In Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Is an ALEC Member, PR Watch's Rebekah Wilce reports that News Corps' Senior Vice President, Bill Guidera, "attended ALEC's April 2010 Spring Task Force Summit in St. Louis, Missouri, as a member of what was then called the Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force."
The presence of Guidera at the 2010 meeting creates a "discrepancy" between ALEC statements that News Corp., which owns Fox News Network, joined the corporate front group in 2012, Wilce reports.
As long time ALEC watchers, Bluestem can walk the Guidera-ALEC association back to 2007. In ALEC’s Regional Field Teams: Connecting with Members Face-to-Face, on page 2 of the December 2007 "Inside ALEC" newsletter, there's this:
“At times a bill is seen as the easy solution to a tough problem, yet that bill may create even more problems. Todd (Kruse) and his team cut through the puffery to reach the core issues with clear, conservative policy solutions,” said Bill Guidera of News Corp, an ALEC member based in Minnesota.
ALEC is currently developing a Southeast Regional Field Team with the experienced leadership of ALEC board member, Rep. Earl Ehrhart of Georgia, and there will eventually be a total of seven regions building upon the success of the Central Region.
ALEC members are encouraged to share their ideas as ALEC develops an expansion plan that is synchronized with our members’ legislative priorities.
Todd A. Kruse is ALEC’s Senior Director of Regional Field Teams. He is based in Minnesota and can be reached at 612-423-5621 or [email protected].
Guidera, once mentioned as a possible candidate against Senator Amy Klobuchar, serves as Finance Chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.
According to the Inside ALEC article:
By working with ALEC State Chairs, the Regional Field Team helps to advance Jeffersonian principles and raise awareness of ALEC model legislation at the grassroots level in legislators’ own backyards. “The Field Team is ALEC’s personal lifeline of information, contacts, experience and assistance provided to us right where we need it – at our door,” said Missouri Rep. Jane Cunningham.
The Regional Field Teams appear to have been abandoned by ALEC after a change in its national office. Kruse does not appear to work for ALEC now (the connection is omitted from his online biography), although he remains active in Minnesota's conservative community.
Photo: Bill Guidera, from the RPM's website.
With our own Chris Gerlach now going after a county commissioner seat I wonder if ALEC is shifting focus from State houses to local politics? Is there an evolution (or devolution) occurring?
Posted by: Jeff Wilfahrt | May 26, 2012 at 08:47 AM
Actually, probably a pay bump. Find out what a suburban county commissioner makes.
Posted by: Sally Jo Sorensen | May 26, 2012 at 09:55 AM