American Legislative Exchange Council

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) describes itself as the largest “membership association of state legislators,” but over 98% of its revenue comes from sources other than legislative dues, primarily from corporations and corporate foundations. After the 2010 congressional midterm elections, ALEC boasted that “among those who won their elections, three of the four former state legislators newly-elected to the U.S. Senate are ALEC Alumni and 27 of the 42 former state legislators newly-elected to the U.S. House are ALEC Alumni.” (A full list of the Congressional freshmen who are ALEC alums can be found here.)

ALEC’s agenda extends into almost all areas of law. Its bills undermine environmental regulations and deny climate change; support school privatization; undercut health care reform; defund unions and limit their political influence; restrain legislatures’ abilities to raise revenue through taxes; mandate strict election laws that disenfranchise voters; increase incarceration to benefit the private prison industry, among many other issues.

Key Resources on ALEC



 * ALEC Alumni in Congress
 * ALEC Award Winners
 * ALEC Board of Directors
 * ALEC Board of Scholars
 * ALEC Boards & Task Forces
 * ALEC Corporations
 * ALEC FAQ
 * ALEC Featured Speakers
 * ALEC Funding
 * ALEC Hotels
 * ALEC & NCSL Comparison
 * ALEC Non-Profits
 * ALEC Politicians
 * ALEC Report on Energy, the Environment, and Economics
 * ALEC Reports from The Nation Magazine
 * ALEC & Democracy
 * ALEC & Education
 * ALEC & Health
 * ALEC & Injury Law
 * ALEC & Koch
 * ALEC & Labor
 * ALEC & Prisons
 * ALEC State Chairmen
 * ALEC Staff
 * ALEC Task Force Politicians
 * ALEC Trade Groups


 * Coming Soon:
 * ALEC & Tobacco
 * ALEC & Wisconsin


 * Other Resources

ALEC Funding
An in-depth discussion of ALEC funding by corporations and corporate foundations and ALEC’s spending is available here

ALEC History
''An in-depth discussion of ALEC history is forthcoming and will be linked to here. Until then...''

Founding
ALEC was "founded in 1973 by Henry Hyde, Lou Barnett, and...Paul Weyrich".

Its articles of incorporation, were signed by Donald L. Totten of Schaumberg IL, Donald Lukens of Middletown OH, and Louis Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge LA.

Originally promised "no attempt to influence legislation"
Surprisingly, the nascent group's statement of purpose included this assurance: "No substantial part of the activities of the corporation shall be the carrying on of propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation."

Dec 1975 board
Beyond the 3 founders, the other board members listed in the Articles of Incorporation were: John McCune, Alfred Dellibovi, James A. Mack, Diemer True, David Y. Copeland, Eva Scott, Robert Bales, Frank Henslee, Robert B. Monier, John O. Stull, and Calvin Rucker.

Changes in the 1980s
The National Journal recognized the rising prominence of ALEC in the New Right movement of the mid-1980s in a major feature article. The article noted its connections to the Heritage Foundation, including a shared Capitol Hill building. It also described the organization's political wing, the now defunct ALEC-PAC, which in 1984 targeted 84 legislative seats in states. Notably, the state backed conservative Democrats in some races, getting involved in states with either thin conservative or liberal majorities including Ohio, New Mexico, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington and Wisconsin.

Richard A. Viguerie, a leading new right conservative, spoke of ALEC in the context of the growing movement, saying that "leading conservatives [had] 'fairly recently' determined that the state-local level 'is the missing piece of the puzzle for us.'

Then executive director of ALEC Kathleen Teague Rothschild, reflecting the new thinking of conservative strategists, noted that "In Congress, you've got only one legislative body and they will either pass or kill your bill. In the states, if you're trying to get banking deregulation passed and you've lost in Kansas, Nebraska and Texas, it's not a total failure. You may well win in Arizona, California and New York that year. You've got 50 shots."

Teague also noted that a nationwide network present in every state could be effective in supporting amendments to the United States Constitution. "State legislatures must ratify constitutional amendments. If the cumulative efforts of the conservative PACs succeed in pressuring Congress to pass a school prayer or a balanced budget amendment", said Teague, "they'll have to get 38 states to pass those things. You have to have an active support network in the states when ratification time comes."

