ALEC outed, vetoed in Minnesota

by David Safier

The name "ALEC" was known by just a few people as recently as a few months ago. Now it's surfacing in the news — it's about time! — and in a speech by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton. Dayton vetoed four "tort reform" bills, saying they came straight out of an ALEC boot camp manual.

“These bills are laughably referred to as ‘jobs bills’, Governor Dayton told a press conference. ” Well calling a crow a swan doesn’t make it one. These bills impact on job impact in job creation in Minnesota would be negligible. The real impact would be to reduce the right of law abiding citizens and businesses to seek justice from the wrong doing of others.”

[snip]

“Three of the four bills come right from this manual “tort reform bootcamp” , published by the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC. This is the same group who reportedly provided legislators last week with all expense paid trips to posh Florida hotel for what they call an education policy conference.

“It is an extremely conservative group funded largely by large corporations, big business associations, insurance companies and very wealthy individuals.

“I’ve found that Minnesotans do not want their laws written by the lobbyists of big corporations.

“Since these Republican bills so closely follow ALEC’s instructions on tort reform and since ALEC’s opinion on these subjects are evidently more important to Republican legislators than mine , their fellow DFL legislators or the Minnesota Supreme Court’s, perhaps they would share with us all of the other ALEC boot camp manuals so we can know in advance what to expect from them for the rest of the session.

“If Republicans want to continue to prove to Minnesotans that they are too extreme to lead they should continue to throw ALEC’s ideology at us.

“If they want to begin to govern responsibly and work collaboratively, pass real jobs legislation, and my three measures have not even been taken up, real jobs legislation that will put Minnesotans back to work, then I’m ready to work with them.

“And I’m waiting.”

You can view the video of the news conference here.