Graphic: ALEC Exposed
Back in August I wrote about the annual meeting of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, that was held in New Orleans. (ALEC is the corporate funded group who work with lobbyists and conservative politicians to write "model legislation" that legislators then bring home to their states and pass into law. ALEC is largely funded by the Koch brothers, among others.)
When I wrote about it in August, there were at least five known members from the Florida Legislature who were attending, and I had hoped to find out how many more would be there, and who they were. But ALEC meetings like this one are somewhat secretive, and getting that information was difficult to obtain. However, much of the legislation passed in Florida recently does mirror some cookie-cutter legislation ALEC churns out, much of which is posted on the website ALEC Exposed.
Now there's a post that sheds some light on the inner workings of that annual meeting at Orlando Weekly, which includes a first-hand account from the director of public policy advocacy for the Florida Education Association, Jeff Wright, who was there. Revealed in the post are some familiar legislative "themes" Floridians will no doubt recognize.
Below are some excerpts from that post that will open your eyes to just how influential ALEC is on the people "writing" the Florida laws on your behalf. Legislative sessions passing bill after bill at breakneck speed like this last one are perhaps accomplished more quickly when all one has to do is "cut and paste" rather than spending the time actually writing legislation themselves. I suppose that frees up lawmaker's time for all that fund-raising with the corporations actually writing the laws for them, allowing the vicious cycle to continue.
From Orlando Weekly:
When Jeff Wright walked into the lobby of the New Orleans Marriott on Aug. 3, he wasn’t sure what to expect. As the director of public policy advocacy for the Florida Education Association – a prominent teachers’ union that had been bearing the brunt of legislative attacks from Florida Republicans throughout the 2011 legislative session – he wasn’t there for your standard Mardi Gras-themed party. The American Legislative Exchange Council, a national nonprofit organization made up of elected officials and private interests who gather regularly to try to directly influence the substance of public policy, was holding its annual four-day meeting there, so any “partying” would probably be a little more conservative, and – going by a recent glut of press coverage pointing out ALEC’s clearinghouse mentality of privately linking big corporations with the state legislators willing to pursue their bottom-line agendas in the form of “model legislation” – slightly more nefarious. Nevertheless, he wanted to see it for himself.
“I just registered straight up, fully disclosed who I represented, the whole thing,” he says, pointing out that he paid some $900 in registration fees. “I was surprised I got to go. I got pretty nervous going through several of the sessions, because they don’t always give both sides of the equation, needless to say.”
He wore a name tag disclosing his FEA affiliation, took some sideways glances from legislators, corporate suits and ALEC staffers, and got on with the business of having his eyes opened to the multimillion dollar machine that’s been effectively – and legally – chipping away at liberal causes in state legislatures across the country.
“At one point they told me I couldn’t come into one session,” he says. “I said, ‘Wait, no, I paid $900 to be a participant. My badge says participant. If I’m not going to be allowed in, then I’d like my money back.’”
Wright was allowed in, but he was one of the lucky ones. At least three journalists from independent media blogs were strong-armed by security guards instructed by ALEC to get them out. One state representative, Wisconsin Democrat Marc Pocan, reported some glares despite the fact that he, too, had paid his own way (a $50 annual fee for legislators).
“We had other people there representing the progressive side and those who were there that were from media groups – they weren’t permitted in,” Wright says. “They were bodily removed.”
ALEC and Florida's education legislation:
For Wright, who was sitting in on an education “task force” meeting at the New Orleans Marriott, that meant coming face to face with the obvious: The Republicans are winning.
“They were just saying, ‘Look, it lined up perfectly for us. We ended up with a Republican house, a Republican senate and a Republican governor. Go for the jugular,’” he recalls. “That’s what the lady said: ‘Attack while you can.’”
....“I thought they were the usual conferences where [the corporations] are all there to wine and dine and all that,” he [Wright] says. “I had no idea that the structure of ALEC gives them full participation at the table. They sit at the table in the debate on the issues and then get to vote.”
And their vote is louder. According to Wright, at an Education Task Force meeting at the New Orleans conference, five out of six items up for consideration this year came from the private sector, one of which went so far as to require that every high school student study free enterprise for a full semester. That initiative was sponsored by Roberta Philips of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Interestingly, one of the other initiatives brought forth by the private sector – a “Comprehensive Legislative Package Opposing Common Core State Standards Initiative,” penned by the Goldwater Institute and the American Principles Project – was tabled on the advice of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Bush who, on his Foundation for Excellence in Education letterhead, tried to stem the flood of concerns that a federal standard for education was tantamount to giving in to big government.
“There is concern that this initiative will result in Washington dictating what standards, assessments and curriculum states may use,” Bush wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Weekly. “But these voluntarily adopted standards define what students need to know without defining how teachers should teach or students should learn.”
Beyond that minor conflict, Wright says, ALEC’s intent to weaken the traditional fabric of public schools and teachers’ unions was apparent: “It was absolutely made abundantly clear that the corporations want digital, virtual, charter and choice. That’s where they get the money.”
The post goes on to describe how ALEC is able to exercise so much influence over legislators, which those legislators attempt to brush off.
On the surface, Plakon’s assertion that ALEC is just one of many special interests constantly available to assist legislators in crafting their bills may ring true. After all, the moneyed parading of influence by lobbyists in Tallahassee is nearly as expected as the lawmakers themselves as each legislative session begins. It’s all in the game.
“Really, it’s not that much different than the way things have already worked for a while,” says Brad Ashwell, Florida Public Interest Research Group’s democracy and consumer advocate. “It’s the same thing as it always was, only now they have more top-down planning, more corporate structure around.”
But it’s ALEC’s relative lack of transparency – or, in the case of the New Orleans conference, abject secrecy – that bends its credibility as a force in government. If nobody knows exactly what path the money is taking, it’s unlikely that it’s headed in the direction of the public interest.
“As a voter, it bothers me to think that if I’m talking to my lawmaker, or sending him a letter – or maybe I’ve been organized with 100 people in my community – that they’re going to overlook that in favor of some corporate vehicle for corporations to get what they want,” Ashwell says.
One former Republican lawmaker and former ALEC member, Nancy Argenziano, currently running as an independent, goes on to describe her naiveté from past ALEC meetings at what is described as ALEC merely "assisting" with pharmaceutical bills she was pushing at the time.
If it isn’t corruption, it is fishy. Former Marion County Republican lawmaker Nancy Argenziano – who is currently running for the U.S. House of Representatives as an independent after recently becoming an outspoken opponent of her former political party – was once an ALEC member. In the late ’90s, she even attended an ALEC conference.
“I went to ALEC because I was really naïve at the time,” she recalls. “I thought this was really someplace you go to learn and get information.”
“I walk into the room and it’s Pfizer, it’s freaking Pfizer, that only had one side of the story and it was so biased that I knew then that it was just a mechanism for these guys,” she says. “Now, as you know, now this is years later. They have gotten to the point where they write the legislation that is repeated from state to state.”
For Argenziano, it was a wake-up call. She says she found a much fairer alternative in the National Conference of State Legislatures, an actual nonpartisan group that charges no dues and accepts no donations from for-profit corporations. “There I found balance.”
ALEC, she says, is dangerous.
“They own the government. I knew that they owned a certain amount, that there were certain contributions and certain leaders they owned, but I didn’t realize to what degree,” she says. “Now I’m frightened because they really own a great deal of our government from state to state. I’m not anti-corporation, but I am anti them taking over the government.”
It's well worth the time to read the entire post.
