Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Arkansas Politics More corporations flee ALEC
Posted by Max Brantley on Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 10:11 AM
The American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate lobby and conservative state legislation factory, has lost more corporate sponsors — John Deere, CVS Caremark, MillerCoors, HP and Best Buy.
The Koch brothers, of course, can single-handedly fund the organization, which hosts low-cost confabs to ply state legislators with anti-tax, anti-regulation, anti-union and other corporate and conservative agenda bills. It's a popular source of support for the rising Republican caucus in Arkansas and even sent employees to lobby for their legislation in 2011.
In total, says colorofchange.org, at least 25 companies have now ended their memberships in ALEC. John Deere, MillerCoors, HP, CVS Caremark and Best Buy join Dell, Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart, Amazon, Procter & Gamble, Yum! Brands, McDonald's, Wendy's, Mars Inc., Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Intuit, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Reed Elsevier (owner of LexisNexis and publisher of science and health information), Kaplan, Scantron, Medtronic, American Traffic Solutions and Arizona Public Service.
ALEC has also become a major advocate of another favorite piece of Republican political engineering — voter ID laws that are designed to discourage voting by traditional Democratic constituencies. Republicans have bragged that such a law in Pennsylvania should suppress enough votes to turn the state red in this year's presidential election. It's high on the agenda of Arkansas Republican legislators, though none has yet to demonstrate a single case of voter impersonation at Arkansas polls. Proof of identification is required to register to vote in Arkansas and voters may already be asked to produce ID, though they are not required to produce it.
In December of last year, ColorOfChange members began signing a petition targeting ALEC’s corporate partners for their role in suppressing Black votes. The petition can be found here.
Speaking of...
-
Voter ID, DNA swabs and the implosion of a GOP consulting firm with ties to Huck, Boozman
June 3, 2013Consider this an open line. /more/
-
Vote fraud: Myth-busting in Ohio
May 24, 2013This is really important, since the Republican-majority legislature in Arkansas just joined the "vote fraud" brigade with Voter ID legislation designed to depress turnout among traditional Democratic constituencies. /more/
-
Republicans mount PR effort on Voter ID bill
April 4, 2013The Arkansas Republican Party, having passed a Voter ID bill developed nationally to depress turnout among traditional Democratic constituencies, mounted a PR effort this morning to show that they really do care about people voting. /more/
-
House overrides Beebe veto of voter ID bill
April 1, 2013At 2:20 p.m., the House is hearing arguments from Rep. Stephen Meeks to override Gov. Mike Beebe's veto of the bill to require a photo ID to vote in Arkansas. /more/
-
Speaker Carter gets touchy on senator's outburst
March 30, 2013The Arkansas legislature faces a six-day week next week because of the need for extended meetings to complete action on pending business before the currently scheduled end of the session April 19. /more/
-
The Good God Friday Edition
March 29, 2013Prop 8 and DOMA and the Arkansas General Assembly and Sen. Mark Pryor shameful responses where, the fight over voter ID, media criticism of the Democrat-Gazette, the morality of Republican tax cuts, Big River Steel, new numbers on expansion and the latest on the potential merger between UAMS and St. Vincent — all covered on this week's edition. /more/
-
Republicans don't want poor people to vote
March 29, 2013When they say it (voter ID, whatever) isn't about race or poor people .... Check this out. /more/
-
The floor to Gov. Beebe
March 28, 2013Gov. Mike Beebe on Monday vetoed the Republican vote suppression bill because it unnecessarily restricts the right to vote. It was courageous. /more/
-
Gov. Mike Beebe vetoes Voter ID bill
March 25, 2013Gov. Mike Beebe has vetoed SB 2, the Republican-backed Voter ID bill. /more/
-
The gubernatorial race open line
March 21, 2013The line is open. Finishing up: * VOTING RIGHTS: Now that the legislature has approved a bill to make it harder to vote in Arkansas, it's a good time for reading the Encyclopedia of Arkansas's new entry on voting rights in Arkansas. /more/
- More »
Comments (9)
Showing 1-9 of 9
More by Max Brantley
-
Central Arkansas Water asks Exxon to relocate pipeline
The board of the Central Arkansas Water utility met today and, as expected, adopted a resolution asking for information from Exxon Mobil about causes of the pipeline rupture at Mayflower and for assurances about future safe operation before the Pegasus pipeline is restarted.
- Apr 11, 2013
-
Catholic hospitals limit women's health services
The New York Times wrote about this earlier and now Daily Kos has expanded on the theme.
- May 27, 2013
- More »
Event Calendar
-
Re: Finger-pointing continues on parolee murder suspect
Thanks Max, finally some common sense with the parole system and the legal system, not…
- on June 19, 2013
-
Re: Anarchists at the gate: the rising Republicans of Arkansas
Yang needs to have his ying spanked!
- on June 19, 2013
-
Re: Finger-pointing continues on parolee murder suspect
You might wish to to re-explore Rene Dubos's So Human an Animal. The full accountability…
- on June 19, 2013
Top Commenters
Blogroll
Site Index
News
Cover Story / Arkansas Reporter / The Week That Was / Smart Talk / The Insider / The Observer / Editorial / Max Brantley / Ernest Dumas / Gene Lyons / Bob Lancaster / Words / Guest Writer / Letters
Entertainment
A&E Feature / To-Do List / In Brief / Movie Reviews / Music Reviews / Theater Reviews / A&E News / Art Notes / Graham Gordy / Books / Media / Dining Reviews / Dining Guide / What's Cookin' / Calendar / The Televisionist / Movie Listings / Gallery Listings
This Week's Cover
Quick Links
Special Publications
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
