ALEC has requested an opinion from Abbott that they are exempt from Texas open records law [View all]

[Gothmog]

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has requested an opinion from Greg Abbot (the Texas AG and candidate for Governor) that ALEC is exempt from the Texas Open Records law https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/08/19

The Center for Media and Democracy filed a letter with the Texas Attorney General on Thursday refuting efforts by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to declare itself immune from the state's open records law. Texas is the first known state where ALEC has formally asked an Attorney General for an exemption from sunshine-in-government laws, and it marks a new low in the organization's attempts to advance its legislative agenda in secret and avoid public accountability for facilitating special interest influence.

“You cannot just create a special private club between lobbyists and lawmakers and then claim your communications with legislators cannot be disclosed to the public under state sunshine laws,” said Lisa Graves, the Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy/ ALECexposed.org, “Allowing this would only increase the power of special interests to secretly influence officials elected to represent real people."

We need to get the word out about these efforts