Alaska News

Liberals get their own 'ALEC' -- it's called 'SiX'

JUNEAU -- Three Democratic legislators last week reported trips to Washington, D.C., in December to the kickoff conference of the State Innovation Exchange, a new group billed as the liberal counterpart to the American Legislative Exchange Council, which supplies conservative lawmakers with bills pushed by business interests and lobbyists.

Officials at SiX, as it calls itself, say it ultimately aims to give progressive lawmakers some of the same tools as ALEC, from template legislation to talking points, polling and even opposition research.

But while Alaska Democrats can learn from the strategies of their political opponents, the December conference didn't exactly leave them poised to overthrow Republican control, according to Rep. David Guttenberg, D-Fairbanks.

The event, held at a luxury hotel near the National Zoo, featured speeches from liberal luminaries like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Barack Obama's labor secretary, Thomas Perez. But it was short on specifics, Guttenberg said.

"I actually thought it was disappointing -- it's like, 'OK, what are we doing?' " Guttenberg said. "There wasn't enough substance for me."

Other Democrats who traveled to the conference -- with around $1,000 in costs covered by SiX -- were Sen. Johnny Ellis and Rep. Chris Tuck, both of Anchorage. Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, said he also spent time at the conference while in Washington for another event.

SiX launched late last year and aims to "turn the tide" back toward a more progressive agenda, said director Nick Rathod, a former liaison between Obama and state officials.

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Republicans currently control 30 state legislatures, and 68 of 98 partisan chambers.

"For too long, it's been a lot of defensive and pushing back on this onslaught to roll back environmental protections, roll back worker protections," Rathod said in a phone interview from Washington. "We want to encourage legislators to really go on the offensive on ideas that support their working families in their states."

SiX, however, has "a long way to go" to catch up with ALEC, said Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, the conservative group's state chairman.

Keller said there are no more than six ALEC members in the Alaska Legislature, though in the past the group has claimed as many as nine.

ALEC holds conferences at which legislators sit with corporate representatives on task forces. Those small groups draft template bills that the legislators can take back to their home states, armed with talking points.

The group has recently seen the departure of several large corporate partners, however, including Google, which said ALEC was lying about climate change, and oil giant BP, which just announced its exit Monday.

Keller nonetheless just introduced legislation on insurance regulations, House Bill 159, that he said had been inspired by an ALEC colleague from Michigan. He said he welcomed the addition of a liberal counterpart to ALEC, saying the conservative group was a "good thing to aspire to."

"The more the merrier -- it's driven by demand," Keller said. "May the tribe increase."

Rathod said his group is fundamentally different from ALEC because of its non-corporate backers.

Rathod has said previously that SiX would disclose its donors; asked to provide a list, an employee of the group sent a one-page document with 14 foundations, funds and initiatives. They include the Bauman Foundation, which supports environmental health, open government and disclosure of the use of toxic chemicals; the Gill Foundation, which promotes equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people; and the Public Welfare Foundation, which supports workers' rights and criminal justice reform.

The list also said SiX is "unable to list individual donors at this time due to individual privacy and First Amendment concerns."

At the December conference, attendees heard presentations on issues like the response to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Presenters included the EPA, the White House, environmental and health groups, and the Georgetown Climate Center.

Other sessions were on the future of education -- which included the American Federation of Teachers union -- on women and wage inequality, and on legislative tools for ending "mass incarceration."

Asked what he'd taken away from the conference, Tuck, the leader of the House Democratic minority and a union employee, responded: "There's more that needs to be done on labor laws, and there's a lot more that we need to do empowering people."

Pressed for specifics, Tuck added that the conference had been SiX's debut, "so it was mostly overviews -- not really many details."

SiX also maintains a library of legislation on its website, with more than 2,500 entries and special sections on criminal justice reform, campaign finance and income inequality. The group suggests policy options like repealing "stand your ground" laws, public financing of elections, and requiring oil and gas companies to disclose the chemicals they use for hydraulic fracturing.

It remains unclear, though, just how SiX will translate any of its goals into results, at least in Alaska. Republicans control both the state House and Senate by a wide margin and rarely even allow votes on legislation sponsored by Democrats.

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Rathod said the group sees value in sharing ideas and simply generating conversations, though he acknowledged that his allies are outnumbered in most legislatures.

"I think it is really a function of the progressive infrastructure ignoring the states for a generation," Rathod said. "We need to start somewhere."

Guttenberg, the Fairbanks legislator, maintained that Democrats wouldn't as willingly accept or use template legislation as Republicans.

"They line up," he said. "We stand shoulder to shoulder."

But he also acknowledged that there are some lessons and strategies that Democrats could draw from their opponents' successes.

"The whole secret of this office is knowing how something's already been done," he said.

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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