Dear Editor:

In a recent letter to the editor, Ms. Astrid Northrup made false claims about me and one of America’s most effective and respected conservative non-profit groups, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  Ms. Northrup claims ALEC honored me with an award, something I would consider a great honor, but in fact, it was not ALEC that recognized my efforts to protect individual liberties and freedom, it was the American Conservative Union (ACU). 

The ACU has recognized me at their Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) five out of the past seven years for my conservative voting record.

In addition, my conservative credentials are well documented on state-focused websites such as wyovote.com, evidencebasedwyoming.com and wyorino.com. I encourage all Wyoming voters to go to these websites to compare the legislative candidates’ voting records.

As for ALEC, it is America’s largest nonpartisan organization of state legislators dedicated to the Jeffersonian principles of limited government, free markets and federalism. These are values that every Republican ought to support.  Federalism is a system of government that establishes constitutionally specified division of powers between different levels of government.

ALEC has been a leader for decades in promoting policies that protect states’ rights, lower taxes, reduce government regulations, and empower education freedom, among other things. Their model policies have been the driving force behind the economic prosperity many states enjoy today, despite the bad policies coming out of Washington, D.C.

It is an honor to serve on the ALEC Board of Directors. The work ALEC does in all 50 states truly shows that “states are the laboratories of democracy.”

Dan Laursen

Powell