role in advancing the "Stand Your Ground" law initially cited to protect Trayvon Martin's killer. The organization has pushed voter suppression bills, union-busting policies and other controversial legislation. This is NAACP President Benjamin Jealous talking about ALEC during his address to the group's annual convention Monday.

BENJAMIN JEALOUS: And that is why I say here to the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, who has so efficiently replicated Stand Your Ground laws around this country, voter suppression methods from coast to coast: the blood of every adult and child who is wrongfully killed because of these laws is on your hands. And if it comes to pass that we find that this election was stolen in advance, the way that that politician in Pennsylvania believes it already has been, then we will ensure that the shame is placed squarely on your shoulders, too.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more, we go to Madison, Wisconsin, where we're joined by Lisa Graves via Democracy Now! video stream. She's executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, which built ALEC Exposed, a website showcasing more than 800 of the group's model bills. The project just marked its first anniversary.
Lisa, welcome to Democracy Now! Talk about this latest corporations to pull out of ALEC.
LISA GRAVES: Thank you so much, Amy.
Well, we were thrilled yesterday when Color of Change announced that five more corporations have left ALEC, bringing to the total 25 corporations, four nonprofits and 55 legislators that have left this organization that's basically a corporate bill mill, where politicians and lobbyists vote behind closed doors on model bills to change our rights. So, on behalf of our work and the work of the coalitionPeople for the American Way, Common Cause, the Progress groups, Color of Changewe're just so happy to see additional corporations standing up and saying no to ALEC.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Why do you think these five companies pulled out when they did?
LISA GRAVES: Well, I think that there's been a number of pressure points, including the ongoing petitions by Color of Change and the other coalition partners. There was also a complaint filed just a week-and-a-half ago that called for criminal sanctions against ALEC for what was described as evading the criminal and civil provisions of the tax law. And so, that, along with the previous complaint against ALEC for lobbying without disclosing that to the IRS, along with our work to expose how these ALEC scholarships by corporations are bankrolling trips by legislators that are then not disclosedI think the heat is on ALEC, and rightly so.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: ALEC is, in fact, a charity under federal tax law, so does that have implications for the lobbying that they allegedly engage in?
LISA GRAVES: Well, it doesit does if you don't disclose that you do any of it. And ALEC has previously said that it engages in no lobbying, and it has said that it doesn't actually manage scholarships, while in fact the documents we have, that we've obtained, that Beau Hodai has obtained, who works for the Center for Media and Democracy and other groups like Common Cause, document that, in fact, ALEC does engage in extensive lobbying.
AMY GOODMAN: Are there any connections between this organization, ALEC, and the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney?
LISA GRAVES: Well, it's interesting to see his platform unfolding, because when you look at the ALEC bills at ALEC Exposed, you can go to the tax section and see bill after bill that basically channels the voice of Grover Norquist. That voice is channeled through both the Romney campaign as well as through the ALEC bills to basically slash corporate taxes, cut back on the ability to basically fund the revenue for our state and federal governments to provide basic services, and do everything it can to tie the hands of lawmakers to do the democratic will in terms of providing the basic services that Americans count onpublic education, public services, public benefits, retirement, and things of that natureprivatizing all those things. That's part and parcel of, unfortunately, what's become the dominant agenda of one of the parties in this country.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, the significance of Trayvon Martin's killing in breaking the camel's back here with ALEC, how it calledput sort of center stage first ALEC's pushing for the Stand Your Ground laws, and then people seeing what it meant on the ground?
LISA GRAVES: Well, it's a horrible tragedy, what happened in Florida. And the very idea that a law would be cited to prevent a case like that from going to a jury for people to hear the evidence, I think, is a fundamental flaw in the justice system, and it's a flaw that's been propagated by ALEC, an organization that has pushed these laws in states across the country to make it more difficult to prosecute shooters of people, in many cases, who are unarmed. And so, I think it has shined a light on ALEC. And that light has revealed not just the abstract policy issues that are in the ALEC Exposed portfolio, the bills that we've disclosed, but also reveals the real human impact of some of these policies that have been pushed by corporations and corporate trade groups.
AMY GOODMAN: If you could just give us the list of corporations that have pulled out of ALECinteresting for being in it, and now interesting for pulling out, as ALEC moves into its major conference at the end of the month in Salt Lake City, Utah. Just a list of some of those names.
LISA GRAVES: Sure. That includes McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, John Deere. It includes Pepsi-Cola. We also know that the Gates Foundation has pulled out of ALEC. That's one of the nonprofits that's left. We know that the Yum! groups, which has a number of fast-food operations, includingit has previously had Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell and othershave pulled out. And so, we seeKraft Foods, as wella number of corporations that are brand names, that people rely on, that people eat and drink and use, have now left ALEC. And I
AMY GOODMAN: Who's still in?
LISA GRAVES: Well, who's still in? The Koch brothers, through Koch Industries, the big tobacco companies, Pharma, Big Pharma, which includes a number ofa number of pharmaceutical companies other than Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble. A number of other pharmaceutical companies are still involved. And we also see groups like the American Bail Coalition, which is pushing to privatize in every state in the country the bail bonds process, as well as corporations to basically slash taxes and get set-asides for themselves and stop the ability of the EPA to regulate poisons that poison our air and water. And
AMY GOODMAN: Lisa Graves, we're going to leave it there,

