Progressive News, Opinion, and Analysis
It’s great to have the conversation turned toward the conservative forces at play in Woonsocket, but it’s unfortunate that the concern seems to be getting lost in a search for something that doesn’t exist: secret ALEC model legislation that tells its members what to do when their city has a choice between bankruptcy and raising …
Continue reading “Forget Model Bills, It’s About the ALEC Mindset”
Sometimes it takes a view from 20,000 feet rather than in the trenches to see the big picture. Such may be the case with today’s New York Times, which makes the connection between the budget crisis in Woonsocket and Rep. Jon Brien’s involvement with the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC, reports Times columnist and native …
Continue reading “NY Times Links ALEC to Woonsocket Fiscal Crisis”
Two legislative committees last night passed a bill that would make possession of less than an ounce of marijuana punishable by a ticket rather than potential jail time. The bills now head the floors of the Senate and the House. Decriminalization of marijuana makes a lot of sense as it would save taxpayers money and …
Another Democratic state legislator says he doesn’t know how he got on a list of current and former ALEC members at the State House. Sen Harold Metts, a progressive Democrat from Providence, told me he doesn’t know why he was listed as a former member of the American Legislative Exchange Council. “The only thing I …
Continue reading “Metts Says He Doesn’t Know How He Got On ALEC List”
Conservative Rep. Jon Brien, of Woonsocket, will be attending his first ALEC meeting as a member of the far right wing group’s board of directors when he travels to Charlotte, NC on Thursday for its annual Spring Task Force meeting where, he said, one of the orders of business will be “coming up with a …
Continue reading “ALEC Funds Brien’s Travel Costs to Annual Meeting”
Writing on behalf of the 80,000 members of the AFL-CIO, union leaders George Nee and Maureen Martin sent a letter to every member of the legislature asking that ALEC memberships not be funded with taxpayer money. “If the views and priorities of ALEC align with your personal beliefs, then by all means remain a member,” …
Continue reading “Union Objects to Taxes Funding ALEC Costs”
Citing the “self-serving ideas of corporations and rich, powerful interests,” Sen John Tassoni, a Smithfield Democrat, become the second member of the General Assembly to officially distance himself from the American Legislative Exchange Council, the shadowy far right wing organization known as ALEC that pairs legislators with corporate interests, after news that more than 20 …
Continue reading “Tassoni: Second Legislator To Drop Out of ALEC”
“Should Rhode Island taxpayers be footing the bill for lawmakers’ membership dues to the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a national, business-backed conservative group that has come under fire this month?” asks the Providence Journal in its first print article on ALEC. On Friday, they reported on the web that Sen. Walter Felag, a …
Continue reading “RI Progress Report: ALEC, Kellogg, Zurier, Raimondo”
Happy Arbor Day, Rhode Island! Hug a tree today. Or, even better, plant one. Don’t expect much protest at Netroots Nation here in Providence in June, says Ted Nesi, but do expect a visitor from the White House. Meanwhile … Netroots Sweeden starts today. In the federal governments’ latest attempt to trample state’s rights and …
Rhode Islanders taxpayers are funding legislators’ memberships in ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, said House spokesman Larry Berman. He said the state paid $800 in January for eight new members (more than 20 percent of the legislature are members) that Rep. Jon Brien, a conservative Democrat from Woonsocket who was recently put on the …
Continue reading “Taxpayers Are Funding Legislators’ ALEC Memberships”
The Projo editorial board weighs in on the ALEC controversy. Though they say nothing about the issue on a local level, they write: “The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) offers a case study in how corporate money can be used to distort democracy. Ted Nesi also chimes in saying that, despite his claims to the …
Continue reading “RI Progress Report: ALEC, Knuckleheads, ‘Legislation Last’”
Democratic legislators distanced themselves from involvement with ALEC, the far right wing group that acts as a stealth lobby organization to state legislators, saying they signed up because Rep. Jon Brien asked them to do so. Many said they didn’t know much about the organization, even though it has been all over the news as …
Continue reading “Dem. Lawmakers Distance Themselves from ALEC”
More than 20 percent of Rhode Island’s General Assembly is affiliated with ALEC, the right-wing group sponsored by corporate America that drafts model legislation for use at state houses across the country, according to a list provided by Rep. Jon Brien, the state chairman and a member of the group’s board of directors. There are …
Continue reading “More than 20% of General Assembly Involved with ALEC”
Conservative House Democrat Jon Brien of Woonsocket is not only a card carrying member of ALEC, the right wing group backed by some of America’s most powerful corporations that writes model legislation for use in statehouses around the country, but he’s also the lone Democrat on the group’s 17 member board of directors. “I don’t …
Continue reading “Brien Joins ALEC Board as Group Comes Under Fire”
Rep. Jon Brien is the local co-chair of ALEC, the pro-business political group that drafts model legislation that supporters, often elected members of state legislatures like Brien, propose at the local level. ALEC has come under fire as of late for authoring the Stand your Ground law in Florida that initially protected George Zimmerman from …
Continue reading “Brien, Common Cause Spar over ALEC on Twitter”
Despite the cold rainy weather, about a half a dozen Occupy Providence members took part in the #F29 Shut Down the Corporations at Pfizer in Groton, CT. The national action was called by Occupy Portland to protest members of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a front group that writes model pro-corporate legislation. The coordinated …
Continue reading “OP protests Pfizer, ALEC joining 7 N.E. Occupies”
Occupy Providence crosses state lines today for a protest at a Pfizer facility in Groton, Conn. The action is being endorsed by several Occupy groups from Connecticut and Massachusetts, and will include “protest, street theater, puppetry, teach-ins, speakers, music, food, and more,” according to a press release sent this morning. “Pfizer feels it is their …
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a consortium of corporations which drafts and approves “model” legislation for right-wing state legislators on virtually every area of law. As one example, reported by Mike Elk of The Nation, in today’s interview on DemocracyNow!: “One of the most perverse effects that ALEC has had on American society …
Continue reading “Six RI Legislators Join ALEC, a Pro-Corporate “Model” Legislation Advocate”
The progressive revolution in Rhode Island politics continues beyond Bernie Sanders as no less than seven progressive Democrats won primaries against conservative, often incumbent, opponents in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. The biggest win for the progressive left was Marcia Ranglin Vassell toppling House Majority Leader John DeSimone in District 5, Providence. She won by just 17 …
Continue reading “Progressives pick up HUGE legislative wins”
In Bob Plain’s recent post, Stenhouse attacks Tanzi and Fogarty with mailers, we learned that the CEO of Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity is using his tax-exempt, social welfare organization, The Gaspee Project, to send out literature warning House District 34 voters against the dangers of voting for Democratic Representative Teresa Tanzi. As …
Continue reading “Gaspee gasps for breath in attempt to attack Tanzi”