ALEC balks after experts say it should register as Minnesota lobbyist
By Jon Collins | 08.12.11 | 10:43 am | More from The Minnesota Independent
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a non-profit organization that brings corporations together with state lawmakers to create and advocate for model legislation. Minnesota experts on lobbyist disclosure say ALEC’s activity here requires the group to register as a lobbyist under state law.
ALEC denies that the organization lobbies state legislators.
“We’re not lobbyists because we don’t lobby, none of our staff are registered lobbyists,” ALEC spokesperson Raegan Weber told the Minnesota Independent Wednesday. “We take a policy position. Just as most Americans have an opinion on policy, so do we, but we do not do a call to action, according to the IRS there has to be a call to action.”
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http://washingtonindependent.com/...
Public Citizen lobbyist Craig Holman agrees that on the federal level disclosure rules do not apply to ALEC:
because the main focus of the organization is on state lawmakers.
But Holman said that state lobbying disclosure laws — including Minnesota’s, which are some of the toughest — do apply.
Fortunately, the National Council of State Legislatures has compiled a table of general information on lobbyist registration requirements which serves as a partial source of information on how each of the 50 states treats lobbyists.
http://www.ncsl.org/...
What is needed, however, is the creation of an all-purpose relatively ideal draft of a state lobbyist disclosure law, the kind of stuff that the legal beagles of ALEC routinely dish up.