See Original INTERVIEWS in "National Chairman Of ALEC Responds To Report" in PART 2, also See PART 1 "Who's Really Writing States' Legislation?".
Beyond evasive and condescending, Noble Ellington misrepresented and dissimulated the clever lies A.L.E.C. uses as a blanket defense: There's nothing to hide, There is no secret, everything is ordinary and out-in-the-open, there nothing to raise concerns about A.L.E.C.'s operations.
Compliant ALEC MEMBERS (IN PLACES LIKE MICHIGAN) THEN SIMPLY XEROX ALEC's "MODELS" IN TO STATE LAW WITH LITTLE OR NO SUBSTANTIVE CHANGES - in some cases exact word-for-word verbiage.
Investigative writer Beau Hodai, DBA Press, outlines the A.L.E.C. method of operation and details on its rise to a bill writing factory-for the far-nutters who bow and scrape to serve the Corporatocracy now attempting a coup in America's heartland.
Reports Hodai:
"The group (A.L.E.C.) also claims more than 250 "private sector" member corporations and special interest groups. Though ALEC refuses to make its private (or public) sector membership lists available, known members include: ExxonMobil, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Corrections Corporation of America, AT&T, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, TimeWarner Cable, Wal-Mart, Phillip Morris International, the National Rifle Association and the Heritage Foundation (co-founded by ALEC founder Paul Weyrich)-to name a few.How does A.L.E.C. get its tentacles around Michigan Law?
"The functions of ALEC (a national organization, incorporated in Illinois and headquartered in Washington, D.C.) are subdivided into state leadership teams; in each state one lawmaker serves as ALEC's "public sector chairman," and one corporate representative serves as the "private sector chairman."
In Michigan, a genteel young woman from an unsuspecting, bucolic southwest rural hamlet, Senator Tonya Schuitmaker-R, was the A.L.E.C. point person a year ago. And before Schuitmaker, a turn or two ago, it was former Rep. Mary Ann Middaugh-R long-time Lansing insider and legislator, also from this rural area, who also had a turn heading up the A.L.E.C. subversion of the state's legislative process. Others like another former legislator, Jason Allen, Traverse City was the state chair. (Allen and Schuitmaker in turn took political contributions from ATT & T - a major ALEC corporate member.)
JUST HOW DOES THE MASSIVE CORPORATE AGENDA & SPECIAL TREATMENT MAKE IT INTO LAW IN MICHIGAN?
Beau Hodai explains:
"ALEC is comprised of nine "task forces" on which both private and public sector members serve: 1.) Public Safety and Elections; 2.) Civil Justice; 3.) Education; 4.) Energy, Environment and Agriculture; 5.) Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development; 6.) Telecommunications and Information Technology; 7.) Health and Human Services; 8.) Tax and Fiscal Policy; and 9.) International Relations.A.L.E.C: A Corporatist Pipeline With Access & Control of Public Lawmaking
"These task forces form the core of ALEC's legislative operations. Each task force generates "model legislation" that is then passed on to ALEC member lawmakers for introduction in their respective state legislatures."
"ALEC does not make its model legislation available for public inspection."
"According to ALEC promotional material, every year member lawmakers typically introduce 1,000 pieces of task force-crafted legislation. About 17 percent of which become law. In 2009, for example, ALEC claimed a total of 826 pieces of introduced legislation nationwide, 115 of which were passed into law-slightly below the average at 14 percent."
How important is this pipeline of bill preparation, direct presentation and passage to those hundreds of corporate CEO's who belong and support ALEC? From the best information we have, they calculate it is worth spending tens of millions to get a prescriptive or proscriptive bill passed into codified state law.
Investigator Lisa Graves, adds in:
"According to ALEC's IRS filings, over the past three years it has raised $21,615,465 from corporations, foundations, and other sources, and just over $250,000 in dues paid by state legislators, amounting to slightly more than 1 percent of its income."Writer Hodai expands this number, over a "10-year period, ALEC REPORTED $54,504,702 IN 'GIFTS,' 'GRANTS' AND OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ITS CORPORATE AND SPECIAL INTEREST MEMBERS."
FOLKS WE ARE TALKING SERIOUS MONEY HERE
For one of the largest contributors and solid backers, THE INFAMOUS KOCH BROTHERS, this kind of ready and obedient bill writing and passage is an invaluable asset. Of course seen in light of their reported net worth of around $40 billion, this entire effort is chump change.
Hodai again:
"David Koch also currently chairs the AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY FOUNDATION (AFPF), formerly known as the Citizens for a Sound Economy Educational Foundation (another prominent ALEC-contributor), largely funded by CKF and Koch Industries. Joining him on that board is Koch Industries Executive Vice President Richard Fink, who is also the former executive vice president of the Mercatus Center, yet another Koch-funded, right-wing ALEC public policy member."