[Magda Hassan]

ALEC Covering Tracks in Advance of Oklahoma Meeting

by Brendan Fischer May 1, 2013 - 8:18am
Topics: Corporations, Democracy, Politics

Projects: ALEC Exposed, Wisconsin Protests



What's on the agenda for this week's meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Oklahoma City?
Hard to say.
Despite ALEC trying to spin itself as a "transparent" organization, ALEC records have miraculously been disappearing from legislative offices and the organization is engaged in a box drop dodge to avoid disclosure. But while ALEC legislators are meeting behind closed doors with corporate lobbyists, citizens will be rallying in the streets raising awareness about how ALEC's agenda favors large corporations at the expense of average Americans.
In the past, the Center for Media and Democracy had obtained advance agendas for ALEC meetings through open records requests to legislators in multiple states. But in recent months ALEC records have miraculously been disappearing from legislative offices.

WI Sen. Vukmir, an ALEC Board Member, has Zero ALEC Records

Wisconsin State Senator Leah Vukmir, for example, is on the ALEC National Board of Directors, and until recently chaired the ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force (and was often quoted in ALEC press releases). She was previously the ALEC State Chair for Wisconsin and in October wrote an op-ed defending ALEC in Wisconsin's largest newspaper.
But in response to an open records request for all ALEC-related records relating to the Oklahoma meeting, Sen. Vukmir's office replied they do "not have any documents that are responsive to your request."
ALEC has indeed sent materials to legislators relating to the Oklahoma meeting. In response to an identical request from CMD, a Texas legislator released an email from ALEC that included a link to the Health and Human Services Task Force agenda -- the same task force Sen. Vukmir used to lead, and by all available accounts, where she remains a member and would likely have received the same email.

And here is where ALEC's role in obfuscation becomes clear. ALEC does not send legislators proposed model bills and meeting agendas directly through email. ALEC is now sending its members a link, which expires within 72 hours, to an Internet drop box where they can access the relevant documents.
Although the Texas legislator did provide a scanned copy of the email invitation, she did not provide the contents of the folder available via the link (despite the request asking specifically for those materials). The drop box dodge may encourage less publicly-minded legislators to not
release the records in response to an open records request.
This is not the first time that ALEC legislators have attempted to dodge open records requests. Last year, CMD filed a lawsuit against five Wisconsin legislators who had tried evading their responsibilities under the open records law by shifting their ALEC correspondence to a personal email account (like Gmail or Yahoo). When CMD prevailed in the lawsuit, as part of the settlement the legislators acknowledged they had failed to release ALEC-related emails and agreed to comply with the law.

