ALEC’s secret ‘loyalty oath’ for some Georgia lawmakers revealed

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=14138785#allposts

By Bryan Long
Dec. 10, 2013

-----

ALEC’s primary purpose is to influence legislation at the state level, yet for years it has claimed on its tax returns that it’s never spent a penny on lobbying. This is silly, and that’s why Common Cause, the Voters Legislative Transparency Project, Clergy Voice, Center for Media and Democracy, Better Georgia and other watchdogs have all called bull on ALEC’s claims.

-----

But beyond ALEC’s dishonesty about its lobbying activities, here’s what you need to know about these new documents and additional research we’ve done at Better Georgia on ALEC’s influence in the Georgia General Assembly.

-----

Some quick facts about why ALEC matters here:

Georgia has more ALEC legislators than nearly any other state. The new ALEC documents reveal 90 members of the legislature, all Republicans, are associated with ALEC. Georgia has the most ALEC lawmakers of any Southern state and more than any state but South Dakota.

-----

In ALEC board documents published by The Guardian, ALEC proposed that state chairs – and possibly other legislators – take a secret oath to ALEC.

Georgia’s state chairs who would be bound by a loyalty oath are State Sen. Judson Hill (R-Marietta) and Rep. Josh Clark (R-Buford).

The oath would require legislators to “put the interests of the organization [ALEC] first” and to be “morally responsible for the health and well being” of ALEC.

It also demanded legislators “inform ALEC of any public records/FOIA requests that include ALEC documents,” which underscores ALEC’s pattern of trying to hide communications with lawmakers from long-standing state transparency laws.

-----

=========================================

See the full report at:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/175765391/ALEC-s-Corporate-Stranglehold-on-Georgia-Laws