Corporations supporting ALEC in 1984 included the Edison Electric Institute, Procter & Gamble Co., Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc., Eli Lilly and Co., Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc., Adolph Coors Co. and ARCO. Teague described corporate interest in state legislative affairs as "rising so rapidly that 'I have more big corporations who want to see me, get involved and become members than we can practically cope with.'"

The chairman of ALEC's business policy board at the time was Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld said that his interests in economics and government regulation, rather than social issues, led him to become involved with the organization.

Corporate membership - price range and options
Corporations pay between $7,000 and $25,000 a year for membership in ALEC. Corporate membership in one of the nine ALEC task forces (or subcommittees) has separate and additional fees:


 * $2,500 purchases membership in one of the following:
 * Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force
 * Education Task Force
 * Public Safety and Elections Task Force (disbanded April 2012)
 * $3,000 purchases membership in one of the following:
 * Civil Justice Task Force
 * Health and Human Services Task Force
 * Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force
 * Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force
 * $5,000 purchases membership in one of the following:
 * Communications and Technology Task Force
 * $10,000 purchases membership in the
 * International Relations Task Force

ALEC corporations can donate additional funds beyond these amounts. According to ALEC’s by-laws, corporations also work with ALEC legislators who are its “state chairmen” to raise money from other corporations for “scholarships” for legislators to attend ALEC events.

According to Dennis Bartlett, an ALEC task force head who is also the executive director of the American Bail Coalition, “the organization is supported by money from the corporate sector, and, by paying to be members, corporations are allowed the opportunity to sit down at the table and discuss the issues that they have an interest in.”

Other support options
Corporations can sponsor annual ALEC conferences, offer grants for specific projects, or just give ALEC money. For example, in 2005 ExxonMobil spent $90,000 sponsoring the ALEC 2005 annual conference, gave $80,000 towards the “Energy Sustainability Project,” and an additional $71,500 for “general operating support.” ExxonMobil or its foundation has given over $1.4 million to ALEC in the past decade or so, according to the Form 990s filed by the ExxonMobil Foundation and other corporate documents, compiled by the Greenpeace project "Exxon Secrets."

Trade Associations and Foundations
Corporate trade groups and other non-profit groups also make donations to ALEC of undisclosed sums. Examples include the NRA, the American Bail Association, and the American Petroleum Institute. There are also others listed here.

Additionally, ALEC has received millions from right-wing foundations created by corporate CEOs or their heirs over the years and which advance a corporate agenda through donations. Here are some of the foundations that are or have been donors to ALEC:
 * The Charles G. Koch Foundation and Claude R. Lambe Foundation-- both are Koch Family Foundations that Charles Koch is centrally involved in.  Charles Koch is the CEO of Koch Industries, the "largest privately owned energy company in the nation." Other groups it has funded include the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Heartland Institute and the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.  The Koch Associate program of the Charles G. Koch Foundation also provides ALEC and other groups with “Koch Interns” and “Koch Fellows.”  Some Koch Fellows go on to become ALEC staffers, such as Jonathan Williams, Director of ALEC's Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force.  Research from CMD and Greenpeace documents that the Koch foundations have given ALEC at least $600,000 in the past decade or so, and Koch Industries has donated an untold amount.


 * Allegheny Foundation – This is one of the Scaife Foundations, which have been heavily involved in financing right-wing causes supported by billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, whose wealth was inherited from the Mellon industrial, oil, uranium and banking fortune. Other groups it has funded include the Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Foundation.


 * Castle Rock Foundation -- Founded in 1993 with a $36.6 million endowment from the Adolph Coors Foundation (which was in turn founded in 1975 with funds from Adolph Coors, Jr., the son of the founder of the Coors Brewing Company). Other groups it has funded include the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, among others.


 * JM Foundation -- Founded in 1924 by Jeremiah Milbank. Other groups it has funded include the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the Cato Institute, FreedomWorks and the Heritage Foundation.


 * Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation -- Founded in 1942 as the Allen-Bradley Foundation, its "overall objective... is to return the U.S.-- and the world-- to the days before governments began to regulate Big Business, before corporations were forced to make concessions to an organized labor force." Other groups it has funded include the American Conservative Union Foundation, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Focus on the Family and Freedom Works.


 * John M. Olin Foundation -- Founded in 1953 by John Merrill Olin, a chemical and munitions inventor and industrialist, the foundation closed down in 2005.  It has funded ALEC and other right-wing groups such as the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace.

Membership
ALEC claims its membership includes around 2,000 state legislators (“Public Sector Members”) and 300 corporate and corporate representatives (“Private Enterprise Members”).

“Public Sector Members”
Elected legislators can join ALEC by paying a token fee of $50 a year.

While the membership fee for legislators is nominal, some legislators have used taxpayer dollars to pay it. For example, in Wisconsin, open records requests revealed that 12 senators, all Republicans, had their ALEC membership dues paid by taxpayer funds.

ALEC does not release the identities of its over legislative members. Some legislators tout their role in ALEC while others take a lower profile with ALEC. The Daily Kos blogger project, called Exposing ALEC, has been compiling a ALEC legislative member list, past and present, here.

ALEC’s legislative board, legislative task force co-chairs, and legislative state co-chairs are almost all from the same political party. The legislators on the Board of Directors, as of June 6, 2011, are all Republican (see here). Only one person out of a little more than 100 in these roles appears to be a Democrat, as of July 2011.

ALEC Task Forces
ALEC model legislation is introduced in, and initially approved by, one of nine “task forces,” which are chaired by both elected officials and “private sector” corporate members. ALEC corportions are often represented by their lobbyists on ALEC’s board or task forces, and their representatives discuss and vote on legislation with legislators. For example, according to the American Association for Justice, in the area of “tort reform” legislation, “the nuts and bolts of. . . crafting legislation is done by large corporate defense firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon,” which has defended tobacco companies and other corporations against lawsuits. The law firm’s partner, Victor Schwartz is a long-time co-chair of ALEC’s "civil justice" task force.

The task forces as of 2011 are:
 * Civil Justice Task Force;
 * Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force;
 * Education Task Force;
 * Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force;
 * Health and Human Services Task Force;
 * International Relations Task Force;
 * Public Safety and Elections Task Force;
 * Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force; and
 * Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force.

The ALEC corporate and politician boards of directors meet jointly annually at a meeting that constitutes the final say over the bills and other matters for the organization. (ALEC says corporations do not vote at that meeting. )

Secrecy and Lobbying
Under ALEC’s published by-laws, legislators who are ALEC “state chairmen” have a “duty” to get the model bills introduced in their state legislatures. However, when ALEC legislation is introduced in state houses, it is under the name of the sponsoring legislator rather than ALEC itself, with no mention that the bill was pre-voted on by corporations through ALEC or even connecting the bill to ALEC. The task forces obscure how “corporations [get] access and influence for which they'd otherwise be publicly scrutinized."

NPR reported that "much about ALEC is private. It does not disclose how it spends it money or who gives it to them. ALEC rarely grants interviews. [Senior Director of Policy Michael] Bowman won't even say which legislators are members. Is it lobbying when private corporations pay money to sit in a room with state lawmakers to draft legislation that they then introduce back home? Bowman, a former lobbyist, says, "No, because we're not advocating any positions. We don't tell members to take these bills. We just expose best practices. All we're really doing is developing policies that are in model bill form."

The American Prospect quoted "someone familiar with the organization" of ALEC as saying, "The totality of what they do is lobby. It's a self-sustaining con game." ALEC, however, denied the charge. ALEC’s then spokesman Bob Adams (who now runs and is the only employee of the front group “League of American Voters” CHECK) insisted, "We don't lobby... We don't introduce legislation at the state level. We just don't do that."

