Here’s what Brooks doesn’t tell you about his friends “in the trust and respect business.” The Institute for American Values was founded in 1987 by money from the conservative Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Harry Bradley was one of the founders of the ultra-right John Birch Society. As Wikipedia puts it, the IAV has “been critical of divorce and out-of-wedlock childbirth.” The Center for Media and Democracy describes the Bradley Foundation as “one of America’s largest right-wing foundations.”
Research Cited
Wyoming Now Third State to Propose ALEC Bill Cracking Down on Pipeline Protests
The Center for Media and Democracy also reported in 2014 that [Wendy] Lowe, a former Peabody Energy lobbyist, gave a presentation titled, “Increasing Travel Reimbursement Income” at an ALEC meeting in Chicago in 2013. But Lowe told DeSmog that, although she attended the Senate hearing on the bill, she did not know about it until it was proposed and is not lobbying for it.
Using Tomatoes to Attack Solar Power, a Kentucky Lawmaker Pulls from Big Business Playbook
The Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit that documents corporate influence, has identified fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil and Koch Industries as among ALEC’s financial backers. Amid a pressure campaign, dozens of companies including Google and Walmart dropped out, though not always explaining why, according to USA TODAY.
Rubio’s Fake ‘Family Leave’ Plan Comes from a Fake Women’s Group
A report on IWF (Independent Women’s Forum) by the Center for Media and Democracy reveals the group’s close links to the Koch Brothers. While the relationship between the IWF and the Kochs is tenuous now, in the group’s early stages it shared space and leadership with David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity.
Bill Would Shine Light on ALEC
Since 2006, between two and three dozen Wisconsin lawmakers have been members of ALEC or attended ALEC conferences, according to the Center for Media and Democracy. And since 2011, at least three dozen bills or state budget provisions approved by the GOP-controlled legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Scott Walker were based on ALEC model legislation, according to the group.
EPA Administrator Once Said Trump Would Be ‘Abusive’ to Constitution
“I believe that Donald Trump in the White House would be more abusive to the Constitution than Barack Obama – and that’s saying a lot,” Pruitt said in the interview.
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The audio was posted by a watchdog group called Documented that “investigates how corporations manipulate public policy that harms our environment, communities, and democracy,” according to its website. Documented was created in December, its co-director is also a fellow for another watchdog group called the Center for Media and Democracy.
Pingree Backs Bill to Ban States from Blocking Municipal High-Speed Internet Projects
Mary Bottari, deputy director of the Center for Media and Democracy in Madison, Wisconsin, a watchdog group that’s focused on ALEC, says the bill is a reasonable reaction to the agenda of the organization’s major corporate telecommunications members. “These companies are relentless and they will come back and back and back again because they want to make sure every neighborhood is available for a monopoly-based operation,” she said. “There’s no principle behind ALEC’s position. They are for whatever the corporations want.”
Report Slams Mesa’s Pensions Liability as City Says It’s Coping
A group called the Center for Media and Democracy, based in Madison, Wisconsin, calls TIA [Truth in Accounting] “a right-wing non-profit” and a “deficit alarmist organization” that is an associate member of the State Policy Network.
The State Policy Network “and its member think tanks are major drivers of the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-backed corporate agenda in state houses nationwide,” according to the Center for Media and Democracy.
National Study Adds Urgency to Diciccio’s Debt Warnings
While Truth in Accounting describes itself as a nonpartisan group of accountants and other financial experts, the Center for Media and Democracy describes it a right-wing entity with ties to the Koch Brothers and the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council.
How the GOP Rigs Elections
The gerrymandering in Wisconsin, which experts call among the most extreme in U.S. history, is but one part of Republicans’ stealth plan to stay in office. Since Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican Legislature took power, they’ve also introduced some of the country’s harshest voting restrictions, passing laws that make it harder for Democratic-leaning constituencies to register to vote and cast ballots. At the same time, the state has become the “Wild West of dark money,” according to Lisa Graves, a senior fellow at the Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy, with Republican politicians like Walker raising unprecedented sums from billionaire donors to finance their campaigns.