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ALEC investigated

by The Big E on May 30, 2012 · 1 comment

First I heard from DFL legislators complaining that during committee hearings some Republicans were unable to answer questions about bills they authored. I remember one Representative quipping “it was like he didn’t even write the bill himself.”

In a world where corporate lobbyists often draft bills for their Republican allies, this sounded sadly typical of the MNGOP. But it turned out to be far more insidious.

Republican legislators across the nation actually just copy-pasted boilerplate language that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) approved. All many MNGOP legislators had to do was change [Your State Here] to Minnesota and the like.

Eventually, the word started to get out about the extent of ALEC’s control of Minnesota Republican legislators. Alecexposed.org is a great starting point. They have a MN page listing all bills they are aware of that are ALEC bills.

ALEC files as a tax-exempt charitable organization. However, they behave much more like a lobbyist. Charities cannot lobby.

Common Cause cause has been tracking ALEC’s MN activity and filed a complaint with our Campaign Finance Board.

Today, the Campaign Finance Board agreed to investigate ALEC:

The Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board says it will investigate the American Legislative Exchange Council’s lobbying status in Minnesota.

The board disclosed the investigation in a letter to Common Cause Minnesota, the local arm of a national group that is asking many states to probe whether the conservative organization has violated its tax-exempt status.

Hopefully, Attorney General Lori Swanson and the IRS will also investigate.

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Are you now or have you ever been a member of ALEC?

by The Big E on April 28, 2012 · 0 comments

As a sort of follow up on Alec’s post, I think each Minnesota Republican legislator should answer the question “are you now or have you ever been a member of ALEC?”

American Legislative Exchange Council is the corporate lobby group behind vote suppression and “Shoot First” gun laws across the nation. But ALEC wants more than that. They want to gut environmental laws. They want supermajorities bills passed. They want so-called “Right-To-Work” bills passed to decimate unions.

But not every Republican wants to be associated with them.

A grassroots campaign by Keystone Progress to encourage Pennsylvania legislators to publicly reject membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is already yielding dividends. Five former members of the shadowy right-wing front group behind state laws restricting access to the ballot and “stand your ground” gun laws have already said they have left ALEC. One of those, State Sen. John Pippy (R), is the former ALEC Pennsylvania state chair. Nationally, thirteen companies have announced they have severed ties with the “stealth business lobbyist” organization. Zaid Jilani reports 28 lawmakers nationwide have quit ALEC this month.

Of course, if any MNGOP lawmakers admit membership, ask them the follow up:

“Will you renounce ALEC and begin representing the needs of Minnesotans?”


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Video: ALEC in Minnesota

by JeffStrate on April 21, 2012 · 2 comments

With a growing body of Minnesota-based videos and reporting about ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) though MPP, Common Cause Minnesota and Mothers Against Military Madness, Democratic Visions here attempts to summarize what has been happening — albeit in a simplified TV kind of way.   Here you go:  

(direct link to YouTube)

The video is part of our April program seen on Minneapolis, southwest suburban and Blooming Cable systems.

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Real goal of Voter ID amendment: eliminate same day registration

by The Big E on April 11, 2012 · 0 comments

Republicans figured out in the 1970s that they do better when fewer people vote. If they can make it harder to register to vote, they’ve done so. The latest, ALEC-inspired onslaught is nothing new, just more coordinated. Famous GOP and evangelical activist Paul Weyrich said it best:

Now that the Voter ID constitutional amendment passed the legislature and will appear on the ballot, a few things have become clear about it — first and foremost is that it gets rid of same-day registration.

A study by Cal-Irvine and Virginia Tech indicates that states with same-day registration have 7% higher turnout than states that don’t allow it. Furthermore, they conclude that same-day registration benefits the middle class and the poor. The middle class and the poor overwhelmingly vote Democrat.

One of the main reasons Minnesota often leads the nation in voter turnout is same day registration.

Essentially, Republicans want to suppress enough DFL votes so they avoid 312 votes losses like they suffered in ’08 with Norm Coleman and 9,000 vote losses like they had with Tom Emmer.

Yes, that’s right. Elimination of same-day registration would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans.

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Still waiting to see if MNGOP or ALEC have any ideas about creating jobs

by The Big E on April 3, 2012 · 0 comments

Kurt Zellers wrote an op-ed in Sunday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune. In it he claimed that the Republicans have the best ideas for creating jobs. He asked Gov. Mark Dayton to take his parties ideas seriously.

