Grassroots Campaign Makes ALEC Try to Stanch Bleeding of Corporate Donors

Submitted by PRWatch Editors on

ALEC Companies and Politicians Must Be Held Accountable for Vigilante Laws and Bills Making It Harder for Citizens to Vote, plus other Extreme Measures Dressed Up as "Job" Bills

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 17, 2012.

Contact: Nikolina Lazic at (608) 260-9713 or nikolina@prwatch.org

MADISON, WISCONSIN -- The Center for Media and Democracy's Executive Director Lisa Graves issued this statement today in response to ALEC's announcement that it is disbanding its "Public Safety and Elections Task Force":

ALEC's announcement is a partial victory for the power of grassroots citizen action, but for Americans concerned about brand-name corporations underwriting ALEC's extreme agenda to make it more difficult for American citizens to vote and to protect armed vigilantes, ALEC's PR maneuver to try to distance itself from its record of extremism is an empty gesture unless it and the corporations that have bankrolled its operations work to repeal ALEC-backed laws that have advanced the NRA's agenda and that will impede citizens from voting in the coming elections.

Moreover, ALEC's so-called "jobs" agenda is a thinly disguised effort to make it more difficult for American families to hold corporations accountable when their drugs or other products kill or injure their loved ones, to strip workers of their rights to organize or even get sick pay to help care for their children when they are ill, limit the ability of the government to protect the health and safety of American families and to fight climate changes underway, funnel tax dollars from public institutions like schools into private coffers, and to continue a reckless agenda of tax loopholes and giveaways to some of the wealthiest corporations and individuals in the world, like Koch Industries and the Koch family.

Beyond its extreme agenda, ALEC's operating procedures undermine the democratic process by giving corporate lobbyists and special interest groups an equal voice and vote on "model" legislation alongside elected officials at closed-door meetings of ALEC task forces at fancy resorts where the press and public are excluded. ALEC's members must be held accountable for these procedures that distort the democratic process and that have produced its extreme agenda.

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Comments

Lisa Graves replied on

I know! It was supposed to be a long headline and then a sub-header. Sorry about that! Busy day!!

KimT replied on

Lisa, I wanted to know what you thought of Color of Change rep appearing on The Ed Show on MSNBC pretty much taking credit for ALEC's actions and the corporations pulling out. I sat here in disbelief when I heard him say that Color of Change was the David of David and Goliath. He never made reference you PRWatch or the website AlecExposed.org. I would have been a great opportunity to have done so. I have followed your progress from when you first compiled, created and promoted knowledge of ALEC several months ago. I watched you on MSNBC. IJust felt it was very disrespectful to you, PRWatch and the Center for Media and Democracy. I'd like your take on it as I'm planning on contacting MSNBC to complain, as well as Color of Change. Thans so much for all you've done and continue to do!

Anonymous replied on

Ms Graves, I applause your efforts to dismantle ALEC as it deserves to be. You'd do your country and the Union a great service if you'd expose who and what cabal(s) wrote, pushed & had made the codification of the so-called Patriot Act, Homeland Security Act, FICA, NDAA w/ the indefinite confinement w/o due process provisions. If the people would know this they'd be able to pressure this shadow elite out in the open and take the blame away for the innocent "raghead". This is infinitely more important obviously than the false accusation, "shoot first" and deserves more attention and the light of day. I tell you, you won't or refuse to believe, it is not traditional self defense, the Fla. self defense statute is good law and follows the so-called traditional. This is actually the common law and law of the land. The statute that allowed Mr. Zimmerman from being arrested instead was from another section of the Fla. statutes. The so-called stand your ground law was misapplied by the Fla. civil servants, be it the chief, who has stood down, the local prosecutor either individually or in concert. Public pressure caused the gov. to apply the law as written. Mr. Zimmerman instead of standing his ground was stalking the victim contrary to the essential element in stand your ground and common law. I'm definitely against what Scott Walker stands for (including CCW permits, not for the reasons you stand for but entirely different and lawful). I am against the NRA in awarding Walker any award, but the UGLY award. I criticize the NRA for loosing its way on the core issue of the right to keep and bear. Nugent, whatever he said, still has as you do the right to free speech protected by the very 1st Amend. The LHN is threatening the U.S. citizen w/ indefinite jailing w/o due process and as such violates his solemn oath, fiduciary, domestic law, and the rule of law. I take exception to Color of Change's, Robertson?, slur, "glorification of guns". This right is no less dear and important than his civil rights. Instead, the people should be working to defend against the constant and insistent erosion of individual rights. Infighting only serves to divide our meager resources and play into the hands of the shadow ruling elite. Make no mistake,this is where ALEC springs from.

susyc replied on

Well then. We have a ways to go don't we. Destroy ALEC!!!