Posted on 01/11/2023 8:42:16 AM PST by Red Badger
FRANKFORT
In what may be the largest political contribution ever given to a political party in Kentucky, the drug maker Pfizer Inc. gave $1 million last month to the building fund of the Republican Party of Kentucky. A report filed by Republican Party of Kentucky Building Fund last week with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance listed the $1 million from Pfizer along with five other big corporation contributions in the final quarter of 2022 totalling $1.65 million. That is an extraordinarily large haul for the fund which had raised only $6,000 during the first three quarters of 2022. The other large corporate donors to the fund in late 2022 were:
Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York, $300,000;
Altria Client Services LLC, of Richmond, VA., $100,000;
Comcast Corp., of Philadelphia; $100,000;
AT&T, of St. Louis; $100,000;
Delta Air Lines, of Atlanta, $50,000.
State and federal campaign finance laws set limits on how much a person or political action committee can give to the executive committee of either political party. (A person can give no more than $15,000 per year.) And corporation contributions to a party’s executive committee are prohibited.
But part of a campaign finance bill passed by the General Assembly in 2017 allowed each party to establish a building fund that can accept contributions of unlimited amounts. It also allowed the building funds to accept contributions from corporations. The Kentucky Democratic Party’s building fund has not yet filed a report on its contributions and expenses for the last quarter of 2022.
The election registry website says that money in a party building fund “may be used for expenditures related to the purchase, construction, maintenance, renovation, and repair of the state executive committee’s main headquarters facility.” In response to questions from Kentucky Lantern, Sean Southard, spokesman for the Republican Party of Kentucky, released a statement Monday that said in part “the Republican Party purchased the lot next door to our Frankfort headquarters and is planning an expansion project. Our current headquarters was acquired in 1974. With the growth of the Republican Party in Kentucky, we have a need for additional space.”
A sign identifies the party headquarters as the Mitch McConnell Building, in honor of U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
In response to a question about the huge size of the corporate contributions, Southard’s statement said, “As we raise funds into the building fund account, we are following both federal and state law. The funds raised into this account can only be used for certain expenditures related to the building and are not eligible to be spent on candidate or issue advocacy.” Pfizer has long had a lobbying presence in Kentucky and for years it has retained the lobbying firm headed by John McCarthy to represent its interests in Frankfort. McCarthy, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Kentucky who is still a member of its executive committee, did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment on the Pfizer contribution.
Pfizer is a multinational pharmaceutical and biotech company based in New York; its brands include Viagra, Zoloft and Lipitor and more recently the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and the antiviral Paxlovid.
Fueled by sales of its COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer’s revenue doubled to $81.3 billion from 2020 to 2021. The company ranks 43rd on the Fortune 500 list. For the first three quarters of 2022, Pfizer reported $76 billion in revenues. Pfizer is no stranger to political spending.
In 2022, the company spent $11.6 million lobbying the federal government, putting it in the top dozen lobbying spenders, according to Open Secrets. Its affiliates and PAC contribute generously to federal candidates of both parties. Pfizer announced in November that it will triple or even quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine once it goes on the commercial market next year, according to Kaiser Health News.
Comcast, Altria Client Services (formerly Phillip Morris), AT&T and Delta Air Lines, also are registered to lobby the Kentucky General Assembly. Metropolitan Life Insurance does not retain a lobbyist in Frankfort, according to records of the Legislative Ethics Commission. Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and Twitter.
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Don’t investigate us, bro!
What does KY have that they want? Influence?
Mitch is their b!tch..................
Brilliant, brutal parody.
Operation Warp Speed: Mission Accomplished.
Mitch assumes the position for them that’s for sure.
Big Pharma buying politicians. As they buy media, doctors, medical regulators, etc.
One of the big lessons of Covid is the extent to which Big Pharma owns all of the above.
He’s not the only one. They’re just getting bolder in making these donations, which we should be tracking. Already on record was $1M to Trump for his Inauguration Committee (tie for the largest), then $10M to him though their lobbyist Jeff Miller (largest to Trump in 2020). Probably more out there to Republicans for those willing to look.
Rand Paul
it’s a gift KY. that means you don’t have to take it.
Another bribe to he who must not be named. Well, _ _ _ _ that.
Mitch McConnell calls the shots on the GOP Senate for the shot givers that gives them huge profits.
What lucky KY city gets the Mengele statue?
Well, I guess that first it has to come out in the mainstream media how much Republicans are on the take from Pfizer and for this to be tied to Trump’s Operation Warp Speed before it can be pointed out how much more money Demonrats get from Big Pharma and aligned interests.
It will be said, of course, that “Well, Trump would have mandate them too just like Biden if he had been re-elected.”
And I’m not sure how he defends against this hypothetical.
I think the 2024 election can be won, with a margin beyond fraud factor, by the person who goes up against the Big Pharm Government Con Corruption Complex hard.
I don’t know if anyone went from state AG to president, but there’s an opportunity for someone to do it.
What was the record profit of Pfizer last year?
They did $100 Billion in sales.
$1 million is chump change.
“What does KY have that they want? Influence?”
Pfizer is desperate to get rid of Rand Paul.
Chump change compared to what they have reaped from the entire planet over Covid.
The CEO should is a woke fraudster who needs to be stoned to death.
Bingo. We have a winner.
‘This is not a bribe.’
Say this three times and click your heels together and it still won’t be true.
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