Foundation. The john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org. Anne gumowitz. The betsy and jesse fink foundation. The hkh foundation. Barbara g. Fleischman. And by our sole corporate sponsor, mutual of america, designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why were your retirement company. Welcome to a story thats been unfolding for nearly 40 years, but has gone largely untold, and thats the way the central characters wanted it. They were smart and understood something very important that they might more easily get what they wanted from state capitals than from washington, d. C. So they started putting their money in places like raleigh, North Carolina, nashville, tennessee, phoenix, arizona, and madison, wisconsin. Thats because what happens in our state legislatures directly affects our taxes, schools, roads, the quality of our air and water, even our right to vote. Politicians and lobbyists at the core of this clever enterprise figured out how to pull it off in an organized, camouflaged way, covering their tracks while they put one over on an unsuspecting public. This is the story of how and why it worked. Our report was many months in the making. Its a collaboration between tom casciato and kathleen hughes, the filmmakers at okapi productions, and the Schumann Media Center that i head. Schumann supports independent journalism and public Watchdog Groups like the center for media and democracy, whose investigators have been tracking the footprints of alec, an organization hiding in plain sight, yet one of the most influential and powerful in american politics. Ive often told people that i talk to out on the campaign trail when they say state what . When i say im running for the state legislature. I tell them that the decisions that are made here in the legislature are often more important for your everyday life than the decisions the president makes. If you really want to influence the politics of this country, you dont just give money to president ial campaigns. You dont just give money to Congressional Campaign committees. The smart players put their money in states. Alec has forged a unique partnership between state legislators and leaders from the corporate and business community. This Partnership Offers businessmen the extraordinary opportunity to apply their talents to solve our nations problems and build on our opportunities. I was stunned at the notion that politicians and corporate representatives, corporate lobbyists were actually voting behind closed doors on these changes to the law before they were introduced in statehouses across the country. You might have heard the name alec in the news lately. The American Legislative Exchange council, or alec for short. The American Legislative Exchange council, or alec. Alec is a nationwide consortium of elected state legislators working sidebyside with some of americas most powerful corporations. They have an agenda you should know about, a mission to remake america, changing the country by changing its laws one state at a time. Alec creates what it calls model legislation, proCorporate Laws like this one, that its members push in statehouses across the nation. Alec says close to a thousand bills, based at least in part on its models, are introduced every year. And an average of 200 pass. This has been going on for decades. But somehow, alec managed to remain the most influential corporatefunded Political Organization youd never heard of until a gunshot sounded in the florida night. Trayvon martin unarmed but for a bag of candy and iced tea that he was carrying. Youll recall that the shooter in Trayvon Martins death was protected at first by floridas socalled standyourground law. That law was the work of the National Rifle association. Theres its lobbyist standing right beside governor jeb bush when he signed it into law in 2005. Although alec didnt originate the florida law, it seized on it for the standyourground model it would circulate in other states. 24 of them have passed a version of it. How did this law not only get in place in florida but around the country . And all the fingers kept pointing back to alec. When civil rights and grassroots groups learned about alecs connection to standyourground laws, they were outraged. Alec doesnt do its work alone. They do it with some of the biggest corporate brands in america. Before long, corporations were pulling out of alec, including cocacola, kraft foods, mcdonalds, mars, proctor gamble, johnson johnson. Caught in the glare of the national spotlight, alec tried to change the subject. You know, i think the entire debate needs to be reframed. And really what alec is, is a bipartisan association of state legislators. We have legislators of all political stripes coming together to talk about the most Critical Issues facing the states and trying to come up with the best solutions to face some of the problems that were having. All right, so your point is its not a partisan organization. But alec is partisan, and then some. In the spring i got a call from a person who said that all of the alec bills were available and was i interested in looking at them. And i said i was. Lisa graves, a former Justice Department lawyer, runs the center for media and democracy. Thats a nonprofit Investigative Reporting Group in madison, wisconsin. In 2011 by way of an alec insider, graves got her hands on a Virtual Library of internal alec documents. She was amazed by its contents a treasure trove of actual alecmodel bills. These are the bills that were provided by the whistleblower. Thats just the index. There were more than 850 of them 850 boilerplate laws that alec legislators could introduce as their own in any state in the union. Bills to change the law to make it harder for american citizens to