Democratic State Representative Mark Pocan has served on the Wisconsin State Assembly since 1998. He represents the district surrounding Madison. He is an outspoken progressive, and has been a consistent critic of the orgy of privatization befalling our state.
He attended ALEC's 38th annual convention in New Orleans in order to "find out what they are up to." The following interview is a great insight into the endless well of conservative corporate policy.
I especially like the description of an after hours party. Waiters in white suits handing our cigars on a silver salver! A parody of itself, were it not so successful in creating such relentless streams of rich man's dreams.
Transcript:
Q: You went to the ALEC Conference in New Orleans… Why?
A: Well, I went down to find out what they are up to. They are such an effective group in getting conservative policy, really corporate policy, passed in state legislatures that I wanted to make sure that someone was there to find out they're up to next. And sure enough from going down there and seeing what their agenda is, I've already found that the Republicans are going to introduce a lot of those bills this fall…
Q: Any upcoming ALEC bills for Wisconsin?
A: …they're gonna do the healthcare exchange stuff from the Federal law, they're gonna do the bare minimum - that's a class they had just on how to do the bare minimum. He talked about education reform, and we know that there are a bunch of bills they're gonna have a bunch of bills they did in Florida and Indiana that are really bad for public education, but they call them education reform, so we know that's coming… By being there you learn what they are up to, and what advice they are giving to legislators on how to pass them.
Pocan is then asked if he got any invitations to the after hours parties, the place where relationships are forged and promises made. Since they knew who he was, he was generally shunned, but he was kind of accidentally invited to one. A cigar party. Silver platters of cigars. However, he was pretty quickly asked to leave, after being mildly hassled. Pocan seems a very genial fellow, and handled his expulsion with great grace.
Pocan goes on to describe how ALEC channels corporate "scholarships" to the legislators, so that they can essentially go for free. It seems a very slick junket scheme… a bit of corporate sleight of hand so that they can "buy" the trips for the legislators they own anyway.
Mark Pocan, btw, coined the term FitzWalkerstan on the floor of the State Assembly. That's a meme that has some staying power for radical curds!