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//?

Fourteen so-called fake electors who participated in former President Donald Trump’s 2020 scheme to throw the election results into chaos will once again serve as electors for Trump in 2024, including several who currently face criminal charges.

With input from the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, Republican state parties in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Nevada have renominated 14 of the 84 fake electors from the 2020 election. Wisconsin's electors aren't publicly available until the first week of October, according to state election officials. A legal settlement bars unauthorized Wisconsin 2020 electors from serving as electors for Trump again.

There are no repeat electors from 2020 on this year’s Republican slates for Arizona and Georgia, the other two states where fake electors signed certificates incorrectly declaring Trump the winner.

The 14 former fake electors who are serving again include the Nevada Republican Party chairman, the Republican National Committeeman from Pennsylvania and several current or former county chairs.

usatoday

"Politically or in terms of the health of our democracy, the idea that people who potentially committed a crime in trying to further a scheme to subvert the results of the 2020 election... the idea that they are in any way involved in politics is troubling," Director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA School of Law Rick Hasen said.

While some may have acted with the belief that they were just a back up if there was a legal change to the outcome, Hasen noted, "some of them, there have at least been allegations that they knew what they were doing and they knowingly engaged in criminal conduct."

None of the 14 repeat electors responded to USA TODAY's attempts to contact them.

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump is facing four felony charges in Washington, D.C. related to leading conspiracies to reverse the 2020 results and disenfranchise millions of voters. He has refused to commit to unconditionally accepting the results of the upcoming 2024 election, and while he has sometimes acknowledged that he lost the 2020 race, he has also continued to falsely tell supporters that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.

Pending charges

Charges have been brought against the fake electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada, as well as some people working with Trump.

Some of the cases are moving very slowly. In August, a Maricopa County judge set a tentative trial date of Jan. 5, 2026, for Arizona's fake electors case. The state GOP did not renominate any of the 2020 electors. In Nevada, the state has appealed to the state supreme court a lower court decision to reject the fake electors case stating it had been filed in the wrong county.

More:‘Somewhat dicey' and ‘problematic’: Inside Trump's bid to have fake electors overturn 2020 election

Still, electors might think twice about being party to signing such certificates again, Hasen said.

"Anyone who's an elector who's asked to do something shady this time, might think, hmm, last time around, these people were indicted, so maybe I shouldn't do that," Hasen said.

Michigan

The Michigan Republican Party has renominated the most fake electors. Six names that appeared on a certificate falsely claiming that Trump had won the state are on the 2024 list of 15 electors provided by the Michigan Secretary of State's office: Amy Facchinello, John Haggard, Timothy King, Marian Sheridan, Hank Choate and Meshawn Maddock–a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party.

Trump lost Michigan in 2020 by about 154,000 votes.

All six of them face criminal charges. The trial has not yet been scheduled but isn't expected to begin this year.

Choate's attorney, David Kallman, said the pending 2020 charges shouldn't affect who is picked to be a 2024 elector. Choate has pleaded not guilty.

"This was another election year. This really has nothing to do with the last 2020, election," he said. "I don't think it really impacts the criminal case at all."

Kallman said that Choate didn't know he was doing anything wrong in 2020. He said Trump's attorney's told the electors that the certificate would only be used if Trump's campaign won a court case overturning the results of the election in Michigan or if the state legislature stepped in.

"My client was told by people he trusted, attorneys at this meeting, that this wasn't going to be used unless one of those things happened," Kallman said.

He said electors were only presented with the page to sign their names, not the page that falsely claimed that they voted in the Capitol building and that Trump won.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Republicans submitted a list of presidential electors to the secretary of state’s office with five former fake electors: Bill Bachenberg, Bernadette Comfort, Ash Khare, Pat Poprik and Andy Reilly. The state has 19 electoral votes. Trump lost in 2020 by about 80,000 votes.

Reilly, an attorney, is also the Republican National Committeeman from Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania electors wouldn't sign the fake certificate in 2020 unless the forms specifically said that their votes weren't to be counted until the courts ruled in Trump's favor. Therefore, electors have not been charged with a crime.

