On July 15th this blog published an article about the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC's) connection to Texas law making. ALEC is a “corporate front-group” that represents the interests of big-name corporations by drafting legislation for state lawmakers. ALEC, which has the support of conservative heavy-hitters like Koch Industries, Walmart, and ExxonMobil, has written close to 800 model bills as templates for legislators on a wide range of issues.
Today, Think Progress published an article detailing the close correlation of Gov. Perry's legislative initiatives with the legislative bills written by the American Legislative Exchange Council and circulated to affiliated conservative lawmakers in all fifty states.
ThinkProgress analysis of documents recently released by the Center for Media and Democracy show that ten of Perry’s recent initiatives mirror either ALEC model legislation or policy recommendations from ALEC’s state affiliate, the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.