But the pay-to-play problem is bigger than ALEC! This week’s 2-1 decision by the 5th Circuit declaring a key piece of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional provides a dramatic case in point. The lawsuit was brought by 18 GOP AGs who coordinate their actions through the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) – a political committee bankrolled by the most powerful industries in America that functions just like ALEC. At RAGA, drug, insurance, oil, tobacco, and telecom giants and right-wing dark money groups like the Judicial Crisis Network – which spends millions to get Trump judges like Justice Kavanaugh confirmed – literally buy access to the nation’s top law enforcement officers and script lawsuits and regulations that help line their pockets. ![]() 
This year, CMD: - Went to court to make public documents on RAGA’s war against Obamacare that they didn’t want you to see -- and won!
- Exposed opioid manufacturers' funding of RAGA, even as its AGs backed sweetheart deals with Purdue Pharmaceuticals and the Sackler family.
- Revealed how $6.7 million in Big Oil money for RAGA fueled its AGs’ anti-environmental actions.
But right now RAGA and ALEC are gearing up for 2020’s critical elections and legislative fights and will pull out all the stops come January 1 to dismantle public services, block climate action, undermine voting rights, crush unions, and hide their benefactors behind a veil of secrecy. That's why CMD urgently needs your help to shine a light on threats from these powerful pay-to-play operations in 2020! Your tax-deductible donation to CMD goes directly to pay for the writers and researchers who dig below the surface, file hundreds of freedom-of-information requests, and scour through thousands of pages of documents every year so people have the facts they need to fight back. AND...  Together we can fight to win back a democracy that works for all of us! Thank you for your support of CMD and all that you do,   Arn Pearson
Executive Director, Center for Media and Democracy | 