Khare, who has been an elector since 1990, told USA TODAY in April that he advocated to include that clause.

"We wanted to make sure that we’re not doing anything illegal," he said.

Nevada

The Nevada Republican Party renominated Michael McDonald, the chair of the state party, and Jesse Law, chairman of the Republican party of Clark County, both of whom signed the 2020 certificate although Trump lost the state by 154,000 votes. The state has six electoral votes.

McDonald, a longtime friend of Trump's who is senior adviser to the 2024 Trump campaign, and Law were among the electors indicted in Nevada. The case, which was dismissed over questions of whether it was filed in the correct county, has been appealed by Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, to the state Supreme Court.

Trump lost Nevada by more than 30,000 votes.

New Mexico

The New Mexico Republican Party renominated Deborah Weh Maestas, the former state party chair. The state has five electoral votes. It's role in the scheme was always considered an outlier. New Mexico is not a swing state and has supported Democrats in every presidential election since 2008. Trump lost there in 2020 but about 100,000 votes.

Like in Pennsylvania, the 2020 New Mexico electors wouldn't sign unless the forms specifically said that their votes weren't to be counted until the courts ruled in Trump's favor. New Mexico electors have not been charged with a crime.

More:Wisconsin is the last state that may prosecute Trump’s fake electors, but AG Josh Kaul is mum

A key legal change since 2020

Electors normally draw little to no attention. In a presidential election year, each party nominates state electors who will vote for their presidential nominee in the Electoral College if their candidate wins. Party leaders such as the county party chairs or local elected officials are normally selected. Their names must be submitted to the state before the election and made publicly available.

But in 2020 GOP officials in seven states that President Joe Biden won sent fake electoral certificates to Congress stating that former President Donald Trump had actually won. The certificates were an effort to baselessly convince lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence that there were substantial questions about the outcome of the election in swing states.

The House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and Trump's efforts to stay in power after losing the election found that the fake electoral certificates were part of a coordinated effort by Trump's allies to block Congress from certifying the election results. They wanted Congress to return th

Pence refused to accept, or even consider, the "alternate" electoral slates.

Jonathan Diaz, Director of Voting Advocacy for advocacy group Campaign Legal Center, said it is unlikely that scheme would be successful again. In 2022, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act, which changed the rules so Congress can only count electoral certificates signed by the governor of the state or another official approved by state law when the House and Senate meet to count the votes on Jan. 6. It also raised the threshold for members of Congress to object to counting a state from one representative and one senator to one-fifth of each chamber. Also, in 2023 the Supreme Court ruled in Moore v. Harper that state legislatures have little power to overturn election results.

"It's really going to be much, much more difficult for a slate of fake electors to try the same kind of shenanigans that they did in 2020," Diaz said. "The [2022 law] was really targeted at plugging the holes that existed in the previous process, because the law was so old, and really making sure that the kind of effort that we saw focused on that joint session of Congress can't occur again."

*USA TODAY reporter Erin Mansfield contributed to this article

===

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Illinois pastor prevails in subpoena fight with Fulton DA’s office

Prosecutors to submit additional evidence to compel witness’ testimony

Special grand jury wants to hear more about pressure campaign to overturn 2020 election

Caption

Politics

By Tamar Hallerman

Nov 11, 2022

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that on Sept. 6, a certificate of material witness was issued from the Fulton County special grand jury seeking the testimony of former Black Voices for Trump Director Harrison Floyd. Such certificates, when approved by a judge in a witness’ home state, essentially function as an equivalent to a subpoena. Floyd objected to the AJC’s characterization of the grand jury’s action as a “subpoena” in a previous version of the article.

An Illinois pastor became the second known witness to win his subpoena battle to avoid testifying before the Fulton County special grand jury probing whether President Donald Trump and his allies criminally interfered in Georgia’s 2020 elections.

A police chaplain who currently leads a suburban Chicago Lutheran church, Rev. Stephen Cliffgard Lee is one of the more obscure witnesses who have been called to testify before the Fulton grand jury. He was allegedly at the center of the effort to pressure Fulton County poll worker Ruby Freeman to falsely admit to committing election fraud in late 2020 and early 2021, according to court filings.

