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Archive for the ‘ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council’ Category

What is the going rate for a legislator’s soul? Follow the Appropriations Committee’s vote on prison sale to learn

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Prison, Privatization on April 10, 2012| 6 Comments »

If you live under a rock and might be wondering how Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed sale of Avoyelles Correction Center might fare in the House Appropriations Committee, consider this: of the 25 members of the committee, 20 received campaign contributions from corporate members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) or Jindal—or both.

The committee will consider HB 850 by Rep. Henry Burns (R-Haughton) at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

The bill calls for the sale of Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport, closure of the J. Levy Dabadie Correctional Center in Pineville and transferring its 330 low-risk offenders to Avoyelles and for closing the Forcht Wade residential substance abuse facility in Caddo Parish and moving its inmates to the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer.

Those opposed to the sale might find comfort in knowing that the Florida State Senate in February voted 21-19 against the single largest prison privatization attempt in U.S. history. Nine Republicans united with a dozen Democrats to defeat the massive sell off of the state’s prison that would have cost 3,500 correctional officers their jobs.

In this case, rebellious Republicans apparently grew collective spines and rose up to say no to Gov. Rick Scott.

But don’t expect that to happen here.

Nine of the 10 committee members who are members of ALEC received contributions totaling more than $111,000 from corporate members of the “non-partisan” organization which meets regularly with legislators from all over the country to draft legislation for lawmakers to take back home for introduction and, hopefully, passage.

Some of those proposed laws include legislation like “Stand Your Ground,” which eventually became law in Florida and has come under considerable national criticism following the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla.

The furor over the shooting and Zimmerman’s immunity from prosecution, thanks to the “Stand Your Ground” law, has led Pepsico, Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods to withdraw from ALEC membership.

Other legislation pushed by ALEC includes school vouchers, charter and virtual schools, public retirement reform, Medicaid reform, public employee health benefits reform and sweeping privatization—all part and parcel of Jindal’s legislative agenda.

Jindal contributed nearly $50,000 to 16 of the Appropriations Committee members, including 14 of 15 Republican members.

Jindal’s contributions to committee members included:

• Rep. Jim Fannin (D-Jonesboro)—$2500;

• Rep. Cameron Henry (R-Metairie)—$2500;

• Rep. Simone Champagne (R-Erath)—$2500;

• Rep. Charles Chaney (R-Rayville)—$2500;

• Rep. Patrick Connick (R-Marrero)—$2500;

• Rep. Franklin Foil (R-Baton Rouge)—$2500;

• Rep. Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles)—$2500;

• Rep. Joe Harrison (R-Gray)—$2500;

• Rep. Bob Hensgens (R-Abbeville)—$2500;

• Rep. James Morris (R-Oil City)—$2500;

• Rep. John Schroder (R-Covington)—$2500;

• Rep. John Berthelot (R-Gonzales)—$5000;

• Rep. Anthony Ligi (R-Metairie)—$5000;

• Rep. Henry Burns—$5000;

• Rep. Jared Brossett (D-New Orleans)—$2500;

• Rep. Walt Leger (D-New Orleans)—$2500.

Those who received contributions from ALEC’s corporate members include:

• Fannin—$6500;

• Rep. James Armes (D-Leesville)—$4500;

• Champagne—$16,000;

• Geymann—$38,000;

• Harrison—$2000;

• Ligi—$20,700;

• Rep. Jack Montoucet (D-Crowley)—$6000;

• Schroder—$2000;

• Rep. Ledricka Thierry (D-Opelousas)—$15,500.

Two corporate members of ALEC are Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) of Nashville, Tenn. and G4S (formerly Wackenhut) of Jupiter, Fla. CCA is presently contracted to run Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield for the state while Global Expertise in Outsourcing, Inc. (GEO Group) of Boca Raton, Fla.

In addition, LaSalle Management Co. of Ruston operates eight facilities in Louisiana.

If more convincing is necessary that the proposed sale of Avoyelles is all but a done deal, consider that Jindal apparently welshed on his promise to Rep. Robert Johnson (D-Marksville) when he told the lawmaker that the sale was not going to be taken up until public testimony on the budget on April 16-17.

The notice, however, went out last Thursday that the matter would be taken up today.

