Save Our States

===

MERRI OK

see LEO

SEE MINORITY RULE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

// GERRY, VOTER SUPPRESS

STINKTANKS OKLA

---

GOP Puppetmaster Expands His Dark-Money Operation

The move could help shield Leonard Leo’s dark-money network from further legal fallout, watchdogs tell Rolling Stone

By Andrew Perez

February 20, 2024

:{:{WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 9: Right-wing activist Leonard Leo, C, attends the 2023 Antonin Scalia Memorial Dinner that is part of the Federalist Society's 2023 National Lawyers Convention at the Washington Hilton Hotel on November 9, 2023, in Washington, D.C.}:

Conservative activist and judicial puppetmaster Leonard Leo is building out his dark-money network.

A counsel at one of Leo’s primary nonprofits recently registered two new dark-money organizations with subsidiaries whose names just so happen to be very similar to groups through which Leo has run some of his most effective activism campaigns.

“The network’s infrastructure is expanding to keep up with new projects, and there will be more to come,” a person close to the network tells Rolling Stone.

The move comes amid increased scrutiny on Leo and his dark-money network in the wake of his crowning achievement: the Supreme Court decision eliminating the federal right to an abortion. With Leo’s network facing a reported attorney general probe and subpoena threats from Congress, he and his allies may be trying to shield their right-wing advocacy operation from legal fallout, watchdog groups say.

“As Leonard Leo faces increasing scrutiny for his shady nonprofit network, it’s no surprise he’s desperately trying to rebrand,” says Caroline Ciccone, president at the watchdog group Accountable.US. “But no matter how many sketchy new groups he comes up with, he can’t rebrand the extreme agenda he’s still attempting to force on everyday Americans.”

Leo, who co-chairs the Federalist Society, the influential conservative lawyers network in Washington, is known as the architect of the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority. Leo served as former President Donald Trump’s judicial adviser — helping him select three justices while simultaneously directing the dark-money campaigns to boost their confirmations. His network has spread money around to help bring cases before the Supreme Court, determine which cases the justices consider, and influence the court’s decisions.

With success has come public attention. Leo’s summer home in Maine has become the site of regular protests. He’s also attracted legal scrutiny. Last summer, Politico reported that the Washington, D.C., attorney general launched an investigation into whether Leo has misused nonprofit laws for personal enrichment, following a watchdog complaint pointing out that nonprofits under Leo’s control have paid tens of millions to his for-profit firms.

In November, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to authorize a subpoena after Leo refused to provide lawmakers with a full accounting of all gifts and payments that he has directed to Supreme Court justices and their spouses. The vote followed reports that Leo steered secret consulting payments to Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, and arranged Justice Samuel Alito’s seat on a private jet — paid for by a billionaire hedge-fund chief — as part of an undisclosed luxury fishing trip in Alaska in 2008.

Leo has publicly refused to cooperate with the reported D.C. probe, with his lawyer arguing that the district’s attorney general, Brian Schwalb, has “no legal authority to conduct any investigatory steps or take any enforcement measures.” Leo has also refused to comply with the promised Senate subpoena, saying in a statement: “I will not cooperate with this unlawful campaign of political retribution.” (The subpoena has not yet been issued.)

A devout Catholic, Leo is one of the most powerful political operatives in the United States. In 2021, he was gifted an unprecedented $1.6 billion dark money fund, with the purpose of shifting American society further to the right.

In a recent report on the strained relationship between Leo and Trump, The Washington Post wrote that Leo “has told others he no longer talks to Trump’s advisers and is largely focused on spending billions to reshape the country in a more conservative direction with a focus on non-election issues.”

Still, he is best known for his efforts to remake the Supreme Court, particularly under Trump.

Leo’s Supreme Court advocacy campaigns, which date back to 2005, were long run through the Judicial Crisis Network. Its sister charitable arm was known as the Judicial Education Project. In 2020, Leo and his allies rebranded those organizations as the Concord Fund and 85 Fund, respectively, and designed the groups to act as fiscal sponsors, or hubs for new advocacy and educational groups. The structure makes it easy to launch new organizations or campaigns; forming a new group is as simple as registering a trade name. (The rebranded organizations registered the Judicial Crisis Network and Judicial Education Project as trade names.)

The 85 Fund and the Concord Fund were both named in the watchdog complaint to the Washington, D.C., attorney general, Schwalb. Not long after the complaint, the 85 Fund moved its corporate registration to Texas, withdrew its charter from Virginia, and withdrew its D.C. registration, business filings show.

