http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110731/NEWS09/107310313/-1/GETPUBLISHED03/What-do-Koch-brothers-want-their-political-donations-What do the Koch brothers want for their political donations?
10:22 PM, Jul. 30, 2011
Tom Witosky
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The lobbyists have taken few positions on specific pieces of legislation in recent years, said Cope, who once served as an aide to former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach, R-Ia.
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One way that Koch Industries exerts additional influence: Besides acting as one of Koch's lobbyists, Cope is Iowa's private-sector chairman for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank. The organization brings state legislators and business executives together to prepare "model legislation" on issues including health care, environmental policy, taxation and tort reform.
In 2009, the most recent year for which data are available, two Koch foundations contributed $210,858 to the council. The company also maintains an ALEC membership costing up to $25,000 annually.
Among the ALEC-backed bills introduced this session were measures that would have required voters to provide more identification, limited public employee bargaining rights and called for a moratorium on enforcement of federal environmental regulations. Cope said he doesn't lobby for the American Legislative Exchange Council.
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Of course they say that, since ALEC is not supposed to be lobbying, as a 501c3. But, as pointed out in the DU topic and DKos article linked to from
reply 176 of the long compilation topic on the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), ALEC has even had lobbyists registered with another state's Secretary of State office as lobbying for ALEC -- an awkard revelation of ALEC breaking the rules for a 501c3.
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