MOTHER JONES: McDonald’s, it turns out, isn’t the only fast-food giant to have cut ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council, the corporate-funded organization that writes up model bills for thousands of state lawmakers nationwide. Wendy’s joins a handful of other major food and beverage companies—McDonald’s, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Kraft—in ditching ALEC. Intuit, which makes the Quicken personal finance software, has also ended its ALEC membership.Wendy’s said on its official Twitter feed on Tuesday night that it, too, had left ALEC. “We decided late 2011 and never renewed this year. It didn’t fit our business needs,” the company tweeted. Wendy’s is currently not a member of ALEC, it stressed. Wendy’s departure is arguably more significant than McDonald’s given Wendy’s past support for conservative and staunchly pro-industry causes. For instance, Wendy’s International has funded the Center for Consumer Freedom, a phony grassroots group that fights regulation of the food and beverage industries. And Wendy’s political action committee has given significantly more of its money in recent election cycles to Republican lawmakers than Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. MORE
PREVIOUSLY: BAD COMPANY: Coke, Pepsi & Kraft Quitting ALEC