vote, those were alec bills. Bills to dramatically change the rights of americans who were killed or injured by corporations, those were alec bills. Bills to make it harder for unions to do their work were alec bills. Bills to basically block Climate Change agreements, those were alec bills. When i looked at them, i was really shocked. I didnt know how incredibly extensive and deep and farreaching this effort to rework our laws was. She and her team began to plow through alec documents, as well as public sources, to compile a list of the organizations and people who were or had been alec members. They found hundreds of corporations, from cocacola and Koch Industries to exxon mobil, pfizer, and walmart, dozens of rightwing think tanks and foundations, two dozen Corporate Law firms and lobbying firms, and some thousand state legislators, a few of them democrats, the majority of them republican. Alec is a corporate dating service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests that eventually the relationship culminates with some special interest legislation and hopefully that lives happily ever after as the alec model. Unfortunately whats excluded from that equation is the public. In the wisconsin statehouse, democratic representative mark pocan is trying to expose alecs fingerprints whenever he can. By one count, over a third of pocans fellow wisconsin lawmakers are alec members. When you look around, especially on the republican side of the aisle, a lot of members of alec, front row, alec. When you start going down to the chair of finance and some of the other members are all alec members. In fact, the alec cochair of the state, rowbyrow, you can point out people who have been members of alec over the years. Theres two main categories they have one is how to reduce the size of government, and the other half of it is this model legislation thats in the corporate good. In other words, theres a profitdriven legislation. How can you open up a new market . How can you privatize something that can open up a market for a company . And between those two divisions, you are kind of getting to the same end goal, which is really kind of ultimate privatization of everything. Mark pocan is something of an expert on alec. In fact, to learn as much as he could, he became a member. What i realized is if you join alec for a mere 100 as a legislator, you have the full access like any corporate member. He also took himself to an alec conference for a firsthand look. Hi, im state representative mark pocan, and welcome to my videoblog. Im outside the marriott on canal street in new orleans at the alec convention, the American Legislative Exchange council. That was where you watch the interaction of a room full of lobbyists free drinks, free cigars, wining, dining. Many people just came from a dinner that was sponsored by some special interests, coming to a party thats sponsored by special interests, so they can continue to talk about special interests. This is from the new orleans convention. This includes a number of seminars that they held for legislators including one called warming up to Climate Change the many benefits of increased atmospheric co2. That 2011 alec conference, lo and behold, was sponsored by bp, exxon mobil, chevron, and shell, among others. Another of its events featured guns. This is the nrasponsored shooting event. For legislators and for lobbyists. Free. There was even one offering free cigars. Sponsored by reynolds american, which is one of the biggest Tobacco Companies in the world, and the Cigar Association of america. It sounds like lobbying. It looks like lobbying. It smells like lobbying. But alec says its not lobbying. In fact, alec operates not as a lobby group, but as a nonprofit, a charity. In its filing with the i. R. S. Filing, alec says its mission is education. Which means it pays no taxes, and its corporate members get a tax writeoff. Its legislators get a lot too. In wisconsin, i cant take anything of value from a lobbyist. I cant take a cup of coffee from a lobbyist. At alec, its just the opposite. You know, you get there and youre being wined and dined by corporate interests. I can go down there and be wined and dined for days in order to hear about their special legislation. I mean, the head of shell oil flew in on his private jet to come to this conference. The head of one the largest Utility Companies in the country was there on a panel. Utility company in 13 states, and here he is presenting to legislators. I mean, they clearly brought in some of the biggest corporate names in special interestdom and had them meeting with legislators because a lot of business transpires at these events. The most important business happens in what alec calls task forces. There are currently eight of them, with a corporate take on every important issue in american life, from health and safety to the environment to taxation. In alec task forces, elected state officials and corporate representatives close the doors to press and public, and together approve the bills that will be sent out to america. But americans have no idea they come from alec, unless someone like a mark pocan exposes it. When i went down to new orleans, to the alec Convention Last august, i remember going to a workshop and hearing a little bit about a bill they did in florida and some other states. And there was a proposal to provide specialneeds scholarships. And lo and behold all of a sudden i come back to wisconsin, and what gets introduced . Get ready. I know youre going to have a shocked look on your face. A bill to do just that. 26 alec members in the Wisconsin Legislature sponsored that specialneeds bill, but the real sponsor was alec. Pocan knew because the bill bore a striking resemblance to alecs model. Have a look. But pocan