Johnson said he felt the timing was intentional because Tuesday is a scheduled training day and the two shifts that would normally be off duty will be undergoing training, guards who have been unable to perform the mandatory 40 hours of training are unable to travel to the Capitol to testify against the bill.

Mistie Dubroc, whose husband is employed at the Avoyelles facility, said guards are hesitant to voice their opinions on the governor’s plan for fear of reprisals, including termination. Such has been the case in several instances where employees of other state agencies have disagreed with Jindal’s policies.

State Civil Service rules clearly say that state employees may voice opinions on pending legislation that affect their jobs but that has not deterred the administration from taking swift and harsh action against outspoken employees.

Such intimidation is tantamount to an unofficial gag order and is reminiscent of the order that went out to University Medical Center employees a few weeks back that forbade their attending a rally protesting personnel cutbacks at the facility. Rally attendance and the signing of petitions, including recall petititions, is spelled out by Civil Service as being within employees’ rights.

If additional convincing is necessary, consider this: LaSalle Management, the GEO Group, and Wackenhut each contributed $10,000 to Jindal’s campaigns in 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008 and CCA gave the governor’s campaign $5000 in 2008 and 2009.

Additionally, GEO Group contributed $1000 to Fannin in 2010 and 2011.

All of which begs the question: at what price are our legislators willing, even eager, to sell their souls.

A thousand bucks, even $2500 seems awfully cheap for a legislator to sell out his or her constituents. Well, at least three took the maximum $5000 from Jindal.

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Notable Quotables (In their own words)

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Notable Quotables on April 5, 2012| 2 Comments »

“The Coca-Cola Company has elected to discontinue its membership with the American Legislative Exchange Council. Our involvement with ALEC was focused on efforts to oppose discriminatory food and beverae taxes, not on issues that have no direct bearing on our business.”

–Coca-Cola spokesperson Dian Garza Ciarlante, on explaining Coke’s decision to pull its ALEC membership on the heels of a similar decision by PepsiCo. Kraft Foods later became the third company to opt out. ALEC opponents say their next target is Wal-Mart.

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Pepsi, Coca Cola opt out as ALEC sponsors; Timmy Teepell’s Onmessage fined $15,000 for New Hampshire push polling

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Governor's Office on April 5, 2012| 13 Comments »

Only minutes after posting this story, LouisianaVoice learned that Kraft Foods has become the third company to withdraw its membership and financial support from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has suffered a double hit with the decisions by PepsiCo and Coca Cola to drop their membership in the shadowy organization that has become the fourth branch of government in Republican states.

At the same time, Gov. Bobby Jindal, one of ALEC’s more enthusiastic proponents, and Onmessage, Inc., an Alexandria, Virginia, political consulting firm, appear to be joined at the hip.

Not only did Jindal pay Onmessage more than $1.3 million in fees since 2007, but immediately following his re-election last October, his Chief of Staff Timmy Teepell left to go to work for Onmessage.

ALEC is widely known for working with legislators from across the country to draft legislation for lawmakers to pass back in their home states.

Moreover, scores of corporate members of ALEC have poured thousands of dollars into the campaign coffers of Louisiana candidates. Those include candidates for the legislature, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, as well as to Jindal himself.

Corporate members of ALEC include Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, Bayer Corp., GlaxoSmithKline, Wal-Mart Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Altria, Chevron, Shell, Dow, ConocoPhillips, TimeWarner, Eli Lily, Walgreen, AT&T, Reynolds American, PhRMA, Corrections Corporation of America, UnitedHealthcare, Visa, FedEx, UPS, Wackenhut (a private prison company), Kraft Foods and BP, among others.

Besides contributing generously to state campaigns, ALEC pushes its agenda calling for privatization of prisons, Medicaid, state health care benefits, and “reforms” to public education and state employee retirement benefits. Those reforms include charter schools, vouchers, abolishment of teacher tenure and virtual schools for education and a drastic reduction of retirement benefits from public employees.

To that end, thanks to strategically placed campaign contributions, ALEC has succeeded beyond all expectations in the area of public education in Louisiana and Jindal’s retirement reforms agenda will be tested next week when the legislature takes those matters up.

Wal-Mart, ExxonMobil and other giant corporations might believe they are immune to sporadic boycotts but when people use their wallets as weapons, retailers listen. Never think that they don’t. If you don’t believe that, you need only reflect back to the recent campaign that began with a single protester whose crusade went viral and which ultimately caused the giant Bank of America to abandon its monthly $5 debit card fee.

