ALEC Exposed

News

WI Legislators Receive $24K in Campaign Contributions After Pushing ALEC Predatory Lending Bill

by Brendan Fischer — November 16, 2012 - 8:03am
  • Topics: Economy
  • Projects: ALEC Exposed

    • Wisconsin's effort to open the state to predatory lenders using American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) legislation has paid dividends for the ALEC legislators behind it.

    News

    WI Republican Insists Romney Would Have Won if Voter ID Law Was in Place, But Admits "Not Dealing With the Real Reality"

    by Brendan Fischer — November 14, 2012 - 11:24am
  • Topics: Election 2012, Democracy, Politics
  • Projects: ALEC Exposed

    • Wisconsin State Senator Alberta Darling said that Mitt Romney could have won the state if Wisconsin's voter ID law had been in place for the November 6 election, despite zero evidence of voter fraud -- but also admitted she and other Republicans may not be "dealing with the real reality."

    News

    Will GOP Governors Really Try "Nullifying" Obamacare?

    by Brendan Fischer — November 14, 2012 - 8:00am
  • Topics: Election 2012, Health, Politics
  • Projects: ALEC Exposed

    • Despite Americans overwhelmingly rejecting Mitt Romney and his plans to "repeal Obamacare on day one," an effort to nonetheless thwart the federal health care law on the state level is underway, led by the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity and Cato Institute, with help from American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model legislation. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is a key holdout and has not indicated whether he will continue to actively block the health care law.

    News

    Mark Pocan Takes "Fighting Bob" La Follette’s Seat in the U.S. Congress

    by Mary Bottari — November 9, 2012 - 10:42am
  • Topics: Democracy, Economy
  • Projects: ALEC Exposed

    • One of the most significant developments for American progressives this election season was the election of Mark Pocan, who won Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District seat with 68 percent of the vote. The popular and populist Pocan is likely to hold the seat, which was once held by Progressive Party champion Robert M. La Follette, for many years to come. Pocan represented the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) area in the state legislature and CMD worked with him on our ALEC Exposed project.

    News

    Bradley Foundation Bankrolls Controversial Billboards, Treading onto Controversial New Ground

    by Brendan Fischer — November 2, 2012 - 9:04am
  • Topics: Election 2012, Democracy, Politics
  • Projects: ALEC Exposed, Wisconsin Protests

    • Although the Einhorn Family Foundation admitted to being the "private family foundation" behind the controversial "Voter Fraud is a Felony!" billboards that recently appeared in neighborhoods of color in Milwaukee and two Ohio cities, news broke Wednesday they secured the funds for similar billboards in 2010 from the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation, a major funder of right-wing organizations that push the voter fraud myth.

    Press Release

    CMD and Common Cause Prevail in Open Records Lawsuit Against ALEC Legislators in Wisconsin

    by PRW Staff — October 30, 2012 - 1:43pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Democracy, Politics
  • Projects: ALEC Exposed, Wisconsin Protests

    • Lawmakers Acknowledge That They Cannot Evade the Open Records Law by Shifting Official Correspondence to a Personal E-Mail Account

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 30, 2012
    CONTACT: Brendan Fischer, Brendan@prwatch.org; Nick Surgey, nsurgey@commoncause.org

    Five Wisconsin state legislators have agreed to turn over any correspondence and documents with or related to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and held on their personal email accounts; the action settles a lawsuit brought by the Center for Media and Democracy and Common Cause.

    Press Release

    "Buying Influence," a Special Report Released; ALEC Corporate Slush Fund Pays for State Lawmakers' Junkets

    by Lisa Graves — October 26, 2012 - 12:15pm
  • Topics: Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Democracy
  • Projects: ALEC Exposed

    • Internal records show ALEC corporations have spent an estimated $4 million to send legislators to posh resorts since 2006

    For Immediate Release: October 26, 2012
    Contact: Sara Jerving, Center for Media and Democracy, (608) 260-9713; Mary Boyle, Common Cause, (202) 736-5770

    Corporate backers of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have funneled more than an estimated $4 million in gifts to state legislators for travel, hotel rooms, and meals at posh resorts since 2006, according to estimates based on internal ALEC records. The corporate lobby front group is already facing an Internal Revenue Service review of claims that it violated federal law by posing as a charity.

    News

    Vote to Have a Session on ALEC at the 2013 National Conference for Media Reform

    by PRW Staff — October 23, 2012 - 8:19am
  • Topics: Activism
  • Projects: ALEC Exposed

    • Help CMD as we prepare for the National Conference for Media Reform (NCMR)! NCMR will be in Denver, CO on April 5-7, 2013. The conference is organized by the nonprofit media reform group Free Press, founded by John Nichols and Bob McChesney, and is dedicated to the fight for a more independent, robust and diverse media system in the United States, which is essential to our efforts to build a better democracy.

    News

    Walker Wins Paul Weyrich Award

    by Rebekah Wilce — October 22, 2012 - 10:59am
  • Topics: Right Wing
  • Projects: ALEC Exposed

    • Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, an alumnus of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) from his time as a state legislator, received an award named after one of ALEC's founders, Paul Weyrich, in February 2012. The award went unnoticed at the time as Walker battled a recall election, but was discovered by the "2old2care" blog.

    News

    On NFIB Conference Call, Romney Urges Employers to Tell Employees How to Vote, Just Like the Kochs

    by Brendan Fischer — October 18, 2012 - 9:36am
  • Topics: Election 2012, Corporations, Democracy, Politics
  • Projects: ALEC Exposed

    • GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney suggested to business owners they tell their employees how to vote on a June conference call organized by the National Federation for Independent Business (NFIB), an organization the Center for Media and Democracy has recently exposed as a partisan lobbying group advancing big business interests.

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