Public Excluded from Inside ALEC Meetings, so the Party Moves Outside

The information made available through open records requests are the only way the public has a window into what happens inside ALEC meetings. ALEC has claimed to "foster the discussion and debate of policy differences in an open, transparent way," and boasts of being an "open exchange of ideas," but average citizens are not allowed inside ALEC conferences (unless they are willing to spend several thousand dollars on membership dues). The press is also prohibited from attending the task force meetings where model bills are adopted.
But for this week's Spring Task Force Summit in Oklahoma City, held at the Cox Convention Center on May 2nd and May 3rd, a coalition of good government groups and labor organizations are organizing a series of events for the public to make their voices heard.

"ALEC is Not OK," Say OK Labor Groups Protesting Anti-Worker Agenda

On Thursday, May 2nd, there will be a "March for the Middle Class and Working Family Rally" from 4pm to 8pm at the Coca-Cola Events Center (Coca-Cola is one of the more than 40 companies that has dropped their membership in ALEC). Participants will march to the Cox Convention Center, the location of the ALEC meeting (named after Cox Communications, an ALEC member), and hold a rally to include speeches from International Association of Firefighters President Harold Schaitberger and Oklahoma legislators. The evening will end with hot dogs prepared by the Oklahoma Building and Construction Trades and live music.
On Friday, May 3rd, there will be an Oklahoma Community Forum, which will start with a showing of the Bill Moyers documentary, "United States of ALEC" followed by a panel discussion. CMD's Research Director Nick Surgey will participate in the panel discussion, which will be followed by a Q&A session.
The Teamsters, long-time opponents of ALEC's anti-worker agenda, are asking people around the country to sign their petition committing to spread the word about ALEC to their family and friends on the days of their Spring Task Force Summit.
"Sign the petition today to say that you are committed to telling your union brothers and sisters, family, neighbors and friends about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and that you are also committed to joining the action against ALEC in Oklahoma City on May 2-3 or raising your voice against ALEC on Facebook and Twitter on those days," the petition reads. You can sign the petition here.
Stay tuned to PRwatch.org for more news out of the Oklahoma meeting.

[Peter Lemkin]

ALEC calls for penalties on 'freerider' homeowners in assault on clean energy
Documents reveal conservative group's anti-green agenda
Strategy to charge people who install their own solar panels
Environmentalists accuse Alec of protecting utility firms' profits

ALEC facing funding crisis after exodus of big donors


Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington and Ed Pilkington in New York
theguardian.com, Wednesday 4 December 2013 17.49 GMT

Solar panels on a home in Los Angeles
Solar panels on a home in Los Angeles. Alec will promote legislation planning to penalise individual homeowners who install solar panels. Photograph: Cultura/Rex

An alliance of corporations and conservative activists is mobilising to penalise homeowners who install their own solar panels casting them as "freeriders" in a sweeping new offensive against renewable energy, the Guardian has learned.

Over the coming year, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) will promote legislation with goals ranging from penalising individual homeowners and weakening state clean energy regulations, to blocking the Environmental Protection Agency, which is Barack Obama's main channel for climate action.

Details of Alec's strategy to block clean energy development at every stage from the individual rooftop to the White House are revealed as the group gathers for its policy summit in Washington this week.

About 800 state legislators and business leaders are due to attend the three-day event, which begins on Wednesday with appearances by the Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson and the Republican budget guru and fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan.

Other Alec speakers will be a leading figure behind the recent government shutdown, US senator Ted Cruz of Texas, and the governors of Indiana and Wyoming, Mike Pence and Matt Mead.

For 2014, Alec plans to promote a suite of model bills and resolutions aimed at blocking Barack Obama from cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and state governments from promoting the expansion of wind and solar power through regulations known as Renewable Portfolio Standards.

Documents obtained by the Guardian show the core elements of its strategy began to take shape at the previous board meeting in Chicago in August, with meetings of its energy, environment and agriculture subcommittees.

Further details of Alec's strategy were provided by John Eick, the legislative analyst for Alec's energy, environment and agriculture program.

Eick told the Guardian the group would be looking closely in the coming year at how individual homeowners with solar panels are compensated for feeding surplus electricity back into the grid.

"This is an issue we are going to be exploring," Eick said. He said Alec wanted to lower the rate electricity companies pay homeowners for direct power generation and maybe even charge homeowners for feeding power into the grid.

"As it stands now, those direct generation customers are essentially freeriders on the system. They are not paying for the infrastructure they are using. In effect, all the other non direct generation customers are being penalised," he said.