The folks who do much of their shopping at Wal-Mart are the Joe Sixpack types, the very ones most victimized by ALEC policies. They are the people just like us: blue collar whites, minorities and working stiffs who are being asked to work more—if they haven’t already lost their jobs—while earning less as they see rare salary increases eaten up by rising gasoline prices, increases in health insurance premiums, college tuition and food costs.

But Jindal is not stupid. He got to be governor and then solidified his base by being sly, duplicitous and ambitious. To use an old cliché, he knows better than to put all his eggs in one basket.

Take, for instance, Onmessage, Inc., of Alexandria, VA.

Jindal signed on late with Onmessage. He didn’t use the firm in his 2003 campaign for governor and he lost to Kathleen Blanco. Since 2007, however, his campaign has shelled out a whopping $1.3 million to the firm and now Teepell has joined Onmessage to manage its Southern Office—in Baton Rouge, no less. Moreover, one of Onmessage’s partners ghost-wrote Jindal’s riveting book Leadership and Crisis.

One of the first clients to sign on with Teepell was Republican Congressman Bill Cassidy who appears to be gearing up for a challenge to U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana’s only statewide elected Democrat.

But Onmessage is not without its problems.

In January, Onmessage paid the state of New Hampshire 15,000 for violating the state’s stringent anti-push polling statutes.

Push polling is an interactive marketing technique involving the use of loaded questions in a supposedly, but in reality far from objective telephone opinion poll during a political campaign on behalf of one candidate in an effort to turn voters against an opponent.

LouisianaVoice has been monitoring key votes by those legislators who have been the recipients of campaign contributions from ALEC member corporations and from Jindal.

We pledge to continue publicizing those votes with reminders of who got what from whom. It may get boring, it may be tiresome to many and it may even turn some readers off. But few nails were ever driven home with a single blow of the hammer. We will keep repeating the message until our readers can recite the numbers in their sleep. Perhaps our readers will pass the information along to non-readers via Facebook or by whatever means available.

Onmessage and ALEC certainly have.

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It’s only appropriate that 2012 is the 200th anniversary of statehood–which resulted from the First Louisiana Purchase

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Charters, Education, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Louisiana Purchase on April 4, 2012| 11 Comments »

The Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee has approved by a 5-1 vote Senate Bill 217 by State Sen. A.G. Crowe (R-Slidell) which would allow charter schools to refuse to admit students on the basis of their ability to speak English, their sexual orientation or other unspecified factors.

In what must qualify as one of the more asinine comments coming out of the current session, Crowe said the intent of his bill is to prevent bans by executive branch agencies and local governments on discrimination against characteristics not listed in state law as a condition for private companies to do business with their agencies.

Wait. What? Is Sen. A.G. Crowe really advocating a return to Jim Crow?

Apparently so and so are four of the remaining six members. Sen. Dan Martiny (R-Metairie) was not around for the final vote.

Voting in favor, besides committee Chairman Crowe were Sens. Bob Kostelka (R-Monroe), Barrow Peacock (R-Bossier City), Neil Riser (R-Columbia), and Ronnie Johns (R-Lake Charles).

Of the six Republicans on the committee, only Peacock received no significant campaign contributions from either Gov. Bobby Jindal’s campaign or from corporations affiliated with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

ALEC is an organization which denies it is a lobbyist, but, headed by Koch Industries, it includes dozens of large national and multi-national corporations who meet with state legislators on a regular basis to draft legislation for state lawmakers to take back home with them for enactment.

Invariably those laws favor corporate tax breaks and cuts to state employee benefits. ALEC also promotes widespread privatization of heretofore public services and advocates school vouchers and private and charter schools over traditional public schools.

It’s really amazing what a little largesse in the right places can do.

Crowe, Kostelka, Riser, Johns and Martiny each received $2,500 from Jindal’s campaign fund in 2011 and the same five received numerous campaign contributions from ALEC-affiliated corporations.
Perhaps Jindal and some of those corporations should demand a pro rata rebate from Martiny for his failure to vote on the bill.

The state Department of Education contracts with those seeking charter schools were the chief examples cited during testimony for Senate Bill 217. Gov. Bobby Jindal did not respond to requests for comment about calls to unilaterally strip the anti-discriminatory language from the department’s contract criteria.

