I seem to be having some difficulty getting staffers of Assemblyman Dan Logue to answer a few Qs about his ties, if any, to ALEC. If you read this, and you know of a Logue aide who's typically responsive to his constituents, please tell me who - you can email me at ncvoices.us (don't forget the .us!) at gmail.
Stale blog offering Perspective on ideas, issues and life from Nevada County, California - belaboring the obvious since 2003
Friday, September 02, 2011
13 comments:
Welcome, and thanks for caring enough to donate your time and thoughts toward greater collective wisdom...
Terms of engagement:
* Please be civil.
* * * * Please do not post anonymously * * * (I'd remove this choice if I could, and I may remove your comment if you do) - instead, do this:
Click on the 'Name/URL' radiobutton, then enter your real name (if you're brave) or a pseudonym (if you're not). (You can leave the "URL" field blank.)
Or go ahead and click "Anonymous", but put your name in your comment.
* The Management reserves the right to delete comments (Moderation Certificate can be found here). You can always post it on a blog of your own.
If you run into technical difficulties, please a) accept my apologies, then b) email your comment to aherror2011 at gmail.com with "Comment for [name of this blog]" in the Subject line.
New policy re climate contrarianism comments as of 11/11/2009:
Comments questioning the climate science community's understanding of climate change (97% of active climatologists now believe that the earth is currently warming and that it's human-caused - link) will be deleted unless the commenter:
a) is local
b) uses his real name
c) provides link(s) to substantiate his claim(s)/inference(s)
d) is willing to collaborate on constructing an argument tree, to get us past the usual sterile point-counterpoint-countercounterpoint.
(For people who can't read the above, a summary:
1) Be civil;
2) Don't post w/o giving at least a pseudonym;
3) Don't espouse climate-denial crankery unless you're local and willing to stand behind it.)
Caveats:
1. Comments could be delayed: they are being moderated, and I'm sometimes away from the computer for a day or more.
2. : Perfectly legitimate comments are sometimes miscategorized (by the blogging platform) as spam, & not published. If this happens to yours, please notify me, else I might not notice for a day or two.
Kudos to you for pressing Logue's office on this question. I'd never heard of ALEC until reports started emerging during the struggle in Wisconsin last spring, showing ALEC to be a common factor in anti-union legislation in several GOP-governed states.
ReplyDeleteThere was just a big national ALEC conference a month or two ago. I wonder if Logue's itinerary is public record?
Don't know; will find out.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I've just added a couple of sites to my "Digging 101" investigative-journalism site - His Vorpal Sword (near-daily) and DBA Press (infrequent but deep. This earlier-2011 piece is about ALEC, as are some others.)
(Now I've got some answers, but they're from an aide and it's not clear whether he checked with Logue to verify the info.)
ReplyDeleteCheck out this blog:
ReplyDeleteOver 1,600 Identified - People Afffiliated with ALEC
http://becauseican-2old2care.blogspot.com/2011/09/over-1600-idenitified-people.html
Dan Logue is on the list of 1600.
Per @4SHCrane - Dan Logue is on the list Over 1,600 Identified - People Afffiliated with ALEC bit.ly/qi2AYi.
ReplyDeleteone more from @4SHCrane - SourceWatch.org bit.ly/ribuvS. Signed 2009 Anti Healthcare Reform Letter to Sen. Pelosi & Byrd scr.bi/gx7mZK
ReplyDeleteThe (Sept 6) email I received came from Logue aide Cliff Wagner's account, and its answer to the Q "For how many years has Assemblyman Logue been a member of ALEC?" was "I believe that he [Logue] was a paid member of ALEC in his first year [2009] in the Assembly. It is my understanding that his membership has since expired." I emailed back the same day asking if he had actually checked this with Assemblyman Logue, but unless it's gone astray he hasn't yet sent an answer.
ReplyDelete(The reference that put Logue into SourceWatch's "ALEC Politicians" list (link) was indeed from 2009, an ALEC letter on healthcare with Logue's name among the signatories.)
And "Anonymous", in future please use your real name, or at least a pseudonym (if you're feeling shy).
ReplyDelete"It is my understanding that his membership has since expired."
ReplyDeleteUntrue, check out his reported expenditures for 2011 (hit control + f and find "American Legislative Exchange Council"
http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1335498&session=2011&view=expenditures
that $100 is like the two-year membership fee for legislators that ALEC requires.
Logue is also referenced in this 2011 ALEC newsletter (again, control + F search for "logue"), in 2nd paragraph, page 13
ReplyDeletehttp://www.alec.org/AM/pdf/insidealec/ia_julaug2011.pdf
Obtained that doc by a Google search for:
"dan logue" and "american legislative exchange council"
Thank you CGibson, that's extremely helpful.
ReplyDelete(Blekko.com is turning out to be less so - "No results found for: "dan logue" "american legislative exchange council" site:alec.org")
Quibbles or nitpicks -
It wouldn't be legit to take the fact that Logue organized a trip whose purpose is near&dear to ALEC's heart, & that ALEC wrote about, as meaning that he's a member, correct?
And fwiw, the $100 on his campaign expenditures is listed as "meetings and appearances".
More to come, I hope...
Two minor things -
ReplyDeleteI checked the website, & the ALEC membership fee for politicians is indeed $50/year.
And in case others take a look at Logue's 2011-2012 committee expenditures filing & wonder what its (undated) $100 "meetings and appearances" payment to the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce was about, Cathy Whittlesey of the Chamber told me it was presumably for their annual Installation Dinner, held in January.
I did get a chance to speak with Assemblyman Logue, who said he couldn't recall whether he is an member of ALEC, but that they're a good group. He also said they weren't involved in his Texas trip that ALEC wrote about, that "we paid for it ourselves" and none of it was government money.
ReplyDeleteWell, one conclusion from all this does seem to be, when you ask a Q about your (Republican?) representative and get an answer from his aide, don't expect it to be worth much.