In 2011, Denny McNamara & Amy Koch were ALEC Natural Resources Task Force members
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) documents released to the public today by Common Cause reveal that Denny McNamara (R-Hastings) and former Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (R-Buffalo) were members of ALEC's Natural Resources Task Force.
McNamara's name appears the roster of Natural Resource Task Force members on page 32 of the online pdf (page 13 on the roster itself), while Koch is listed on page 29 (page 10 of the roster). The document is dated "As of 3/31/2011."
The Natural Resource Task Force membership list is included in the Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force packet for Cincinnati, April 2011.
No Minnesota lawmakers attended the 2011 Spring Summit Task Force in Cincinnati.
Update: McNamara remained on the roster in June 30, 2011, while Koch is no long listed. Two later meeting packets for Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force the posted by Common Cause do not contain membership lists for the Natural Resources task force.
McNamara chairs the Minnesota House Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Policy and Finance and sits on the Energy Subcommittee and the Legacy Funding Division.
Neither name was included on an earlier report of task force membership and ALEC membership by Common Cause of Minnesota.
Earlier this month, Jon Erik Kingstad commented on a MInnPost article by Beth Hawkins, who has been digging into ALEC's activities in Minnesota:
. . .A commenter, Ann Galloway listed the ALEC legislators in our state. I think it's worth asking every legislator, particularly Republican ones, if they are members of ALEC or subscribe to these "lawsuit reform" groups. I asked my legislator, Denny McNamara if he was a member and he said no. I believe him just as I believe he's not among the Grover Norquist pledge group. If you have pledged to Norquist's group, in my opinion, as a legislator, you have violated your oath of office to...
It is unclear from the comment when the question was asked. Perhaps McNamara had deemed it prudent to resign from the organization; perhaps he was not being forthright with his constituent. They needd to talk.
Bluestem is just now reading the document drop and will update this post later this evening.
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