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Who has been writing the bills passed by the Wisconsin legislature? Only an elected legislator can introduce a bill, but many of the right-wing laws enacted since January, 2011, have actually been written by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative think tank founded by Paul Weyrich of Wisconsin nearly forty years ago.
Among the bills crafted by ALEC were the Arizona immigrant law, Wisconsin photo-ID bill, the Parental Choice school voucher program, the "castle doctrine" and other bills that give business preference over labor and consumers. (1) At least 16 Republican Wisconsin legislators are members of ALEC, and Scott Walker and Tommy Thompson were members. Former Democratic State Senator Jeff Plale was also a member. Members get free trips to ALEC conferences, where new laws are discussed.
ALEC is funded by corporations such as AT&T, ExxonMobil, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Koch Companies, PhRMA, Reynolds American, State Farm Insurance and Wal-Mart and UPS. Thirteen other firms have quit ALEC in response to public pressure over the ALEC-proposed Florida "stand your ground" law which could be used to justify the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin.
Surprisingly, corporate donations to ALEC are tax-deductible, since the group is a registered as a charitable organization, Common Cause has filed a complaint with the IRS alleging that ALEC is "a corporate lobbying group masquerading as a public charity." Since the advocacy of legislation is a major, rather than tangential. activity of the group, I contend that lRS will revoke its tax-exempt status. Moreover, if ALEC is declared a lobby, providing anything of value, such as free trips, to Wisconsin legislators will be illegal.
I urge that people opposed to the ALEC agenda pressure publicly-held corporations to abandon ALEC via shareholder resolutions. If that does not work, anti-ALEC groups could organize boycotts of consumer good produced by some ALEC funders such as AT&T and Wal-Mart . Corporations are loathe to get involved in political controversies, so I believe these tactics can be effective in weakening ALEC.
Gerald S Glazer
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(1) "How the Wisconsin Legislature was Bought", Shepherd Express, April 26, 2012, page 6.
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