Eick dismissed the suggestion that individuals who buy and install home-based solar panels had made such investments. "How are they going to get that electricity from their solar panel to somebody else's house?" he said. "They should be paying to distribute the surplus electricity."

In November, Arizona became the first state to charge customers for installing solar panels. The fee, which works out to about $5 a month for the average homeowner, was far lower than that sought by the main electricity company, which was seeking to add up to $100 a month to customers' bills.

Gabe Elsner, director of the Energy and Policy Institute, said the attack on small-scale solar was part of the larger Alec project to block clean energy. "They are trying to eliminate pro-solar policies in the states to protect utility industry profits," he said.

The group sponsored at least 77 energy bills in 34 states last year. The measures were aimed at opposing renewable energy standards, pushing through the Keystone XL pipeline project, and barring oversight on fracking, according to an analysis by the Centre for Media and Democracy.

Until now, the biggest target in Alec's sights were state Renewable Portfolio Standards, which require electricity companies to source a share of their power from wind, solar, biomass, or other clean energy. Such measures are seen as critical to reducing America's use of coal and oil, and to the fight against climate change. RPS are now in force in 30 states.

In 2012, Alec drafted a model bill pushing for the outright repeal of RPS.

In the confidential materials, prepared for the August board meeting, Alec claimed to have made significant inroads against such clean energy policies in 2013.

"Approximately 15 states across the country introduced legislation to reform, freeze or repeal their state's renewable mandate," the taskforce reported.

That compares to model bills in just seven states in support of the hot-button issue of the Keystone XL pipeline, according to figures in the documents.

"This legislative year has seen the most action on renewable mandates to date," the documents said.

Three of those states North Carolina, Ohio, and Kansas saw strong pushes by conservative groups to reverse clean energy regulations this year.

None of those efforts passed, however, with signs of strong local support for wind farms and other clean energy projects that were seen as good for the economy from Republicans as well as Democrats.

By August, Alec evidently decided its hopes of winning outright repeal of RPS standards was overly ambitious.

At its meeting in August, Alec put forward an initiative that would allow utility companies to import clean energy from other states rather than invest in new, greener generation.

An "explanatory note" prepared for the meeting admitted: "One model policy may be the right fit for one state but not work for another".

Elsner argued that after its bruising state battles in 2013, Alec was now focused on weakening rather than seeking outright repeal of the clean energy standards.

"What we saw in 2013 was an attempt to repeal RPS laws, and when that failed … what we are seeing now is a strategy that appears to be pro- clean energy but would actually weaken those pro- clean energy laws by retreating to the lowest common denominator," he said.

The other key agenda item for Alec's meeting this week is the EPA. The group is looking at two proposals to curb the agency's powers one to shut the EPA out of any meaningful oversight of fracking, and the other to block action on climate change.

A model bill endorsed by the Alec board of directors last August would strip the EPA of power to shut down a frack site or oil industry facility.

That would leave oversight of an industry that has to date fracked 2m wells in 20 states to a patchwork of local authorities that have vastly different standards of environmental protection.

The model bill would explicitly bar the EPA from shutting down any oil or gas well or facility in any of them, limiting the agency's capacity to enforce the clean water and clean air acts.

"The legislature declares that the United States Environmental Protection Agency … lacks the authority to deny permits of operation to these oil and gas wells and facilities," the bill reads.

Eick said the bill was in keeping with the group's broader philosophy of expanding power to the states.

"A national regulatory agency might impose a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all regulation on states in many instances," he said.

The meeting will also focus on Obama's plan, announced last June, to use the EPA to limit greenhouse gas emissions from future and existing power plants.

"The EPA's forthcoming regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and specifically carbon emissions from power plants will be of incredible interest to states and membership so we are going to be focusing on that. Absolutely," Eick said.

