ALEC appears to be part of a larger privately funded, coordinated and disciplined right wing network whose purpose is to give weight and a feeling of inevitability to a conservative agenda beyond what its actual membership in a democracy might justify. Beyond a clearing house for policy ideas, ALEC seems to be assisting Republican legislators in the actual nuts and bolts drafting of legislative bills.
Republicans might come away from a training session with ALEC (which need not be publicly announced or scrutinized) with a more or less finished bill to be imposed on the public rather than developed through hearings and debate.
Whether this best reflects the best interest of the larger public is the simple question which Prof. Cronon raises.
Perhaps an open records request for emails of state legislators referencing the term ALEC would serve the public interest more than a fishing expedition into Prof. Cronon's university emails which is intended to intimidate others who might have a desire to express an opinion on the political climate of our state.
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