But, notwithstanding today's move, much of what critics dislike about ALEC hasn't been changed. A useful point of comparison here is the recent debate over the digital bills SOPA and PIPA. As you recall, many folks were outraged over the bills. Their champions, meanwhile, took that reaction to be a condemnation of the bills' content. MPAA chief Chris Dodd pledged to go back to the drawing board -- surely, Congress and traditional entertainment industry groups could work something out. But SOPA and PIPA's opponents rejected the former senator from Connecticut's operating premise. No more would major telecom bills be negotiated in secret by a handful of interests. The problem was process, not just the bills themselves. With ALEC, the argument is that the very organizational model is no longer acceptable, if it ever was. The vision of a "public-private partnership" that gives companies like Coca-Cola, State Farm, and AT&T equal weight as legislators is concerning in and of itself. In short, according to those who question ALEC's model, it sure seems a perversion of deliberative democracy, not to mention federalism, to have a few folks meet in a room to craft public policy that gets distributed nationwide without any meaningful transparency.

That all forms some of the context for the reactions today amongst those who have been drawing attention to ALEC for a long while now. For its part, the group ColorofChange.org, which being campaigning against ALEC's support for voter ID and other election laws since December, is implying that it doesn't believe that anything has changed when it comes to ALEC's work product. "ALEC's latest statement is nothing more than a PR stunt aimed at diverting attention from its agenda," said a statement put out by the group today, "which has done serious damage to our communities."

Meanwhile, Common Cause said in a statement that, yes, ALEC's decision to close its safety and elections component is "an important victory." But the root objections to how it operates remain. "[B]ad laws the shuttered ALEC task force advanced remain on the books across the country, and ALEC continues to support legislation that weakens clean air and clean water regulations, undermines public schools and infringes on the bargaining rights or [sic] workers." According to the ALEC website, among the eight or so task forces that remain are those on the environment, education, and economic development. There's no sign that the group has any intention of rethinking its work on the issues Common Cause cares about.

And then there's the statement put together by Lisa Graves, who leads the Center for Media and Democracy. It was CMD that put together the "ALEC Exposed" wiki that really kicked off the public conversation about the group in July. The substance of the bills generated within ALEC is one thing. And to be sure, Graves objects to it: ALEC, she writes, has an "extreme agenda" that makes it "more difficult for American citizens to vote and to protect armed vigilantes." But more to the point here, Graves writes that "ALEC's operating procedures undermine the Democratic process by giving corporate lobbyists and special interest groups an equal voice and vote on 'model' legislation alongside elected official at closed-door meetings of ALEC task forces at fancy resorts where the press and public are excluding." That's a useful summing of the structural objection to ALEC, and it's one that the group's move today doesn't do much to address.