Power plants are the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for about 40% last year. The EPA last September proposed new standards for future power plants, and will tighten limits for existing power plants next June.
Pollution due to carbon emissions due to rise says IEA : Coal burning power plant, Kentucky, USA Alec says requiring tougher standards would lead to spikes in electricity prices and would damage the economy. Photograph: Rex Features

"It just shows that Alec uses lawmakers as lobbyists to block climate legislation at every turn," said Connor Gibson, a researcher for Greenpeace. "They try to undermine the authority of agencies that have the power potentially to control carbon pollution, so whenever there is a new EPA rule that pops up, they re-tool their arsenal of model bills to make sure they are blocking the new rule."

The resolution on the EPA for Alec members' consideration this week argues that requiring tougher standards from the next generation of power plants lead to spikes in electricity prices and would damage the economy.

"Alec is very concerned about the potential economic impact of greenhouse gas regulation on electricity prices and the harm EPA regulations may have on the economic recovery," the resolution reads.

Environmental lawyers said the resolution amounted to a "new manifesto" against the EPA regulating carbon pollution. "They don't want the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions," said Ann Weeks, legal director for the Clean Air Task Force.

She disputed a number of claims within the Alec resolution including the assertion that reducing carbon pollution would lead to an 80% rise in electricity prices. Economic analyses by the EPA and others have suggested those rises would be fairly limited.

"They will probably tell you they don't want the EPA to regulate anything so it is in their interest to turn what the EPA has proposed into something that is grotesque and unreasonable, which I don't think is true," Weeks said.

[David Guyatt]

What delicious irony!

Let's describe someone who accesses free energy as a "freerider".

The min set: how dare people not pay us money for something's that actually freely available and in vast quantities too. Enough, in fact to power a Sun. A million suns.

What this whole thing says to me is that fear is now starting to really bite these greedy bastards, as they see that people are catching on to cheaper energy alternatives (and in the last analysis, none's ultimately cheaper than free), and this is set to puff their houses down.

Can't wait.

[Peter Lemkin]

What delicious irony!

Let's describe someone who accesses free energy as a "freerider".

The min set: how dare people not pay us money for something's that actually freely available and in vast quantities too. Enough, in fact to power a Sun. A million suns.

What this whole thing says to me is that fear is now starting to really bite these greedy bastards, as they see that people are catching on to cheaper energy alternatives (and in the last analysis, none's ultimately cheaper than free), and this is set to puff their houses down.

Can't wait.

Hey, these guys want to charge for air too.....probably why they are making it so dirty one can't breathe it...then they can sell it in bottles with masks....sort of Perrier Water with gas, minus the water. They are real ****s and yes they may be getting scared, but they are going to do a hell of a lot of damage before they have their empires blown down....as well it should be...and to all of those like them!!!!

[Magda Hassan]

The Googlization of the Far Right: Why is Google Funding Grover Norquist, Heritage Action and ALEC?

Google, the tech giant supposedly guided by its "don't be evil" motto, has been funding a growing list of groups advancing the agenda of the Koch brothers.

Organizations that received "substantial" funding from Google for the first time over the past year include Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, the Federalist Society, the American Conservative Union (best known for its CPAC conference), and the political arm of the Heritage Foundation that led the charge to shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act: Heritage Action.
In 2013, Google also funded the corporate lobby group, the American Legislative Exchange Council, although that group is not listed as receiving "substantial" funding in the list published by Google.
U.S. corporations are not required to publicly disclose their funding of political advocacy groups, and very few do so, but since at least 2010 Google has chosen to voluntarily release some limited details about grants it makes to U.S. non-profits. The published list from Google is not comprehensive, including only those groups that "receive the most substantial contributions from Google's U.S. Federal Public Policy and Government Affairs team."
What Google considers "substantial" is not explained -- no dollar amounts are given -- but the language suggests significant investments from Google and, with a stock value of $330 billion, Google has considerably deep pockets.
Google has a distinctively progressive image, but in March 2012 it hired former Republican member of the House of Representatives, Susan Molinari as its Vice President of Public Policy and Government Relations. According to the New York Times, Molinari is being "paid handsomely to broaden the tech giant's support beyond Silicon Valley Democrats and to lavish money and attention on selected Republicans."

