This week, the dark money group American Future Fund (AFF) launched a misleading ad attacking Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin for supporting legislation that would allegedly shut down eleven paper mills and lay off 7,500 paper workers in the state, ignoring Baldwin's negotiations to protect Wisconsin jobs that might be affected by the rule and her strong record on trade policy and manufacturing.

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.

The wave of new voter restrictions and scare tactics being implemented for the 2012 elections -- such as voter ID laws, early voting restrictions, threatening billboards, misleading mailers and vigilante poll watchers -- could intimidate countless numbers of Americans from exercising their right to vote.