Kendall County Judge Robert Pilmer on Wednesday denied the Lee’s summons, technically known as a certificate of material witness. He said the Fulton County District Attorney’s office, which is advising the grand jury, did not provide enough evidence to prove Lee was a “necessary” and “material” witness to the investigation and thus compel him to travel to Atlanta.

“The court finds that Stephen Cliffgard Lee is not a material witness based on the facts in the judge’s certificate,” Pilmer wrote in his order, referring to the certificate of material witness signed by Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney on Oct. 7.

Pilmer’s order gives Fulton authorities 30 days to file an amended certificate or provide additional information.

“If they can provide more details to the judge, he will consider it,” said Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis, whose office represented the Fulton DA’s in the proceedings.

A spokesman for the Fulton DA’s office said prosecutors will refile a petition with additional evidence. McBurney, who oversees the grand jury investigation, would need to greenlight the document before it could be sent back to Kendall County, where Lee lives.

David Shestokas, Lee’s attorney,said the certificate McBurney signed is faulty because it heavily relies on representations made by the DA’s office.

“The representations of a lawyer in a courtroom are not evidence. They are argument,” he said. “Evidence is sworn testimony, affidavits executed under penalty of perjury… McBurney didn’t send us a shred of evidence.”

Shestokas added, “if Georgia wants (Lee) to do something, they have to properly comply with the law. What they sent here to Illinois was insufficient.”

icon to expand image

Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, became targets of vitriol and death threats for their work counting ballots at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena on election night. Then-President Donald Trump, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and others seized on surveillance footage that they said showed the women pulling out hidden ballots for Democrat Joe Biden from “suitcases.”

Federal and state authorities looked into the matter and quickly determined that Freeman and Moss did nothing wrong. The alleged suitcases were in actuality official ballot carriers holding legitimately-cast votes.

But that didn’t stop the harassment.

Trevian Kutti, a former publicist for Kanye West, knocked on Freeman’s door on Jan. 4, 2021, claiming to be a crisis manager sent by a “high-profile individual” and told Freeman to confess to committing election fraud or risk being arrested.

A certificate of material witness was issued for Kutti’s testimony by the grand jury. A certificate of material witness was also issued for former Black Voices for Trump Director Harrison Floyd, who also spoke with Freeman.

Lee spoke with Kutti that day and the following day, according to his certificate of material witness, and he allegedly asked Floyd to arrange the meeting with Freeman.

Police body cam footage also shows that Lee had personally visited Freeman’s Cobb County home several weeks earlier, on Dec. 15, 2020, which prompted Freeman to call the police several times. In the footage, Lee acknowledged he had knocked on Freeman’s door and offered to provide “pro bono service” to her, left and then returned.

Lee, Fulton prosecutors said, “possesses unique knowledge concerning communications between himself and other known and unknown individuals involved in the multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.” The DA’s office said Lee’s testimony was also “essential” because it was likely to reveal additional sources of information for the investigation.

The efforts to pressure Freeman have become a major interest of the investigation. Prosecutors have also focused on phone calls Trump and his allies placed to Georgia officials; tumult in the Atlanta U.S. attorney’s office; testimony Giuliani and other Trump allies gave to state legislators; the appointment of a slate of phony GOP electors; and the breach of elections data in Coffee County.

Most of the out-of-state witnesses who have fought their subpoenas have been forced to comply by judges. That includes top officials like U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

The only publicly known witness who was able to defeat her subpoena is Jacki Pick. The Dallas lawyer and podcast host won on a technicality: her testimony date had already passed and a judge ruled that she subsequently didn’t need to go to Atlanta. But, more significantly, Pick also convinced a majority of judges on the Court of Criminal Appeals that the Fulton special grand jury was “civil” and not “criminal” in nature because it can’t issue subpoenas, thus making its summons unenforceable under interstate subpoena rules.

Several other witnesses, including Gingrich and Meadows, have made similar arguments in court, though judges in their home states of Virginia and South Carolina rejected them. At least one other Texas witness has subsequently ignored their testimony date in Atlanta, presumptively because of the Pick ruling.

