ALEC Corporations Spend Big in Washington [1]
Submitted by Rebekah Wilce [2] on
On Monday, September 12, Brad Hooker of the Center for Responsive Politics' Open Secrets blog posted an exposé [3] of the money that the corporate members of ALEC's "Private Enterprise" Board [4] (including AT&T, Exxon Mobil, Kraft, Coca-Cola and Koch Industries) spent to lobby Washington and fill the campaign chests of ALEC alumni in Congress (as well as other Congressmembers). ALEC alumnus [5] John Boehner [6] received the most from ALEC Board corporations, a total of "$368,200 [7] from the people and political action committees associated with the companies on ALEC's private enterprise board during the 2010 election cycle." Second place goes to another ALEC alumnus, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor [8] (R-Va.), who has been introducing ALEC's agenda [9] to the House. He collected "$328,100 [10] from people and PACs associated with 17 companies on the ALEC private enterprise board."
Of the ALEC board corporation, PhRMA [11] spent the most on lobbying the Federal government. "Last year, the drug trade group spent more than $22.74 million [12] on lobbying and hired 156 lobbyists -- about 59 percent more lobbyists than any other ALEC company. ... The next highest lobbying spender in recent years, with $46.7 million [13] spent since 2009, was Exxon Mobil." A table of lobbying expenditures by each of the 23 corporations on ALEC's board from the Open Secrets post follows:
| Organization | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Altria Group | $12,770,000 | $10,360,000 | $5,480,000 |
| American Bail Coalition | $0 | $80,000 | $35,000 |
| AT&T Inc. | $14,729,673 | $15,395,078 | $11,690,000 |
| Bayer AG | $8,478,512 | $4,903,640 | $3,380,000 |
| Coca-Cola Co. | $9,390,000 | $7,352,795 | $3,450,000 |
| Diageo PLC | $2,250,000 | $2,620,000 | $1,100,000 |
| Energy Future Holdings Corp. | $3,974,014 | $4,731,228 | $2,770,000 |
| Exxon Mobil | $27,430,000 | $12,450,000 | $6,820,000 |
| GlaxoSmithKline | $8,760,000 | $6,070,000 | $2,650,000 |
| Intuit Inc. | $2,142,000 | $2,249,000 | $1,589,000 |
| Johnson & Johnson | $6,560,000 | $6,700,000 | $3,106,000 |
| Koch Industries | $12,450,000 | $8,070,000 | $4,060,000 |
| Kraft Foods | $3,390,000 | $3,000,000 | $1,450,000 |
| Peabody Energy | $5,835,000 | $6,591,000 | $3,727,000 |
| Pfizer Inc. | $25,819,268 | $13,380,000 | $7,440,000 |
| PhRMA | $26,150,520 | $21,740,000 | $9,290,000 |
| Reed Elsevier Inc. | $2,130,000 | $1,670,000 | $810,000 |
| Reynolds American | $4,556,215 | $4,323,293 | $1,728,305 |
| Salt River Project | $1,170,000 | $870,000 | $370,000 |
| State Farm Insurance | $3,420,000 | $3,620,000 | $1,540,000 |
| United Parcel Service | $8,430,526 | $5,587,349 | $2,642,399 |
| Wal-Mart Stores | $7,390,000 | $6,160,000 | $4,070,000 |
For more, see Open Secrets' blog post here [3].