Source:
Milwaukee Journal SentinelRepublican Gov. Scott Walker's collective-bargaining proposal was a bombshell that set off weeks of protests and drew national attention.
But key questions remain about its genesis.
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Others cite the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. The conservative group drafts model legislation on myriad issues and offers it to members for use in state legislatures around the country. The group has received financial support from Koch Industries.
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Walker foes note that state Rep. Robin Vos (R-Burlington), co-chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, is Wisconsin chairman of ALEC. And Huebsch previously served as state chair.
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Read more:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/123172363.html
Mike Huebsch is mentioned there because, as the article explains, "detailed instructions on the final version of the bill came from Walker's Department of Administration." Huebsch is Walker's Secretary of Administration.
It's good to see ALEC's role in the social and financial wrecking ball the Walker administration has become being highlighted in newspaper articles like this one -- despite the attempt by ALEC member and former ALEC state chair Scott Fitzgerald, WI Senate Majority Leader, to deflect suspicion from ALEC by claiming they were just following Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels' example.
I've pointed out in a number of separate topics linked to the long compilation topic on the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that ALEC has immense influence in Walker's administration, but typically newspapers have ignored or glossed over this influence. For instance,
an article in late April about Huebsch being the second most powerful man in Wisconsin and "the chief author of the budget adjustment proposal that touched off the firestorm" didn't mention ALEC at all, or the other powerful ALEC members around Walker, as I explained in the
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x955258">DU topic about the article (linked to from reply 258 in the compilation topic):
As the UppityWis.org blog --
http://uppitywis.org/blogarticle/doa-sec-huebsch-sen-fitzgerald-both-served-state-chairs-corporat -- pointed out recently, both Huebsch and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald were ALEC chairs for Wisconsin last year. (This year ALEC lists only one Wisconsin chair, Robin Vos, who's co-chair of the legislature's Joint Finance Committee, along with Alberta Darling, another ALEC member.)
Huebsch hasn't been mentioned (yet) in the long compilation topic on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), but reply 157 there mentions Robin Vos, and reply 158 is about Walker making Phil Montgomery -- who was on ALEC's board of directors, chaired an ALEC task force subcommittee, and was one of ALEC's legislators of the year -- chairman of the Public Service Commission. Reply 229 there links to a topic about Walker's plans for financial martial law and the promotional website that was set up and apparently spearheaded by ALEC member Alberta Darling.
ALEC's influence and meddling need to be made clearer. As you can tell from the comments on this Journal Sentinel article, people don't like their state politicians introducing cookie-cutter legislation from groups like ALEC.