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Adding Up: Five More Companies Abandon Conservative Group ALEC

Adding Up: Five More Companies Abandon Conservative Group ALEC

"We want to thank these companies for making the right decision...to stop funding ALEC given its involvement in voter suppression..."

Despite announcing in April that it had disbanded its non-economic task force, liberal and progressive groups, including the Van Jones-founded ColorOfChange, have successfully pressured five more companies into abandoning the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

CEO's from John Deere, CVS Caremark, MillerCoors, HP, and Best Buy confirmed this week that they had broken ties with the conservative group.

“This is to notify you that Deere & Company, also known as John Deere, is leaving the American Legislative Exchange Council,” said James R. Jenkins, John Deere Senior Vice President and General Counsel, in a letter to ColorOfChange.

“[A]fter careful consideration of the available information, CVS Caremark has discontinued its membership in ALEC,” said Larry Burton, CVS Caremark Senior Vice President for Government Affairs.

“We’ve not contributed to ALEC this year, nor do we intend to,” Tim Scully, MillerCoors VP of Government Affairs told ColorOfChange in a phone conversation. “We’ve not renewed our membership nor do we have any plans to renew our membership.”

“I write to confirm that, although HP appears to have worked with ALEC in the past, HP is not currently a member of that organization,” said Gregg R. Melinson, VP of Government Relations and Deputy General Counsel for HP, in another email to the progressive group.

“[W]e are no longer a member of ALEC. Best Buy was a member of ALEC in 2011 and did not renew its membership in 2012,” said Susan Busch, Best Buy Senior Director of External Relations, in a similar email.

As most Blaze readers know, the campaign against ALEC began in earnest after the fatal shooting of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. After it was decided by a few politicians and certain members of the media that the “stand your ground” law, which ALEC supports, was responsible for Martin's death, several companies decided that it would be safer to distance themselves from the “pro-growth, pro-jobs policies” group.

“We want to thank these companies for making the right decision, and we continue to call on all major corporations to stop funding ALEC given its involvement in voter suppression and its work pushing policies designed to benefit rich and powerful corporations at the expense of people of color, workers, and the environment,” said Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org.

Other companies that have chosen to ditch ALEC include: Kaplan Higher Education, Procter & Gamble, YUM! Brands, Blue Cross Blue Shield, American Traffic Solutions, Reed Elsevier, Arizona Public Service, Mars, Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Intuit, Kraft Foods, Wal-Mart, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola.

(H/T: The Raw Story)

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