More recently, Leo’s team created two new nonprofit hubs.

“This might be an effort to muck up the D.C. attorney general’s investigations and potential Senate subpoenas,” says Brendan Fischer, deputy executive director at the watchdog group Documented. “Creating new legal entities won’t entirely stop those probes, but it could help insulate Leo’s network from the consequences.”

Hypothetically, Fischer says, an order enjoining one of the existing Leo groups from conducting certain activities in D.C. “wouldn’t have much bite” if the group’s activities have been absorbed by a new entity.

O.H. Skinner, a counsel at the 85 Fund, formed the two new nonprofits in Virginia on Dec. 21, business records show. The groups are called the Publius Fund and the Lexington Fund.

Skinner subsequently registered some familiar new trade names within those groups. The Judicial Education Project Fund is part of the Publius Fund, while the Judicial Crisis Network Fund is in the Lexington Fund.

The new organizations also have trade names affiliated with the Honest Elections Project, a Leo network entity that’s worked to restrict voting access, as well as the Alliance for Consumers, the Leo group that Skinner leads.

The list of new trade names suggests a merger of sorts between Leo’s network and a nonprofit called Save Our States, which has led the fight in the states to defend the Electoral College — the anti-democratic system that decides the United States president — and to block states from joining the “National Popular Vote interstate compact.”

Save Our States’ executive director, Trent England, was recently listed as a counsel at the 85 Fund.

The trade names also include two variants of the name “American Parents Coalition” — suggesting Leo’s network may be expanding its efforts to push the education system to the right. His existing network already includes an “anti-critical race theory” group called Free to Learn, which has been involved in local school board elections.

“It looks like there is a PR effort underway to distance Leo from Trump … but the reality is that Leo is fanning the flames that could help fuel Trump’s run, incubating groups targeting parents and consumers to push the country to the far right,” says Lisa Graves, executive director at True North Research, which researches Leo’s network. “His targeting of suburban school boards looks like Moms for Liberty’s repressive agenda without the baggage, to fuel GOTV [efforts] that would help Trump and the MAGA Republicans.”

In this article: Donald Trump, Leonard Leo, Supreme Court

---

saveourstates

off bs

1 25

Defending the Electoral College and the Constitution since 2009

About

Blog

Media

Resources

Donate

Take Action

Electoral College

Elections

Economy

Foreign Threats

To save

our republic,

we must

save our states

SOS Home Hero

The constitutional power of the states is under constant attack. Why? Because states are essential to defending limited government, maintaining checks and balances, and even protecting our national security.

Defend your state today:

...Electoral College

Defending the Electoral College

The Electoral College unifies, moderates, and protects American politics. It is part of what makes the United States a federal republic. For more than 230 years, the United States has enjoyed exceptional success with constitutional and representative government. One reason is the Electoral College.

Learn More

Elections

Protecting honest elections

Whether an election is for presidential electors or school board members, the system should be transparent and verifiably honest. We oppose proposals like ranked-choice voting that make elections needlessly complicated and support policies that help voters trust the process.

Learn More

Elections

Promoting voter participation

The lowest turnout elections are those held “off cycle” at odd times of the year. These obscure elections often increase the power of insiders at the expense of everyone else. This is wrong and unnecessary. The easiest way for states to increase voter participation is by consolidating election days.

Learn more

Economy

Protecting jobs and savings

Our economy is threatened by a campaign called ESG, which claims to promote responsible Environmental, Social, and Governance policies in businesses. Consumers’ Research, founded in 1929 to educate and protect consumers, says ESG should really stand for Erasing Savings and Growth. States must act—and many are—to protect jobs and savings from ESG.

Learn more

Foreign Threats

Standing up to foreign threats

From Chinese Communist Party–backed businesses buying American infrastructure to Russian and North Korean state-sponsored hackers, we face too many serious threats simply to wait for action from Washington, DC. States have the power to protect agriculture, ports, communications infrastructure, and educational institutions from foreign interference.

Learn more

Who we are

Saving our republic by saving our states

Save Our States was founded in 2009 to defend the Electoral College from the dangerous National Popular Vote campaign, which would nullify the Electoral College without a constitutional amendment.

Speaker at conference

National review

The Hill logo

USA today logo

Fox News logo

Since that time, we have expanded our work to help states improve elections and use their power to defend our republic. Save Our States provides experts to meet with legislators, write articles, speak to civic organizations, and appear in the media.

