Bangor Daily News focuses on ALEC, polls on whether ME laws should be written only by ME lawmakers

[highplainsdem]

http://bangordailynews.com/2011/09/13/politics/are-our-laws-prepackaged-or-homegrown-does-it-matter/

-snip-

“LePage Republicans ran on a platform of transparency and putting people first, but we know now that they are just pawns in a larger movement,” Maine Democratic Party Chairman Ben Grant said last week. “With each new revelation, it becomes clear that Paul LePage and his allies in the Legislature had no idea what to do when they took office, so they outsourced their agenda to corporate interests and the national conservative movement.”

Grant specifically referenced Republican legislation in Maine designed to privatize health insurance, scale back voting rights and weaken unions as concrete examples of ALEC’s influence in Maine.

-snip-

A review of several of the laws championed by the GOP majority suggest that Maine lawmakers were at least influenced by ALEC, but there are a few instances where state lawmakers appeared to use the group’s model legislation.

In addition to LD 1333, the health insurance bill, and LD 788, the right-to-work bill, other recently debated legislation that had close ties to ALEC model legislation include LD 659, which sought to repeal clean election laws, and LD 1457, which required parental consent for abortions.

-snip-

The poll question with the story is "Should Maine legislation be written only by Maine lawmakers?"

So far close to 3/4 of those responding said Yes, only 10% said No, and the remainder said it didn't matter.


More on the harm being done by this group can be found in the long compilation topic on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

[midnight]

1. Good question.... K&R... Glad to see that most don't want AlEC

writer their laws...

[saras]

2. Like buying groceries, local is good, but not enough

What we need is that some legislator actually takes personal responsibility for every word in every piece of legislation - BEFORE it is passed. There's no excuse whatsoever for ANY legislator voting on legislation they don't know the contents of.

Yes, I know I'm suggesting radical changes in the way things are done.

[highplainsdem]

3. +1