Wendy's is the 6th Firm to Say It is No Longer a Member of ALEC

Submitted by Sara Jerving on

Wendy's International, the parent company of Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburger, is the sixth corporation to say that it is no longer a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the past week. Wendy's International sent an email to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) this morning stating that the fast food chain had decided not to renew their membership at the end of 2011. CMD
launched ALEC Exposed and named Wendy's as corporate member in July 2011.

Wendy's Dumps ALECThis announcement comes in light of a recent controversy surrounding ALEC's link to Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, which may protect the killer of 17-year old Trayvon Martin, and ALEC's association with voter ID laws and other extreme legislative proposals. McDonalds, Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Intuit have all announced within the past week that they have decided to not renew their membership with ALEC and the Gates Foundation has announced it will not continue to fund ALEC.

Last year the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) launched ALECexposed.org, where it made available over 800 "model" ALEC bills which shed light on a radical right-wing agenda that includes corporate tax breaks, the privatization of public education, voter suppression, anti-immigrant bills, climate change denial, among other initiatives. Since this launch, CMD has been analyzing these bills and targeting the corporate members of ALEC to urge them to end their membership with the organization. Yesterday, CMD, and partner organizations, urged McDonalds, State Farm and Johnson & Johnson to stop funding ALEC. McDonalds publicly announced later that afternoon that they would not continue funding ALEC.

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Comments

Bob Sloan replied on

CMD ROCKS!...5 down and 295+ to go. At this rate by Christmas the only corporate member that will be left supporting ALEC is key funder, Koch Industries.

Anonymous replied on

I am glad to see all the companies dropping membership in something that should be illegal anyway. This is why the American people can't be heard, when you have big corporations joining together to influence the laws and tax rates of this country, how can those that write the laws hear just the family man or working woman. I hope this ALEC goes under and fast.

svenwaddell replied on

I love your comment. I quit eating fast food years ago and now I feel like I never need to see a doctor ever again. I wish everyone would boycott anything that is not pure. It is hard to do since there is crap everywhere but that is evenmore the reason to start cleaning up the mess America has made.

RHytonen replied on

That's what I keep wondering. It's not as if those corps will suddenly be cured of the essential murderous greed and extractive, plundering exploitation that drive their every move. It seems nothing would even mildly affect that except the end of the durable corporation, which should never have been allowed to evolve. Corporations were supposed to be ephemeral and completely ad hoc, a necessary evil to be closely watched and ruthlessly regulated.

Gagged replied on

Sh-h-h-h-h! I see the moderators don't like dissenting opinions here. Figures.

ChefJenG replied on

Last I checked, National Restaurant Association is a member of ALEC. I'm glad Wendy's, McDonald's, Coke, & Pepsi all "dropped" but if they are still a part of NRA, they still have a foot in the door. Real change would be legislators dropping ALEC.

Anonymous replied on

Above you post "Wendy's International sent an email to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) this morning stating that the fast food chain had decided not to renew their membership at the end of 2011." How can it say this yesterday and 2011 was a few months ago. Is this a typo or does it mean 2012 which means it will be after the Election and rather late I would say. Or does it mean the list of ALEC sponsors is not up to date. That is unsettling though so much is behind closed doors, it is any wonder we can figure out what goes on.

Lisa Graves replied on

When we launched ALECexposed, we documented the list of corporations who were then a funder or member of ALEC along with companies that were previously identified as having funded ALEC. Wendy's gave ALEC money in 2011, but did not give money to ALEC in the past 13 weeks for membership this year. Their statement did not indicate precisely when they made that decision or when they previously paid dues to ALEC (that is, when their renewal was due or expected). Companies that are not members of ALEC can still attend ALEC events at the non-member rate, but companies that are not members of ALEC task forces cannot vote on "model" bills. Lisa

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