After years of relative anonymity, the political ground shifted under the American Legislative Exchange Council's feet when George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Fairly quickly, Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law became the focus of national security, as did the shadowy group that helped write the law and push it through the legislature.
The ensuing controversy has been less than kind to ALEC, with the organization losing several major corporate sponsors, and the group's larger legislative agenda getting the spotlight for the first time.
With the pressure intensifying, ALEC announced this morning that it's "sharpening" its "focus" to cover economic issues exclusively. That's a nice way of saying it's giving up on social agenda altogether. ALEC Chairman David Frizzell issued a statement earlier on behalf of the group's Legislative Board of Directors:
"Today we are redoubling our efforts on the economic front, a priority that has been the hallmark of our organization for decades. Fostering the exchange of pro-growth, solutions-oriented ideas is precisely why ALEC exists.
"To that end, our legislative board last week unanimously agreed to further our work on policies that will help spur innovation and competitiveness across the country.
"We are refocusing our commitment to free-market, limited government and pro-growth principles, and have made changes internally to reflect this renewed focus.
"We are eliminating the ALEC Public Safety and Elections task force that dealt with non-economic issues, and reinvesting these resources in the task forces that focus on the economy."
In this case, "non-economic issues" is a pretty broad category -- ALEC will now no longer work with the NRA on gun laws, for example, and the group's efforts to create voting restrictions will also apparently come to an end.
Of course, ALEC's interest in economic issues isn't exactly narrow. As Scott Keyes noted, "a short list of ostensibly economic measures ALEC has supported in the past" includes measures related to union busting, repealing minimum-wage laws, and touting "the many benefits of atmospheric CO2 enrichment," among other things.
Still, for ALEC's progressive critics, today marks a fairly significant and unexpected victory.
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Cockroaches always run and hide when you lift whatever it is they've been hiding under. and like all cockroaches, they just change what they're doing at the moment.
Ever notice how Republicans are just like cockroaches?
ALEC knows who pays the bills, and it isn't evangelical Christians and the Roman Bishops. The group also knows it is most effective working in the shadows and those pesky social laws have a habit of becoming public. Just ask Governor Bob Vaginal Probe McDonnell.
In other words "we are going to write more legislation to benefit us economically". Sounds lovely. The fact that they talk like they've been elected to office disturbs me.
It should bother everybody that they are even talking about writing legislation, but in another way it more or less confirms what many have believed for a long time. Cheney, Norquist & their ilk seemed to have been ghost writing most of the republican legislation for a long time now.
Raise your hand if you think the voter suppression efforts will actually stop. They literally can't afford to have every eligible voter vote, because their policies are so unpopular.
State legislators have always been cheaper to buy than Conress all they way back to the rail roads. We need to have more sponsors drop their support for this crew
I wouldn't trust ALEC any further than I could throw them. This move is intended to get media focus away from them. Just like with the Komen Foundation, the scrutiny needs to continue.
YES! This is great news, indeed, and proof (and along with the Susan G. Komen fiasco) that the power of the people to fight anti-humanist policies and organizations, using new technology, is considerable indeed.
Well, they're no fun, they fell right over!
"We are refocusing our commitment to free-market, limited government and pro-growth principles, and have made changes internally to reflect this renewed focus."
Translation: We are refocusing our commitment to doubling down on the same failed GOP policies that almost caused the country to economically implode in 2008.
As I said on TPM this morning, so social action works, eh? Kick the bully in the teeth and watch him run! Heed the lesson, Dems! Stop backing down and put the boots to ALEC!
A good lesson for Democrats to learn in general. Meek and apologetic doesn't work. Strength and fortitude does.
Time to double down dems.
I wonder if Trayvon's parents are aware of ALEC's indirect involvement in their son's death. Perhaps a wrongful death trial is in order.
Although this may sound good -- I feel it is just a PR stunt. As soon as the spotlight is off of ALEC -- they will go back to excatly what they have done over the last 30 to 40 years. They know what works and will find a way to continue in the shadows.
This was going to be my comment =P Thanks for beating me to it ^ . ^
When it comes to the current Republican machine you can set your watch to 1 of 2 truths happening (and sometimes both will happen at once):
1- Whatever the Republican is stating he/she is against or doesn't like or is afraid of...is secretly what he/she is for, really likes, and will push to have happen legislatively like a bat out of hell
2- When a Republican states that he/she is going to 'stop' or 'halt' or 'refocus' efforts OR when a Republican states that something is trivial and unimportant, he/she really means "please stop giving me media attention on the things that I'm doing so I can continue to do them w/o the public knowing, thank you"
Don't worry.
Social conservatives will be back under some other shadowy organization writing anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage laws soon enough.
Quite frankly, I don't believe a word they say. From Romney on down to tea party. They are all painted with the same brush soaked in lies,lies,lies.
Baloney. They're not going to end their involvement in anything. ALEC will redefine social issues as "economic issues" because they affect the bank accounts of its sponsors. Their activities will just go underground. But that's OK. At least their sponsors have had a scare put into them for the time being.
ALEC needs to END not contract. At this moment I would not trust them to write the instructions for opening a jar.
EVERY politician running for office, no matter how low or high the job needs to answer a question about ALEC affiliation. Enough of this Stepford congressmen crap.
Weird how those actually involved in business, as opposed to the slimeball politicians who claim to represent business (the GOP) are actually, if Chris Hayes was right last evening on Maddow, MORE responsive to public opinion than the public's supposed servants... Tells a story, doesn't it?
I don't believe this ALEC won't keep prosecuting hideous policies, but the fact that people power got businesses to drop these creeps shows we also have power...
So this is what was meant by representative democracy? Benefactors write the legislation to be presented for a vote by state legislators. They, then have conservative state legislators present similar laws to multiple states in an attempt to corrupt the process for their gains; they are trying to take over Federal government by corrupting state government. They will then use the states acceptance of their legislation as proof that this is what the voters want. This should be illegal !
My guess is the NRA would keep them breathing.
Without help the evangelical and other social right-wing might have to learn how to write their own legislation.
There are too many big words they do not understand, like secular, hypocrisy, benevolence, tolerance, inclusion, forthcoming, sanctimonious, bigotry and education.
Don't believe that ALEC's pull back is a full retreat; it is a tactical retreat. There will be another organization to pick up the issues ALEC no longer deems relevant to their work. It will be another shadow group that will work on social issues and the funding for the group will be just as shadowy as the group itself.
correct this only means the work starts anew again.
Words are cheap.