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'''Support for American Legislative Exchange Council''' Toby Spangler, a lobbyist with Altria Client Services, is on the Private Enterprise Board of the right-wing, pro-corporate [[American Legislative Exchange Council]] (ALEC). ALEC is an organization whose goal has been to rewrite the laws in states across the country through ''model bills" since 1973. Superficially, ALEC’s membership is mostly made up of thousands of state legislators, each of whom pays a nominal membership fee. ALEC’s corporate contributors pay far more to gain access to legislators and influence them. ALEC's public-sector membership dues account for only around one percent of ALEC’s annual revenues. Over 80 percent of ALEC's income comes from corporations. Behind closed doors, legislators and Big Business ghostwrite “model” bills to be introduced in state capitols across the country. This agenda -- underwritten by global corporations -- includes major tax loopholes for big industries and the super rich, proposals to offshore U.S. jobs and gut minimum wage, and efforts to weaken public health, safety, and environmental protections. Although many of these bills have become law, until the publication of [http://alecexposed.org/wiki/Alec_Exposed ALEC EXPOSED] by CMD in 2011, their origin has been largely unknown. <ref>American Association for Justice [http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xbcr/justice/ALEC_Report.pdf Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America], May, 2010</ref>{{about_ALEC}}
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'''Altria Group''', formerly [[Philip Morris]], is the world's largest tobacco company. In the U.S. it controls about half of the tobacco market. In 2007 Altria spun off its food division [[Kraft|Kraft Foods Inc.]] (Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Maxwell House). <ref>[http://www.hoovers.com/altria/--ID__11179--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml Altria Profile], ''Hoovers'', accessed August 2007.</ref> Altria Group's primary holdings until 2007 included [[Philip Morris]] companies as well as [[Kraft Foods]]. Philip Morris International is an international tobacco company that has seven of the top 20 global cigarette brands. See also [[History of Philip Morris]]. In 2010, it had a total revenue of $16.9 billion.<ref>[http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/financials/financials.asp?ticker=MO:US Altria Group Inc Financials],"BusinessWeek.com</ref> Its CEO, Michael Szymancyk, had an annual compensation of $24.1 million in 2010.<ref>[http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=296360&ticker=MO:US&previousCapId=296308&previousTitle=ALTRIA%20GROUP%20INC Altria Executive Profiles],"Michael Szymanczyk"</ref>
