Although it's been in existence for four decades, it's only been in the last year or so that the vast power that the American Legislative Exchange Council has in passing conservative legislation in the states has been exposed.
This morning a coalition of groups held a conference call to announce their new report, called ALEC in Florida, that they say documents the growing footprint the group has had in the drafting of what is referred to as 'model' language that gets passed around the country, such as laws on voter ID, public education, consumer protections and the extremely controversial Stand Your Ground bill.
That bill, you might recall, was actually pushed by the National Rifle Association in Florida and passed in 2005, but according to Doug Clopp with Common Cause, the NRA was part of an ALEC Task Force that enabled the bill to be spread across the nation to over 25 other states.
"What sets ALEC apart is the sheer size and scope of its operation," Clopp said in a conference call conducted Thursday morning. "There's nothing like it in the American political system."
He says that for almost 39 years the organization was "completely non transparent" when it came to what it actually does. But a year ago a whistleblower provided materials to the Nation magazine and the Center for Media and Democracy simultaneously, blowing the lid on information that had previously only been made available to the group's 2,000 legislative and 300 corporate members and their staff.