Staff writer Bill Rankin contributed to this article.

About the Author

Tamar Hallerman

Follow Tamar Hallerman on twitter

Tamar Hallerman is an award-winning senior reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She covers the Fulton County investigation into whether former President Donald Trump or his allies criminally interfered in Georgia's 2020 elections.

===

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jacki brings expertise to the Life: Powered initiative at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Currently the host of The Jacki Daily Show, she has had an impressive career in energy, law, and politics.

Most recently, Deason served as Chief Operating Officer for a free market think tank specializing in health care policy, entitlement reform, and energy policy. Previously, she served many years as legal counsel on Capitol Hill to the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and the former Ranking Member of the Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee, advising on the oversight of federal agencies. Prior to her career in Washington, she worked as a litigator and as an Assistant Vice President for a national bank.

Prior to her legal career, Jacki served as the Public Relations Director for a statewide political organization.

Jacki studied Economics, Spanish, and World History at Marshall University (Society of Yeager Scholars), Oxford University in the United Kingdom,and the University of Zaragoza in Spain. She is an alumna of the Vanderbilt University Law School, where she served as the President of the law school’s Federalist Society chapter.

Jacki is from the Ohio River Valley, where the shale runs deep. She descends from a long line of energy workers, including roughnecks, railroaders, coal miners, and nuclear energy specialists.

ggl 7 22

Jacki Deason - Texas Public Policy Foundation https://www.texaspolicy.com › people › jacki-pick

Currently the host of The Jacki Daily Show, she has had an impressive career in energy, law, and politics. Most recently, Deason served as Chief Operating ...

Jacki Pick Deason | The Federalist Society https://fedsoc.org › contributors › jacki-pick-deason

Apr 1, 2019 — Previously, she served many years as legal counsel on Capitol Hill to the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and the former ...

Jacki Deason Subpoenaed in Georgia Criminal Investigation https://www.dmagazine.com › frontburner › 2022/07

Jul 5, 2022 — Among those who received subpoenas, including Rudy Giuliani and Senator Lindsey Graham, was the Dallas-based lawyer Jacki Deason, who is a ...

Jacki Deason - Previously held position - LegiStorm https://www.legistorm.com › bio › Jacki_Pick_Deason

See more about Jacki Deason including contact information, congressional salary, employment history, education, family relationships, related organizations ...

Jacki Pick Deason 7-5-22 - DocumentCloud https://www.documentcloud.org › documents › 220797...

Jul 5, 2022 — IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF FULTON COUNTY FILED iN OFFICE DEPUTY CLERK SUPERIOR COURT FULTON COUNTY, GA STATE OF GEORGIA ie IN RE: SPECIAL ...

Missing: lawyer ‎| Must include: lawyer

Meet Jacki - The Jacki Daily Show https://www.jackidaily.com › meet-jacki

Previously, Jacki worked for an engineering firm specializing in energy production, national security, and environmental cleanup. She served as legal counsel on ...

jacki pick fellow spotlight - Claremont Institute https://www.claremont.org › page › jacki-pick-fellow-s...

I am the Host of The Jacki Daily Show (airing on TheBlaze, on the dial in Texas, and podcast on iHeartRadio and iTunes) and a Senior Fellow at the Texas Public ...

Jacki Pick Deason Archives - The Atlanta Voice https://theatlantavoice.com › tag › jacki-pick-deason

Jul 6, 2022 — The Georgia prosecutor investigating the conduct of former President Donald Trump and his allies after the 2020 election is subpoenaing U.S. ...

Jacki (@JackiDailyHost) / Twitterhttps://twitter.com › jackidailyhost

Share this podcast. Save a life. 485% spike in #fentanyl deaths #Texas as knockoff drugs (Perc., Adderall) & recreational drugs (Cocaine, ...

The Jacki Daily Show - Home | Facebook https://www.facebook.com › Pages › Other › Community

The Jacki Daily Show. 13622 likes · 32 talking about this. Jacki talks all things energy on TheBlaze, on the dial in Texas, & podcasts on iHeartRadio,...