"In 2003, AFPF incarnated two more foundations: AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY AND FREEDOMWORKS. As noted in AFPF's 2003 tax records, the group paid U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) $429,583, via FreedomWorks, as a "consultant"--his first year salary as chairman of FreedomWorks."
"As Kate Zernike noted in our October 2010 cover story, "Tea Party Confidential," Armey and the group's president Matt Kibbe wrote an op-ed article in 2007 proposing the Boston Tea Party as a model for putting grassroots pressure on a central government. She writes, 'Presaging Tea Party tactics in the summer of 2009, they described how Samuel Adams packed town hall meetings with his supporters to drown out Tory voices and used each new British policy or tax as 'an excuse to rally new recruits to the cause of American independence.' They wrote, 'Adams was the first American to recognize that 'it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather, an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.' "
Beginning in 2009, FreedomWorks was instrumental in creating THE FAUX-POPULIST TEA PARTY. The mainstream media uncritically hyped the scores of Tea Party tax day protests orchestrated by FreedomWorks and the National Taxpayers Union (another Koch-funded ALEC group headed by former ALEC executive director Duane Parde), thus HELPING ENABLE UNPRECEDENTED REPUBLICAN LEGISLATIVE MAJORITIES IN STATES ACROSS THE NATION.
Bribe-like "gifts," junkets, western fishing trips, meet and greets, golf and other recreational outings, as well as a peck of "perks" are judiciously labeled as legislator's "scholarships" and festoon A.L.E.C.'s saprophytic methodology; all this using their tax-sheltered 501 (c) (3) as a cover for this kind of inspirational bonding. A.L.E.C.'S Senior Director of Public Affairs Raegan Weber firmly asserts that just as ALEC claims "scholarship funds" disbursed to lawmakers are not "gifts"" as 501(c)(3)s cannot give gifts to politicians" so too does the group deny any involvement in the formation of legislation or in lobbying activities.
On October 29, 2010 (following a wave of critical coverage spurred by 'In These Times' reporting on the organization's role in disseminating model legislation closely resembling Arizona's SB 1070), in a memo addressed to its public sector chairmen, ALEC offered this explanation of how its role in creating "model legislation" does not violate the group's not-for-profit status reports Beau Hodai of DBA Press:
"Laws are not passed, debated or adopted during this process and therefore no lobbying takes place. That process is done at the state legislatures. ... Just like teachers, farmers and ranchers, senior citizens and other groups, businesses have the right to representation and to inform legislators about their industry."
SAY WHAT?
A.L.E.C. spends tens of millions on "scholarships" for legislators and judges. Lavish entertainments and other entertainment"perks," but this (according to A.L.E.C. spokespeople) is not extraordinary. But, wait, it is very extraordinary; "(T)eachers, farmers and ranchers, senior citizens and other groups" do not have this great, decades-long inside track, slick mechanism to "meet and greet" in the extravagant, lavish manner A.L.E.C. (a taxpayer assisted, tax exempt 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, "not-for-profit" organization does and can.) The American Legislative Exchange Council has this clever, quiet system to subvert the stateside legislative process in many states, including Michigan.
No way do "teachers, farmers and ranchers, senior citizens and other groups" have the equal "privilege" of having favorable legislation funneled directly into bill language (fill-in-the-blanks models pre-crafted by A.L.E.C. lawyers and corporate wordsmiths), new law language and content introduced in the various legislatures with a friendly wink & nod, no (traditional) lobbying involved. And as of late in Wisconsin and Michigan, the A.L.E.C. generated "off the shelf" bill "drops" get fast-tracked into law when the moment is right.
A.L.E.C. CUTS THE CORNERS VERY CAREFULLY AS TO THE FEDERAL GUIDELINES FOR 501(C)(3)'s.
Again, Hodai, DBA Press:
"It is important to note, however, that these scholarship fund awards are not supposed to be used as campaign contributions, per ALEC's 501 (c) (3) status-even though, according to data compiled by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, this did not stop ALEC member lawmakers in Wisconsin, Kansas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Iowa, Mississippi, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri and Georgia from reporting ALEC funds as campaign contributions during the 2008 election cycle. These funds, distributed over 15 lawmakers in these 10 states totaled $17,113 in contributions ranging from $400 to $3,097."
SO WHAT GIVES?
According to election records for the most current cycles where they are available the following Michigan Legislators/representatives who got direct campaign funding from corporations members of and backing A.L.E.C.
For example - Let's look at who got money from A.L.E.C.'s member AT&T in Michigan:
1. Tonya Schuitmaker
2. Bill Huizenga
3. Jason Allen
4. Mike Rogers
As researchers continue to discover other recipients of A.L.E.C. largess, more money and influence connections in Michigan will come to light.
More on ALEC in Michigan can be found here and here.
Original Post.
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