Nobody tells me nuthin', I swear. Lisa Graves of ALEC Exposed was in Phoenix last week and I didn't even know it. I saw the story last night at Blog for Arizona where they linked to another local blog, Arizona Eagletarian. The purpose of Lisa's visit was to publicize the release of an updated version of CMD's ALEC in Arizona report. There was a showing of Moyers and Company's United States of ALEC on Wednesday night and a press conference on Thursday at the Capitol. They even got some TeeVee coverage ☛ CBS 5 KPHO.
The 50-page pdf is here ☛ ALEC in Arizona. It's a great read if you're an ALEC fan, and aren't we all? There's a primer about how ALEC operates, a little about their "scholarships," and a bit about their partners in crime, among them the Goldwater Institute. Tucson's own Steve Farley gets a mention for his ALEC gifts disclosure bill. The list of ALEC tools in the current legislature begins at page 11. There are 35 members listed. There may well be more, but it's a helluva' lot better than the 50 ALEC members in the last lege. Some of those decided not to run after redistricting and some lost their races, so the good guys made some progress in the 2012 election. At about page 17 they get into the actual bill matching, where they take current bills and put them side-by-side with the ALEC model legislation. A lot of these are just word for word copies of the ALEC models. The report is not a a difficult read at all, and worth a few minutes of your time if you want to understand how our State Legislature works.