===

an 7 22

far-right Republican U.S. Congressman is the latest to receive a subpoena from Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney **Fani Willis**‘ special criminal grand jury investigation into Trump allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

**Rep. Jody Hice** (R-GA), who was endorsed by Donald Trump in the race for the GOP nomination to become Georgia Secretary of State, received the subpoena which instructs him to appear Tuesday morning, Politico reports.

“The subpoena underscores the rapidly escalating pace of District Attorney Fani Willis’ investigation, which has already issued subpoenas to other figures close to Trump, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.”

Hice is a former far-right radio show host and pastor. He lost the GOP Secretary of State primary against incumbent Brad Raffensperger. Before getting elected to Congress Hice was probably best-known for his claim that LGBTQ people have a secret plot to seduce and sodomize America’s sons.

“In a 2012 book, that candidate—pastor and talk radio host Jody Hice—alleges the gay community has a secret plot to recruit and sodomize children.” Mother Jones reported in 2014. “In It’s Now or Never: A Call to Reclaim America, Hice also asserts that supporters of abortion rights are worse than Hitler and compares gay relationships to bestiality and incest. He proposes that Muslims be stripped of their First Amendment rights.”

ref july 7 an

Former President Donald Trump published two posts on his Twitter-knockoff app Truth Social on Thursday indicating that he is extremely agitated about the criminal investigation into his infamous post-2020 election scheme to strongarm Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" nonexistent votes.

Trump called Raffensperger twice after victory was declared for President Joe Biden and strongly urged Raffensperger to, somehow, scrounge up 11,780 ballots – one more than the margin of Trump's upset loss to Biden – so that he could be awarded the Peach State's 16 Electoral College votes. It was one of, if not the most, glaring example of Trump's efforts to manipulate the results of the presidential contest.

Last month, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis convened a grand jury to determine whether Trump had engaged in "the solicitation of election fraud, making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, and violation of oath of office," all of which are felonies that carry severe penalties.

On Tuesday, subpoenas were served to seven Trump World confederates: Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), who also phoned Raffensperger on behalf of the brooding soon-to-be-ex-commander in chief; Trump's television attorney Rudy Giuliani and his associate Jenna Ellis; coup architect John Eastman (who was behind the coordinated campaign to send fraudulent slates of electors to Washington from multiple swing states that Trump lost); as well as three lesser-known lawyers – Jacki Pick Deason, Kenneth Chesebro, and Cleta Mitchell – the latter of whom was present for Trump's clandestine chat with Raffensperger.

“During the telephone call, the witness and others made allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia and pressured Secretary Raffensperger to take action in his official capacity to investigate unfounded claims of fraud," Mitchell's subpoena says.

On Wednesday, Willis indicated that subpoenaing Trump himself is a real possibility and that more of his allies are in her sights.

“Anything’s possible,” Willis told NBC News while stressing that nothing is being rushed or overlooked. "We’ll just have to see where the investigation leads us. I think that people thought that we came into this as some kind of game. This is not a game at all. What I am doing is very serious. It’s very important work. And we’re going to do our due diligence and making sure that we look at all aspects of the case."

These developments are having a noticeably negative impact on Trump's psyche.

On Thursday morning, Trump defended his exhortative conversations with Raffensperger and repeated his Big Lie that the election was a hoax.

"BOTH of my phone calls to Georgia were PERFECT. I had an absolute right to make them &, in fact, the story on the one call was given a retraction, or apology, by the Washington Post because they were given terribly false information about it, & when they heard the actual call, they realized that their story was wrong. Thank you to the W.P. I, as does anyone else (just look at the Democrats!), have the absolute right to challenge the results of an Election," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This one, CORRUPT, RIGGED, & STOLEN!"

The Washington Post article mentioned by Trump was not what he is making it out to be.

On March 16, 2021, the paper corrected a couple of misquotes that it had printed. It did not, as Trump claimed, promulgate "terribly false information" or perpetuate misleading data about the 2020 election.