New "Substantial" Right-Wing Google Grants in Past Year

CMD examined the information released by Google for the years 2010 to 2013. The voluntary disclosures indicate that the following groups are either new grantees of Google since September 2012, or have been listed as having received a "substantial" Google grant for the first time:

• American Conservative Union
  
• Americans for Tax Reform
  
• CATO Institute
  
• Federalist Society
  
• George Mason University Law School Law and Economics Center
  
• Heritage Action
  
• Mercatus Center
  
• National Taxpayers Union
  
• R Street Institute
  
• Texas Public Policy Foundation
  

Detailed information on each of these groups can be found at CMD's Sourcewatch website.

Google Funding for Anti-Government Groups

Heritage Action, the tea-party styled political advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, is perhaps the most surprising recipient of Google's largesse.
More than any other group working to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Heritage Action pushed for a sustained government shutdown in the fall of 2013, taking the country to the brink of a potentially catastrophic debt default.
Laying the ground for that strategy, Heritage Action held a nine-city "Defund Obamacare Town Hall Tour" in August 2013, providing a platform for Texas Senator Ted Cruz to address crowds of cheering tea party supporters.
For Cruz, increasingly spoken of as a 2016 Presidential candidate, the government shutdown helped raise his profile and build his supporter -- and donor -- base.
Notably, Heritage Action received $500,000 from the Koch-funded and Koch-operative staffed Freedom Partners in 2012. It is not yet known how much Heritage Action received in 2013 from sources other than Google.
Perhaps surprisingly, Google has a history of supporting Cruz. Via its Political Action Committee Google Inc. Net PAC the PAC provided the "Ted Cruz for Senate" campaign with a $10,000 contribution in 2012. Additionally, despite being five years out from the freshman Senator's next election, Google's PAC has already made a $2,500 contribution to the Cruz reelection campaign for 2018, the largest amount that the PAC has given so far to any Senate candidate running that election year according to disclosures made by Google.
Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), the anti-government group run by Republican operative Grover Norquist, was another new recipient of funding from Google in 2013. ATR is best known for its "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," and for its fundamentalist attacks on any Republican who might dare to vote for any increase in taxes. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, ATR received 85% of its funding in 2012 ($26.4 million) from the ultra-partisan Karl Rove-run Crossroads GPS, another dark money group.
ATR President Grover Norquist infamously said that he wants to shrink government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Google's position on the relative size of government versus bathtubs is not known, but according to a Bloomberg analysis of Google's U.S. corporate filings, it avoids approximately $2 billion dollars globally in tax payments each year through the use of creative tax shelters.
Bloomberg reported in May 2013 that in France alone Google is in the midst of a dispute over more than $1 billion in unpaid taxes that have been alleged. An August 2013 report by U.S. PIRG "Offshore Shell Games" -- found that Google is now holding more than $33 billion dollars offshore, avoiding taxes on these earnings in the United States.
National Taxpayers Union, headed by former eleven-year American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Executive Director Duane Parde, has a similar anti-tax, anti-government agenda, and it also received funding from Google in 2013.

Google Sponsor Event Honoring Justice Thomas

Google also recently sponsored a gala fundraiser in Washington DC for the Federalist Society, a network of right-wing judges and lawyers that includes Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Justice Thomas was the guest of honor at that event, for which Google was listed as a top-tier "gold" sponsor. Google names the Federalist Society on its list of groups receiving its most substantial grants in 2013.
The company is also funding state special interest group operations. The Center for Media and Democracy, which publishes PRWatch, recently posted a major national report on the State Policy Network (SPN), a network of right-wing think tanks, with at least one organization in every state in the country. SPN groups typically promote a pro-corporate agenda, often at the expense of the interests of ordinary working people.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which is part of SPN, also received money from Google in 2013. As Progress Now's state affiliate and CMD have documented, the legislative agenda promoted by TPPF includes opposing renewable energy, blocking access to affordable healthcare, and opposing state minimum wage laws.
Google, which did not respond to a request for comment, may argue that it simply funds groups on both sides of the political spectrum, providing other grants to organizations that advocate on behalf of values more closely associated with the corporation's progressive image. Since Google does not release details of all its grantees and the dollar amounts, it is hard to judge this, although they do disclose providing funding to some progressive groups including the American Constitution Society, People for the American Way and the NAACP.
Although Google has funded both "conservative" and "progressive" groups, it does not disclose the relative proportions given to each, beyond the superficial symmetry, and the degree to which the groups tilt to the right or left in their agendas.
However, as noted by CMD's Executive Director, Lisa Graves, "there really aren't two proportionate sides to the facts about the climate changes that are underway, as to whether working people should be paid a living wage, and whether corporations should have to pay taxes just like working people do. By funding extreme groups on the right under the guise of a false equivalency, Google is enabling groups that seek to undermine government."

