{"id":7467,"date":"2015-02-16T04:30:32","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T04:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/?p=7467"},"modified":"2015-12-03T07:38:39","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T07:38:39","slug":"2015-03-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/2015-03-29\/","title":{"rendered":"ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) – Buying Our State Legislative System on Behalf of Corporate Interests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elsa Schafer<\/a><\/h4>\n

March 29, 2015<\/a><\/h4>\n

ALEC was initially founded in the 1970\u2019s as a secret entity based in Washington, D.C. with legislators and corporate members who wrote legislative bills on behalf of corporate interests in exchange for election campaign funding. Over 2,000 companies have joined, writing legislation to:\u00ad privatize public schools and prisons, \u00ad weaken voting rights, \u00ad eviscerate clean air, clean water and other environmental laws, \u00ad cripple public worker unions and endanger public safety.\u00adIn 2011, Common Cause helped shine a spotlight on ALEC and its activities, and Common Cause and a coalition of organizations have pressured companies to drop their memberships in ALEC. Elsa Schafer is a progressive activist (Democracy for America and Common Cause) who has long fought for publicly funded elections, while maintaining her day job working on healthcare reform.<\/p>\n