Correspondent Erik Wemple noted that "in a time of much-overblown chatter about election irregularities, this call between the president of the United States and a state-level investigator was the real irregularity." What mattered, Wemple continued, was that "the call happened; it was an abuse of presidential authority; and it failed to corrupt the investigators working under Raffensperger. But Trump wasn’t quite the plain-spoken rogue depicted in The Post’s story."

Nevertheless, an hour after his first Thursday rant, Trump baselessly accused unspecified "others" of screwing him out of a second term.

"I did NOTHING wrong in Georgia, but others did," Trump seethed. "They CHEATED in the 2020 Presidential Election, and those are the ones that should be investigated (and prosecuted)! Letter to follow."

[Meanwhile, the fallout from Trump going down to Georgia](https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-pardon/ "view post: Rudy Giuliani: 'It would have been perfectly legitimate' to ask Donald Trump for a pardon" is compounded by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, whose seventh public hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday at 10:00 a.m.

Its theme, according to the bipartisan panel's announcement on Wednesday, will be the suspected coordination between Team Trump and white nationalist groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in the leadup to the violent insurrection.

===

Lauren Kuby, Councilmember from the City of Tempe, Arizona

Much like plastic debris makes its way into the innocent stomachs of our wildlife, I recently found myself in the belly of the proverbial beast—theAmerican Legislative Exchange Council(ALEC). ALEC held its annual meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, the first week in December. And, as a recently elected Councilmember from Tempe, Arizona, I attended on my own dime.

In a new twist of the ALEC playbook, policymakers and lobbyists have formed a mini-ALEC called "ACCE," the AmericanCity and CountyExchange. Its director, John Russell, has proclaimed that ACCE will do for cities what ALEC has done for states—which he described as serving as a "nonpartisan free market forum" for local elected officials to learn from "industry experts and policy analysts." Translation: while Congress is gridlocked, cities are driving progressive change, so let's use our fossil-fueled cash to put an end to such change.

The ACCE meeting was tiny (25 participants) compared to its behemoth brother (nearly 700 attendees) and—surprise—diversity was lacking. Three women and no minorities in the group of 25 mostly older city and county officials.

I had run for Tempe City Council as a sustainability champion, eager to make a difference in my community. Early in my term, I gained Council approval to study the efficacy of a single-use plastic bag ban (PBB) for our university town. The State of Arizona glanced at our meeting agenda and banned bag bans outright, choking back hypocrisy as they claimed that the State trumps local decision-making on waste management and recycling.

Not happy about state interference in local concerns, I signed on as plaintiff in a lawsuit brought by attorney Tim Hogan of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest. Our case argues that the ban on bag bans takes away local control and thus violates the home-rule provision of the Arizona Constitution.

I was curious to tiptoe into the den of corporate influence and quietly observe the right-wing's righteous anger towards cities who were innovating and saving taxpayer money.

ALEC/ACCE Pay-to-Play Example: the Plastic Bag Industry

First up, Philip Rozenski, director of "sustainability" and marketing for Novolex, the leading manufacturer of grocery bags that went by the name of Helix Poly until recently.

Arguably the most-traveled plastic-bag advocate in the country, Rozenski lives to deride advocates who are taking local action against the environmental, social, and economic impacts of plastic pollution to our waterways, public health, and supply chain.

Rozenski washed the room green with his claim that Novolex bags are good for the environment, as they use 30% recycled content. He failed to mention that, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, only 13% of plastic bags are recycled properly and that bags improperly recycled pollute marine environments, clog recycling sorters, litter roadways, and saddle cities with cleanup costs.

Another elephant in the room? Novolex was the single largest contributor to a campaign sponsored by the "American Progressive Bag Alliance"—the trade group for plastic bag manufacturers—to sidetrack California's Plastic Bag Ban. The Alliance spent over $3.2 million to repeal California's recently enacted law.

Rozenski warned the room's elected officials of the growing trend of city PBBs, which he described as "feel-good legislation" that serves as "stepping stones to the regulation of all packaging." He argued that, just as environmentalists play on emotion with visuals of bags littering the landscape, his alliance should likewise dramatize the "dangers of E. coli contamination" in reusable bags to win over the public. (Never mind that the study he references found that 99.99% of said bacteria is eliminated simply upon washing reusable bags.) With scant evidence, he also claimed that 5–10% of consumers living in cities with bag bans "flee" their cities' grocery stores to shop elsewhere.

