[Debate] ALEC List - passed the law that "allowed" for Trayvon Martin shooting.... Proctor & Gamble, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Kraft Foods, Mars Inc. and Coca-Cola

[Riaz K Tayob]

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*
May 4, 2012
4:14 PM

	

*CONTACT: Common Cause <http://www.commoncause.org/>*

Mary Boyle, Common Cause (202) 736-5770
Nikolina Lazic, Center for Media and Democracy (608) 770-1343


    List of ALEC Corporate Members Released

WASHINGTON - May 4 - The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) 
has long been a secretive organization that does not disclose a full 
list of its corporate members and donors.

Today, Common Cause and the Center for Media Democracy are posting the 
most up-to-date list of corporate members available, based on documents 
obtained by Common Cause and filed with the IRS last week in its 
whistleblower complaint against ALEC.

This 2011 list of corporations sitting on ALEC issue task forces, 
disclosed as part of the IRS whistleblower complaint, is available 
through Common Cause here 
<http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=8078765>. The 
full list of companies that have been involved in ALEC in recent years, 
updated with the new data, is available _here 
<http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Corporations>_ through the 
Center for Media and Democracy.

*ALEC has come under increased public scrutiny lately for its extremist 
agenda to limit voting rights, privatize schools and prisons, weaken 
environmental protections, and promote ‘Stand Your Ground’ gun laws 
based on the controversial Florida law at issue in the Trayvon Martin 
shooting. *Amid calls for accountability from civil rights and democracy 
reform groups like Color of Change, Credo Action, Progress Now, PFAW, 
Common Cause, and the Center for Media and Democracy, at least 14 major 
companies, including Proctor & Gamble, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Kraft Foods, 
Mars Inc. and Coca-Cola, have abandoned ALEC in recent weeks, as have 31 
state legislators in 11 states from both major political parties.

Color of Change is urging consumers to reach out to select ALEC 
corporations to maximize the impact of people’s voices. More information 
about their corporate campaign is available here. 
<http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/alec/?source=coc_website> Their 
campaign is currently focusing public pressure on Amazon, AT&T, State 
Farm, and Johnson & Johnson.

“Firms that remain in ALEC, despite its involvement in a scheme to 
defraud the IRS and its advocacy of legislation that puts private profit 
ahead of the public interest have some explaining to do,” said Bob 
Edgar, president and CEO of Common Cause.

ALEC’s member legislators each year introduce about 1,000 bills based on 
ALEC “model” bills in statehouses across the country. Much of that 
legislation is drafted by corporate executives and lobbyists; ALEC 
records unearthed by Common Cause indicate that companies work through 
ALEC to steer it to passage.

ALEC’s legislative portfolio combines an agenda that favors corporations 
over consumers and workers – lower corporate taxes, limited 
environmental protections, and the repeal of worker rights, along with 
the privatization of Social Security, Medicare, schools, prisons and 
other government institutions or services – with hot-button social 
issues. ALEC announced last month that it had disbanded its “Public 
Safety and Elections” Task Force, the source of its controversial 
legislation to expand gun ownership and limit the right to vote, 
although the former legislative leader of that task force vowed that its 
work would continue through other ALEC task forces.

“ALEC has an extreme agenda through task force meetings where corporate 
lobbyists vote as equals with elected representatives on model bills to 
limit Americans’ rights, behind closed doors and without the press or 
public present,” said Lisa Graves, Executive Director of the Center for 
Media and Democracy, ALECexposed.org and PRWatch.org.

The ALEC records released today were obtained during Common Cause’s 
research into ALEC’s lobbying activity. Common Cause filed an IRS 
“whistleblower” complaint against ALEC last week, charging that the 
organization has violated the terms of its federal tax-exempt status by 
engaging in lobbying.

The Common Cause filing includes more than 4,000 pages of previously 
unreleased emails, “issue alerts,” “talking points,” meeting minutes and 
other documents detailing ALEC’s lobbying activity.

ALEC calls itself a charity and its leaders insist the group does zero 
lobbying. ALEC’s tax exemption allows the group’s corporate funders, 
which supply most of its multi-million dollar annual budget, to claim a 
tax deduction for their contributions. The Common Cause complaint asks 
the IRS to investigate ALEC’s activities, collect unpaid taxes, and 
impose appropriate penalties.

###

Common Cause is a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization founded 
in 1970 by John Gardner as a vehicle for citizens to make their voices 
heard in the political process and to hold their elected leaders 
accountable to the public interest.

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