In 2009, however, reporters discovered that Shook, Hardy and Bacon attorneys Mark Behrens and Corey Schaecher traveled to North Dakota to speak with legislators and their staff about ALEC’s asbestos bill, called the “Innocent Successor Liability Act,” without registering as lobbyists. At least three days after Schaecher was known to have been lobbying legislators, the ALEC asbestos liability bill was introduce on January 15 as HB 1430. The “North Decoder” blog revealed their lobbying activities on January 23, 2009; within hours, ALEC submitted letters of authorization permitting Behrens and Schaecher to lobby on their behalf, the same day the corporation most likely to benefit the legislation, Crown, Cork, and Seal, also registered the two as lobbyists. On January 27, Behrens testified before the North Dakota House Judiciary Committee in support of the legislation, and the following day, ALEC threw a party for legislators so they could “learn more about America’s premier legislative organization.” According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, this is the only instance in which ALEC has ever registered to lobby in any state. In its 2009 IRS Form 990, in response to the question “Did the organization participate in lobbying activities” (page 3 question 4), ALEC replied “no.”

Conferences
ALEC holds three primary meetings each year: the “Spring Task Force Summit” meeting of ALEC Task Force members, the four-day “Annual Meeting” in the summer for all ALEC members, and the three-day “States and Nation Policy Summit” that “introduces the ALEC agenda to newly elected and freshman state legislators.” In the ALEC brochure advertising corporate membership, it describes these three gatherings as “meetings and networking opportunities.”

Defenders of Wildlife (DOW) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) pointed out in their 2002 report on ALEC that for legislators, one of the chief benefits of ALEC membership is the opportunity to take at least one subsidized or all-expenses-paid trip that looks a lot like a vacation.

The conferences are held in cities across the country, often at high-end hotels. ALEC’s 2010 annual meeting, for example, was held in San Diego at the Manchester Grand Hyatt resort; the 2011 summer meeting is at a post New Orleans Marriott in the French Quarter. Legislators are encouraged to bring their spouses and families, and can pay a $250 fee for their six-month old child or teen to participate in babysitting program called “Kids Congress.”  ALEC’s 2009 IRS Form 990 indicates over $250,000 was spent on childcare.

Unlike for the United States Congress, most state-level legislators in the nation are part-time, and many state legislatures meet for only part of the year. The average annual salary for state legislators is $45, 880, ranging from a low of $19,260 (in New Hampshire) to a high of $78,500 (in New York).

In Wisconsin, where the Center for Media and Democracy is located, the total compensation for state legislators is $49,943. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, base compensation is $19,860 as of May, 2010. Like many states, the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly are not in session year-round, and so many legislators supplement their state salary with other part-time earnings.

For a Wisconsin legislator, the costs of attending an ALEC conference at a resort could be more than five percent of that legislator's state salary. Those expenses, though, are sometimes paid for with taxpayer dollars, or reimbursed by ALEC's corporate-funded coffers.

An examination of financial disclosure forms filed in 1999 and 2000, for example, showed that taxpayers footed the bill for at least $3 million each year in connection with legislators’ travel to ALEC-sponsored meetings. According to NRDC, “that means each year a significant amount of taxpayer money is helping ALEC do its business, which is predominantly aimed at advancing corporate special interests.

An untold number of state lawmakers accept “scholarships” from the corporate-funded ALEC, or in some cases, directly from corporate lobbyists. Without that “scholarship,” attending an ALEC conference could be a vacation the legislator might not otherwise be able to afford. Some states, especially in the South and West, have written explicit exceptions into state ethics laws to permit legislators to accept “scholarships” from ALEC. NPR reported that looking at Arizona's legislators who attended the ALEC conference, no one declared receiving gifts. "Sen. Pearce and a dozen others wrote that they received a gift of $500 or more from ALEC. A review of the two dozen states now considering Arizona's immigration law shows many of those pushing similar legislation across the country are ALEC members. In fact, five of those legislators were in the hotel conference room with the Corrections Corporation of America the day the [immigration] model bill was written. The prison company didn't have to file a lobbying report or disclose any gifts to legislators. They don't even have to tell anyone they were there. All they have to do is pay their ALEC dues and show up." ALEC’s website claims that in each legislative cycle, its members introduce around 1000 pieces of legislation based on ALEC bills, with roughly 18% enacted into law.

Potential IRS Audit
As of the end of 2012, ALEC appeared to be anticipating an IRS audit, after multiple complaints challenging the "corporate bill mill's" charitable status, based on documents recently obtained by Bloomberg News.

