Common Cause Releases Study of ALEC Corporations' Power

On August 3, the national Common Cause office released a study of the American Legislative Exchange Council's political clout titled, "Legislating Under the Influence: Money, Power, and the American Legislative Exchange Council" (pdf). The study examines the campaign contributions from corporations, political action committees, executives and employees associated with the 22 companies represented on ALEC's "Private Enterprise Board." Common Cause found that through the efforts and largesse of global firms like Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Koch Industries, AT&T, Altria (the parent company of cigarette maker Philip Morris) and Exxon Mobil, ALEC has quietly managed to turn itself into a powerful force in all 50 state capitols.

The study found that together these donors spent over $38 million on state politics in just a single election cycle, from 2009 to 2010. Common Cause also found that over the past decade, ALEC's corporate leaders invested over $370 million nationally in state elections to influence ballot measure outcomes and help elect thousands of state legislators who would be willing to advocate for ALEC-backed bills in statehouses across the country.

Wisconsin Common Cause also released a full list of Wisconsin legislators who are ALEC members, and the amounts that ALEC corporations have invested in them since 2001. The list is available here.

In the meantime, people across the country have been researching ALEC politicians and as of this week, the Center for Media and Democracy has been able to add about 1,000 more ALEC legislators to its database to aid reporters and the public on SourceWatch.org. The database is accessible here.

Take action to fight corporate manipulation of state legislative processes across the country! Click here to send letters to the corporate leadership of the American Legislative Exchange Council (companies like Bayer, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Wal-Mart, Kraft, Coca-Cola, State Farm, Johnson and Johnson, AT&T, Koch Industries and many others) and ask them to withdraw their membership from ALEC.