According to many recent news releases, “A trove of secret documents leaked last week reveals how big corporations in cahoots with right-wing state legislators are attacking progressive priorities all across the country.” STAND UP TO THE REPUBLICAN TAKEOVERS AND MANIPULATIONS run by Karl Rove, Big Oil and Big Lobbies.–KAS
Dear MoveOn member,
Have you noticed lately how Republicans in every state seem to be up to exactly the same dirty tricks at the exact same time? Rolling back workers’ rights to organize, making it harder for people to vote, and slashing funding for public schools?
As it turns out, that’s not a coincidence. Thousands of pages of documents leaked last week reveal that a shadowy network of conservative lawyers and political operatives in Washington, DC—backed by millions of dollars from the Koch brothers and other corporate donors—have been secretly writing the bills that Republicans have introduced and passed in state after state.1
Progressives have to get organized to fight back against this coordinated, corporate-funded attack in the states. That’s why we’re making a huge new investment in empowering MoveOn members to run powerful grassroots campaigns at the state and local levels. We’re already starting to win some key victories, but we need more funds to bring on additional staff and turn back the tide.
Make no mistake: The American Legislative Exchange Council is the scariest right-wing group you’ve never heard of.
Here are just a few examples of ALEC legislators at work:
* Under the fictitious guise of preventing voter fraud, this year 33 states have considered laws making it more difficult for college students and poor people to vote. In New Hampshire, the House speaker admitted that the real goal was to help Republicans win in 2012. As one of his colleagues put it, the entire push was “directly attributable to ALEC.”4
* Arizona’s draconian immigration law was actually drafted by an ALEC committee that included executives from the private prison industry, who boast that they now expect “a significant portion of our revenues” to come from immigration detention. Unsurprisingly, they’ve since richly rewarded the bill’s cosponsors with campaign contributions.5
* This year alone, ALEC legislators have introduced at least 500 antiunion bills, depriving workers of their rights to organize and bargain collectively.6 So it should come as no surprise that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald have long been active members of ALEC.7
The good news is that in just the past few months, we’ve already helped progressives run powerful MoveOn-style campaigns from Maine to Florida to Wisconsin to blow the whistle on awful pieces of right-wing legislation. Now, with ALEC facing a new storm of criticism, it’s time for us to double down on our efforts.
Can you chip in $5 to support our work? Click here:
http://civ.moveon.org/donatec4/signon_alec.html?bg_id=hpc5&id=29046-4797084-uJ_Qixx&t=3
Thanks for all you do.
–Michael, Tate, Stephen, Elena, and the rest of the team
1. “ALEC Exposed,” The Nation, July 12, 2011
http://www.thenation.com/article/161978/alec-exposed
2. Corrections, Inc., American Radio Works, April 2002
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=211517&id=29046-4797084-uJ_Qixx&t=4
3. “ALEC Exposed,” The Nation, July 12, 2011
http://www.thenation.com/article/161978/alec-exposed
American Legislative Exchange Council website, accessed July 20, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=211518&id=29046-4797084-uJ_Qixx&t=5
4. “ALEC Exposed: Rigging Elections,” The Nation, July 12, 2011
http://www.thenation.com/article/161969/rigging-elections
5. “Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law,” National Public Radio, October 28, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=211519&id=29046-4797084-uJ_Qixx&t=6
6. “ALEC Exposed: Business Domination Inc.,” The Nation, July 12, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=211520&id=29046-4797084-uJ_Qixx&t=7
7. “ALEC Bills in Wisconsin,” PRWatch, July 14, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=211521&id=29046-4797084-uJ_Qixx&t=8
Eslkevin's Blog 
Dear Kevin,
Have you met ALEC yet? If your state legislature has considered bills to weaken workers’ rights, privatize schools or make it more difficult for citizens to vote, ALEC may already be at work in your state capitol.
ALEC is the acronym for the American Legislative Exchange Council – a secretive front group of hundreds of corporations that are investing millions of dollars a year to write business-friendly legislation at the expense of the middle class.
We’re working hard to shine a spotlight on their nefarious tactics, and to put a stop to their end runs around federal tax and state ethics laws.
Can you help us by making a gift of $20, $50, $100 or more to support our work today?
Please Donate Today
https://www.kintera.org/site/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=7584053&en=hsIKIVPFKgIMJVNDJ7III3NHLiL3JcOJIaKRIbNMJkIUI0MMKwG
Right this minute, Common Cause researchers are digging deep to learn all we can about ALEC’s political spending. We’ve already found that the past decade alone, the 22 firms now represented on ALEC’s “private enterprise board” have put more than $370 million into statehouse races and referenda. The board is a who’s who of corporate America, including companies like AT&T, the tobacco giant Altria, Coca-Cola and trade groups like PhRMA, the drug industry’s lobbying arm.
Meanwhile, our activists are also petitioning the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to investigate ALEC’s activities. ALEC claims that they spend absolutely no money on lobbying (which allows them to operate as a tax-exempt charity) – but their organization’s main purpose is to develop and distribute model bills to state elected officials, with the intent that those bills be introduced and passed in as many places as possible. That sounds like lobbying to us.
We are also investigating whether legislators who are members of ALEC may have broken any state ethics laws.
It’s time to put a stop to ALEC’s elaborate masquerade as a nonpartisan public interest group.
Please help Common Cause turn up the heat by making a donation to our campaign today!