Sen. Ed Murray, the only committee member to vote no on the measure, said the possibility of SB217 becoming law and negating the anti-discriminatory prohibitions in charter school contracts is “really scary.”

Is it really true that Sen. Murray is the only member of the committee to understand that?

“I can’t believe that at the same time we as a Legislature are passing bills that .… allow charter schools to deny admission based solely on a child’s ability to speak English well enough or play basketball well enough,” Murray said.

“The focus is really simple,” Crowe said. “It says stick to the law.”

State law currently forbids discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national ancestry, age, sex or disability but the Department of Education has expanded that to include sex ethnicity, sexual orientation, athletic performance and special need proficiency in the English language or in a foreign language.

Leslie Ellison, of New Orleans, testified she refused to sign a charter school contract with the Department of Education because it required her company to not discriminate against gays, as well as other criteria not listed in state law. She said the department does not have the right to insert its own opinions into a state contract.

Louisiana Family Forum head Gene Mills a message was being sent for Jindal to strip the provision from his Education Department’s contract criteria. Louisiana Family Forum is a coalition of religious groups that lobby the legislature on issues such as teen abstinence and other social issues.

Neither Jindal nor State Superintendent of Education John White responded to requests for comment about the policy but Jindal press secretary Frank Collins said, “We’re against discrimination, but we don’t believe in special protections or rights.”

Education Department spokesperson Rene Greer said the charter authorization provision was under review by the department.

Someone whose name is long since forgotten once said you get what you pay for and apparently ALEC and Jindal are getting their money’s worth from Louisiana legislators they bought…er, supported.

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Members take the money and run on two education bills; LouisianaVoice compares campaign contributions, votes

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Campaign Contributions, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Lobbyist, Teague on March 24, 2012| 2 Comments »

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—The influence of lobbyists and campaign contributions was never more in evidence than in last week’s House votes on two separate education bills being pushed hard by the Jindal administration.

Of the 62 House members who are current or former members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) or attended ALEC conferences, accepted campaign contributions from corporate members of ALEC, from education reform lobbyists or from Gov. Bobby Jindal himself, 46 voted in favor of HB 974 and 43 voted for HB 976.

In all, more than $523,000 was doled out in campaign contributions to 50 House members—an average of more than $10,000 each—by lobbyists or corporate entities affiliated with ALEC who supported the bills or from Jindal’s own campaign funds.

Even more telling, of those 50 campaign contribution recipients, only five voted against both bills and two others split their votes. Reps. Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles), Jim Morris (R-Oil City), Andy Anders (D-Vidalia), Joe Harrison (R-Gray) and Dorothy Hill (D-Dry Creek) each voted no on both bills.

Rep. Gregory Miller (R-Norco) voted in favor of HB 974 but against HB 976 while Rep. Patrick Williams (D-Shreveport) voted for HB 976 but was opposed to HB 974. Rep. Hunter Greene (R-Baton Rouge) did not vote on HB 974 but voted for HB 976.

Both bills have been criticized by newspapers throughout the state, as well as teachers as being too hurried and not well conceived by the administration.

One of the criticisms by proponents and opponents alike is the problem of classroom space for students wishing to transfer from so-called failing schools to charter schools, with tuition being paid by state-funded vouchers.

Another question, raised in the House Education Committee by Rep. John Bel Edwards (D-Amite) was the state’s power to redirect local tax money for purposes other than the uses approved by local voters.

HB 974, by Rep. Stephen Carter (R-Baton Rouge), addressed teacher tenure, pay-for-performance and teacher evaluations. It passed by a vote of 64-40 with Greene not voting.

HB 976, also by Carter, provides vouchers, or to use Gov. Jindal’s terminology, scholarships, for education excellence, allows parents to transfer their children to charter schools and provides for charter school authorizers and course providers. It passed by a 62-43 vote.

Another mostly unspoken criticism of the bills, besides Jindal’s move to fast track them through the legislative process, is that of financial influence, or pressure, from special interests, particularly that of the American Federation of Children (AFC) and its Louisiana affiliate, the Louisiana Federation of Children (LFT).

The LFC recently did an extensive mail-out in House District 72, represented by Edwards in which it accused Edwards of attempting to stymie the education of children in grades K-12.

