Important: The Center for Media and Democracy is monitoring the activities of ALEC, the increasingly shady (and possibly illegal) "non-profit" organization which feeds rightwing legislation to state legislators.
Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations. Through ALEC, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state. DO YOU?
Most voters have nothing like the influence on their government that these businesses and agencies have. ALEC is just another way for corporations to influence our political future. Posing as a non-profit organization, they help write the bills; they make sure legislators who vote their way are rewarded for their vote.
More than 98% of ALEC's revenues come from sources other than legislative dues, such as corporations, corporate trade groups, and corporate foundations. Each corporate member pays an annual fee of between $7,000 and $25,000 a year, and if a corporation participates in any of the nine task forces, additional fees apply, from $2,500 to $10,000 each year. ALEC also receives direct grants from corporations, such as $1.4 million from ExxonMobil from 1998-2009. It has also received grants from some of the biggest foundations funded by corporate CEOs in the country, such as: the Koch family Charles G. Koch Foundation, the Koch-managed Claude R. Lambe Foundation, the Scaife family Allegheny Foundation, the Coors family Castle Rock Foundation, to name a few. Less than 2% of ALEC’s funding comes from “Membership Dues” of $50 per year paid by state legislators, a steeply discounted price that may run afoul of state gift bans.
Now all of us have an opportunity to investigate, report, and rein in ALEC's influence on our state legislators.
You can contribute information, feed it into the system, as well as monitor others' investigations. You can be part of a growing number of voters who know whether the state legislators they vote for are now part of this business network.
