You may know that I have written several articles on the Republican war on voting, so I shall not go into the details of extreme tactics they use to separate minority, elderly, disabled, labor, and poor Americans from their right to vote. But a recent attempt has exposed a small glimpse at who is financing this effort.
Last month, Maine voters delivered a major rebuke to Gov. Paul LePage (R) and the Republican-held legislature when they approved a referendum restoring election day voting registration rights in the state. Earlier this year, state legislators passed a bill repealing the state’s 38 year-old law allowing citizens to register at the polls on election day.
Tens of thousands of Mainers responded by petitioning for the matter come to a referendum. Issue 1 was one of the most-anticipated votes on election day this year, with pundits watching closely to see how citizens would react to the Republican-led war on voting, which ramped up in states across the country this year.
Recognizing the referendum’s importance, voting rights opponents poured money into the campaign to repeal election day registration. In fact, just two days after the state’s campaign finance reporting deadline, a secret conservative donor funneled $250,000 into the race, allowing the No On 1 campaign to make significant TV ad buys in an inexpensive media market.
Per state law, however, the identity of donors must be revealed within 45 days after the election. In fact, the entire $250,000 worth of late money came from a single source: the American Justice Partnership.
The AJP is a conservative legal organization based not in Maine, but in Michigan. On their website [Koch suckers delinked], the group states they are fighting against “the scheming George Soros money machine” which is “trying to sabotage your right to vote,” a claim apparently made without a hint of irony. Though the AJP doesn’t disclose where its funding comes from, the Bangor Daily News notes that it has partnered with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the past, a group that has been instrumental in the proliferation of voter ID laws across the country…
Inserted from <Think Progress>
Now AJP does claim to be bipartisan, but the only officer listed on their website, Dan Pero writes a blog, where he supported Newt Gingrich’s proposal that “activist” [ones who do not goose step with the Republicans] judges should be jailed. They commonly partner with [work on behalf of] the Heritage Foundation and ALEC. Because this involves curtailing voting rights, ALEC is the most likely candidate, as that is one of their fortes.
ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. (ALEC says that corporations do not vote on the board.) They fund almost all of ALEC’s operations. Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched” organization. It might be right. It is as if a state legislature had been reconstituted, yet corporations had pushed the people out the door. Learn more at ALECexposed.org. [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Source Watch>
Some ALEC legislators include John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Lindsey Graham, James Inhofe and more.
Some ALEC Corporations include AT&T, Bayer, Coca-cola, ExxonMobil, Glaxo SmithKline, Koch Companies, Wal-Fart and more.
This gives you a brief glimpse at the inner workings of the Republican vision for YOUR future.
24 Responses to “Who is Behind the Republican War on Voting?”
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It’s not that Alec or Kock and their ilk have the option of writing legislation and then buying a state or federal office holder that pisses me off as much as that if i wrote an initiative even if i gathered 300 million signatures I could not get it introduced to either chamber for a vote. As a citizen i have no right to propose legislation and that is flat ass wrong.
I totally agree with you TWM.
So do I.
Wow TC – what a frightening revelation, I didn’t know – I have heard of ALEC, but didn’t have any idea that it’s tentacles reached so far! Shows my ignorance, but appreciate the job you did in revealing the source – thanks for the info – alecexposed is an informative site, and one I should have visited before – glad you put me onto this core of fascist machinery! So thanks (I guess) – this is one to share on facebook (twitter too) – why aren’t these terrorists in gitmo?
Lee, even I was shocked at some of the companies on the listl
And still, the Klanservative Klanbagging Kochsuckers demand that they be sold into slavery by their massas. The failure of our education system is appalling.
And what they have to say about it is BA-A-A-A-A.
ALEC & Koch … two very, very scary groups, indeed.
Indeed!
“. . . two days after the state’s campaign finance reporting deadline, a secret conservative donor funneled $250,000 into the race, allowing the No On 1 campaign to make . . .”
Did I miss something here? If it is after the deadline, how can this donation be allowed, or is this a case of the ‘fix is in’?
Although the article says “ALEC is not a lobby;. . .” , isn’t what they are doing essentially lobbying? True they are taking it a step further by writing the legislation so as to make it easier for the legislators, and they are letting the legislators take the credit for the legislation, but still . . . Don’t lobbyists have to be registered in the US? Is this one of those fine lines that has people doing tightrope balancing? Or is this another one of those ‘the states can do . . .’ whatever according to law and then it makes it’s way to the federal level eventually? Or is this one of those “they haven’t been caught red handed yet” but it’s coming?
Interesting site. Seeing some of the corporate members — Glaxo Smith Kline of big pharma (I will do my best to avoid their products but may not always be possible given the number and type of drugs I take daily), Coca-Cola (I have my 1st New Year’s resolution — give up diet coke and any other Coca-Cola product like Minute Maid juices etc), Koch Industries (have some products but don’t use them now and won’t — really have to watch that Georgia Pacific stuff) just to name three. I wonder if we’ll see something similar in Canada or if Harper will try to tap into ALEC directly. Crap, such underhanded,deceptive (as far as I am concerned) practices are a pain in the arse. These guys are treating the corporations as ‘people’, but then what more would you expect from a rightwing nut Republican/Teabagger group?
And let’s not forget the other things that the Republican/Teabaggers have orchestrated like the Florida Reoublicans requesting a computer software be designed to essentially falsify the vote by converting or dropping Democratic votes. He testified before a Congressional Committee in 2011. I can’t remember his name but I’m sure TC does. Oh the list goes on, and on, and on , . . .
Goes to show the Republican/Teabagger main tenet — if you can’t get it legitimately, then lie, cheat or steal until the desired result is achieved.
Do our legislators do anything besides lie, cheat and steal? They aren’t writing legislation ( they either get it from some where or their staffers do it), they are out campaigning for another term pandering to lobbyists or they are getting money to campaign. What a bunch of fucking losers
The ALEC group has to be illegal; it’s a front group for the Repubs, it’s donor info is not disclosed until after the election and most of the people who run ALEC don’t have to disclose who they are.. I smell a big fat dead rat.
Exactly, Lisa.
It is legal and Citizens United high powered it.
Lisa. I haven’t seen them do anything else but cheat, lie, steal and do everything in their power to hurt the majority of us. To many of the corporations write the bills which our bought and paid for congress critters enact without even knowing what they have done.
Lynn, in Maine financing to date has to be reported s few days before the election, and financing in full has to be reported after the election. They timed the donation so that nobody would know until afterward. Legal, but sleazy.
De facto, yes, but they get around it by pretending it’s an educational association. States have their own rules.
That is criminal.
Yep!
I yearn for the day that ALEC is completely discredited and disbanded, and the Koxh vrothers are both sentenced to life terms, without parole, in a federal penitentiary!
Isn’t it ironic how ACORN was trashed and not ALEC?
Old truism– ‘the fix is in’ …I am more and more convinced tho– that claiming “Conspiracy Theory ” and laughing is simply a way of discrediting those who pull pieces together—-Its a bit harder tho– when everything is really available somewhere in the internet— What has happened , I think , is the greed got out of bounds and the truth of the Conspiracies began to slither out— Wikileaks did a lot to pull things out into the light-
That’s why I’m a strong proponent of whistle blowers.
so has Jesse Ventura
Good for him!
things don’t always go better with Koch.
….or with Koch suckers! 😉
I guess the only power we have is to VOTE, and we need more transparency (media). People need to learn and understand the consequences of their vote. W. Churchill :”Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts”.
Excellent thoughts, Monka. I don’t think we’re going to get more transparency in media, though.