ALEC is at it again

[Omaha Steve]

From email.

The right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Koch Brothers are at it again! Twelve new reports released today expose the State Policy Network (SPN), an $83 million web of right-wing “think tanks” in every state across the country. Although SPN’s member organizations claim to be nonpartisan and independent, an in-depth investigation reveals that SPN and its state affiliates are major drivers of the ALEC-backed corporate agenda in state houses nationwide, with deep ties to the Koch brothers and the national right-wing network of funders.

The reports show how these groups masquerade as "think tanks," and describe how some of them may be skirting tax laws while really orchestrating extensive lobbying and political operations to peddle their legislative agenda to state legislators, all while reporting little or no lobbying activities.

“The ‘experts’ of State Policy Network groups get quoted on TV, in the papers, or in the legislature as if they were nonpartisan, objective scholars on issues of public policy," said Lisa Graves, Executive Director, Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). "But in reality, SPN is a front for corporate interests with an extreme national policy agenda tied to some of the most retrograde special interests in the country."

Denise Cardinal, executive director of Progress Now added, "The bottom line is these organizations of the rich, by the rich and for the rich are representing themselves as groups that are looking out for the best interests of everyday, working class Americans and it's just a blatant lie. What we're doing is trying to bring some transparency to the damaging work they're doing on a daily basis.

You can see the reports – a nationally focused report written by CMD and 11 state-focused reports (including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, among others) written by Progress Now member groups and CMD – by going to http://stinktanks.org.

[rurallib]

1. Wish I could rec this to the top

ALEC is one of the biggest problems in the US