From the blog

Michigan, and other states, have constitutions that may prohibit NPV

Dec 23, 2024 by Staff

Many states have constitutional provisions that limit voting to state residents.

Will Democrat electors support Harris?

Dec 17, 2024 by Trent England

After a bruising year for Democrats, it would be unsurprising to see some of their presidential electors take the opportunity to make their own voices heard.

2024 “official” National Popular Vote Results

Dec 13, 2024 by Sean Parnell

NPV is extremely vulnerable when it comes to actually adding up votes, in particular when it comes to non-member states not following the timeline required by a compact they are not a party to.

How to win NPV in 2028

Dec 09, 2024 by Sean Parnell

The argument that rural America will get plenty of attention if NPV is in effect is simply nonsense.

The war on ESG

Dec 06, 2024 by Harry Roth

ESG, short for Environmental, Social, and Governance, is a left-wing movement to force companies to focus on “net-zero” climate policies, DEI, and woke corporate restructuring instead of maximizing shareholder value—a legal obligation for public corporations.

Arizona Republicans shut down National Popular Vote talk

Nov 22, 2024 by Harry Roth

Lobbyists for the National Popular Vote interstate compact have long targeted Arizona in hopes of adding its eleven electoral votes to their unconstitutional compact scheme.

Will DEI survive a second Trump presidency?

Nov 15, 2024 by Harry Roth

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or DEI for short, is a framework to implement radical racial, gender, and sexual policies in public and private institutions.

Trump wins 520 electoral votes?

Nov 07, 2024 by Trent England

Every NPV state went for Harris. If those states actually followed through on their supposed dedication to the national popular vote concept, they would give their 209 electoral votes to the Republican ticket.

Still Waiting on the ‘National Popular Vote’ Winner

Nov 07, 2024 by Sean Parnell

Under NPV, we’d likely have another three or four weeks of waiting, with all the chaos and confusion that would bring. That doesn’t seem healthy for our democracy.

The Electoral College and Constitutionalism

Nov 04, 2024 by Trent England

Tomorrow, Americans will vote for their state’s presidential electors. This is the first step in the two-part democratic election process set forth in the Constitution for choosing the president and vice president.

Safeguard Film

How do presidential elections really work? And what would happen if we changed the rules? In Safeguard: An Electoral College Story, award-winning filmmaker M.A. Taylor answers those questions.

Watch the film

Safeguard film

Books

Why do we have the Electoral College, and how does it protect our politics? What is ranked-choice voting, who’s behind it, and how does it make voting harder? The founder of Save Our States answers these questions in two brief books.

Buy the books

Books for website

Join the fight to save our states

The states are under attack but together we can save our republic.

Email *

First Name *

Last Name *

State *

Choose your State

Join the Mailing List

Defending the Electoral College and the Constitution since 2009

Electoral College

Elections

Economy

Foreign Threats

About

Blog

Media

Resources

Donate

(405) 421-9779

•

digital@saveourstates.com

•

1401 N Lincoln Blvd, Oklahoma City, OK 73104

Chairman

Institute for Justice
Leadership Institute
Only Citizens Vote Coalition
Patient Rights Advocates
Save Our States

Vice Chairman

Altria
Arnold Ventures
Casey Family Programs
Consumers’ Research
Honest Elections Project
PhRMA
Stand Together Trust
State Financial Officers Foundation
Texans for Clean Water
Yes. Every Kid.

Director

Combat Antisemitism Movement

Trustee

DailyPay

===

cmd da 12 24

With less than two months until Trump begins his second term, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is meeting in Washington, D.C., this week for its annual States and Nation Policy Summit. ALEC state politicians, corporate lobbyists, and right-wing operatives are gathering at the four-star Grand Hyatt Washington to discuss and vote on model policies and resolutions to further climate delayism and preserve the use of fossil fuels, alter state election codes, protect purveyors of misinformation, privatize education, and push their extremist agenda in other ways.

U.S. Representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-R) and Ron Estes (KS-R), Trump’s pick to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Vivek Ramaswamy, Univision CEO Daniel Alegre, insurrectionist Cleta Mitchell, and GOP pollster Scott Rasmussen are all scheduled to speak at the summit.

Following the summit, attendees are invited to stay on for the 2024 ALEC International Freedom Academy, which focuses on “Defending the States and Supporting Israel,” according to an invitation obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). There, lawmakers will learn how to “defend their states” against China and “address the spike in campus anti-Semitism without sacrificing free speech.”

