Saturday, October 20, 2018

Campaign report: Josh Hawley not draining the swamp- he's taking a long, luxurious bath in it

In a September 25 tweet, Attorney General Josh Hawley took his U. S. Senate opponent Claire McCaskill to task over the harm he says she is done to Missourians with her loyalty to the Affordable Care Act.
After you lied about drug prices going down. After you lied about cutting $716 BILLION from Medicare. Your record on healthcare is a travesty
When Josh Hawley tweets about high drug prices, Missourians have to take it seriously. After all, he has a lot of people who are keeping him on the straight and narrow where drug prices are concerned.

The cash contributions on Hawley's quarterly campaign finance report, filed this week with the Federal Election Commission, come from a litany of spccial interests, including a who's who of lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry.



Hawley received at least $55,962.50 from 46 lobbyists, including 26 who work for pharmaceutical interests.

And that's just in the last three months.



Some of the names on the list offer an indication that far from going to Washington to help Donald Trump drain it, Josh Hawley may be preparing to take a long, luxurious bath in the swamp.

One of Hawley's contributors, giving a maximum $2,700 contribution, is Vicky Hart of Hart Health Strategies, a lobbying firm whose clients are in the pharmaceutical and health industries.

Hart was recently in the news when she leased an expensive condo to former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt for $50 a night, far less than it was worth ... at a time when her husband, Steve Hart, also a lobbyist, had business pending before the EPA. The Harts paid a $2,034 fine for engaging in a business without a residential license.

Steve Hart, for good measure, also gave the maximum $2,700 to the Hawley campaign.

Another lobbyist whose client list includes Bayer , Sen. Roy Blunt's son, Andrew Blunt, contributed $1,350.

Andrew Blunt is not the only lobbyist with a connection to a powerful senator who has drug companies on his client list.

Kyle Simmons, former chief of staff for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, left his Senate job to cash in on the experience he picked up on the taxpayers' tab by forming a lobbying firm. Simmons represents Eli Lilly and the Pharmaceutical Research. Simmons gave $1,000 to Hawley.

Other drug lobbyists who gave to Hawley between July 1 and September 30 included the following:

-David Bockorny- CVS Health, Pharmaceutical Care Management $500

--Henry Bradley- Bayer $500

-Michael Buchanan- Amgen, Pfizer $500

-Brad Card- Pill Pack $500

-Kirsten Chadwick- Sun Pharmaceutical Industries $2,700

-Chris Cox- Johnson & Johnson (also the chief lobbyist for the National Rifle Association) $1,000

-Brian Diffell- Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Alliance for Biopharmacy $2,700

-Raissa Downs- Amgen, AstraZeneca, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, Merck, Pfizer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals $1,700

-Kenneth Duberstein- Amgen, Pfizer, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association $1,000

-Todd Eardensohn- Amgen, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association $1,000

-Missy Edwards- Genentech $500

-Andy Keisler- Johnson & Johnson $500

-Malloy McDaniel- Walgreen $1,000

-Loren Monroe- Amgen, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association $1,000

-James Pitts- Johnson & Johnson $500

-Dave Schiappa- Pfizer, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association $1,000

-Charles Stewart- Eli Lilly, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association $500

Bill Viney- Amgen, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merc, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association $1,000

From the appearance of his campaign reports, someone examining it might believe Josh Hawley does not want people to know he accepts money from lobbyists.

Of the 46 lobbyists who contributed to the Hawley campaign, only one was listed as "lobbyist" in the occupation area of the report. Others were listed under such titles as "principal," "government relations executive," "founding principal," "consultant," "self-employed government relations," "government affairs" and "managing partner."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another wolf in sheep clothing in the republican clan. He talks about her wealth and never talks of Blunt and his rise from net worth of $300K in 2005 to over $3 million in 2008 when the ethanol scam came up. He owns farms growing corn. Never talks about Blunts son and daughters as lobbyists and then there is Long and his multiple trips to Vegas. Let us take a hard look into President Trump and his scandals, hotels, trips to his hotels, foreign visitors to his hotels, son and daughter flying at our expense to make deals for businesses. The whole gang are crooks making money off the taxpayers. Who has ever seen Blunt or Long make open public meetings asking voters what they would like to see as to legislation? What about all the scandals of graft and corruption of his cabinet appointments. The lying by President and now Hawley. What in the world does it take for Americans to be fed up with the whole system?

Concerned citizen said...

507, there is awful fault on both sides..