Archive for April 17, 2012

Today, the Amer­i­can Leg­isla­tive Exchange Coun­cil (ALEC) announced that it’s shut­ter­ing the group work­ing on pro-​​gun and voter iden­ti­fi­ca­tion laws (“Pub­lic Safety and Elec­tions Task Force”). This comes in response to sev­eral com­pa­nies ter­mi­nat­ing their rela­tion­ships with ALEC, after the Trayvon Mar­tin killing, when atten­tion was called to the organization’s back­ing of “stand your ground” laws.

Here’s the irony: the task force was already mostly dead. They hadn’t met since the end of Feb­ru­ary, and have been a rel­a­tively minor part of ALEC’s efforts this year. In keep­ing with the pri­mary Repub­li­can goal of oust­ing Pres­i­dent Obama, ALEC’s leg­isla­tive focus in 2012 is eco­nomic pol­icy, such as bust­ing the Wisconsin’s pub­lic employee union.

So ALEC gets to tell the com­pa­nies that it’s being respon­sive — albeit after hav­ing told them that they shouldn’t be try­ing to influ­ence them in the first place. And, by doing so, they’re able to pro­tect their rev­enue stream, which over­whelm­ingly con­sists of cor­po­rate donations.

After all, let’s face it — what cor­po­ra­tion is going to deny fund­ing to an orga­ni­za­tion devoted to reduc­ing union influence?

Related arti­cles

• ALEC elim­i­nates task force on social issues (raw​story​.com)
• PROGRESSIVE VICTORY: ALEC Ends Its Guns And Voter Sup­pres­sion Task Force (thinkprogress​.org)
• ALEC to ‘sharpen focus’ on eco­nomic issues, end work on voter sup­pres­sion, gun rights (dai​lykos​.com)
• ALEC Switches Focus Amid Mar­tin Back­lash (myfox​phoenix​.com)
• ALEC Announces It Will No Longer Focus on Social Issues (sky​danc​ing​blog​.com)
• Geor­gia law­maker quits ALEC, calls it ‘rad­i­cal’ group with ‘dan­ger­ous agenda’ (raw​story​.com)
• Study: ALEC has ‘secre­tive influ­ence’ in Mis­souri state­house (kansasc​ity​.com)
• ALEC-​​American Leg­isla­tive Exchange Coun­cil is los­ing mem­bers due to writ­ing of rot­ten laws that aid killers Like George Zim­mer­man (bon​ju​pat​ten​.com)