John, by now you’ve probably seen a few emails from me on ALEC – the group funded by big corporations that’s responsible for extreme legislation like “Stand Your Ground” gun laws.
But what I haven’t told you about is how Common Cause got involved fighting ALEC in the first place.
First, a quick refresher in case you missed it: ALEC is the acronym for the American Legislative Exchange Council: a group funded by big corporations – like UPS and State Farm Insurance – and a handful of wealthy families working to ram far-right legislation through state legislatures.
Everything we know about ALEC came from a whistleblower’s leak back in 2011. Before that, the public and watchdog groups like Common Cause knew very little about ALEC – and that was all intentional.
You see, secrecy is integral to ALEC’s strategy to impose their will on the rest of us.
ALEC backed legislators and the corporations funding it don’t want the public to know that they’re involved with largely unpopular legislation – like racially discriminatory voter photo ID laws, rollbacks of environmental protection, and blocking the Affordable Care Act at the state level.
So naturally, Common Cause has been doing everything in our power to shine a light on ALEC’s corruption. And it’s working.
Since we got involved in exposing ALEC, 125 corporate partners have left the corrupt organization, dealing a crippling blow to ALEC’s funding.
But John, this didn’t happen overnight. Since 2011, more than 100 companies left ALEC – including Google, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and more recently, Pfizer.
And there’s still more work to be done, John. I won’t rest until each and every corporate ALEC member cuts ties with the organization. But this work takes years and is resource intensive, especially since we’re working off information that’s 13 years old.
One of the most impactful ways you can expose ALEC alongside us is by becoming a Guardian for Democracy today. Our Guardians for Democracy members make small but mighty monthly contributions that fund our long haul fights – like exposing and defeating ALEC at every turn.
They provide a reliable stream of funding so we can organize protests outside of ALEC events – like we did during their 50th anniversary just last year. These gifts help us uncover more information about ALEC’s corrupt dealings – like how they send legislators back to their states with ALEC backed “model” bills that enrich corporations and hurt the rest of us.
And John, with this reliable funding, we get results. ALEC has threatened Common Cause and our coalition partners with legal action multiple times – because they know we’re one of the biggest threats against them. But all we’re doing is putting ALEC’s extreme agenda out in the open and letting it speak for itself – which is a truth they can’t keep hiding from.
I’m committed to defeating ALEC once and for all. But I can’t do it without you.
Will you chip in $5 – or whatever you can – monthly and power our work to EXPOSE ALEC? To thank you for your generosity, we’ll send you a free copy of Robert Reich’s book The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It if you make your monthly gift before 11:59pm tomorrow!
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I hope you’ll join our Guardians for Democracy and defeat ALEC for good. Please let me know if I can count on your support today.
Thank you,
Viki Harrison, Director of Constitutional Convention & Protect Dissent Programs
and the team at Common Cause
