. >> bob edgar: corporate influence is tainting the legislative process, particularly out across the states. and average americans are paying the price. >> bill moyers: the american legislative exchange council -- alec. it's headquartered in arlington, virginia. but it operates in every capital in the country. and its efforts produce some hundreds of new state laws each year. >> john nichols: well, i cover politics for a living. so, i've known about alec for a long time. i was always conscious of alec, but to be honest, not that excited about it. >> mary bottari: i just thought it was, you know, folks got together and discussed their policy issues. that's all i knew and that's not unusual. and that's how they portray themselves today. but now with this project we've learned all sorts of things that we didn't know. >> bill moyers: in 2011, an investigation began cloak-and-dagger style at the nonprofit center for media and democracy. >> lisa graves: in the spring i got a call from a person who said that all of the alec bills were available and was i interested in looking at them. and i