American Legislative Exchange Council

Washington, DC 20002

Established in 1973 by Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, among others, ALEC's purpose is to reach out to state office holders. In the words of ALEC's executive director, Sam Brunelli:

"ALEC's goal is to ensure that these state legislators are so well informed, so well armed, that they can set the terms of the public policy debate, that they can change the agenda, that they can lead. This is the infrastructure that will reclaim the states for our movement."

ALEC has the financial support of more than 200 corporations including Coors, Amway, IBM, Ford, philip Morris, Exxon, Texaco and Shell Oil. William Bennett, Jack Kemp, John Sununu, and George Bush have all addressed ALEC sessions in recent years.

When ALEC began, it comprised only a handful of right-wing legislators; by 1991, it had grown into a clearinghouse of information for 2,400 conservative officeholders in 50 states, almost one-third of the 7,500 state legislators in the country. According to a representative of the National Council of State Legislatures, although ALEC has not substantially modified its right-wing position on what it considers to be its core issues, it has been successful in attracting more moderate legislative support by toning down its more extreme rhetoric.

Editorial
Casper Star Tribune
March 16, 2006

Just who's writing Wyoming's laws?

http://casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/03/17/editorial/columns/cd3d7344686b707b8725713300821d9b.txt

As national “Sunshine Week” winds down, we thought we’d squeeze in one more commentary on what elected officials do behind your back.

If you think Wyoming’s “citizen legislature” is strictly a homegrown outfit, writing Wyoming laws in response to Wyoming’s needs, think again. As a story on Monday’s front page explained, many of our legislators may be getting their ideas from little-known national lobbying organizations.

One group in particular seems to wield a startling level of underground influence. Nearly half of Wyoming’s state legislators are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, according to state Rep. Pete Illoway, a member of ALEC’s national board

Nathan Newman and David Sirota
In These Times
February 19, 2006

Forget D.C.—the Battle is in the States

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2509/

Speaking to a packed room of 2,000 state legislators and business lobbyists gathered in Grapevine, Texas, last fall, George W. Bush thanked the crowd for its work on behalf of the conservative agenda. He wasn’t talking about work they’d done on Capitol Hill, but about their collaboration to push the corporate agenda forward in statehouses across the country. The meeting was the 32nd annual gathering of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a membership association for conservative lawmakers. As its chairman, Georgia State Rep. Earl Ehrhart, said of the president’s speech: “It was like the governor of a state talking to his legislative leaders.”

Joshua Holland
Alternet
November 15, 2005

Creating a Right-Wing Nation, State by State

http://www.alternet.org/story/28259/

A couple of staffers for People for the American Way went undercover to a conference of the ultra-conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. Here's what they discovered.

John Nichols
The Nation
August 14, 2005

Here's the PLAN

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=12965

...Despite the ugliest efforts of corporate America -- via a lobbying frontgroup, the American Legislative Exchange Council -- to warp the process from Augusta (Maine) to Sacremento (California) as thoroughly as it has in Washington, there are still openings for progressive policymaking at the state level. Those openings are the target of the new Progressive Legislative Action Network (PLAN), a coalition developed to provide reform-minded legislators with strategic and research support as they seek to address the pressing economic and social issues that are left untended in a time of corporate hegemony.

Sonji Jacobs
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 7, 2005

Council helps shape legislation in Georgia

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0805/08alec.html

The American Legislative Exchange Council, which ended its annual convention in Grapevine with a prayer breakfast Sunday, wields considerable influence in Georgia's newly Republican Legislature. And Georgia's stature within the organization has grown, too. State Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) became its national chairman this year, and the number of Georgia lawmakers who are members now tops 100.

This year, ALEC was the ghostwriter of several proposals, including the controversial Georgia bill to set limits on damages in medical malpractice lawsuits."Tort reform was pretty much the ALEC model," Ehrhart said last week. "We used the ALEC model bill as our template."

CampusProgress.org
Center for American Progress
February 15, 2005

"Students" for Academic Freedom? Right.

http://www.campusprogress.org/page/community/post_group/main/VMR

The organization is actually just a wing of Horowitz's Center for the Study of Popular Culture and it is staffed by a recent graduate...SAF is working closely with the American Legislative Exchange Council to pass legislation. SAF's website has a list of existing legislation. Look out California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee, legislation is already introduced.

John Nichols
The Nation
May 28, 2003

ALEC Meets is Match: State Activists Are Learning How To Fight Back Against The Right's Powerhouse

http://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=20030609&s=nichols2

...the American Legislative Issue Campaign Exchange (ALICE), which is intended to counter ALEC's initiatives by spreading the word about right-wing stealth agendas, distributing model legislation, analyzing state budget issues and linking legislators to experts on how to craft and pass "high-road" economic development initiatives that benefit workers and the environment.

Bill Berkowitz
WorkingForChange
May 22, 2003

Anti-factory farm activists under fire

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=15046

State legislatures launch ALEC-backed attack on anti- factory farm and animal rights campaigners

Bill Berkowitz
WorkingForChange.com
April 14, 2002

Smart Alecs

http://www.workingforchange.com/printitem.cfm?itemid=13146

"Corporate America's Trojan Horse in the States"

Bill Berkowitz writes about a new report on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) released by Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Though ALEC claims to be nonpartisan, and is an IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity, its core leadership is 85 percent Republican, and only one the 29 members of its board of directors is a Democrat. ALEC was founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, who is currently head of the Free Congress Foundation.

The report suggests ALEC's real reason for being is the provide a conduit for powerful corporations to shape legislation that is then enacted into law by either naive or complicit state legislators across the country. In 1999-2000, for example, the report states that ALEC members - who are state legislators - sponsored 3,100 pieces of legislation, more than 400 of which were passed into law.

Companies and industry organizations supporting ALEC's mission include Enron, Amoco, Chevron, Texaco, R.J. Reynolds, AT&T, the American Nuclear Energy Council, the Chlorine Chemistry Council, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America.

The study charges ALEC with "act[ing] as a conduit for special-interest legislation from corporations to key state legislators on issues that range from rolling back environmental and consumer protections to privatizing government services such as prisons and schools."

"The payments [from corporations] might be membership dues, fees to sit on nine industry-specific committees that approve 'model' bills, expenditures for lavish parties and entertainment, or 'scholarships' to pay for targeted legislators to attend ALEC's junket-like meetings."

Ted Rose
Brill's Content
March 19, 2000

Laissez-Faire TV

reprints/brill_stossel.htm

"The group (ALEC) is officially nonpartisan, but that declaration doesn't fool anybody. The crowd is overwhelmingly conservative-Republican"

Natural Resource Defense Council
February 29, 2000

Corporate America's Trojan Horse In The States

http://www.alecwatch.org/report.html