BREAKING NEWS: ALEC Capitulates!!

ALEC, the now-infamous American Legislative Exchange Council, has opted to step back from non-economic legislation which was, until now, their raison d’être.  Apparently losing a large chunk of your corporate sponsors can really have an impact on a group like ALEC.  Overturning the rock they were hiding under has proven to be a remarkably successful strategy.

“We are eliminating the ALEC Public Safety and Elections task force that dealt with non-economic issues, and reinvesting these resources in the task forces that focus on the economy. The remaining budgetary and economic issues will be reassigned.

“While we recognize there are other critical, non-economic issues that are vitally important to millions of Americans, we believe we must concentrate on initiatives that spur competitiveness and innovation and put more Americans back to work.

This is the part of ALEC responsible for all the tragic pro-gun legislation passed over the past few years and which is now being targeted for repeal across the nation.  I hope this also means that ALEC will back away from the failed Charter School initiatives conservatives are so fond of and which have been a remarkable failure across the nation.

Huzzah!

What makes this doubly interesting is that ALEC was founded on purely ideological ground that had nothing to do with economics.

ALEC was co-founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich who also helped found other conservative organizations in the 1970s and 1980s including the Heritage Foundation, the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, the Moral Majority and the Council for National Policy. Henry Hyde, who later became a U.S. Congressman, and Lou Barnett, who later became National Political Director of Ronald Reagan’s Political Action Committee, also helped to found ALEC. Early members included a number of state and local politicians who went on to statewide or national office such as Bob Kasten and Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin; John Engler of Michigan; Terry Branstad of Iowa, and John Kasich of Ohio.Several members of the U.S. Congress were also involved in the organization during its early years, including Sen. John Buckley and Rep. Jack Kemp of New York, Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, and Rep. Phil Crane of Illinois

This represents a significant victory in the battle to retake Wisconsin from these outside forces.

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4 thoughts on “BREAKING NEWS: ALEC Capitulates!!

  1. Signficiant victory IF it’s real, and not just a smoke screen for them to drive these activities even further underground. I am glad they were shamed into announcing this shift, but I still don’t trust them. Almost seems too easy, you know?

    1. I know all too well.

      I don’t know if it’s a uniquely American thing to be so politically lazy at a personal level. But I do know that a hasty press conference and empty promises are so successful because we lack anything like a Fourth Estate or vigilant individuals to hold ALEC accountable.

  2. Yeah, they’ll just push that agenda to the super-secret he-man-wome-haters committee.

    1. Or declare that some of the same issues have an economic component, or help create a new spin-off group that’ll handle the reclassified issues.

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