Here’s the Latest From CMD | |
ALEC Publishes Its Own Project 2025 — for the States The close alignment between ALEC’s states-based agenda and Project 2025 is no coincidence. ALEC leaders served on the advisory board of Project 2025 and played an active role in shaping its blueprint for a second Trump administration. In the coming months, ALEC will advance a complementary right-wing political agenda at the state level that is just as calculated and well-funded as its national counterpart. Read more here. | |
Utah Outlaws Collective Bargaining as Part of a Broader Assault on Unions The Utah Senate passed a House bill last week that would outlaw public sector collective bargaining. Once signed by the governor, it will usher in one of the country’s most severe and restrictive rollbacks of union rights in recent memory. The Utah Education Association, which represents public school teachers, has called the bill “a legislative power grab” meant to “consolidate power at the expense of Utah’s public education system.” Read more here. | |
State Freedom Caucuses Push MAGA Agenda, Tone Down Intra-Party Squabbles For Republicans, the extreme right-wing freedom caucuses that have emerged in state legislatures in the past few years have played the same obstructionist role as the U.S. House Freedom Caucus. Up until now, they have slowed down or stopped the initiatives of more traditional members of the party through the use of political maneuvering. Yet that’s rapidly changing. Read more here. | |
Koch Spent $91 Million to Influence Higher Education in 2023 A constellation of donor vehicles established by Charles Koch poured $90.8 million into 127 university and college recipients in 2023 to promote his business and policy interests. This brings the total Koch has spent to influence higher education to a whopping $549.5 million since 2018. Read more here. | |
ALEC Member Strikes a Blow Against Rule Requiring Union Labor on Federal Construction Projects
A federal claims court has ruled that contractors engaged in large federal construction projects can’t be required to enter collective bargaining agreements with building trade unions. The decision, which was handed down just a year after the federal rule went into effect, poses a significant challenge to President Biden’s mandate that federal contractors working on large projects must negotiate job site-specific collective bargaining agreements. Read more here. | |
Trump Is Replacing Democracy With Autocracy Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich warns that what Trump is undertaking has nothing to do with conservatism, which is about conserving institutions and shrinking the size of government. And it has nothing to do with populism, which is about confronting elites. Read Reich’s diagnosis of the second Trump administration here. | |
CMD in the News Our research has recently been cited by or featured in the following publications: - Important Context: “‘A New Academic Publishing Model’: Right-Wing Dark Money Group Launches Fringe Medical Journal”
- Important Context: “Mike Pence’s Dark Money Group and Leonard Leo’s Baffling Strategy to Tank Kennedy Confirmation Over Abortion”
- Sludge: “Trump Ally Fires Warning Shot at Republican AG Group With Leonard Leo Ties”
- CivilRights.org: “Coalition Letter Opposing Russell Vought’s Nomination to be OMB Director”
- The Guardian: “Charles Koch’s network launches $20m campaign backing Trump tax breaks”
- The Intelligencer: “Make Records Public”
Thank you for following our investigations and for your continued support! Team CMD | |
