Inside the ALEC Dating Service: How corporations hook up with your state legislators.

• Author: Pocan, Mark
• Position: American Legislative Exchange Council

I really thought it would take more than five minutes in New Orleans before I realized the conservative movement had landed there.

But it didn't.

As I was waiting for my bags at the airport, I heard a mid-thirties woman talking on the phone. "Yeah, I'm down in New Orleans for the American Legislative Exchange Council meeting. We write legislation, and they pass our ideas. It's the free market."

I could have taken the next flight home, as that pretty much summed up what I would experience over the next three days at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annual convention.

On ALEC's website, the organization states its mission is "to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership."

In reality, ALEC is a corporate-funded and -dominated

group that operates much like a dating service, only between legislators and special interests. It matches them up, builds relationships, culminates with the birth of special interest legislation, and ends happily ever after. That's happy for the special corporate interests, that is. Call it corporatematch.com.

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Corporations and conservative interests are in charge; after all, they fund the organization. They call the shots. They write the legislation. They vote on the legislation. And they give advice on how to pass their bills.

At a workshop I attended, one Texas legislator, who moderated the forum, went as far as to say that we are a big football team. The legislators are the football players and the corporate lobbyists and special interest group presenters are "our" coaches.

Half of the organization is made up of legislators, mostly conservative Republicans. There is a smattering of conservative Democrats, a handful of people of color, and, well, me. The other half is comprised of corporate special interests. They pay big bucks to put their logos, lobbyists, and legislation in front of the objects of their affection: state legislators.

Legislators can join for $100. For corporations or other organizations, make that thousands of dollars to join.

I've followed ALEC for a while, including crashing its winter meeting three and a half years ago. I wrote a piece for The Progressive at the time. But with all the renewed attention on conservative legislation passing in states recently--especially in Wisconsin--this seemed like an opportunity too good to pass up.

This year...