Common Cause and more than 50 other advocacy groups this week called on Google to end its affiliation with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group that has pushed state laws limiting the rights of cities and towns to create community-owned broadband networks. ALEC also opposes network neutrality rules that Google used to be a staunch supporter of and last month urged the FCC to quickly approve Comcast’s purchase of Time Warner Cable without imposing any regulatory conditions on the merger.

In a letter to Google’s top executives, Common Cause et al wrote that “Over the last year, hundreds of thousands of Americans have signed petitions asking Google to end its ALEC membership because of their concerns about the harmful role ALEC has played in our democratic process… The public knows that the ALEC operation—which brings state legislators and corporate lobbyists behind closed doors to discuss proposed legislation and share lavish dinners—threatens our democracy. The public is asking Google to stop participating in this scheme.”

Common Cause also complained about ALEC’s nonprofit status to the IRS in 2012, saying the group “massively underreports” lobbying it does on behalf of corporate members.

Microsoft recently ended its affiliation with the group “due to concerns over ALEC’s extreme views; that extreme agenda includes denying climate change, not funding public services, curtailing labor rights and opposing net neutrality,” the letter said.

When contacted by Ars, a Google spokesperson replied, “we aren't going to be commenting on this letter.”

Google’s affiliation with ALEC was reported by the Daily Beast in August 2013. The article detailed “ALEC’s communications and technology task force, which includes representatives from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo,” saying Google and Facebook had not previously been known to be members. We contacted Facebook and Yahoo for comment today but haven’t gotten a response yet.

“ALEC member companies pay annual dues and can sit on task forces where they can propose, debate, and vote on model bills with state legislators. Once approved by ALEC, the model legislation is introduced and often passed in statehouses across the country,” the Daily Beast wrote.

Common Cause has also previously called on Facebook to end its membership.

"In addition to paying to be a member of ALEC ($12,000 - $25,000 per year), Google and Facebook both pay to be a member of ALEC’s Communications and Technology Task Force ($5,000 per year)," Common Cause told Ars. "If they sponsor a workshop, training, or party during ALEC’s conferences, that is an additional amount (somewhere around $40,000 per event), plus conference fees to send their lobbyists/executives to ALEC conferences, plus any additional funding they give to ALEC or ALEC scholarship accounts. All of this funding is considered charitable contributions to a 501(c)(3). Google may write it off as a tax write-off."

It’s not clear why Google joined ALEC.

“[Google] might be concerned about right-of-way and video franchising related to Google Fiber, or maybe they want to work on state tax issues,” Common Cause Program Director Todd O’Boyle speculated. The communications and technology task force Google is part of covers net neutrality, state telecom deregulation, and municipal broadband, he said.

“The point is whatever they are lobbying on it should be done out in the open, and not behind a corporate front group,” O’Boyle told Ars. “ALEC operates largely in secret, so it’s a vehicle for undisclosed corporate influence peddling. Many firms have turned to ALEC to influence legislators behind the scenes, but for such a technologically advanced company, Google is definitely behind the curve. Google should follow Microsoft’s lead and dump ALEC.”

ALEC did not answer our question about what issues it's working on with Google, but provided this statement: "The American Legislative Exchange Council is a membership organization dedicated to bringing together state policymakers, members of the business community and policy experts to discuss and share ideas from a limited government, free markets and federalism perspective."

They continued, "The product of our members’ thoughtful and careful ideas-sharing process is model policy, which is published on our website for all to see and access. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit educational organization, ALEC does not advocate nor lobby for legislation. The scare tactics the signers of this letter—who are activist groups—employ to force people and companies to bend to their ideological will are proof they would rather intimidate than educate. Many of the groups on this letter are funded by the same donors to do the same thing: frighten, silence and ultimately destroy ideas that do not mirror their own. ALEC is a target of activist groups specifically because of the organization’s effectiveness at bringing together legislators and members of the private sector to share ideas. ALEC will continue to bring together people and organizations to build real solutions to real issues facing our communities and states."