However, we may never know if they have any ideas at all because they keep pushing hyper-partisan constitutional amendments and far right divisive social legislation instead.

Last year, Republicans worked on 32 far right bills instead of working on the state budget. This year they’ve kept themselves very busy with their pet dream bills and have introduced 19 constitutional amendments.

As many Minnesotans still look for good paying jobs, the MNGOP wants to pass their so-called “Right-To-Work” constitutional amendment. “Right-To-Work” states create fewer jobs than non-“Right-To-Work” states. Furthermore those jobs are lower paying than in states without “Right-To-Work” legislation. Minnesotans doesn’t need more openings at fast food chains and WalMart.

As Minnesota’s highways and other infrastructure are crumbling and repairing and maintaining them would create good unions jobs, the MNGOP is pushing a constitutional amendment to disenfranchise poor, minority, student and senior voters. Constituencies who traditionally vote DFL.

Instead of creating jobs, Republicans have re-introduces their Shoot-First bill which will likely bring about situations just like in Florida with a white man shoots a threatening-yet-unarmed black teenager.

Rather than creating jobs, the MNGOP are trying to put a supermajority constitutional amendment on the 2012 ballot. Under this amendment, only a supermajority could raise taxes. In other words, Minnesota would be enter the same death spiral that is killing California.

Rather than create jobs, the MNGOP wants to lower taxes on the richest 1%. They have a strongly held belief (held with a quite zealous fervor) that rich people are Magical Job Creators. Despite much proof that the rich don’t create jobs when they have lower taxes.

So … Mr. Zellers, we’re still waiting to see what bills ALEC will instruct you to pass that might have anything remotely to do with creating decent paying jobs in Minnesota.

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Republicans opposed to shining the light on ALEC activities in Minnesota

by The Big E on March 28, 2012 · 1 comment

When you see a Republican at the legislature unable to explain a finer point of his bill or doesn’t even sounds unfamiliar with her bill, don’t be surprised. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) wrote the bill for him/her. The Koch Brothers funded organization is pushing all kinds of bad ideas in Republican-controlled legislature across the country. They are also hiding as a nonprofit to avoid the transparency lobbyists face.

Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Mpls) proposed shining the light on ALEC’s activities at the State Capitol. Unsurprisingly, the MNGOP is opposed and his amendment failed.

“This was a common-sense amendment that would have added more transparency to our political system,” Sen. Dibble said. “This is the type of information every Minnesotan deserves to have. Our state already has very strong campaign finance and lobbying laws that require lawmakers to disclose which lobbyists send them money; this amendment simply makes sure there’s not a loophole that allows certain special interests to hide from public view.”

Sen. Dibble’s amendment would have required organizations such as ALEC that advocate “model legislation” to register as a lobbyist principal. In addition, organizations that distribute scholarship funds for lawmaker to attend conferences would need to disclose that information, and all legislators receiving scholarship funds from those organizations would be required to report them on annual statements of financial disclosure registered with the Campaign Finance Board.

Senator Dibble said it was disappointing to see the amendment rejected, but even more alarming to witness Local Government and Elections Committee Chair Ray Vandeveer, R-Stillwater, seeming to mislead the public in Senate Floor debate.

“Sen. Vandeveer suggested this measure should have been vetted during normal committee meetings,” Sen. Dibble said. “That suggestion is frustrating, because I requested two separate committee hearings on this bill, Senate File 2249, and twice was ignored by Chair Vandeveer himself. It seems Republicans will go to any length needed to protect their special-interest influences.”

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MNGOP Attacks Teachers at ALEC’s Request

by Alec on February 23, 2012 · 2 comments

     There’s another ALEC Bill in the pipeline. This one comes from the Bill Gates funded education arm of ALEC. The latest right that Republicans want to take away is teachers’ right to strike over compensation.

    We know that the MNGOP loves legislating solutions to problems that do not exist. A historical look at teacher strikes in Minnesota is in order. In 1946, the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers held the first teacher’s strike in the nation. Since 1946, that pioneering teachers union has gone on strike an additional zero times. In the last decade there have been less than five teacher strikes statewide.

    One of the things that has kept teacher strikes so few is the January deadline for contracts to settle. Past January there has been a pretty stiff penalty for districts that have not settled. This has helped Minnesota stay relatively strike free. The MNGOP removed that law.

