Brian Garst

Brian Garst is the Director of Government Affairs at the Center for Freedom and Prosperity (CFP). According to his biography that appears on the CFP website, "Prior to joining the Center, Mr. Garst interned at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as a research assistant for the Education Task Force and Health and Human Services Task Force, and the Cato Institute as a foreign policy researcher. Garst is a contributing blogger for BigGovernment.com, which is a project overseen by Andrew Breitbart. He also maintains his own blog, called "Conservative Compendium," which, according to the website's front page, was an official blog of the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference. The "Bloggers' Lounge" was sponsored by FreedomWorks.  He also blogs at "Right Wing News" and "Double Taxed," which is a project of the Coalition for Tax Protection (CTP). CTP's affiliates include ALEC, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the Free Congress Foundation, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Club for Growth, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, among many others.

To see a list of ALEC's current staff, visit the ALEC Staff page.

Garst's Critique of ALEC Exposed
On July 27, 2011, Garst penned a critique of the Center for Media and Democracy's ALEC Exposed project, calling it "the left's smear campaign against ALEC." He wrote, "An orchestrated campaign is underway to attack and discredit a prominent free-market organization. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the latest target of the left-wing smear machine, no doubt singled out for its effectiveness in advancing free-market principles and limited government at the state level. The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a far-left organization founded by anti-capitalist activists, is leading the charge with their “ALEC Exposed” project, which insinuates that through ALEC, corporations are given undue influence over the legislative process. Nothing could be further from the truth, and their attacks on ALEC should be considered an attack on all who support free-market capitalism and limited government."