We’ve hit our 3rd goal! Can we get to 75,000 now?

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) may be the most powerful organization you’ve never heard of. Their mission is simple: ALEC helps corporations write laws for state legislatures to pass verbatim.

ALEC is behind everything from “Stand Your Ground”/”shoot first” laws — which George Zimmerman is using as his defense for shooting unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin — to Arizona’s “show me your papers” immigration law, written by for-profit prison companies to make even more money by putting more people behind bars.

And who funds ALEC? It’s not just who you’d expect — Koch Industries, Exxon-Mobil, and the NRA. It’s also Johnson & Johnson and dozens of other “family-friendly” brands

ALEC can no longer hide out in anonymity. In the last few months, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and NPR have all chronicled ALEC’s outsized influence. Boasting membership of 2,000 state legislators and 300 corporate sponsors, ALEC has come to dominate legislative agendas across the nation, presenting state legislators with bills pre-written by the corporations themselves, many of which are voted into law word-for-word.

Has your state adopted a “Stand Your Ground” law as well? Thank ALEC. Pushed for laws making it harder for minorities and the poor to vote? That’s ALEC too. Attacked unions? Undermined the President’s health care legislation? Weakened environmental regulation? Passed tax breaks for corporations? Privatized government services? These laws were all written by the very corporations or special-interest groups that they benefited.

But we are fighting back! One by one, progressive groups are peeling off corporate support for ALEC. Under pressure from consumers like you, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, Intuit, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have all fled from ALEC.

Now let’s take the fight to Johnson & Johnson — which makes everything from Band-Aids to baby shampoo — AT&T, State Farm and the rest of ALEC’s donors.

- Claiborne, Kelsey, Kaytee, and the rest of us

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More information

“Corporate interests fuel group’s desire to shape Va. legislation, critics say“, Washington Post, 21 Dec 2011

“EXPOSED: The Corporations Funding The Annual Meeting Of The Powerful Right-Wing Front Group ALEC“, ThinkProgress, 5 Aug 2011: