On April 23, True Blue Women hosted a conversation featuring Paul Davis, House Minority Leader, Kansas State Legislature, and Sean Soendker Nicholson, Executive Director, Progress Missouri.
They exposed ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is the organization that is so influential in all the state legislatures.
ALEC meets with large corporations, trade groups, and state legislators behind closed doors to write state laws that benefit those corporations and special interests.
ALEC treats legislators to expense-paid trips and meetings, where they receive model legislation to benefit their largest campaign donors (plus the legislators’ families have a lot of fun – in 2009, ALEC spent over $200,000 in child care for visiting legislators).
What a deal! ALEC gets money, corporations get legislation that benefits them, legislators introduce and vote for that legislation, and get more campaign money from those corporations! And they do it all without public awareness.
The only ones who don’t benefit are the American people.
The large majority of legislator members of ALEC are conservatives.
But we can do something about ALEC. Recently, public outcry has influenced corporations. As of November 2012, 42 corporations and four non-profits – for a total of 46 private sector members – have publicly announced that they are cutting ties with the ALEC, including Coca Cola, Pepsi, McDonalds, and GM.
to make your voice heard.
Links with more information:
Progress Missouri
Bill Moyers Video - United States of ALEC
ALEC Exposed in Missouri: Who is Writing Our Laws?
The Center for Media and Democracy - ALEC Exposed
ALEC - The American Legislative Exchange Council - Explained in Five Minutes
