Who Is ALEC?
Georgia state senator Chip Rogers considers ALEC, the legislative organization he serves as treasurer, to be a great defender of the free market system.
ALEC stands for American Legislative Exchange Council, a 30-year-old non-profit think tank that brings together and educates conservative state lawmakers across the country.
Critics, from the Center For Media and Democracy to Common Cause, consider ALEC a corporate bill mill and accuse it of being a de facto corporate lobbyist.
We sat down with Rogers this week for an interview on the floor of the Georgia State Senate, where he is Republican majority leader, to find out what ALEC is really about.
State legislators like Rogers pay only $50 a year to belong, and nearly 2,000 do, which is 27 percent of all state legislators in the country.
About 300 companies sponsor ALEC and collectively contribute at least $7 million a year, or most if its operating costs.
“They look at us and say, ‘Hey, here are the legislators that believe in free markets; here are the legislators that believe in limited government,’” Rogers said. “It really is a shame that companies have to continually look over their shoulders to protect themselves from an onerous government.”
ALEC member companies are a Who’s Who of the Fortune 500: tobacco giants Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris) and Reynolds American; telecommunications leaders AT&T and Verizon; energy conglomerates ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Koch Industries; big pharmaceutical firms Bayer and Pfizer; State Farm insurance and United Parcel Service. None of the companies on ALEC’s corporate board would grant us an interview.