He’s The ALEC Candidate
Two weeks before the first GOP debate, when other presidential candidates were in Iowa or New Hampshire, two GOP contenders – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz – were at a San Diego resort headlining the annual conference hosted by the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Commonly known as ALEC, the group is somewhat unique in American politics. It boasts more than 2,000 members of state legislatures, the vast majority of whom are Republican. And at its annual meetings and other sponsored retreats and events, it pairs those state lawmakers with lobbyists and executives from its roster of corporate members. Together, lawmakers and private interests jointly collaborate on subcommittees – ALEC calls them ‘task forces’ – to set the group’s legislative agenda and draft portable ‘model’ bills that can then be taken home to legislators’ home states to be introduced as their own initiatives. The private sector members of these task forces have veto power over each committee’s agenda and actions. ALEC’s agenda, therefore, always prioritizes the interests and voices of its donors over elected lawmakers.
ALEC doesn’t publish a list of either its corporate members or its publicly-elected legislator-members. It doesn’t allow members of the media to access its conferences. And it doesn’t disclose its donor list. Much of what we know about the group comes from periodic voluntary individual disclosures and a large Wikileaks-style whisteblower cache of documents.
The Doc urges you to take in the whole thing here.
Click here for reuse options!Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: dave-dr-gonzo
David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.
* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.
5 responses to He’s The ALEC Candidate
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Suzanne McFly August 10th, 2015 at 19:32
ALEC is simply a meat market where you buy your politician. The American way has gone down the tubes.
bpollen August 11th, 2015 at 05:07
Might I suggest “meathead” market?
Suzanne McFly August 11th, 2015 at 11:33
Sounds right
Obewon August 10th, 2015 at 20:26
All GOP are ALEC scumbags but only two were foolish enough to attend: Wisconsin guber Koch Walker and Texas’s Canadian Sinner Ted Cruz – were the dimmest to headline the annual Koch Brothers conference A/K/A the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Warman1138 August 11th, 2015 at 00:02
The corporate masters of ALEC have never had a richer sex life as they do now. So many politicians to do, so little time.