A number of model bills and resolutions circulated at the meeting this week target China. The Act Relating to Prohibited Applications on Government-Issued Devices and An Act Restraining State and Local Governmental Use of Mobile or Online Software Applications and Electronic Devices Under Control of a Foreign Adversary could both be used to ban the use of TikTok and other Chinese apps, software, and websites on government devices.

The sweeping Model Policy to Protect Select US Land from Ownership by America’s Foreign Adversaries would prevent entities controlled or owned by “foreign adversaries” — defined as China, Iran, and North Korea — from owning land in the U.S. Foreign nationals from those countries would have to submit “security notices” to a State Homeland Security Council for approval and would be banned from owning farmland or property near “critical infrastructure.” . Even single-family homes bought or inherited by people from the covered countries would require “prior written notice of approval” from the Security Council for property above an unspecified amount of acreage. Properties that fail to pass this hurdle would be taken by eminent domain.

ALEC will again look to work with lawmakers at the academy to restrict the right to protest, this time targeting anti-war student protesters demanding that Israel halt its collective punishment of the Palestinian and Lebanese people.

Last summer, ALEC adopted two related model bills, an Act to Prohibit Anti-Semitism in State K–20 Educational Institutions and an Act to Adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Anti-Semitism.

The first bill states that, “The Working Definition of Anti-Semitism adopted by the International Holocaust Alliance (IHRA) that contains contemporary examples of anti-semitism may also be used to identify anti-semitism.”

Opponents fear that relying on this definition — which references “hatred towards Jews” that may be manifested rhetorically or physically and includes certain types of criticism of Israel — will expose anti-war and humanitarian activists to possible prosecution or charges of hate crimes for simply speaking out against Israel’s war in Gaza or its occupation of Palestine.

The second model bill would officially adopt the IHRA definition. ALEC, along with representatives from the Israeli government and the Heritage Foundation, has been pushing state lawmakers to adopt the IHRA definition since as early as 2021.

For decades, ALEC has operated as a pay-to-play group that brings together corporate lobbyists and state lawmakers to vote as equals on model policies that advance corporate interests at the state level, but in recent years it has also advanced the interests of foreign governments such as Israel and Taiwan.

ALEC annual meeting materials from 2022 obtained and reviewed by CMD revealed a menu of opportunities for sponsors to purchase access to lawmakers at ALEC’s annual conferences, including buying “special” pre- and post-conference meetings for an unspecified price. ALEC keeps its funders and sponsors of meeting sessions secret.

Sponsors of ALEC’s 2024 summit include the Only Citizens Vote Coalition, Altria, Consumers’ Research, Honest Elections Project, PhRMA, Stand Together Trust, and the State Financial Officers Foundation, according to a list obtained by CMD.

Chairman

* Institute for Justice

Leadership Institute
Only Citizens Vote Coalition
Patient Rights Advocates
Save Our States

Vice Chairman

Altria
Arnold Ventures
Casey Family Programs
Consumers’ Research
Honest Elections Project
PhRMA
Stand Together Trust
State Financial Officers Foundation
Texans for Clean Water
Yes. Every Kid.

Director

Combat Antisemitism Movement

Trustee

DailyPay

Climate Delayism and Fights Over Public Lands and Water

Numerous model policies, resolutions, and statements that will likely accelerate the unfolding climate emergency will be considered at the meeting this week. Many of them center around climate delayism or the “systematic and coordinated strategy to bring about unwarranted concern regarding a wide range of climate actions for the purpose of slowing down or indefinitely suspending those actions.”

The Utility Scale Solar Plants – Preserving Environment Open Spaces and Fairness Act would place restrictions on the development of solar farms out of purported concern for ecosystems, farmland, and endangered species. ALEC has advocated for “Congress to amend the Endangered Species Act upon its re-authorization to require a stronger role for the states and a stronger consideration of the social and economic consequences” in a model resolution last amended in 2013.

ALEC’s Tenth Amendment Resolution introduced this week would allow states to declare “tenth amendment sanctuary” counties within their borders that refuse to adhere to certain federal regulations, a move that would likely cue up legal fights with the federal government.

The resolution argues that the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution places power in the hands of the states over everything from education to water management — anything not explicitly included in the federal government’s enumerated powers. For this model, it states that “the board affirms it will not enforce against any citizen any Federal law that unconstitutionally infringes upon the right of People of ___ County to keep and use their non-navigable Water.”