According to internal ALEC documents, the organization has discussed forming a nonprofit organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, apparently in anticipation of the IRS revoking ALEC's current "charitable" status. Charities (which are organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code) as well as nonprofits are tax exempt, but ALEC's charitable status had allowed its corporate members to write-off their ALEC membership dues and costs as tax-deductible charitable contributions. ALEC Executive Director Ron Scheberle discussed forming a 501(c)(4) called "ALEC NOW" in an August memo, claiming that if a 501(c)(4) were "operating fully prior to an IRS audit," the agency might allow the newly-formed (c)(4) to continue operating and take over activities impermissible for a (c)(3) charity.

ALEC’s 2007-2009 Internal Revenue Service 990 Returns show the following financial data:

2011 Expenses & Revenue
Gross Receipts: $9,218,069


 * Task Forces: $3,039,881 (Expenses) and $88,859 (Revenue)
 * Conferences: $1,788,553 (Expenses) and $1,251,954 (Revenue)
 * Membership Recruitment: $757,555 (Expenses) and $97,321 (Revenue)
 * Compensation of Current Officers, Directors, Trustees, and Key Employees: $322,259
 * Other Salaries and Wages: $1,651,974
 * Travel: $130,083

2010 Expenses & Revenue
Gross Receipts: $7,171,357


 * Task Forces: $2,125,791 (Expenses) and $30,954 (Revenue)
 * Conferences: $1,867,332 (Expenses) and $1,025,862 (Revenue)
 * Membership Recruitment: $474,504 (Expenses) and $84,883 (Revenue)
 * Compensation of Current Officers, Directors, Trustees, and Key Employees: $547,245
 * Other Salaries and Wages: $1,675,139
 * Travel: $258,769

2009 Expenses & Revenue
Gross Receipts: $6,271,633


 * Task Forces: $2,634,723 (Expenses) and $31,905 (Revenue)
 * Conferences: $2,026,119 (Expenses) and $844,448 (Revenue)
 * Membership Recruitment: $664,886 (Expenses) and $82,981 (Revenue)
 * Childcare: $251,873
 * Compensation of Current Officers, Directors, Trustees, and Key Employees: $312,842
 * Other Salaries and Wages: $1,755,460
 * Travel: $269,237

2008 Expenses & Revenue
Gross Receipts: $6,975,222


 * Task Forces: $2,977,527 (Expense) and $25,130 (Revenue)
 * Conferences: $2,204,173 (Expense) and $1,189,026 (Revenue)
 * Membership Recruitment: $717,090 (Expenses) and $93,387 (Revenue)
 * Compensation of Current Officers, Directors, Trustees, and Key Employees: $433,301
 * Other Salaries and Wages: $1,764,018
 * Legal: $32,868
 * Accounting: $88,367
 * Occupancy: $649,344

2007 Expenses & Revenue
Gross Receipts: $6,130,496

Expenses

 * Officer Compensation: $397,837
 * Compensation of “Others”: $1,741,863
 * Print and Publications: $206,921
 * Travel: $403,921
 * Conferences, Conventions, and Meetings: $2,204,995
 * Task Forces: $2,459,483
 * Membership Recruitment: $732,565
 * Public Affairs: $311,670
 * Legal: $111,528
 * Accounting: $82,774
 * Consultant Fees: $395,684
 * Meals, Lodging and Entertainment: $1,605,780

Income-Producing Activities

 * Conference and Seminars: $950,075

Total: $1,672,623

Contact Information

 * American Legislative Exchange Council
 * 1101 Vermont Ave. N.W., 11th Floor
 * Washington, D.C. 20005
 * Phone: 202-466-3800 | Fax: 202-466-3801

