ALEC: The Elephant in the ROOM
Most North Carolina Democrats who have lived here for the past decade know that 2011 was the year when everything changed. Republicans gained control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time in over 100 years and used that control to put in place policies they hoped would guarantee continued Republican control. The transformation of North Carolina was part of Operation REDMAP -- the national Republican effort to foil President Obama by taking over state legislatures at a time when new census results required redistricting. In North Carolina REDMAP was funded by Art Pope and the Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity. But once the new state legislature was in place, led by Speaker Thom Tillis and Majority Leader Phil Berger, it was the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)—funded by the same corporate interests—that shaped the key elements of that transformation:
restricting voting rights in the name of fighting voter fraud
privatizing public education through a system of vouchers for private schools in the name of "school choice" and "parent rights"
undoing regulations that protected consumers and the environment in the name of regulatory reform
reducing corporate taxes in the name of free market principles and encouraging businesses to come to North Carolina
preventing North Carolinians from benefiting from the Affordable Care Act by refusing to establish a State Exchange or expand Medicaid in the name of states' rights to govern themselves.
Each of these issues was addressed by model bills developed by an ALEC
Taskforce -- and in 2011, Thom Tillis, the new Speaker of the House responsible for guiding the legislative priorities of the House, was one of 3 ALEC State Legislators of the Year, honored for organizing a successful ALEC tax reform academy in North Carolina and for being a leader in advancing free market principles.
In bringing these issues to the state House floor, Tillis was doing what ALEC was designed to do: advance legislation that supported ALEC's free market, limited government, corporate-driven agenda in states across the country. Part of a strategy to counter the Democratic agenda in Washington, ALEC justified its approach as advancing federalist principles: assuring that each state had the right to set its own rules. But, in fact, what ALEC was advancing was a nationwide program focusing on their own agenda.
And now, our current Speaker of the House, Tim Moore, is promoting the latest ALEC model policy: a call for a Convention of States under Article V of the Constitution. The effort builds on the control Republicans have built in state legislatures across the country -- through funding from the likes of Americans for Prosperity and other corporate-funded PACs -- to move directly on the power of the federal government. The model policy drafted by ALEC reads as follows:
The legislature of the State of __________________hereby applies to Congress, under the provisions of Article V of the Constitution of the United States, for the calling of a Convention of the States limited to proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.
Thirty-four states must call for the convention which is intended to take on directly the issues of federal regulation, taxes and the size and scope of the federal government that ALEC is most concerned about.
On March 1, former US Senator Rick Santorum, who is now acting as a senior advisor to the Convention of the States, came to North Carolina to lobby for our state to sign on. According to WRAL, Santorum used the familiar states' rights argument, saying "states need more power and the federal government needs less because the United States is too large and diverse for one-size-fits all solutions."
House Joint Resolution 235, the effort here, is being promoted by three North Carolina House leaders who are members of ALEC. Sponsored by Representative Dennis Riddell, R-Alamance, the Resolution is backed by Speaker of the House Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, and House budget writer Jason Saine, R-Lincoln. To pass, the Resolution will need majority support in both the House and Senate.
Although the consensus among constitutional scholars is that this is a dangerous path forward, with no established rules, nevertheless, this could be the year that the organizers of the Convention reach the necessary 34 -- with or without North Carolina.
So what is ALEC? And why do so many of our Republican legislators seem ready to follow its bidding?
First established in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, an Evangelical conservative who was inspired to activism by the impact of Brown v the Board of Education on private religious schools, ALEC began funding it's work in the 1990's by adding a corporate free market mission and establishing a pay-for-access "exchange" between corporate leaders and state legislators.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with bringing together public and private sector actors to agree on legislative priorities, ALEC is not a neutral forum to promote an open exchange of ideas. Private sector participants in ALEC pay big bucks to work closely with state legislators in Task Forces -- each one focused on a set of policy issues like Public Safety and Elections, Education, Energy, Environment and Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Tax and Fiscal Policy. Although each taskforce is cochaired by both a private sector leader and a state legislator, the two are not equal. To assure that the model legislation developed in the taskforce advances ALEC’s profit-driven and ideologically conservative agenda, the private sector leader has veto power and can even remove public sector members. Once the model bills are approved by the full ALEC membership, they are "farmed out" to state legislatures to pass into state law.
So the question citizens of a state are faced with is: is this legislation in OUR best interest, or is it in the best interest of corporations, like Duke Energy, which is an active member of ALEC.
Speaker Tillis was not -- and is not -- the only North Carolina Legislator who was an active member of ALEC. Harold Brubaker, the only Republican Speaker of the House in the 20th Century, was also a member of ALEC, serving on their Board of Directors, and, like Tillis, honored as a Legislator of the Year. More than 30 other NC Representatives and Senators continue to participate in ALEC annual meetings and taskforces. Representatives Kyle Hall (R91, Forsyth, Stokes), Dennis Riddell (R-64 Alamance) and Jason Saine (R-97 Lincoln) are three among them who have assumed ALEC leadership roles and who continue to promote ALEC legislation in the General Assembly. The advantage of participation for each of these legislators is certainly the relationships they build with corporate leaders that fund their campaigns and -- if they leave government -- provide a link to well-paid private sector employment.
In other words, are our state legislators working for all of us, or are they working for corporations? The needs of ordinary citizens for high quality education, robust job training, and affordable housing and childcare are not necessarily the priorities of corporations and the Republican legislators who do their bidding.
To Read More on ALEC:
https://www.prwatch.org/cmd/index.html
https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
https://www.alecattacks.org/history-of-alec
https://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/blogpost/9955257/
https://www.wral.com/key-nc-republicans-call-for-changes-to-u-s-constitution/20742531/
https://indyweek.com/news/archives-news/raleigh-demonstrators-protest-thom-tillis-ties-alec/
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=North_Carolina_ALEC_Politicians