Google Membership in ALEC, Funding of CEI

Since CMD launched ALECexposed.org in 2011, revealing the complete agenda of that corporate front group that was secretly voted on by corporate lobbyists and state legislators behind closed doors, corporations have been running to escape association with the group. At least 50 corporations are known to have dropped funding since 2011, including Walmart, Coca Cola and Pepsi. Google along with Facebook and Yelp is bucking that trend having quietly joined in 2013. Google does not list ALEC as being a recipient of one of its largest grants, instead it separately names ALEC as an organization to which it has become a member.
There are many good reasons for brand conscious corporations to stay away from ALEC. For example, its legacy of Stand Your Ground gun laws and bills to make harder for Americans to vote, its work to repeal renewable energy laws and the ability of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases, and its efforts to privatize almost everything, are just a few of its extreme measures.
ALEC is a corporate funded lobby group, and the businesses that fund ALEC do so hoping to move a legislative agenda. An ALEC publication sent to corporate members in 1995, celebrated its legislative agenda to members as a "good investment", stating clearly "nowhere else can you get a return that high." As CMD's Lisa Graves has said, "It's a pay-to-play operation."
Google joined ALEC just this year, and stepped up funding to groups such as ATR, Federalist Society and Heritage Action in 2013, but under the radar it has been funding a handful of other right-wing groups for several years. In 2013 Google provided a reported $50,000 sponsorship check to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), another group trying to thwart efforts to address climate change, but it has previously funded "Google Policy Fellows" at CEI for several years, and has listed the organization as one that it has supported financially on its "transparency" pages for at least three years.
Google states that its fellows "work closely with CEI scholars to research and promote innovative, pro-consumer solutions to the public policy challenges of the information age." Whatever projects Google fellows end up working on at CEI, the Google brand is now tied to an organization that has a reputation strongly connected to the denial of climate change.
"Political spending for corporations is purely transactional. It is all about getting policies that maximize profitability," Bob McChesney told CMD. "So even ostensibly hip companies like Google invariably spend lavishly to support groups and politicians that pursue decidedly anti-democratic policy outcomes. It is why sane democracies strictly regulate or even prohibit such spending, regarding it accurately as a cancer for democratic governance." Professor McChesney co-founded the media reform group Free Press in 2002, and this year authored How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy.
The policies advocated by some of the Google's grantees are in stark contrast with the progressive image that Google has worked to promote. It has publicly committed to invest more than $1 billion dollars in renewable energy projects, reduce the use of cars by its employees, power its offices with renewables and otherwise green its buildings. The contrast between these promises, and Google's funding of groups that deny or challenge the reality of climate change groups motivated by funding received from fossil fuel companies has led several organizations to launch campaigns calling for Google to stop funding climate change deniers. Forecast the Facts has a "Hey Google! Don't Fund ALEC's Evil!" petition, and Sum of Us has a petition calling on Google to "never fund climate change deniers again."
ALEC is holding its next conference in Washington DC from December 4th through the 6th. A Google lobbyist will likely be there, celebrating ALEC's 40th anniversary alongside legislators and other lobbyists. CMD will report on the events of the conference through the week at PRWatch.org. To sign CMD's petition to Google CEO Larry Page, calling for him to publicly quit ALEC, click here.