  In addition, the MNGOP wants to remove the stipulation that automatic cost of living increases or other benefits continue while negotiating new contracts. This means, when an old contract expired, any language of how they would operate while negotiating a new contract would be moot. There would actually be incentive for management to drag negotiations out for as long as possible. Finally, when the new contract is settled, there would be no retroactive pay if any increases were negotiated for in the interim.

  So, let’s review.

1) Take away the deadline for contracts to be settled, removing penalties for drawn out negotiations.  

2) Complain that negotiations go too long, and distract from learning.

3) Remove workers right to strike.

4) Don’t allow for previously negotiated increases to take place during negotiations of new contract.

5) Don’t allow for retroactive pay for any new benefits negotiated for.

It’s another ALEC jobs bill!!

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Restrictive Photo ID Bill Passes Committee Despite Opposition or Need

by TakeActionMN on February 16, 2012 · 0 comments

TakeAction Minnesota released the following statement following passage of S.F. 1577, the proposed photo ID constitutional amendment, out of the Senate Local Government & Elections Committee this afternoon, on an 8-6 party-line vote:

“Despite the growing vocal opposition of Minnesotans across this state to the proposed photo ID amendment – including over four-and-a-half hours of oppositional testimony two weeks ago and hundreds of people crowding the halls of the Capitol – Senate Republicans passed S.F. 1577, the restrictive photo ID bill, out of its first committee today.

Despite zero convictions of voter impersonation in Minnesota, the only thing a photo ID would prevent, Senate Republicans passed the proposed photo ID amendment out of committee.

Despite numbers put forward two weeks ago by Minnesota’s Secretary of State demonstrating the depth and scope of those who would be stripped of their right to vote — over 715,000 eligible Minnesota voters – Senate Republicans passed the restrictive photo ID bill out of committee.

And despite putting same-day registration and absentee voting at risk, bedrocks of Minnesota’s excellent elections system, Senate Republicans passed the restrictive photo ID bill out of committee today.

The real question is, why?  Who stands to gain the most from fewer people participating in our democracy?  

One of the biggest crises facing both our state and country is the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics, a system that makes it legal for the richest few to give unlimited amounts of money to candidates and candidate committees. Simultaneously, conservative legislators in states across the country, running the ALEC playbook, seek to rewrite the rules of democracy for their own economic benefit.

The more people know about the proposed photo ID amendment, the more they oppose it. That’s because most of us don’t have the kind of money, and the outsized political influence big money buys, to shape the laws and policies we live under.  All we have is one vote – a vote we have the constitutional right to keep. And now, a band of conservative legislators, doing the bidding of the 1% who put them in office, seeks to restrict voting rights for hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans simply because they can. It’s wrong and we will continue to fight this.”


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Not Almanac, Episode 4: That ALEC guy

by TonyAngelo on February 13, 2012 · 0 comments

Not Almanac logoThis week we talk about: bullsh*t, Mark Dayton’s sharp elbows and of course that one guy, ALEC. Also in this edition we have an actual guest, Jesse Ross will talk with us about design in politics.

Download link

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ALEC Snouts are into Minnesota Schools

by Dan Burns on February 13, 2012 · 1 comment

This is a very good article about what Minnesota’s Republican legislators, directed as they are by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), will likely be pushing when it comes to public education.  (Remember when our public schools were the unquestioned pride of Minnesota, before the extreme right got a chunk of political power in the state?  If you’re under thirty or so, you may not, but the rest of you likely do.)

So what’s in the corporate-funded council’s 2012 playbook? For Minnesota, the safe money is on teacher hiring and firing laws. Yep, tenure reform, which won’t surprise you at all if you clicked through a few of the links above and discovered ALEC’s right-to-work legislation campaign, now playing out at a statehouse near you.

Note that two of the legislators that have been making the most noise about education policy during the past year – Rep. Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton) and Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington)  are listed as ALEC members.

That “teacher hiring and firing laws” are the problem with public schools is preposterous.  This is primarily another flagrant attempt to try to shift blame away from the real problems, which include issues like bad federal legislation, conservative anti-intellectualism, and (most of all) inadequate school funding, due to the contemptible idiocy of GOP prioritization of tax cut welfare government handouts for the wealthy.

I can’t wait to run these clowns into political oblivion.

(Regarding the title, ALEC snouts have actually been into Minnesota schools, and a whole lot else, for a while.  I just wanted something “catchy.”)

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