Right-Wing Lobbying Group ALEC Faces Funding Crisis Over Extreme Pro-Gun Positions

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/right-wing-lobbying-group-alec-faces-funding-crisis-over-extreme-pro-gun-positions?akid=11234.277129.HrG0bu&rd=1&src=newsletter932464&t=3



An influential US lobbying network of Republican politicians and big businesses is seeking to avert a looming funding crisis by appealing to major donors that have abandoned it over the past two years following criticism of its policy on gun laws.

The Guardian has learned that the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), which shapes and promotes legislation at state level across the US, has identified more than 40 lapsed corporate members it wants to attract back into the fold under a scheme referred to in its documents as the "Prodigal Son Project".

The target firms include commercial giants such as Amazon, Coca-Cola,General Electric, Kraft, McDonald's and Walmart, all of which cut ties with the group following the furore over the killing of the unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida in February 2012.

Alec was embroiled in the controversy surrounding Florida's 2005 "stand-your-ground" law under which George Zimmerman, the neighbourhood watch volunteer who shot and killed the 17-year-old Martin, initially claimed self-defence. The Florida law was picked up by Alec, and, working in partnership with the National Rifle Association, used as a template for one of its "model bills", which was then taken up by other states across the country.

***THIS IS WHAT ALEC IS MORPHING INTO

If You Liked ‘Stand Your Ground,’ You’ll Love the Jeffersonian Project

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/if-you-liked-stand-your-ground-youll-love-the-jeffersonian-project/?_r=0



The Guardian, a British newspaper, has made American headlines recently for publishing revealing documents about the National Security Agency, leaked by Edward Snowden. On Tuesday it ventured straight into domestic political territory with an eye-opening set of leaked documents about a conservative advocacy organization with a well-financed presence in this country’s state capitals.

The group is called the American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC, and it has been at the heart of the widespread state effort to curb voting rights and unions, cut taxes, and demolish what little is left of gun control. Accepting money from some of the country’s largest corporations, as well as conservative billionaires such as the Koch brothers, it writes “model legislation” that is introduced by its member lawmakers in dozens of state capitals, and often enacted word for word.

The organization got into trouble last year due to its role in disseminating “stand your ground” self-defense laws, which played a part in the botched investigation of the Trayvon Martin killing. After the law was passed in Florida in 2005, ALEC pushed for its passage across the country, which eventually led 24 other states to adopt similar laws. To avoid bad press, prominent corporations began abandoning ALEC, pulling their financial support.

The Guardian reports that the issue cost the group a third of its income, along with more than 60 corporate members and almost 400 state legislators. But ALEC is making an effort to win back its money, and one of the ways it plans to do so is to set up a separate organization that is allowed to lobby while collecting anonymous contributions.