Timothy Johnson: TEAMMATES: NRA News Introduces ALEC’s Voter ID Successor Group
Just one day after the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) disbanded its Public Safety and Elections Task Force that was responsible for model voter ID and ” Kill At Will ” self-defense legislation like that linked to Trayvon Martin’s death, a new organization emerged to carry the torch for the implementation of voter ID laws nationwide. In an April 18 press release , the innocuous-sounding National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) heralded “the formation of a ‘Voter Identification Task Force,’ intended to continue the excellent work of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in promoting measures to enhance integrity in voting.” According to NCPPR chair Amy Ridenour, “conservatives will kick up our support for voter integrity programs. We’re putting the left on notice: you take out a conservative program operating in one area, we’ll kick it up a notch somewhere else. You will not win. We outnumber you and we outthink you, and when you kick up a fuss you inspire us to victory.” NCPPR’s press release ominously concluded with a claim that NCPPR was prepared to pull a metaphoric gun on its political opponents: “Unlike [ALEC critic] the Center for American Progress, the National Center for Public Policy Research eschews the use of violent references such as ‘War Room.’ We are, however, inspired by a particular passage in the 1987 movie ‘The Untouchables’: ‘They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way.’ Indeed.” So much for eschewing violent references. It was only fitting then that the National Rifle Association, the former private sector co-chair of ALEC’s disbanded Public Safety and Elections Task Force, would give NCPPR free publicity. During the May 22 edition of NRA News’ Cam & Company, NCPPR adjunct fellow Horace Cooper appeared to discuss his organization’s voter fraud hysteria.
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Timothy Johnson: TEAMMATES: NRA News Introduces ALEC’s Voter ID Successor Group