How Common Cause got involved fighting ALEC in the first place {NAME}, by now youâve probably seen a few emails from me on ALEC â the group funded by big corporations thatâs responsible for extreme legislation like âStand Your Groundâ gun laws. But what I havenât told you about is how Common Cause got involved fighting ALEC in the first place. First, a quick refresher in case you missed it: ALEC is the acronym for the American Legislative Exchange Council: a group funded by big corporations â like UPS and State Farm Insurance â and a handful of wealthy families working to ram far-right legislation through state legislatures. Everything we know about ALEC came from a whistleblowerâs leak back in 2011. Before that, the public and watchdog groups like Common Cause knew very little about ALEC â and that was all intentional. You see, secrecy is integral to ALECâs strategy to impose their will on the rest of us. ALEC backed legislators and the corporations funding it donât want the public to know that theyâre involved with largely unpopular legislation â like racially discriminatory voter photo ID laws, rollbacks of environmental protection, and blocking the Affordable Care Act at the state level. So naturally, Common Cause has been doing everything in our power to shine a light on ALECâs corruption. And itâs working. Since we got involved in exposing ALEC, 125 corporate partners have left the corrupt organization, dealing a crippling blow to ALECâs funding. But {NAME}, this didnât happen overnight. Since 2011, more than 100 companies left ALEC â including Google, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and more recently, Pfizer. And thereâs still more work to be done, {NAME}. I wonât rest until each and every corporate ALEC member cuts ties with the organization. But this work takes years and is resource intensive, especially since weâre working off information thatâs 13 years old. One of the most impactful ways you can expose ALEC alongside us is by becoming a Guardian for Democracy today. Our Guardians for Democracy members make small but mighty monthly contributions that fund our long haul fights â like exposing and defeating ALEC at every turn. They provide a reliable stream of funding so we can organize protests outside of ALEC events â like we did during their 50th anniversary just last year. These gifts help us uncover more information about ALECâs corrupt dealings â like how they send legislators back to their states with ALEC backed âmodelâ bills that enrich corporations and hurt the rest of us. And {NAME}, with this reliable funding, we get results. ALEC has threatened Common Cause and our coalition partners with legal action multiple times â because they know weâre one of the biggest threats against them. But all weâre doing is putting ALECâs extreme agenda out in the open and letting it speak for itself â which is a truth they canât keep hiding from. Iâm committed to defeating ALEC once and for all. But I canât do it without you. [Will you chip in $5 â or whatever you can â monthly and power our work to EXPOSE ALEC? To thank you for your generosity, weâll send you a free copy of Robert Reichâs book The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It if you make your monthly gift before 11:59pm tomorrow!]( If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: [YES, CHIP IN $5 MONTHLY!]( [Sorry, I can't become a sustaining member at this time, but Iâd still like to make a one-time gift to help where itâs needed most >>]( I hope youâll join our Guardians for Democracy and defeat ALEC for good. Please let me know if I can count on your support today. Thank you, Viki Harrison, Director of Constitutional Convention & Protect Dissent Programs
and the team at Common Cause Common Causeâs work to defend and strengthen our democracy is powered by members like you.
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