On a related note, ALEC is holding a roundtable on the Utah v. United States case now before the U.S. Supreme Court.Utah is challenging the perpetual federal retention of unappropriated public lands within its borders, arguing that doing so is unconstitutional.

The roundtable description states that, “Experts from western states and the Federalist Society expert whose BYU Law Review article provided the basis for Utah’s action will lead a robust discussion on the suit and how federal mismanagement has exacted both an economic and environmental cost preventing states from maximizing their economic potential and contributing to devastating wildfire seasons year after year in the American West.”

A couple of other model bills circulated this week would ensure the continued use of fossil fuels. The Energy Choice Resolution, Natural Gas would have counties express their support for the use of propane and natural gas in new residential and commercial buildings.

The Statement of Principles on Housing argues for government “flexibility” on choosing heating systems and appliances to ensure that people have affordable housing choices. “Too many state and even local governments are seeking to come inside your home or business to require standards that restrict your choice of heating systems, appliances and energy efficiency methods (from insulation, to windows, to sprinkler systems),” the policy states.

Another model, the Resolution in Support of Recycling, argues against bans and mandates on packaging materials in favor of “market-driven incentives that promote sustainable packaging design and reduce waste.” ALEC passed a model policy in 2015 that would prevent local or municipal governments from prohibiting, taxing, or regulating the use or sale of single-use plastic.

Finally, ALEC meeting attendees will again have the opportunity to attend a workshop on “woke capitalism” — this one called “Battles Won, War Continues: The Left, ESG and State Policy.”

Since the summer of 2021, CMD has repeatedly documented ALEC’s consideration and promotion of multiple model bills punishing companies and public entities that embrace environmental, social, and governance factors (ESG) in their business and investing practices.

Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild is now a regular speaker at ALEC meetings since the group became a major sponsor, and ALEC has, in turn, promoted his attacks against ESG.

At ALEC’s annual meetings, Hild presents the Consumer Champion Award to state lawmakers for passing anti-ESG legislation. The 2024 award went to Arkansas State Representative Mindy McAlindon (R) and the 2023 award went to Texas State Senator Bryan Hughes (R).

Voter Suppression Strategizing Continues

While no voter suppression models are on the table this week, ALEC summit participants will still have opportunities to strategize on restricting voting in the name of “election integrity.”

Attendees will discuss the topic at a breakout breakfast as well as at a workshop on “Restoring Voter Confidence in Elections” that will “focus on key principles of election integrity that can improve state election codes.”

Prior to the summit, ALEC lawmakers had the opportunity to attend an “Honest Elections Project Academy” at the beginning of the week, as a 2024 ALEC Academies calendar obtained by CMD indicates.

Honest Elections Project, the group ALEC partnered with fore its voting agenda, is a dark money operation formed in February 2020 to push for voting restrictions and spread baseless and dangerous claims about election fraud that laid the groundwork for Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. It is a project of The 85 Fund, the legal name for the Judicial Education Project, a group linked to Leonard Leo that played a central role in Trump’s effort to pack the Supreme Court and the entire federal judiciary with right-wing judges.

An Honest Elections Project Academy was also held prior to ALEC’s annual meeting last summer.

Public Dollars for Private Education

ALEC has a long history of promoting school privatization schemes, from backing Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), or universal, tax-funded school vouchers, to drafting this year’s Microschool Education Act, which would give home-based or microschool entities of 100 or fewer students the same rights as private and charter schools.

This week, ALEC politicians will consider the Education Tax-Credit Act. The bill would give parents sending their kids to private schools a tax credit on their income taxes equal to the average base educational aid provided by the state.

In the workshop “How Education Marketplaces Drive Quality and Cost Efficiency,” meeting attendees will hear how “market-driven education is also delivering cost savings,” and why “to maintain a dynamic market, [lawmakers] must avoid imposing price controls.”

ALEC lawmakers will also discuss the Standardized Testing Choice Act, which would add the Classic Learning Test (CLT) administered by Classic Learning Initiatives to the ACT and SAT tests required for admission to most universities and colleges.

Already used in Florida and by the University of New Mexico, the CLT puts greater “emphasis on the Western canon and Christian thought.” In April, the Iowa Board of Regents recommended not approving the CLT as a requirement for admissions.

Protecting Vehicles of Misinformation

ALEC state lawmakers will also consider the Statement of Principles on News Censorship this week, which argues that any attempt to identify misinformation or disinformation “is an inherently political determination that chills free speech” and that “government has a First Amendment obligation not to engage in such censorship or otherwise support organizations engaged in such activities.”

