The right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council has many Wisconsin connections.
ALEC, Tommy, and the rest
By
Katya Szabados
(Editor’s note: A version of this article was originally published in The Wisconsinite. Go to The Wisconsinite Web site at www.wisconsinite.net to read part two.)
Imagine you are a state legislator. You got into politics because you want to do the right thing. There is a budget crunch on, and that means less money and more competition for it. There is a lot going on in your community, and the pressure is on to deliver for your constituents. The legislative session meets only five months out of the year, you do not get much help from aides, and you might even have a second job. Where can you turn for help?
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is one place a state legislator can turn. According to the organization, it is "a bipartisan membership association for conservative state lawmakers who share a common belief in limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty." In fact, a recent study found that 85 percent of its more than 200 members in "senior leadership positions" are Republicans. ALEC promotes policies such as "free market environmentalism" and the privatization of services like education, prisons and health care.
Wisconsin's "school choice" programs, among the first in the nation, were staked out early on by ALEC. The Milwaukee program has been making headlines since its inception -- most recently for the use of one voucher school's public monies to purchase luxury cars. The role of ALEC in the history of voucher legislation is not as well known, however.
School vouchers came of age during the gubernatorial reign of Tommy Thompson. ALEC and the right wing foundations that it partners with -- among them the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) -- worked to transform the image of voucher programs from a desultory privatization scheme to a "progressive" policy that gives students from low-income families a chance to get a better education.
"The strongest link [between ALEC and Wisconsin education and welfare policy] comes from ALEC itself, which held out Wisconsin Works and PAVE (People Against a Violent Environment) as models for the rest of the country," said Erin O'Neill of Public Trust Partnership. Public Trust is a nonprofit collaborative of public interest advocacy organizations that seeks to alert citizens to the influence of right-wing and corporate interests in state policymaking. "They have had model legislation on the issue for years."
Time, like money, is something many state employees lack. ALEC publications and its Web site offer time-crunched, aide-deficient legislators handy information packages that include talking points and research data as ammunition to defend the positions they take.
"We support legislative members that don't have enough staff," said ALEC Director of Public Affairs Joe Rinzeo. "ALEC is not a lobbying group; it promotes model legislation throughout the states."
Indeed. ALEC promotes model legislation that advances its mission via nine task forces that mirror state and federal government branches, such as the Health and Human Services Task Force, and the Criminal Justice Task Force. Each is co-chaired by a private sector member and a state legislative member, and they convene several times each year to draft "model legislation" that legislators can introduce in their home states. A new "Terrorism Task Force," currently under construction, will be co-chaired by Wisconsin Rep. Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford).
ALEC also holds member conferences each year. Taxpayers often foot the bill for legislator travel and lodging expenses for these events. They are written off as travel related to legislative duties, as in the cases of Wisconsin ALEC members Sen. Robert Welch (R-Redgranite) and Assembly Rep. Frank Lasee (R-Bellevue). Others make their way to ALEC meetings via "scholarships" paid for by corporate lobbyists or corporate representatives, as reported in state Senator Neal Kedzie's (R-Elkhorn) 2001 financial disclosure statement. According to an ALEC expose titled, "Corporate America's Trojan Horse," coauthored by the National Resources Defense Council and Defenders of Wildlife, this can verge on violations of state ethics laws when corporate interests are paying to meet with particular legislators.
Tommy Thompson, nicknamed Dr. No due to his opposition to Democratic legislation, once remarked of his ALEC experiences as a state representative that, "myself, I always loved going to these meetings because I always found new ideas. Then I'd take them back to Wisconsin, disguise them a little bit, and declare that 'It's mine.'"
While legislative and corporate members appear to have equal power in ALEC meetings and bill drafting, they don't pay the same to play. Legislator members pay $50 for a two-year membership and participate in task force duties for free. Corporate members pay $5,000 to $50,000 annually for membership, plus $1500 to $5,000 extra to sit on an ALEC task force. State legislator membership dues rarely account for more than one percent of ALEC annual revenues.
No model legislation is approved unless agreed to by the task force's corporate members and the ALEC board of directors, also consisting of private and public members. To help legislators to see things their way, the corporate members often pay extra to wine and dine public officials at ALEC conferences and offer industry-funded studies to back their views. ALEC itself also produces research reports on key issues.
Here's the real kicker: task force corporate members have an undeniable interest in the bills that they craft. For example, the Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest private prison organization, sat on ALEC's Criminal Justice Task force when it drafted model legislation for "three strikes" and "minimum sentencing" - laws to keep convicted criminals in prison longer. The private sector co-chair of ALEC's "Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture" task force is a representative for ASARCO Inc., one of world's largest strip mining companies.
Meanwhile, legislative members often take the studies home to justify introducing model legislation in their state. Sen. Welch recently announced that he believes Wisconsin could be spending less per pupil in Wisconsin schools and achieve the same good results. The figures come from ALEC's Oct. report, "The report on American Education: A state-by-state analysis." Until he announced his candidacy in the 2004 Republican primary for U.S. Senate, Welch was ALEC's Wisconsin State Chair and National Director. According to his own financial statements, he received at least $11,000 from ALEC between 1996 and 2002. Sen. Welch did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
While ALEC may be unfamiliar to many Americans, it's no stranger to the current administration. The organization has hosted a number of distinguished speakers at its conferences, including U.S Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, Vice President Dick Cheney and representatives from the American Enterprise Institute, ExxonMobil and the Chlorine Chemical Council. Wisconsin State Rep. Scott Suder, co-chair of ALEC's Criminal Justice Task Force, recently traveled to Washington to meet with President Bush and others to discuss homeland security issues.
"These are ALEC alumni," said Andrew Gussert, the director of the Madison-based American Legislative Issue Campaign Exchange (ALICE). According to him, "they came back to ALEC because it gave them a lot of political and business connections" as they assumed prominent positions. ALICE, an online clearinghouse for environmental and labor friendly policymaking, is one of several groups, including the Public Trust Partnership and the Madison-based State Environmental Resource Center that work to document ALEC influence.
(To read part two of this article, go to The Wisconsinite.)
March 25, 2004
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Katya Szabados is a graduate of UW-Madison with a bachelor's degree in journalism. She currently works as an intern at the State Environmental Resource Center.
