Why Are KY Democratic Legislators Still Members of ALEC?

I sincerely want to believe that good liberals like Kathy Stein and Tim Shaughnessy are members of ALEC only as moles, to keep an eye on what the enemy is up to. Because the alternative is unacceptable.

Down with Tyranny:

There probably isn't a more serious institutional threat to democracy in America than the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

It's basically a right-wing Republican organization working diligently to take away the rights of ordinary working people to implement the one-percent agenda. But there are a few reactionary Democrats who have been involved as well-- maybe 1%. The only congressional Democrats with ALEC ties I could find are Joe Manchin (WV), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Leonard Boswell (Blue Dog-IA), Ed Perlmutter (CO), Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA), and Kurt Shrader (Blue Dog-OR). And there are no Democratic governors toiling along with Jan Brewer (AZ), Terry Branstad (IA), John Kasich (OH), Bob McDonnell (VA) and Scott Walker (WI) to implement the ALEC agenda. The only Democrats on the ALEC board of directors are state Senator Steve Faris (AR) and ex-Rep. Dolores Mertz (IA).

Most states don't have any Democrats from their state legislatures in ALEC. Basically they're Republican political clubs. Many states will have one or two Democrats in a toiletful of Republicans. Like Wyoming, for example. There are 24 state reps and 11 senators who are ALEC members. Only one, state Sen. John Hastert, is a Democrat. And then there are a few states-- Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas-- with a half dozen or more Democrats have joined up. Interestingly, one Kentucky state Rep. Robert Damron, was a member and then quit last year saying he no longer attends ALEC meetings because ALEC has “become, in the last few years, so partisan... The last meeting I went to, they spent all their time bashing Democrats. I don’t particularly care for an organization that’s so partisan.” On the other hand, Gov. Rick Perry (who's gotten between two and three million dollars from ALEC) was a member back when he was a Democratic state rep. And there's extreme right former state Sen. Mike Oliverio, who the DCCC has been trying to elect to Congress, who was not just a member of ALEC-- the only one in the West Virginia legislature-- but also West Virginia's state chairman!

The important thing is to keep track of these freaks and make sure they don't infect the Democratic Party and more than they already have-- and to make sure they don't climb into positions of power the way Joe Manchin and Kurt Schrader have. So... among the hundreds of Republicans in state legislatures with ALEC ties here's the handful of right-wing Democrats who have gone over to the Dark Side:

Rep. Ruth Palumbo (KY)
Rep. Dorsey Ridley (KY)
Sen. Kathy Stein (KY)
Sen. Ray Jones, II (KY)
Sen. Julian Carroll (KY)
Sen. Joey Pendleton (KY)
Sen. Tim Shaughnessy (KY)
Sen. Walter Blevins, Jr (KY)
Sen. Gerald A. Neal (KY)
Sen. Denise Harper Angel (KY)

If they joined long ago, or in ignorance of ALEC's manifest threat to small-d American democracy, let them say so and resign now.

If they genuinely think being members of ALEC is appropriate for Democratic legislators, let them admit it and defend that position.

But as the biggest corporations in the country resign from ALEC and ALEC rejection sweeps the nation, it's time for Kentucky's ALEC members to explain themselves.