Leaked Documents Reveal IRS Concerns, Funding Crisis At Corporate Lobbying Group ALEC

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The Guardianย has published a major investigative piece that once again exposes the scandalous ways of the right wing lobbying group,ย American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).ย 

Among the biggest revelations: ALECย may soon face a budget crisis, andย is feeling the heat of public pressure from activists and its own membershipย in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin shooting by George Zimmerman in Florida. Dozens of corporations have jumped ship from what critics have coined a โ€œcorporate bill millโ€ย for statehousesย nationwide.

Another explosive revelation: ALEC State Chairs were handed a draft pledge to put ALEC‘s interests over its constituent’s interests, asked to โ€œact with care and loyalty and put the interests of [ALEC] first.โ€ ALEC confirmed to The Guardian that it was โ€œnot adopted by the membership committee or by any of the stateย chairs.โ€

The Guardianย obtained ALEC‘s Board of Directors’ meeting minutesย which reveal thatย ALEC has created a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization called The Jeffersonian Project.

Creation of the Jeffersonian Project – paralleling ALEC‘s self-serving branding as standing for โ€œJeffersonian principlesโ€ – could be seen as a tacit admission that ALEC had been illegally operating as a shadow lobbying organization on behalf of its corporate members for the past fourย decades.

ALEC‘s budget hole from the exodus of corporate members has inspired a campaign to win corporate members back to the exclusive club, calling it the biblically-inspiredย โ€œProdigal Son Project.โ€ Desperate for more member-based funding, ALEC is considering recruiting gambling companies into its member base.

Jeffersonian Project Legalย Lifeline

Not going so far as to admit it has acted as an illegal shadow lobbying organization for the past four decades, ALEC‘s attorneyย Alan Dye weighed in on the Jeffersonian Projectย in a letter, โ€œthough we do not believe that any activity carried on by Alec is lobbying, the IRS could disagreeโ€ฆAlec has been approached by donors who are willing to make sizable donations, but insist that the donations go to a section 501(c)(4)ย organization.โ€

Put another way, the Jeffersonian Project could be ALEC‘s lifeline to keep itself in legal territory and therefore, afloat. ALEC says so itself, inย fact.

โ€œAny activity that could be done by Alec may be done by Jeffersonian Project if legal counsel advises it would provide greater legal protection or lessen ethics concerns,โ€ notes from its Board Meeting state, addingย 501(c)(4) status answers โ€œquestions of ethical violations made by our critics and state ethics boards and provides further legalย protection.โ€

Lisa Graves, Executive Director for the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) responded to ALEC‘s lifeline creation, saying, โ€œIt should have disclosed its lobbying longย ago.โ€

Pro-Fracking, Anti-Regulatory Agenda for Upcomingย Meeting

These findings by The Guardian come just one day beforeย ALEC‘s forthcoming States and Nation Policy Summitย in Washington, DC, in which pro-fracking and anti-regulatory model bills and presentations will be the centerpiece of the Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force’s convening. Shale gas industry lobbying powerhouse America’s Natural Gas Alliance will be named as a corporate member at the meeting.

As CMD‘sย PR Watchย revealed in an August article, the โ€œUnited States of ALECโ€ has alreadyย proposed 77 ALECย anti-environmental โ€œmodel billsโ€ in statehouses nationwide in the first three quarters ofย 2013.

DeSmogBlog will be covering the events of the upcoming DC meeting closely in the comingย days.ย 

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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