Misinformation and disinformation campaigns by foreign or domestic actors left unchecked will make it more difficult for public health officials to keep citizens safe, for environmentalists to move policies that address the unfolding climate emergency, or for election administrators to ensure the integrity of voting systems, among a host of other challenges.

ALEC apparently agrees with former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway that false claims are “alternative facts.” It states in its model that the “private sector is already leading on this issue” with features like “community notes” on social media platforms. However, the American public disagrees.

“A national survey commissioned by the media reform group Free Press found that 79 percent of people polled worry the information they are seeing online is ‘false, fake, or a deliberate attempt to confuse,’” Truthoutreported in June.

A 2021 University of Chicago and Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that “almost all Americans see the spread of misinformation as a problem, and significant majorities believe social media users, social media companies, and U.S. politicians are responsible for spreading misinformation.”

Other New Drafts Up for Consideration:

---

an 12 24

Milwaukee State Rep. Ryan Clancy readily admits he was the odd one out last week at a Washington, D.C., meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

ALEC, a nonprofit that brings together state lawmakers and corporations and drafts model legislation, describes its point of view as “dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.” It has produced state policies embraced almost solely by Republicans — drafted with input from corporate members of the organization.

Clancy is neither a Republican politician nor a corporate official. “To the best of my knowledge, I would be the only Democrat — and almost certainly the only socialist” at the States & Nation Policy Summit ALEC held Tuesday through Thursday, Clancy said in an interview. But as a state legislator, he was technically welcome at the event.

On the last day, however, Clancy was summarily kicked out and told his registration would be withdrawn and the fee refunded. While declining to explain how, an ALEC spokesman said Clancy was being “disruptive” — something Clancy categorically denies.

Attending an ALEC event was important to him, said Clancy, who is just wrapping up his first term in the Assembly after being elected in 2022. He wanted to see the process by which ALEC drafts model legislation and distributes bill proposals through its member lawmakers to statehouses around the country.

Clancy said that in his first term in Madison he has seen a lot of legislation circulate that originated in ALEC proposals. Those included more than a dozen bills putting restrictions on trans and nonbinary people, such as preventing gender affirming medical care for people under 18, he said.

“My oldest child is trans,” Clancy said in an interview. “It was just horrific to have to bring together the community to push back on those. But it was also good to know about them in advance.”

Clancy said the anti-trans legislation points to priorities that he believes ALEC has beyond the talking points it makes about individual liberty, free markets and limited government.

“Even more economic-seeming policy discussions were often peppered with anti-trans and anti-DEI comments behind the scenes,” Clancy said.

While his attendance was cut short, he said, his time at the session offered a preview of ALEC-inspired legislation that he expects to see in the coming session of the state Legislature, and an opportunity for his fellow Democratic lawmakers to “figure out how we can push back on that.”

Democratic tradition

When Clancy joined ALEC and signed up to attend last week’s policy summit, he was following a tradition among Wisconsin Democrats in the state Legislature, who have long viewed the organization with suspicion.

The first Democrat to decide to attend ALEC sessions wasthen-state Rep. Mark Pocan, who began attending the meetings two decades ago, before he became a member of Congress. He was succeeded by Democratic Rep. Chris Taylor, who has since left the Legislature when Gov. Tony Evers appointed her to Dane County circuit court, before her election to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.

Most recently in 2023, Reps. Kristina Shelton (D-Green Bay) and Francesca Hong (D-Madison)attended an ALEC annual meeting in Florida.

ALEC has its lawmaker members join two task forces, and Clancy, a former Milwaukee Public Schools teacher, chose education and the environment.

In the education task force, Clancy caught a discussion about legislation that would give families who home-school their children or enroll them in private schools a tax credit to offset the taxes they pay to support public schools.

“They were looking at it as fairness because [those families] shouldn’t have to pay for public schools and also pay for homeschooling or a private school as well,” he said.

As proposed, the tax credit would be non-refundable — meaning that a taxpayer would only collect up to the amount of their tax liability.

“What that means is if you are fairly well off, like middle class or rich, and you have a big tax liability at the end of the year, you’d get that back,” Clancy said. A lower-income family with a lower tax liability wouldn’t get as much, even if their school expenses were just as high.

He said another lawmaker suggested that in the name of fairness, the tax credit should be made refundable — paying the balance of the credit amount in cash to someone whose tax liability was less than the credit’s full value.