isnt only concerned that alec sneaks bills into the state legislature. The intent behind the bills tion les him too. Sounds so innocuous. But when you start to read about why theyre doing it, you know theres a far different reason why somethings coming forward. And thats important. If the average person knew that a bill like this came from some group like alec, youll look at the bill very differently. And you might look at that legislator a little differently about why they introduced it. This is not about education. This is not about helping kids with special needs. This is about privatization. This is about corporate profits. And this is about dismantling public education. The bill passed in the wisconsin house, but failed to make it through the senate. However, in its Education Report card, alec boasts that similar bills have passed in oklahoma, louisiana, North Carolina, and ohio. Alecs education agenda includes online schooling as well. Take a careful look, and youll find the profit motive there, too. What you see is corporations that have a direct benefit, whose bottom line directly benefits from these bills, voting on these bills in the alec taskforce. And so corporations like Connections Academy, corporations like k12, they have a direct financial interest in advancing this agenda. Those corporations, Connections Academy and k12, which specialize in Online Education, can profit handsomely from laws that direct taxpayer money toward businesses like theirs. In 2011, both sat on alecs Education Task force. But the two companies didnt just approve the model bill. They helped craft it. The proof is in one of alecs own documents. And theres more to the story. Thank you, mr. Speaker. House bill 1030 has to do with the establishment of virtual public schools. Last year, an online schooling bill based on the alec model turned up in another state where alec has a powerful influence tennessee. It was introduced in both the state senate and house by alec members. The bill passed, making private corporations eligible for public money for Online Education. Then within weeks, the k12 corporation got what amounted to a nobid contract to provide Online Education to any tennessee student from kindergarten through the 8th grade. So lets review the alec member corporations help craft the bill, alec legislators introduce it and vote on it, and now theres a state law on the books that enables one of those corporations to get state money. Game, set, match. But remember this story isnt about one company in the education industry and one law in tennessee. Its about hundreds of corporations in most every industry, influencing lawmakers in state after state using alec as a front. Heres another example the american bail coalition, which represents the bail bond industry, pulls no punches about writing alecs model bills itself. In a newsletter a few years back, the coalition boasted that it had written 12 alec model bills fortifying the commercial bail industry. Heres jerry watson, senior Legal Counsel for the coalition, speaking at an alec meeting in 2007. He has a law to offer. There is a model bill for you to review if you might be interested in introducing such a measure. Hell even help legislators amend it. Now, if you dont like the precise language of these suggested documents, can they be tweaked by your legislative counsel . Well, absolutely. And will we work with them on that and work with you and your staff on that . Absolutely. All the lawmakers have to do is ring him up. There is a phone number there for our executive offices in washington, d. C. We are prepared to help you and your staff and support this legislation in any way that we can. And guess what . Theres gold at the end of the rainbow. But im not so crazy as not to know that youve already figured out that if i can talk you into doing this bill, my clients are going to make some money on the bond premiums. And corporate interest conflated with the Public Interest. But if we can help you save crime victims in your legislative district and generate positive revenue for your state, and help solve your prison overcrowding problem, you dont mind me making a dollar. Alec members are seldom as upfront as the american bail coalition. In fact, ordinarily alecs hand is very hard to see at all. But if you know where to look, youll often find alec hiding in plain sight. Alec has, in addition to its regular vacation resort trips, it also has special, what it calls boot camps, on particular substantive issues. In march, 2011, alec held one of those boot camps for legislators at the North Carolina capitol in raleigh. The subject was socalled tort reform how to keep the average joe from successfully suing a corporation for damages. The day after the boot camp, two state representatives presented the draft version of a house bill chock full of alec priorities. It would, among other things, limit corporate Product Liability in North Carolina. One of the representatives, johnathan rhyne, was quoted in the Raleigh News Observer saying of alec i really dont know much about them. Thats odd, because rhyne had been listed as a featured speaker at the alec tort reform boot camp. The paper also reported that rhyne said the bill wasnt copied from alec model legislation. That too, is odd, given how the sections covering Product Liability could have passed as twins. The bill was controversial it passed, but only after the productliability sections were taken out of it. But the tort reformers didnt give up. They were back a year later, this time with a draft bill aimed specifically to limit the liability of drug manufacturers. When the public was allowed to comment before a legislative panel, people who had lost loved ones came to testify against the bill. A son who had lost a father you kno