Is ALEC behind Terri Proud’s efforts to delegitimize the AIRC?

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Karoli at crooksandliars.com has a post about ALEC's Influence On Campaigns Exposed:

Previously I've told you about ALEC's mission, which is to write boilerplate right wing legislation and distribute it to state and federal lawmakers as a way to advance right-wing causes across the country. But ALEC's influence does not begin or end there.  

FollowtheMoney.org:

An examination of campaign donations made by ALEC corporate members dating back to the 1990 election cycle shows that they contributed $12.2 million to state-level candidates who were ALEC members, with 98.4 percent of that money going to incumbent and winning candidates, many of whom could vote on proposed legislation. Additional analysis reveals that $11.9 million of the $12.2 million went to Republicans. Click here to download the database.

Over the seven (10 for some states) election cycles covered in a donor-data analysis by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, ALEC corporate members contributed $516.2 million to state-level politics: $202.1 million to state-level candidates, $228.3 million to high-dollar ballot-measure campaigns, and $85.8 million to state political party committees.

Half a billion dollars. A serious relationship. It seems ALEC is not afraid of commitment.

Steve Muratore adds this reporting at The Arizona Eagletarian: Redistricting — blood sport heats up:

[W]hat about likely material misstatements on [Terri] Proud's required annual financial disclosure for 2010 (filed in January 2011).

This pic, posted on facebook by Proud Terri on June 12, 2011, is in an album she labeled ALEC trip 2010. I recognize several Arizona lawmakers in the photo, including John McComish, Eddie Farnsworth, Jack Harper, Steve Yarbrough and Arizona Corporation Commission chair Gary Pierce.  

According to their financial disclosures, several other Arizona GOP lawmakers attended the conference as guests (on "scholarship") of the right-wing group that gives lawmakers ideas for right-wing legislation. ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council.

It is entirely possible that some of the Arizona lawmakers paid their own way to the ALEC conference. But several of them included the ALEC scholarship as a gift on their financial disclosure. A partial list of those disclosing the gift is McComish, Harper, Cecil Ash, Kirk Adams (former Speaker of the AZ House), Brenda Barton, Kate Brophy McGee, Stephen Court, Jeff Dial, Adam Driggs, Karen Fann and Doris Goodale.

Conspicuously absent from that list is Proud Terri. I suppose it is possible she paid her own way, or was subsidized by taxpayer funds, but both of those scenarios seem unlikely. This has already been a very busy day and will get even busier with the Public Outreach Hearing due to start in only a few hours. So, I apologize for not trying to pin this down today.

Proud's financial disclosure reveals no substantial assets/investments. The only source of income disclosed is a job with a law firm. So, is Proud trying to deceive the public by not disclosing gift(s) given to her by a group trying to curry favor and get her to sponsor its proposed legislation in the Arizona Legislature? Could it be just a minor oversight or clerical error?

Failure to disclose is a Class One (most serious) misdemeanor. Will Tom Horne investigate? Likely, no, because there is so much grey to this area of law.

But who holds and pulls the strings attached to Proud Terri?

Is ALEC behind Terri Proud's efforts to delegitimize the AIRC? Will any of Arizona's political media even bother to ask her? What about her financial disclosure statement? And what about the ALEC scholarships that the Arizona Republic takes so lightly? The Arizona Republic turns a blind eye to questions about ALEC. I am still waiting for the Republic to publish the list of attendees and scholarship recipients to this year's ALEC "confab." That's information the voters have a right to know.