Corporations

Meet the Network Hiding the Koch Money: "Donors Trust" and "Donors Capital Fund"

- Connor Gibson, Greenpeace

Earlier this year internal documents from the Heartland Institute, a major hub of climate change denial and right-wing extremism, were publicly leaked. The documents exposed the Heartland Institute's funders and strategies for attacking climate science, and led to a mass exodus of Heartland's corporate funders.

"Buying Influence," a Special Report Released; ALEC Corporate Slush Fund Pays for State Lawmakers' Junkets

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.

Big Oil and the U.S. Chamber Fight to Keep Foreign Bribery Flourishing

by Sara Jerving and Mary Bottari

American Petroleum Institute logoIn a new lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), big energy extractors are pushing for carte blanche in their interactions with foreign governments, making it harder to track whether their deals are padding the coffers of dictators, warlords, or crony capitalists. The United States Chamber of Commerce, American Petroleum Institute, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, and the National Foreign Trade Council filed a lawsuit on October 10, 2012 against a new SEC rule, which requires U.S. oil, mining and gas companies to formally disclose payments made to foreign governments as part of their annual SEC reporting.

On NFIB Conference Call, Romney Urges Employers to Tell Employees How to Vote, Just Like the Kochs

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney suggested to business owners they tell their employees how to vote on a June conference call organized by the National Federation for Independent Business (NFIB), an organization the Center for Media and Democracy has recently exposed as a partisan lobbying group advancing big business interests.

Index of PRWatch Articles About ALEC

The Center for Media and Democracy publishes news stories about the American Legislative Exchange Council, its corporate funders and policymakers, and its allied special interest groups, like the American City County Exchange and the State Policy Network with affiliates in states across the country here on PRWatch.org. A list of CMD's reporting on ALEC is provided below.

Obama Campaign Chases Big Checks while Decrying Citizens United and Unlimited Fundraising

President Barack Obama rode into office in 2008 on a wave of small donations that some expected would change politics. The small-dollar strategy is still helping Obama fill his campaign accounts, but the electoral landscape has changed rapidly over the past four years and candidates' official campaigns are being overshadowed by unlimited spending from nominally "independent" groups funded by a handful of ultra-wealthy donors.

Center for Media and Democracy and Common Cause File Open Records Lawsuit Against ALEC Members in Wisconsin

Evidence Shows Officials Using Personal Email Accounts to Evade Sunshine Law

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 1, 2012

CONTACT: Brendan Fischer, Brendan@prwatch.org

MADISON -- The Center for Media and Democracy and Common Cause filed suit today against five Wisconsin legislators who also are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) over their failure to provide ALEC-related records sought under Wisconsin's Open Records Law.

Pages

Subscribe to Corporations