ALEC Legislators Try To Hide In Plain Sight
Thursday, December 5, 2013(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
“Are you state legislators?” Hand outstretched, Arlene Holt Baker
approached the group of well-dressed men gathered in the atrium of the Grand
Hyatt. The men’s smiles quickly vanished when Diallo Brooks asked them to sign
a pledge that they would put their “constituents first – before corporate
interests and their lobbies.” State legislators from across the country were
gathered at the Hyatt Thursday for the annual meeting of the American
Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the “ powerful, secretive organization
funded by the Koch brothers and other corporate interests that is famous for
drafting conservative legislation that Republican state legislatures adopt down
to the last semicolon,” according to the Washington
Post’s Dana Milbanks. While dozens of protestors – and a giant
inflatable fatcat – rallied outside, Baker, the AFL-CIO’s former Executive
Vice President, Brooks, of the People For the American Way, and new APWU
president Mark Dimondstein slipped past security guards into the Hyatt in an
attempt to buttonhole legislators who quickly hid their name badges and scurried
away. “You can run from us, but you can't hide!” thundered Metro Washington
Labor Council president Jos Williams in front of the Hyatt, while Baker said
that ALEC members “should be ashamed” by their refusal to sign the pledge to
uphold democracy, a stark contrast to ALEC’s draft loyalty oath for
legislators declaring that they will “act with care and loyalty and put the
interests of the organization first.”
See also: Internal
Documents Show that ALEC Is Bleeding Members, Corporate Sponsors Money: An
article from the Guardian on Tuesday revealed internal documents from the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that show the conservative,
pro-corporate organization is facing significant trouble, having seen sharp
declines in membership, corporate sponsorship and income in recent
months.