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ALECexposed at Netroots

CMD at Netroots NationAdvocates and researchers converged this week in Rhode Island to talk about work exposing the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The group, including the Center for Media and Democracy's Executive Director Lisa Graves, was gathered for a panel at Netroots Nation, a conference which brings together bloggers, social justice advocates, labor and organizational leaders, grassroots organizers, and others. Each in their own way, the panelists talked about how through ALEC corporations are unduly influencing and corrupting American democracy. CMD launched ALECexposed last July after a whistleblower gave Graves "model" bills that had been voted on by ALEC corporations and legislators behind closed doors on ALEC task forces.

Big Tobacco Cash Floods California to Defeat New Tax

Think Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and special interests supporting him spent a lot in the Wisconsin recall race, at $45 million? Well, tobacco companies spent even more to defeat the ballot measure to raise California's cigarette taxes. How much? $47 million.

The ballot measure, Proposition 29, would have raised California's cigarette tax from its current 87 cents a pack -- half the national average -- to $1.87 a pack. This would still only have been the 16th highest cigarette tax in the country. The revenue created would have financed cancer research and smoking prevention programs.

Wisconsin State Journal Used Erroneous Data in Front Page Recall Story "Mountains of Money are About Even"

Just weeks before Wisconsin's June 5 recall election, the banner headline for the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal declared "Campaign donations: Despite rhetoric, the parties' mountains of money are about even," a puzzling title because all evidence showed Governor Scott Walker with a significant financial advantage over challenger Tom Barrett. Former University of Wisconsin Professor Kathy Barton looked at the numbers used in the analysis and found numerous errors that caused donations to be overstated by an estimated $13 million.

Walker Wins Recall, Democrats Win Control of the Senate, Halting Right-Wing Agenda

After a 16-month long fight, an astonishing $63.5 million spent, and a people's uprising that attracted international attention and laid the groundwork for a movement that will last for years to come, Governor Scott Walker will keep his seat after Tuesday's recall election, winning 53-46 over challenger Tom Barrett. Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch also survived her recall challenge.

In the early hours of the morning, word came from Southeastern Wisconsin that former state Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, beat incumbent Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard, with 36,255 votes to Wanggaard's 35,476 votes, according to unofficial results with all precincts reporting. Combined with two other successful Senate recalls in August of 2011, this win means Democrats flipped the Senate from Republican control and put a halt to the Walker agenda.

Rampant Voter Fraud in Wisconsin or "The Martians Are Coming?"

In 1938, Kenosha, Wisconsin-born Orson Welles stoked widespread confusion and panic when he broadcast mock news reports of an extraterrestrial invasion, with his famous radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds convincing some listeners that Martians were attacking the earth. In 2012, another Kenosha native, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus, is promoting similar confusion by attacking the integrity of Wisconsin's elections and stoking fears of "voter fraud" in advance of Tuesday's recall election. Does Wisconsin really have a history of "voter fraud," or are Priebus and other Republicans following in the footsteps of Welles and pulling a massive hoax?

Feingold Campaigns Across the State for Barrett

Former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold told reporters and supporters of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett this afternoon, "If we get anywhere near [the election turnout in] 2008, or even halfway there, we're going to win. ... The momentum is exactly where we want it."

Feingold for BarrettSenator Feingold made three stops at "get out the vote" events in Wisconsin today to support Mayor Barrett in advance of the recall election against Governor Walker on Tuesday. He spoke in Madison on his way to Milwaukee and Kenosha.

In Madison, he spoke at the local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union headquarters. Wisconsin's public sector workers were hit hard by restrictions on their rights in the past 16 months.

When asked if election turnout in the southeast corner of the state (Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, etc.) would be key to the results of the election, Feingold responded, "It's going to be huge. The working people of that part of the state were attacked by the governor. They know it."

Wisconsin Recall Roundup June 4, 2012

Reporter, Former Attorney General Suggest Walker is "Target" of John Doe and Federal Investigations

When Current TV's David Shuster broke the story on Friday that Walker was a "target" of the John Doe investigation he cited anonymous sources. On Saturday, Walker issued a strong denial, saying any suggestions that he has become a target of the John Doe probe are "100 percent wrong." Late on Saturday, Shuster revealed more. "I stand by my reporting 100 percent," Shuster said in a conference call reported on by the Progressive Magazine, adding that Walker was also a target in a federal investigation, citing unnamed sources with the U.S. Justice Department's Public Integrity Section. Shuster also said that Walker's attorneys had been seeking to have their client publicly cleared of wrongdoing for the last five or six weeks, but prosecutors would not clear him. Former District Attorney Bob Jambois said that "If Scott Walker thinks this is so unfair, why doesn't he open up these 1,400 emails." Former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said "Walker should have produced evidence to clear himself" if he was not a target of investigation, and it would have been "malpractice" for his attorneys not to seek a letter from prosecutors clearing him.

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