Pulling Back the Curtain on ALEC in New Mexico: A Chat With the ALEC State Chairman
Read it all here, and listen to excerpts there too, if you wish.
Paul Bandy, from his website.
For weeks, New Mexico’s ALEC-member legislators have been under increasing pressure to resign from the shadowy corporate special interest group behind legislation like Florida’s deadly “Stand Your Ground” law and voter suppression laws across the country. Sen. George Munoz was the first publicly identified member to drop ALEC in New Mexico, and Sen. John Sapien was equally quick to distance himself from the group. So far, almost two-dozen state legislators across the country have resigned from ALEC, along with at least thirteen household name companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft and McDonalds.
But New Mexico’s state ALEC co-chairman Rep. Paul Bandy took an entirely different approach. He responded to ProgressNow’s call to resign from ALEC by announcing a constituent forum Friday morning to explain all the wonderful things ALEC does for him and his colleagues.
We couldn’t miss the chance to be a part, so I embarked on the 350-mile round-trip from Albuquerque just to cover the event.
For more than an hour in the back room of the Aztec Family Restaurant, Rep. Bandy (proudly wearing his ALEC State Chairman nametag) explained how ALEC has become increasingly partisan, talked about the corporate-funded legislator scholarship slush fund he and his co-chair Sen. Payne control, explained how ALEC legislation travels the path from corporate idea to a bill on the floor and how the ALEC origins are intentionally kept from public knowledge.
He even boasts that since becoming a legislator, he has never solicited a single contribution - thanks to mostly ALEC-member companies that just send him money.
[…]
“I’ve [never] asked anyone for a donation”
I had the chance to ask Rep. Bandy about being labeled a “corporate sponsored legislator.” He didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he retorted that never in his legislative career has he solicited a single donation.
That brought a few chuckles and the obvious questions about how he has been freed from having to engage in any fundraising. The answer: it just appears in the mail from ALEC companies.
If you only have time for one clip [listen at the link above, ed.], this should be it.
[…]
On ALEC and the rise of the “liberal social agenda”
The small crowd was incredibly well informed on ALEC. One woman in attendance read from an ALEC report (“Nation at Risk”) which cited, among other things, the increasing advance liberal social agenda” as the reason for education decline in America.
She asked Rep. Bandy to explain what he thought the “increasingly liberal social agendas” included. His answer: teaching kids conflict resolution. His wife (a very nice woman) also added teaching self-esteem to children as an inappropriate education goal advanced by liberals.
[…]
Paul Bandy at his breakfast forum.
Hat tip: Clearly New Mexico.
RT @ProgressNowNM “They just send me money”: ALEC State Chair Rep. Bandy gives us the inside scoop on ALEC in NM -bit.ly/KpQY4E
— ClearlyNM (@ClearlyNM) April 30, 2012