First it was Seven Days, and now it’s VTDigger, reporting on State Rep. Bob Helm’s hidden-camera appearance in a TV report about the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is the organization that spreads conservative policy ideas and provides sample legislation to Republican lawmakers nationwide.
Helm was attending an ALEC conference when he was buttonholed by someone he didn’t know was a TV reporter. He told her he was “the state [bleep], the state chair of ALEC,” and acknowledged that lobbyists had helped pay the freight for him and numerous other lawmakers.
The reporting raises questions of ethics and influence-peddling; but to this Political Observer, the most interesting aspect is the growing influence of ALEC in Vermont Republican circles.
Helm boasted to VTDigger that “he has ‘revved up’ the ALEC chapter in Vermont and has boosted the number of members to 20, up from four just a few years ago.”
I’d love to see that membership list. I’ve heard, for instance, that Burlington Rep. Kurt Wright, who tries very hard to position himself as a moderate, is an ALEC member. That may or may not be true, but Wright did push very hard in this year’s session for a bill banning teacher strikes — an idea that’s been promoted by ALEC in other states.
But the bigger point is, 20 may not seem like a lot, but it’s a substantial fraction of the Republican legislative caucus.
There are only 60 Republicans in the Legislature; fully one-third are members of ALEC, according to Helm. That’s a very strong right-wing presence, and it sparks a couple of thoughts:
— It illustrates the problem that Phil Scott and his allies will have in broadening the VTGOP beyond its base. There are quite a few influential Republicans who don’t want to broaden the party. I’ve been getting hints of a persistent division in the ranks between what I’d call the Jack Lindley contingent (keep the VTGOP pure) and the Phil Scott/David Sunderland group (reach out to moderates and independents).
That isn’t a surprise. But if we can assume that ALEC members would tend to be in the Lindley camp, that’s a lot for Scott and company to overcome.
— This is another tangible sign that the big-money forces of national conservatism are targeting Vermont in a substantial way. In the closing weeks of last fall’s election, a national Republican PAC dumped nearly $300,000 into legislative districts where the VTGOP hoped to pick up seats. That’s a huge amount of money in Vermont terms, but a drop in the bucket for the big boys.
And it did have an impact. The Republicans gained more ground than expected. Hard to tell whether that was correlation or causation; Governor Shumlin’s weakness was probably the Dems’ biggest albatross. But still, it was a strong signal that Vermont is on the national conservative radar. The Democrats are optimistic about 2016, since it’ll be a Presidential year with Pat Leahy expected to top the state ticket; but they are worried about a possible flood tide of conservative money.
And it wouldn’t take much to be a player in Vermont. When the Koch brothers alone are planning to spend $900 million on the 2016 campaign, surely they and their friends can spare a million or so for little old Vermont.
The growing influence of ALEC, as revealed by its state bleepin’ chair, is another strong piece of evidence that big-money conservatism will not be content to give little ol’ liberal Vermont a pass.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
Kevin Mullin was the previous state chair (wiki). Seems to me I read somewhere that Peg Flory was a member, but I couldn’t swear to that.
BUT, if we want to sound the alarm about out of state money trying to buy legislation in Vermont, let’s not forget the Little New York Corporal, Michael Bloomberg.
Shap Smith would like to forget that – or at least ignore it – because when Bob state f#$%ing chair Helm brought that up on the House floor during the S.141 debate, Shap banged that gavel so fast I thought for a minute he would throw it at him.
According to Ann Galloway’s 2011 Digger piece on ALEC in Vermont, Senator Mullin “said 15 Vermont lawmakers are affiliated with the organization.”
http://vtdigger.org/2011/08/18/propublicas-step-by-step-guide-to-understanding-alecs-influence-on-your-state-laws/
Well, perhaps Rep. Helm is exaggerating his influence. Shocked, I am shocked!
Flory either is or was a member. Good catch Mr G.
I have been wondering about the “bleep” in the recording and subsequent articles. It isn’t a natural place for an expletive (between two identical words), and he was speaking in a very low-key and unanimated tone. My guess is that Bob Helm did not say anything bleepable in terms of polite conversation. I think it is more likely that he said: “I’m the state, Vermont state chair” and the TV station bleeped that out so it would be less easy to identify him as other than a state representative from “New England” (which is how they chose to label him). So in other words, not really bleepin’ in the classic use of the term.
Be curious to find out who those 20 Vt members of ALEC are and how their association with ALEC influenced the session this year.
“— It illustrates the problem that Phil Scott and his allies will have in broadening the VTGOP beyond its base.”
Hi John,
Some of us conservatives/libertarians are not that impressed with the track record that the “Masters of Inoffensive Centrism” have in broadening our base. Here is an article I wrote on the subject, which was prompted by an article you wrote: http://truenorthreports.com/which-way-is-the-vermont-way (It basically is a rehash of an argument I have been making since 2002, but let it never be said that I did not give you credit)
In the 2014 race, we did practice the politics of ideological distinction down ticket, but had no help from the Milne campaign at the top of the ticket. Some of us feel that we could have taken the Governor’s seat and more of the seats down ticket with a more focused campaign at the top of the ticket. We see no problem with a call to moderate the tone of the campaign, but see no evidence that moderating the substance actually broadens our base. In fact, recent Vermont political history has shown just the opposite.
So far, Vermont ALEC members seem to be just two: Rep. Helms and Senator Flory. There are a few ex-members. Perhaps there are others are not yet listed in this database. We’ll see.
Vermont ALEC Politicians – SourceWatch
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Vermont_ALEC_Politicians