He also was hoisted with his own petard when he argued that bag bans increase a retailer's costs. In reality, a five-fold cost increase for a grocer—from a penny per plastic bag to a nickel per paper bag—actually equates to a six-cent profit given that grocers can charge 10 cents for a paper bag should a consumer forget their reusable bag. Under this business-friendly equation, a penny saved from not buying plastic and a nickel earned from charging for paper equals a six-cent profit!

Under Rozenski's conjuring, cities considering PBBs go to untold lengths to avoid public discussion and offer only a three-day notice for the vote. In another of Rozenski's imagined scenarios, PBB advocates employ "crowd shaming" tactics to twist the arms of councilmembers to force their pro-bag-ban vote. I'm not sure what universe he comes from (where do paid shills originate?) but, in my city of Tempe, staff, business associations, and the public vet every policy proposal thoroughly—a sometimes a long and difficult process.

Fracking: "Preemption" or Bust

The next topic at ACCE's "Trending Regulations in Local Government Hurting Economic Growth" session was the supposed "epidemic" of "draconian" local restrictions against fracking.

The presenterJacki Pickis the Vice-President of an operation called the "National Center for Policy Analysis," another "free-market" think tank funded by foundations established by right-wing business families and billionaires including—you guessed it—the Koch brothers. She is also a talk show host from Glen Beck's The Blaze Radio Network.

She offered up the case study of a fracking ban passed deep in the heart of Texas and compared the process to a "frog gradually boiling in the pot and not realizing what is going on."

She claimed that in Denton, Texas, like other cities, activists come to town and "attach" themselves to a professor who, in turn, pressures "unemployed college kids with lots of time on their hands" to take on the fracking fight.She suggested that professors were violating the law and that the process "needs to be shut down." She decried the influence of the 6,000 college kids who voted for the fracking ban: "They don't live there, don't pay taxes there. Yet they're deciding these issues."

I barely restrained myself from jumping to the microphone and educating the slack-jawed audience that: 1) the college kids I mentor hold multiple jobs to afford the high cost of tuition; 2) the U.S. Census counts college students where they attend school, not where their parents live, and democracy allows American adults to vote where they live; and 3) the Denton Fracking Ban passed by an overwhelming margin. The students' votes were merely the frosting on the cake.

This Cassandra of the Right continued to warn that "the oil and gas industry will be destroyed unless conservatives act." She complained that anti-fracking activists were turning conservatives' talking points—such as those that argue for decentralizing power and local rule—against them: "Get out in front of these activists who are ginning up discontent. That is how they make money...science is on our side."

While municipal plastic bag and fracking bans are on the rise, so is state interference with our local decision-making and corporate worries over the impacts of local action.

After three hours in the belly of the ALEC/ACCE beast, I felt sullied by their deceitful claims and defeated.

What could be a better antidote than a meeting of councilmembers on the front line of the preemption fight?

I boarded a plane to Washington, DC, to cleanse my spirit and refresh my belief that local actions make a difference and that the progress of cities is unstoppable--despite the efforts of ALEC and ACCE.

- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/12/12998/alec-and-acce-pay-play-meeting-belly-beast-scottsdale#sthash.JGxKMwtV.dpuf

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/12/12998/alec-and-acce-pay-play-meeting-belly-beast-scottsdale

in addition to her work at NCPA, Ms. Pick is the Host of The Jacki Daily Show on Glenn Beck's The Blaze Radio Network. Prior to launching the show, she served as General Counsel to a defense contractor specializing in energy. Previously, Jacki served as legal counsel on Capitol Hill to the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and the former Ranking Member of the Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee, advising on the oversight of federal agencies. Prior to her career in Washington, she worked as acorporate litigator, and as an Assistant Vice President for a major national bank.

She is a 2003 graduate of the Vanderbilt University School of Law and a member of Marshall University's Society of Yeager Scholars.

- See more at: http://www.ncpa.org/about/jacki-pick#sthash.TGQCvLPi.dpuf