The lawmaker presenting the proposal rejected the suggestion, saying that “it was not supposed to be, quote, a wealth redistribution program,” Clancy said. The lawmaker called that “a bright line and she absolutely would never support that.”

Recycling — conservative or ‘woke’?

At the environmental task force session he attended, the principal topic was recycling — a subject that provoked conflicting opinions.

One participant advocating incentives for recycling disposable cans and bottles instead of sending them to landfills declared, “Conservation is conservative,” according to Clancy. “And then you have other people very angry about this saying no … recycling is ‘woke.’”

Still others countered in defense of recycling aluminum in particular, making the argument that “communist China is going to continue to get a leg up because we import aluminum from communist China all the time,” Clancy said.

Those arguments revolved around a model bill that would establish a deposit-based recycling system operated by the beverage industry rather than the state, with the deposit funds that consumers don’t collect staying with the industry, offsetting the costs for recycling initiatives and for marketing the system to consumers. “This would be a handout to corporations,” Clancy said.

Clancy said that throughout the meetings he kept his own reactions to the proposals to himself and listened to other lawmakers as they discussed the issues. He took notes and photographed information slides with his phone, something that he said he saw many other participants doing.

But he said he never spoke up during any of the presentations, raised questions or publicly engaged presenters or other participants.

“The extent of my behavior in both the task forces and the workshops was sitting there taking notes, holding up the [phone] camera and getting pictures of what was going on, just like all of the other participants who were not told to leave for that same behavior,” Clancy said.

Kicked out of the meeting

In the midst of the last session he attended on Thursday, however, a hotel security staff member came to him and escorted him from the room. Outside he was told that his registration had been withdrawn.

Clancy, who recorded the exchange with the security staff member, asked why he was being thrown out. The security staffer deferred the answer to ALEC officials, but Clancy said he’s never been told what violations he was accused of.

When registering, Clancy said he was directed to a code of conduct that ALEC has posted directed to media covering the event, but that he has seen no other such list of rules for participants. In any event, he said, he took pains to not draw attention to himself.

“I have recordings of all the things that I was in, and you can hear me not asking questions,” Clancy said. “That’s really difficult for me,” he added. “I mean, to be in those spaces, to hear them saying those things, and not to say what the hell is wrong with you people was an act of will on my part, and I succeeded. I managed not to say any of the things that a reasonable person would say in that situation, because I didn’t want to be, you know, accused of disrupting or anything else.”

Clancy questioned an unnamed ALEC representative whether he was being thrown out because he’d been identified as a Democrat or a socialist. He suggested that in doing so the organization would be running afoul of its 501(c)(3) tax-exemption and IRS rules under which “they can’t give undue influence to inside members of their group and exclude people based on partisan things.”

In response to the Wisconsin Examiner’s inquiry, ALEC’s communications director, Lars Dalseide, replied in an email message.

“All are welcome at ALEC events, where all attendees are asked to abide by our long-standing code of conduct. One that ensures a welcoming and productive experience for everyone in attendance. Sadly, the individual in question failed to adhere to these guidelines. On the final day of the conference, after several complaints, he was asked to leave,” Dalseide said.

In a subsequent email, Dalseide declined to clarify what actions of Clancy’s constituted conduct violations.

“We don’t release those kinds of details to the press,” he said. “If we did, then every speaker, member, and guest wouldn’t feel comfortable speaking freely at our events.”

While Dalseide said that attendees were reminded of the code of conduct at each session, Clancy denied that.

“They did not ever make reminders of any code of conduct at the beginning of any session, nor did I ever make a single comment or ask a question within any of them,” Clancy said. “I still don’t know what rules they’re accusing me of violating, or why speakers wouldn’t feel comfortable speaking if they knew the rules for attendees.”

Dalseide also relayed an additional statement from Leah Vukmir, a former Wisconsin state senator and former ALEC National Chair:

“The Wisconsin Socialist Party has been sending people to disrupt ALEC meetings for years, so it’s no surprise that the newest member of the Wisconsin Socialist Party would try to cause trouble at this year’s event. As a former National Chairman, I can attest to the fact that ALEC has always welcomed all views as long as individuals conduct themselves in a mature, professional manner.”

Clancy said he is a Democratic Party member and that, while he also identifies politically as a socialist, he is not a member of any Wisconsin Socialist Party, nor had he heard of any past actions by socialist-aligned groups to disrupt ALEC events.

Rep. Pocan was reached through his Congressional office and asked if during his years of attending ALEC he recalled any socialist groups attending or engaging in disruptive behavior.

