Comedian Lee Camp has a great “Moment of Clarity” outlining the tremendous influence of secretive groups like ALEC, a corporate funded right-wing organization that works with conservative lawmakers across the United States to implement legislation friendly to corporate interests.
It’s worth noting that corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills that will ultimately be disseminated to conservative lawmakers across the country, and over 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.
The Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch has a great post outlining the deep connections ALEC has to Wisconsin and our conservative lawmakers, not to mention a list of the ALEC “model” bills that have been introduced by conservative lawmakers here in Wisconsin since Republican took control of the legislature.
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