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State legislators from around the country converged on New Orleans last week to mingle with corporate lobbyists at the 38th annual conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. Conference attendees reportedly noshed on dinners costing upwards of $100 a person, with much of the costs paid for by ALEC scholarships and the tax-payer funded expense accounts that come with holding office. The week’s schedule was packed with workshops on policy areas ranging from education to energy, to, as billed in the program, “Federalism in Action: Selling State Sovereignty.” Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal was billed as a speaker, as well as former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, political pundit Tucker Carlson, and Wall street Journal Editorial Board member Steve Moore. The American Legislative Exchange Council brings corporate lobbyists together with state lawmakers to influence states’ policy agendas. With the recent leak of hundreds of internal documents to the Nation magazine and the Center for Media and Democracy, the secretive organization has been under intense scrutiny. The leaked documents revealed that ALEC was responsible for the myriad cookie cutter bills introduced into many state legislatures that attacked unions and privatized education, among other conservative policies. Attending ALEC’s conference last week, along with hundreds of the usual suspects, were journalists, students, and activists. The Student Labor Action Project at Louisiana State University, organized a protest on Friday, against ALEC’s, “anti-worker activities and policies.” However before the event even kicked-off, Eric Carlson, a journalist with the Center for Media and Democracy, was denied entry into the conference. After tweeting about the comings and goings of ALEC attendees from the lobby of the Marriott Hotel where conference events were taking place, Carlson was forcibly removed by security.

GUEST: Eric Carlson, a journalist with the Center for Media and Democracy

Find out more at www.ALECexposed.org.