To: The Michigan State House, The Michigan State Senate, and Governor Gretchen Whitmer
Michigan legislators and governor, Get ALEC out of Michigan
To our Governor and State Legislators: Drop Your Membership in ALEC
We, the undersigned citizens of the State of Michigan, demand that you, our elected public servants, drop your membership in the anti-democratic, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
Meeting in backrooms, being wined and dined by corporate lobbyists like the Koch Brothers, Glaxo-Smith Kline, Exxon Mobil, Hughes Oil, Geo and Corrections Corporation of America (the private prison industry) the NRA, and the lobby to privatize our once great public school system, is not our idea of a democracy of, by and for the people. When you have government by the private prison industry, The NRA, or by the Koch Brothers, you have a culture where prison is encouraged by the school to prison pipeline, young black men are shot down with impunity, and a world where environmental degradation and climate change are the price we all must pay for business as usual. We demand that you withdraw your membership from ALEC, and return to governing for your constituents.
We will campaign against you and expose any State officials running for office who do not renounce your membership in ALEC and refuse all ALEC-sourced contributions to your campaigns.
Petition Background
The American Legislative Exchange Council is an organization consisting of global corporate interests and State legislators that collaborate secretly to create model legislation that is then introduced simultaneously, in state capitols throughout the country, for corporate gain at the expense of public interest. ALEC is not just a lobby or a front group; it is far more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporate lobbyists hand our state legislators, their wish lists to benefit their bottom lines, while the public is intentionally left in the dark. ALEC members have designed thousands of model bills that have done untold damage to our society. Corporate CEOs like the Koch Brothers, fund the bulk of ALEC's operations. They pay for seats on ALEC task forces where their corporate lobbyists vote secretly, along with our elected officials to approve “model” bills. The bills are even voted on behind closed doors at resort hotels, on company junkets, and of course our state legislators are paid handsomely for their legislative "work," with campaign donations and other perks. Many of these junkets are paid for with our tax dollars.
Some ALEC bills you may recognize: "Stand Your Ground Laws," promoted by the gun lobby; "Right to Work Legislation" supported by the Koch Brothers and other corporate interests, where labor laws and fair wages end up on the chopping block along with public pension plans; Voter ID laws, making it difficult for minorities, the poor, the elderly, and even students to vote; laws that undermine meaningful healthcare reform; bills like the Parental Choice Scholarship Act promoting Vouchers meant to send our tax dollars to for-profit schools and illegitimate online degree programs that lead nowhere.
Every year, ALEC holds its all-expenses-paid “Annual Meeting” where lobbyists for hundreds of multinational corporations wine and dine our state legislators and secretly hand them bills they are expected to pass in exchange for support at election time. It’s time to demand a stop to the takeover of the political process and those we elect to represent us by a shadowy world of robber barons that don’t have our best interests at heart.
Any information we have about legislators comes from leaked documents, and according to Progress Florida, out of 160 state legislators, at least 60 have known ALEC ties.
It’s well past time to stop the flow of dirty money into our state legislatures. We must demand our elected officials stop subverting democracy and drop their memberships in ALEC.
Shut down ALEC- Let's have government of, by, and for the people once again.
(Note to all signers: ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council was founded in 1973. They have had 40 years to destroy democratic processes in the State of Michigan. If you don’t already know about them, inform yourself at the Center for Media and Democracy’s ALECExposed.org and help us keep the information about your State current at their Community Portal: http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed:Community_portal)
We, the undersigned citizens of the State of Michigan, demand that you, our elected public servants, drop your membership in the anti-democratic, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
Meeting in backrooms, being wined and dined by corporate lobbyists like the Koch Brothers, Glaxo-Smith Kline, Exxon Mobil, Hughes Oil, Geo and Corrections Corporation of America (the private prison industry) the NRA, and the lobby to privatize our once great public school system, is not our idea of a democracy of, by and for the people. When you have government by the private prison industry, The NRA, or by the Koch Brothers, you have a culture where prison is encouraged by the school to prison pipeline, young black men are shot down with impunity, and a world where environmental degradation and climate change are the price we all must pay for business as usual. We demand that you withdraw your membership from ALEC, and return to governing for your constituents.
We will campaign against you and expose any State officials running for office who do not renounce your membership in ALEC and refuse all ALEC-sourced contributions to your campaigns.
Petition Background
The American Legislative Exchange Council is an organization consisting of global corporate interests and State legislators that collaborate secretly to create model legislation that is then introduced simultaneously, in state capitols throughout the country, for corporate gain at the expense of public interest. ALEC is not just a lobby or a front group; it is far more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporate lobbyists hand our state legislators, their wish lists to benefit their bottom lines, while the public is intentionally left in the dark. ALEC members have designed thousands of model bills that have done untold damage to our society. Corporate CEOs like the Koch Brothers, fund the bulk of ALEC's operations. They pay for seats on ALEC task forces where their corporate lobbyists vote secretly, along with our elected officials to approve “model” bills. The bills are even voted on behind closed doors at resort hotels, on company junkets, and of course our state legislators are paid handsomely for their legislative "work," with campaign donations and other perks. Many of these junkets are paid for with our tax dollars.
Some ALEC bills you may recognize: "Stand Your Ground Laws," promoted by the gun lobby; "Right to Work Legislation" supported by the Koch Brothers and other corporate interests, where labor laws and fair wages end up on the chopping block along with public pension plans; Voter ID laws, making it difficult for minorities, the poor, the elderly, and even students to vote; laws that undermine meaningful healthcare reform; bills like the Parental Choice Scholarship Act promoting Vouchers meant to send our tax dollars to for-profit schools and illegitimate online degree programs that lead nowhere.
Every year, ALEC holds its all-expenses-paid “Annual Meeting” where lobbyists for hundreds of multinational corporations wine and dine our state legislators and secretly hand them bills they are expected to pass in exchange for support at election time. It’s time to demand a stop to the takeover of the political process and those we elect to represent us by a shadowy world of robber barons that don’t have our best interests at heart.
Any information we have about legislators comes from leaked documents, and according to Progress Florida, out of 160 state legislators, at least 60 have known ALEC ties.
It’s well past time to stop the flow of dirty money into our state legislatures. We must demand our elected officials stop subverting democracy and drop their memberships in ALEC.
Shut down ALEC- Let's have government of, by, and for the people once again.
(Note to all signers: ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council was founded in 1973. They have had 40 years to destroy democratic processes in the State of Michigan. If you don’t already know about them, inform yourself at the Center for Media and Democracy’s ALECExposed.org and help us keep the information about your State current at their Community Portal: http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed:Community_portal)
Why is this important?
To discourage our elected officials from participating in ALEC and to educate the voting public about its evils.
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/get-alec-out-of-michigan?source=c.em&r_by=172823
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/get-alec-out-of-michigan?source=c.em&r_by=172823