The Lobbying Group American Legislative Exchange Council

The American Legislative Exchange Council "ALEC") is a lobbying group devoted to "Limited Government, Free Markets [and] Federalism." While it states that it is "non-partisan resource for its members" and claims it "does not lobby state legislatures," it is hard for me to see how it is doing anything else. ALEC's "members" are state legislators, and ALEC provides its members with position papers, advocacy, and model legislation for laws ALEC would like passed or opposed. As it describes:

What makes ALEC valuable for the public is that ALEC provides a forum for the private sector to provide practical input on how state public policy decisions can impact jobs and the local economy, which has been particularly helpful during the recent tough economic times.

ALEC's resources -- in the millions -- almost entirely come from very large corporations and conservative organizations and advocacy groups. It is not unusual for these corporation to spend tens of millions of dollars on lobbying each year.

I am not suggesting that anything that ALEC is doing is illegal, assuming it files the appropriate disclosure reports and registrations, etc., nor that some sort of conspiracy is afoot. I do question the pernicious pretending very large corporations like Exxon, AT&T, Pfizer, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Coca Cola, and so on, are "people" for purposes of our Constitution.