External Articles and Resources

 * Common Cause Letter to the IRS (July 14, 2011) - contains a copy of the ALEC "Task Force Operating Procedures"
 * ALEC Funding, PRWatch (2011)
 * American Legislative Exchange Council and other related articles, SourceWatch (2011)
 * Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America, American Association for Justice (2010)
 * Climate Denial Report on ALEC and Exxon Funding for ALEC, Greenpeace (2011)
 * Governing the Nation from the Statehouses, Progressive States Network (2006)
 * Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, Common Cause (2006)
 * Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law, NPR (2010)
 * Exposing ALEC, blogging group, Daily KOS (2011)
 * ALEC: The Voice of Corporate Special Interests In State Legislatures, People for the American Way (2011)
 * Corporate America's Trojan Horse in the States, Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council (2002)
 * The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law, Commonwealth Institute (2003)
 * Wisconsin's Cronon Affair: The Power of a Simple Fact, The Nation Magazine (2011)
 * Ghostwriting the Law, Mother Jones (2002)
 * ALEC Behind Voter Disenfranchisement Efforts, Center for American Progress (2011)
 * ALEC Report, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (2011)
 * Brendan Greeley and Alison Fitzgerald, Pssst ... Wanna Buy a Law?, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, December 1, 2011
 * Bill Berkowitz Exclusive: Unaccustomed to Hot Seat, ALEC Talks to BuzzFlash at Truthout blog, April 7, 2011
 * Nicholas Kusnetz, Where Bad Bills Come From, The Nation. June 9, 2010.
 * Alternet.org story on ALEC and their ties to Republican bills, Alternet.org, March 31, 2011
 * Nathan Newman and David Sirota, Forget D.C.—the Battle is in the States, In These Times. Feb. 20, 2006.
 * Stephanie Mencimer Idaho Bans Federal Health Insurance Mandate, Mother Jones, March 18, 2010. Article discusses a model bill that ALEC wrote that ended up being a resolution passed by the Idaho legislature opposing any and all health care reform, including taking any and all measures to oppose it.
 * Miles Mogulescu ALEC: The Behind the Scenes Player in the States' Fight Against the Middle Class, Huffington Post. March 7, 2011.
 * Tobin Van Ostern. Conservative Corporate Advocacy Group ALEC Behind Voter Disenfranchisement, Campus Progress. March 8, 2011.
 * Beau Hodai. Corporate Con Game: How the private prison industry helped shape Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, In These Times. June 21, 2010. Article covering the role ALEC, as well as its ties to the prison-industrial complex, played formulating Arizona’s racist immigration law.
 * Nicholas Kusnetz. The Assault on Healthcare Reform, The Nation. Oct. 6, 2010. An article describing the role ALEC played in becoming a message-multiplying-force, as well as a financial influencer, in dismantling health care reform in the U.S.
 * K. Moran, "Sportsmen's Group Targets Anti-Hunters", The New York Post, 10 January 10, 2003, page 86.
 * John Nichols, "ALEC Meets is Match: State Activists Are Learning How To Fight Back Against The Right's Powerhouse", The Nation, May 29, 2003.
 * "Burgeoning Conservative Think Tanks: The Madison Group: Heritage Offshoots Seek to Influence State Legislation," Responsive Philanthropy, Spring 1991 page 20; cited in People for the American Way, "Parental Rights", undated, accessed May 2004.
 * ALEC, "'Sons-of-Kyoto' Legislation: States React to the Myth of Global Warming", Press Release, Washington, January 21, 2004.
 * Britt Bailey and Brian Tokar, "Big Food Strikes Back: Ag Industry Aims to Strip Local Control of Food Supplies," CounterPunch, May 26, 2005.
 * George W. Bush, "President Discusses Second Term Accomplishments and Priorities", Speech to American Legislative Exchange Council, August 3, 2005.
 * Joshua Holland, "Creating a Right-Wing Nation, State by State", AlterNet, November 16, 2005.
 * Charu Gupta, "The American Legislative Exchange Council Helps Ohio Republicans Sell Out To Big Business", Free Times, May 11, 2006.
 * Andy Kroll, Conservative Crusade to Discredit Labor Experts Spreads to MI, Mother Jones. March 29, 2011.
 * 'Adviser' Adam Werritty ran charity from Liam Fox's office http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/07/adam-werritty-charity-liam-fox
 * Rebekah Wilce, [www.prwatch.org/node/11079 Flu With That Burger? ALEC Wants Sick People Serving You Food], PRWatch.org, October 19, 2011
 * Guardian, US free market group tries to halt sales of cigarettes in plain packets in UK, Sunday 15 July 2012.