John, as I write you, Common Cause is preparing to protest a major corporate-funded right-wing gala here in Washington D.C.
We know that 32 corporations, including household names like UPS, have signed on to sponsor this gala – and fund this organization's corruption.
You might have already guessed it – we’re talking about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is a group of corporate lobbyists, funded by big corporations and a handful of wealthy families working to ram far-right legislation through states.
ALEC’s 50th anniversary is tomorrow. To celebrate, we have an action of our own planned to shine a spotlight on the organization and its actions. But we can’t pull this off without your help.
I can’t overstate the dangers ALEC poses to our democracy. ALEC is responsible for some of the most extreme ultra-conservative laws passed in the last decade: Stand Your Ground gun laws, racially discriminatory voter ID laws, rollbacks of environmental protections, and blocking the Affordable Care Act at the state level.
For decades, ALEC has been operating behind closed doors to ram its self-serving legislation through our states. ALEC’s member corporations pay top dollar for direct access to state lawmakers – who allow lobbyists to write corporate dream legislation into ALEC “model bills.” Then, these ALEC-backed legislators rush those bills through their state houses, pretending they wrote the bills themselves and churning out laws that enrich corporations and hurt the rest of us.
John, I have been working on our plan to stop ALEC and its harmful policies for years. Trust me when I say that right now is a pivotal moment.
You see, I learned early on that ALEC’s strength lies in its secrecy. So here at Common Cause, we’ve been taking away ALEC’s power by bringing its actions – and its funders – into the public eye.
And we’ve seen great success: Coca-Cola, Google, and AT&T are just some of the corporations that left ALEC in a mass exodus once ALEC’s unpopular agenda and the role these corporations played was made clear to consumers.
But we’ve yet to deal the final blow in this fight to EXPOSE and STOP ALEC. Our focus now is on the 32 corporate members funding ALEC’s 50th anniversary gala.
Common Cause members like you are gathering in D.C. tomorrow – on the same day as ALEC’s 50th Gala. ALEC wants to use its corporate-funded influence to drown out everyday people like you and me – so we’re speaking up in a way they can’t ignore right outside their event!
But John, an event like this, coupled with my ongoing work to expose ALEC and its members, takes an immense amount of resources. So if we’re going to pull this off, we’re going to need your support.
Can I count on you to chip in $3 – or whatever you can today – and EXPOSE ALEC on its 50th anniversary?
John, I want to give ALEC an unforgettable anniversary celebration. But I can’t do this without your help. Are you with me?
Standing with you,
Viki Harrision, Director of Constitutional Convention & Protect Dissent Programs
and the team at Common Cause
P.S. Thank you to our protest co-sponsors Greenpeace USA, Center for Media and Democracy, Public Citizen, People for the American Way, UnKoch My Campus, and Union of Concerned Scientists!
P.P.S. Are you in the Washington D.C. area? RSVP for our rally tomorrow >>