[Magda Hassan]

Stink Tanks: Historical Records Reveal State Policy Network Was Created by ALEC

A 1991 report tracked down by DeSmogBlog from the University of California-San Francisco's Legacy Tobacco Documents reveals that the State Policy Network (SPN) was created by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), raising additional questions over both organizations' Internal Revenue Service (IRS) non-profit tax status.
Titled "Special Report: Burgeoning Conservative Think Tanks" and published by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the report states that State Policy Network's precursor the Madison Group was "launched by the American Legislative Exchange Council and housed in the Chicago-based Heartland Institute."
Further, Constance "Connie" Campanella former ALEC executive director and the first president of the Madison Group left ALEC in 1988 to create a lobbying firm called Stateside Associates. Stateside uses ALEC meetings (and the meetings of other groups) as lobbying opportunities for its corporate clients.
"Stateside Associates is the largest state and local government affairs firm," according to its website. "Since 1988, the Stateside team has worked across the 50 states and in many local governments on behalf of dozens of companies, trade associations and government and non-profit clients."

Constance Campanella; Photo Source: Twitter
Named Constance Heckman while heading ALEC, Campenella also formerly served on the Board of Directors of Washington Area State Relations Group, a state-level lobbyist networking group.
"The Washington Area State Relations Group (WASRG) is one of the nation's largest organizations dedicated exclusively to serving state government relations professionals," explains its website. "Since the mid-1970s, WASRG has been providing its corporate, trade association and public sector members with a unique and valuable opportunity to interact with their peers, key state officials and public policy experts."

Shadow Lobbying All Along

ALEC is currently under fire for potentially abusing its 501©(3) non-profit IRS charity tax status, acting as a shadow lobbying apparatus and "corporate bill mill" throughout its 40 years of existence.
In response to criticism, internal documents recently revealed by The Guardian show that ALEC created a 501©(4) group called the Jeffersonian Project, a move activists said was a tacit admission ALEC has illegally served as a lobbying apparatus from the beginning.
What Campanella understood and cashed in on by creating Stateside Associates was how the "shadow lobbying" process works. Her career move from serving as ALEC's executive director to setting up Stateside is another indicator ALEC and related groups facilitate lobbying.

"Stink Tanks" Ideas Factory

While ALEC facilitates passage of "model bills" what the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has coined a "corporate bill mill" State Policy Network proliferates the ideas legitimizing the myriad models that become legislation in statehouses nationwide.
These ideas come in the form of what CMD and Progress Now call "Stink Tanks," modeled to be "mini-Heritage Foundations" by one of its original funders, Thomas Roe. State Policy Network has 64 state affiliates.
Roe, who passed away in 2000, served as vice chairman and finance chairman of the Republican Party in South Carolina and as a member of the Republican National Finance Committee. The Heritage Foundation, where Roe served on the Board of Trustees, now houses the Thomas Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies.

Thomas Roe; Photo Credit: SourceWatch
Though current State Policy Network president Tracie Sharp claimed SPN member groups don't coordinate with one another in a November Politico article, Roe explicitly funded the organization to do just that.
"Starting in 1987, these organizations began meeting regularly as the Madison Group...to trade information and discuss strategies," a history of SPN published in 2007 explains. "Roe believed that these get-togethers were so helpful that they should be formalized through a professional association that would host annual conferences, provide services, and improve communications among its members."
To this day, State Policy Network hands out an annual Roe Award.
"The annual Roe Award pays tribute to those in the state public policy movement whose achievements have greatly advanced the free market philosophy. It recognizes leadership, innovation and accomplishment in public policy," explains the SPN website. "The award is an eagle, a symbol of liberty and the courage and conviction necessary for its preservation."

"Winning is the Operative Word"

In introducing the "Burgeoning Conservative Think Tanks" report in a July 1991 letter to Kurt Malmgren then the Senior Vice President of State Activities for the Tobacco Institute former ALEC Executive Director Sam Brunelli wrote "winning is what ALEC is all about."
"Winning is the operative word. It is an experience you can appreciate because winning the public policy debate will continue to have a tremendous positive effect on the 'bottom line' of your company," Brunelli wrote.
"At ALEC, we bring together, in an intellectually and challenging environment, state legislators and corporate and business executives, wherein we provide the mixture of determination, dedication, preparation, and teamwork those elements so necessary to winning!"
Yet, it's fair to say after a week of hard-hitting investigative journalism by The Guardian and many other outlets, both ALEC and the State Policy Network have doubled down on defense and are not "winning" for now.
http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/12/09/sti...eated-alec