ALEC Leader Admits Last Week's Announcement Was a PR Stunt

Submitted by PRWatch Editors on

-- by Campaign Staff at ColorOfChange.org

picture of two men in suits shaking handsLast week, ALEC acknowledged that it was reeling after its corporate sponsors -- some of which pay hundreds of thousands of dollars at times for membership in the right-wing group -- started dropping like flies. In a statement that sidestepped any admission of wrongdoing for pushing voter suppression and Stand Your Ground/Shoot First bills nationwide, ALEC announced, "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."

We already knew this was a PR stunt. But in an recent interview, the Republican state legislator who chaired the disbanded committee confirms it:

Republican State Rep. Jerry Madden of Texas chairs the Public Safety Task Force and although he is disappointed the committee is disbanding, he said many of the issues will be transferred to other committees.

"ALEC's decision won't impact the important issues we've worked on," Madden told The Christian Post. "But I will say this, these groups are targeting ALEC because when conservatives get together, we influence state and federal policy in a major way and these groups are scared of us -- and should be."

So it appears that supporters of voter suppression and dangerous gun laws need not fear. ALEC intends to merely shift that work elsewhere within the organization. And ColorOfChange members and our allies aren't, as Madden suggests, "scared" of ALEC. But he's right to say that we won't fall for the shadowy group's efforts to benefit the rich and powerful at the expense of people of color, workers, and the environment. And we'll continue to make sure that major corporations with ties to ALEC are aware that they're funding a toxic agenda.

ALEC Exposed
Guest Contributor
CMD
PRWatch Editors

The author listed as "PRwatch Editors" is for reports attributable to CMD's editors or guest authors.

Read more here.

MORE LIKE THIS:

Comments

oldgulph replied on

A product of the Public Safety and Elections Committee is still posted, and influencing conservative state legislators. On September 7, 2007, ALEC’s National Board Members gave final approval to a resolution, passed by its members, in support of the current Electoral College system used to elect the President of the United States. http://www.alec.org/docs/Electoral_College_PR.pdf ALEC’s First Vice Chairman, State Sen. Steve Faris (AR) said “I am proud ALEC has endorsed this resolution and is committed to oppose all national popular vote legislation." The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC). Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. There would no longer be a handful of 'battleground' states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in more than 3/4ths of the states that now are just 'spectators' and ignored after the primaries. When the bill is enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes– enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538), all the electoral votes from the enacting states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC. The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for President. Historically, virtually all of the major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action. In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided). Support for a national popular vote is strong among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group in virtually every state surveyed in recent polls. Americans believe that the candidate who receives the most votes should win. Despite ALEC's opposition and influence, the bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 states. The bill has been enacted by 9 jurisdictions possessing 132 electoral votes - 49% of the 270 necessary to go into effect. NationalPopularVote Follow National Popular Vote on Facebook via nationalpopularvoteinc