What is ALEC?

So, if you have been reading, you may be wondering, who is ALEC? The organization was mentioned quite a bit in the NPR story a few posts back. Well, here's their website and their summary statement.

ALEC - American Legislative Exchange Council
"Nonpartisan individual membership organization of state legislators which favors federalism and conservative public policy solutions."

Yes, that's right, "nonpartisan". Do you think it's possible to be nonpartisan? I really mean that. I am not trying to get a certain answer here because I don't know if it is, but I'm open to hearing arguments on both sides.

ALEC is one of the 501(c)3 organizations that, for a lack of a better way of saying it, try to influence policy by going as far as writing legislation and giving it to legislators to whom they contribute funds and with whom they share similar goals and ideals. This is legal because they are a non-profit. However, non-profits are not supposed to be involved in policy creation like this or else they may be confused as lobbyists.

Here is what the IRS has to say about non-profits and their work as lobbyists:
"Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.

Certain activities or expenditures may not be prohibited depending on the facts and circumstances. For example, certain voter education activities (including presenting public forums and publishing voter education guides) conducted in a non-partisan manner do not constitute prohibited political campaign activity. In addition, other activities intended to encourage people to participate in the electoral process, such as voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, would not be prohibited political campaign activity if conducted in a non-partisan manner.

On the other hand, voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited participation or intervention." http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=163395,00.html

Just in case you didn't listen to the NPR story, here is what you missed:

1. ALEC holds conferences where they invite legislators to be "educated" about issues.
2. At one of these conferences, Senator Russel Pearce brought the idea for SB 1070 (according to a source of Sullivan's). NPR Story
   
3. SB 1070 was written and taken to the Arizona State House of Representatives.

With this in mind, do you think ALEC is violating the rules of the IRS?

ALEC isn't the only organization dancing on the line between being a non-profit and a lobbyist. I'll post some examples in my next post.