Investigating Power
In August 2020, the Center for Media and Democracy found that the SBA distributed between $2.35 and $5.7 million dollars in loans to six groups designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
ALEC, Climate, Economy, Environment
Since the conference, though, like-minded bills featuring shared language have been introduced by Republican state legislators around the country. According to a registration list obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD is also the institution that first reported on the December ALEC meeting), several state lawmakers from drought-affected areas attended the meeting. Some […]
ALEC has opposed efforts to strengthen labor unions and protections for workers, fought environmental and climate regulations, and worked with state lawmakers to punish Palestinian rights activists who support boycotts and divestment from Israel. While the group is more focused on economic issues than the culture wars, ALEC members in affiliated Christian groups have also […]
ALEC, Climate, Democracy, Economy, Environment
The American Legislative Exchange Council is an avid supporter of the fossil fuel industry and lobbies state legislatures to pass laws friendly to the industry. One of its primary supporters is Koch Industries. According to Source Watch, “ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is […]
Democracy, Economy, SPN, Wisconsin
“The ethic of work, the expectation of work is failing,” claimed Chase Martin of the Opportunity Solutions Project, part of a larger network the Center for Media and Democracy has linked to various right-wing interests. “Wisconsin needs to use every tool at its disposal to get folks back to work.”
A 2021 Turning Point USA investor prospectus, which was obtained and published by the watchdog Center for Media and Democracy, highlights the project, which the prospectus says is necessary because “the Left has permeated America’s educational institutions.”
ALEC, Climate, Democracy, Economy, Environment
At that meeting in San Diego, members of Alec’s energy taskforce voted to promote the model legislation requiring banks and financial companies to sign a pledge to not boycott petroleum companies in order to obtain state contracts. The wording closely resembles that of laws drafted by Alec and adopted in more than 30 states to […]
It’s not entirely clear where Gaffney’s nonprofit got the funds to hire Liberty Consulting. (Gaffney didn’t respond to interview requests.) But, according to David Armiak—the research director at the Center for Media and Democracy, which tracks nonprofit political spending—one of the biggest donors to Gaffney’s group in 2017 was a pro-Trump political organization, Making America […]
The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, was alleged to have violated laws prohibiting contributions more than $400 to legislative candidates by providing access to software including voter information and constituent engagement tracking. The complaint was brought by the liberal Center for Media and Democracy, which made similar ones in other states.
According to tax disclosures first published online by the Center for Media and Democracy, Uihlein’s nonprofit—the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation—poured millions of dollars in 2020 into a sprawling number of groups connected to efforts to challenge Joe Biden’s victory and reimagine election law, as well as other right-wing extremist organizations, including ones designated as hate groups.