Coke and Pepsi abandon conservative group over voter ID, gun laws
Though the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) was formed almost 40 years to organize conservative state legislators and allow them to share and replicate one another’s legislative ideas — and has been “soliciting more input from private sector members” about what is good for them for more than 20 years — it wasn’t until recently that it attracted almost any scrutiny for its promulgation of everything from Stand Your Ground laws to voter ID to business-friendly tort reforms. That increased scrutiny may have just started to get costly for ALEC.
According to National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” on Thursday, beverage behemoths Coke and Pepsi have both dropped their memberships to the conservative lobbying organization. The advocacy group Color of Change began a call-in campaign on Wednesday threatening a boycott of Coca-Cola and its products. The company announced within hours that it will not be renewing their membership in ALEC.
Color of Change began their campaign in November of 2011 to draw attention to ALEC’s legislative agenda, which includes Voter ID laws in multiple states as well as gun laws like the controversial “Stand Your Ground” law in Florida. “Stand Your Ground” was cited by the defense team of George Zimmerman, Jr., the shooter in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Pepsi dropped out of ALEC in January. Hoping to capitalize upon the national attention drawn to the Martin case, Color of Change set in motion its national call-in campaign, in which volunteers contacted Coke announcing that they would boycott the company’s products if it chose to remain a part of the council.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/05/coke-and-pepsi-abandon-conservative-group-over-voter-id-gun-laws/