Additionally, Baton Rouge attorney Bryan Jeansonne, a law partner of Jason Dore, executive director of the Louisiana Republican Party, has submitted a public records request for all email correspondence between Edwards and the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT) or any of its employees, a move that could be construed as intimidation, given Jindal’s propensity to fire or otherwise punish those who disagree with him.

Jeansonne also made a request to the Tangipahoa Parish School Board for a list of all the system’s teachers and home addresses. Edwards said his wife is a teacher and a member of the LFT.

AFC was formerly an organization called All Children Matter and both organizations were and are run by Dick and Betsy DeVos of Michigan. Dick DeVos owns Amway and Betsy DeVos is the former chairperson of the Michigan Republican Party. Her brother, Erik D. Prince, is the founder of Blackwater USA, the private security firm that made international headlines in 2007 when its guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians and then attempted to bribe Iraqi officials to quell criticism of their actions.

In 2006, All Children Matter was fined $5.2 million for funneling campaign money into Ohio through the organization’s various state networks. All Children Matter also was fined for illegal political activity in Wisconsin. A “527” organization, its legal problems prompted a change in name to the American Federation for Children.

Betsy DeVos, writing in an op-ed piece for the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, said, “I know a little something about soft money as my family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican Party. I have decided, however, to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect some things in return.”

All Children Matter contributed $71,000 to 32 House members between 2007 and 2011, records from the Louisiana Board of Ethics show.

House members who voted for both bills and the amount of contributions received from all sources includes:

• John Berthelot (R-Gonzales), $8,000;

• Christopher Broadwater (R-Hammond), $47,000;

• Timothy Burns (R-Mandeville, $29,500;

• Stephen Carter (Chairman of the House Education Committee and author of House Bills 974 and 976), $24,675;

• Simone Champagne (R-Erath), $45,000;

• Patrick Connick (R-Marrero), $7,500;

• Gregory Cromer (R-Slidell), $13,250;

• Raymond Garofalo (R-Chalmette), $15,000;

• Kenneth Havard (R-Jackson), $35,000;

• Lowell Hazel (R-Pineville, $11,000;

• Frank Hoffman (R-West Monroe), $40,500;

• Paul Hollis (R-Covington), $10,000;

• Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles, Speaker of the House), $15,000;

• Nancy Landry (R-Lafayette), $7,000;

• Christopher Leopold (R-Belle Chasse), $7,500;

• Gregory Miller, $17,500;

• Erich Ponti (R-Baton Rouge), $7,000;

• Stephen Pugh (R-Ponchatoula), $6,000;

• Clifton Richardson (R-Baton Rouge), $17,000;

• Joel Robideaux (R-Lafayette), $13,600;

• Clay Schexnayder (R-Sorrento), $27,500;

• Alan Seabaugh (R-Shreveport), $25,750;

• Thomas Carmody (R-Shreveport), $1,500;

• Cameron Henry (R-Metairie), $2,500;

• John Schroder (R-Covington), $4,500;

• Kevin Pearson (R-Slidell), $2,500;

• Nick Lorusso (R-New Orleans), $6,500;

• Anthony Ligi (R-Metairie), $26,700;

• Jack Montoucet (D-Crowley), $6,000;

• Kirk Talbot (R-River Ridge), $6,000;

• Austin Badon (D-New Orleans), $4,000;

• Neil Abramson (D-New Orleans), $3,500;

• Steve Pylant (R-Winnsboro), $2,500;

• Walt Leger (D-New Orleans), $3,500;

• Karen St. Germain (D-Plaquemine), $2,500;

• Dorothy Hill (D-Dry Creek), $2,500;

• Andy Anders, $2,000;

• Charles Chaney (R-Rayville), $1,000;

• Ledricka Thierry (D-Opelousas), $500;

• Robert Billiot (D-Westwego), $1,000;

• Frank Howard (R-Many), $1,000;

• Anthony Ligi (R-Metairie), $1,000;

• Kirk Talbot (R-River Ridge), $1,000;

• Patrick Jefferson (D-Homer), $1,000.

Greene, who did not vote on HB 974, received $13,000 in contributions from supporters of both bills.

Thibaut, who voted for HB 974 and against 976, received $4,500;

Those receiving contributions from supporters of the bills but who voted no on each included Joseph Harrison (R-Gray), $1,000; Geymann, $6,000, and Morris, $13,750.

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