“Nope,” Pocan replied in a text message.

Wisconsin Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Wisconsin Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Ruth Conniff for questions: info@wisconsinexaminer.com. Follow Wisconsin Examiner on Facebook and X.

---

thom 7 24 an

alternet- no lnx see thom 3 bak for anno

Home | Behind the GOP's radical agenda to penalize 'sinners'

Thom Hartmann July 06, 2024....

DUCK 4 26

saveourstates.com

https://saveourstates.com › about › staff › trent-england

Save Our States - Trent England

Trent England is the founder and executive director of Save Our States. He has previously served as executive vice president for both the Oklahoma Council…

### Our Team Quickly and easily contact your state legislators with our easy-to-use system. Your state legislators are hearing from National Popular Vote lobbyists.…
- ### Electoral College The Constitution creates a multi-step democratic process to elect the president and vice president--the Electoral College. It unifies, moderates, and protects American politics, and is part of what makes the United States a federal republic. Today, this system is threatened by a campaign to manipulate the Electoral College using an interstate compact. This "National Popular Vote" scheme ...
- ### Home My colleague Trent England wrote an excellent post on a unique problem of the National Popular Vote interstate compact (NPV): its reliance on the cooperation of non-member states - cooperation that may not be forthcoming.

https://www.linkedin.com › in › trentmengland

Trent England - Save Our States | LinkedIn

Trent England is an author, attorney, and state policy expert. He is the executive… · Experience: Save Our States · Education: George Mason University School of Law · Location: Oklahoma City ...

The Federalist Society

https://fedsoc.org › bio › trent-england-1

Trent England - Federalist Society

Trent England defends the Electoral College as the founder and director of Save Our States. He also serves as the David and Ann Brown Distinguished Fellow at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.Trent previously served as Executive Vice President of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and earlier of the Olympia, Washington-based Freedom Foundation. He was also a morning-drive radio host ...

Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs

https://ocpathink.org › team › trent-england

Trent England - Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs

Jan 29, 2026Trent England is the David and Ann Brown Distinguished Fellow at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, where he previously served as executive vice president. He is also the founder and executive director of Save Our States, which educates Americans about the importance of the Electoral College.

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com › tengland

Trent England - Facebook

Trent England. 3,269 likes · 3 talking about this. Executive Director of Save Our States; Distinguished Fellow at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs

Digital Democracy Project

https://digitaldemocracyproject.org › member-organizations › save-our-states

Save Our States - Digital Democracy Project

About the Organization Save Our States is a conservative policy nonprofit founded in 2009 and led by Trent England. The group says its mission is to defend the constitutional power of U.S. states, preserve the Electoral College, and promote state-level policies to protect elections, the economy, and critical infrastructure.

search-prod.lis.state.oh.us

https://search-prod.lis.state.oh.us › api › v2 › general_assembly_136 › committees › cmte_h_insurance_1 › meetings › cmte_h_insurance_1_2025-10-14-0930_762 › testimony › 11296 › uploaded-doc

Testimony of Trent England, Executive Director, Save Our States

Oct 14, 2025Testimony of Trent England, Executive Director, Sa Regarding H.B. 276, before the Ohio House Insurance Committee, October 14, 2025 tive director of Save Our States, which I founded in 2009 to defend the Electoral College against th National Popular Vote interstate compact. We have expanded from there, but always with a focus on state policy that

rayrichardsonmaine.buzzsprout.com

https://rayrichardsonmaine.buzzsprout.com › 2303771 › episodes › 14677805-a-conversation-with-trent-england-of-save-our-states-the-fight-against-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact

A conversation with Trent England of Save Our States - the fight ...

Trent England is the founder and executive director of Save Our States. He also serves as co-chairman of the Stop Ranked-Choice Voting Coalition and is the David & Ann Brown Distinguished Fellow at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

Mackinac Center

https://www.mackinac.org › bio.aspx?ID=858

Trent England - Mackinac Center

Trent England is the founder and executive director of Save Our States, which educates Americans about the importance of the Electoral College. Trent is a producer of the feature-length documentary "Safeguard: An Electoral College Story." He is also an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

saveourstates.com

https://saveourstates.com

Save Our States - Home

My colleague Trent England wrote an excellent post on a unique problem of the National Popular Vote interstate compact (NPV): its reliance on the cooperation of non-member states - cooperation that may not be forthcoming.

Generate answer for SAVE OUR STATES TR