ALEC Exposed: Corporate Sponsors, Corporate Thugs

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Think Progress does the most reporting on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). This week, ALEC is holding its annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Think Progress is there to cover it. EXPOSED: The Corporations Funding The Annual Meeting Of The Powerful Right-Wing Front Group ALEC | ThinkProgress:

[A] source who attended ALEC’s annual meeting has passed on a list of its corporate financiers. The documents detail different levels of funding, ranging from “Presidential” to “Trustee” level sponsors. According to the source, “If the funding levels have not changed since last year’s meeting,” then that means that Presidential sponsors gave $100,000, Chairman sponsors gave $50,000, Vice-Chairman gave $25,000 and Director sponsors gave $10,000. Trustee-level sponsors appear to be new this year.

The following are the documents showing the large list of corporations financing the meeting. As you can see, they run the gamut from big polluters like BP to online retailers like Amazon.com to drug industry representatives from PhRMA to Koch Industries.

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Financiers Of ALEC’s 38th Annual Meeting:

Apparently ALEC was not too happy about Think Progress reporters attending their corporate confab. On Thursday, Think Progress reporters Scott Keyes and Lee Fang were attacked by security guards for no apparent reason. VIDEO: Security Guards At American Legislative Exchange Council Conference Physically Attack ThinkProgress Reporters | ThinkProgress:

Reporters Scott Keyes and Lee Fang were at the Marriott Hotel for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annual meeting, an event that brings together state lawmakers with corporate lobbyists to draft “model” legislation.

While we stood by the second floor lobby of the conference hotel, security guards surrounded us, demanding that we leave. As we were leaving, they approached us, violently pushed us and twisted our arms. A guard approached Fang from behind, tackling him and later bending his arm to take his camera. Keyes, faced similar treatment: two security guards roughed him up on the escalator, taking his video camera, and cutting Keyes’ hand as he attempted to leave the premises. As Keyes asked why he was being forced to leave, he was shoved from the back.

Asked why they were being so belligerent, the security guards said they were acting on instructions from ALEC. At certain points during the incident, they were able to turn on their video cameras and record it:

Although ThinkProgress has attended ALEC conferences in the past as credentialed media (we broke the story about BlueCross BlueShield lobbyists writing ALEC’s anti-health reform legislation in 2009), we were denied credentials this time.

Facing recent scrutiny by the media, one prominent ALEC member told the Daily Iowan that there’s “nothing sinister, there’s nothing secretive about [ALEC].” However, the incident today underscores the suspicion that the organization is a secret conduit for corporate lobbyists to literally write legislation for state lawmakers without having their fingerprints on the bill. To maintain this secrecy, ALEC appears more than willing to kick out media and close their doors to the public.

The ALEC talking point to the Daily Iowan was recently repeated and dutifully reported in the Arizona Capitol Times in a report today. The Cap Times is a publication by and for the corporate lobbyists that dominate the Arizona Legislature. David Safier will have more on this later.