“The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) was founded in 1973 by Henry Hyde, Lou Barnett, and Paul Weyrich, who helped build a nationwide right-wing political infrastructure following the reelection of Richard Nixon”.

Progressives must research the methods used by “The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to develop their widely distributed legislative documents which they provide to conservatives politicians. “ALEC is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private “sector representatives” who draft and share model state-and (federal) level legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States”.

The American Legislative Exchange Council is a nonprofit organization funded in part by conservatives politicians and corporate leaders. Companies include:

CenterPoint 360 (a firm that helps companies “manage legislation”), Altria (formerly Phillip Morris tobacco), the American Bail Coalition (the trade group for for-profit bail bonds), AT&T, Bayer (aspirin), Coca-Cola, Diageo (Crown Royal and other liquor), Energy Future Holdings (Texas electricity), ExxonMobil, GlaxoSmithKline (Tums and other brands), Intuit (Quickbooks), Johnson & Johnson (lotion), Koch Industries (Georgia Pacific paper products and other brands), Kraft Food (Macaroni and Cheese dinners), Peabody Energy (the largest private coal company in the world), Pfizer (Viagra), PhRMA (the pharmaceutical trade group), Reed Elsevier (Lexis/Nexis legal research), Reynolds American (tobacco), Salt River Project (energy), State Farm Insurance, United Parcel Service, and Wal-Mart (world’s largest retailer).

Once again, ALEC consist of conservative state and federal legislators and private sector representatives who draft and share model state-level legislation for distribution among state and (federal) governments in the United States. ALEC provides a forum for state legislators and private sector members to collaborate on model bills—draft legislation that members may customize and introduce for debate in their state legislatures. ALEC has produced model bills on a

Before the next election, it is imperative that Democrats develop their own version of the “American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)”. They must seek out progressive Legislative Thought Leaders (LTLs) to help them put their ideas and concepts into Legislative formats to share, replicate and submit. It will take an ALEC type legislative village to complete with the kind of professionally developed legislative documents that they share with conservative politicians. ALEC’s sharing of conservative legislation with conservative politician’s is BIG BUSINESS… cate