Investigating Power
In spearheading far-right efforts to rewrite the U.S. Constitution, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is increasingly counting on an unexpected ally: a campaign finance reform group founded during the Occupy Wall Street protests more than a decade ago.
ALEC’s annual economic survey ranks states “rich” based on how closely states track the corporate pay-to-play group’s preferred tax and labor policies as opposed to actual quality of life factors such as wages, poverty rates, and access to healthcare.
An omnibus regulatory preemption bill in Texas—where versions are currently being considered in both the Senate and the House—would strip local governments of the ability to protect workers, consumers, and the environment.
Michigan’s Senate and House have both passed legislation to repeal the state’s “right-to-work” law despite attempts by three ALEC-aligned Republican senators to salvage the anti-union legislation the group helped pass more than a decade ago.
Florida’s 2023 legislative session has kicked off with a pair of bills chock full of new labor regulations long sought after by anti-union activists.
One in every four members of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF)—the group of Republican state treasurers, auditors, and other financial officers on the frontlines of the campaign against “woke capitalism”—has been a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Center for Media and Democracy has found.
In his keynote address at The Heartland Institute’s International Conference on Climate Change, Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks—a longtime investment banker prior to being appointed state treasurer in 2021—proclaimed key similarities between Hitler’s drive to create a uniform Aryan society and the desire of “global elites” to implement uniform investment practices.
The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is launching a new website, SFOFExposed.org, to expose the State Financial Officers Foundation’s role in legitimizing the latest front in the Right’s culture wars.
An oil and gas industry group recently urged the board of directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council—the right-wing corporate bill mill—to reconsider adopting a model policy that would blacklist companies that limit their business with fossil fuels
Koch Industries and its funding vehicles funnel millions to groups that are decrying “woke capitalism” and attacking the investment giant BlackRock for its leading role in ESG investing. Yet that hasn’t stopped the company’s subsidiaries from partnering with BlackRock to invest in technology startups.