Rick Perry Accused of 'Crony Capitalism' for Contributions From Drug Company
A report issued by Texans for Public Justice (TPJ) shows that Governor Rick Perry's relationship to Merck, the drug company that makes the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, may be much deeper than he suggested at the most recent Republican presidential debate on Monday night. Charges of "crony capitalism," were also levied against Perry who is known as a prolific fundraiser.
At Monday's debate, the issue of Perry's executive order requiring Texas schoolgirls to obtain the HPV vaccine was once again raised by his GOP opponents. Some of the other candidates said it was wrong for Perry to implement the requirement by executive order, and that requiring a vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease without a parental opt-in provision should never have happened.
At that debate, however, a new accusation was leveled against the governor. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann said that voters should be concerned about the relationship that the governor has with the company that makes the vaccine, and would have profited from his executive order.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
“We cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order there was a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate. We can't deny that,” Bachmann charged.
When asked to elaborate, Bachmann said, “What I am saying is … the governor's former chief of staff was chief lobbyist for this drug company. The drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor... The question is, is it about life or potentially billions for a drug company?”
Perry responded by saying, “the company was Merck, and it was a $5,000 contribution that I had received from them. I raise about $30 million and if you're saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I'm offended.”
The TPJ report shows, however, that Perry's relationship to Merck goes much deeper than a single $5,000 contribution. For one, as Bachmann pointed out in the debate, Perry's chief of staff, had been a lobbyist for Merck.
Additionally, from 2001 to 2011, Perry received a total of $28,500 in donations from Merck. The report also points out that many of Perry's donors also gave money to the Republican Governor's Association (RGA) while Perry led that organization. The RGA would also donate to Perry's campaign. This led to charges of money-laundering from one of Perry's opponents.
Chris Bell, Perry's Democratic challenger in 2006, sued the Perry campaign, alleging that it hid a donation from one of Perry's major donors by passing the donation through the RGA. The Perry campaign settled the suit for $426,000. Bell won a $2 million verdict against the RGA, which the RGA is now appealing.
Merck has given a total of $377,500 to the RGA since 2006. Perry became chair of the RGA in 2008, but also played an important fundraising role as finance chair prior to assuming the group's top spot.
Charges of a tight-knit relationship between Perry's political campaigns and the business community in Texas appeared in national newspapers shortly after Perry announced his candidacy. Those reports accused Perry of having a “pay-to-play” system, in which business leaders would make donations to Perry's campaign in exchange for state grants or influential positions on advisory boards.
Some of Perry's fellow Republicans have picked up on the charge. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin gave a September 3 speech in Iowa in which she warned about “crony capitalism” and the “permanent political class.”
The term “crony capitalism” has since caught on. The TPJ report, for instance, is called “Crony Capitalism: The Republican Governor's Association in the Perry Years.”
Palin did not mention Perry by name at the time, but she did say, “now to be fair, some GOP candidates, they also raise mammoth amounts of cash and we need to ask them what, if anything, do their donors expect in return for their investments. We need to know this because our country can't afford more trillion dollar thank-you notes to campaign backers.”
But after Monday's GOP debate Palin did mention Perry by name. In an interview on Fox News, she described Perry's actions as “crony capitalism.” “That's part of the problem we have in this country, is that people are afraid, even within our own party, to call one another out on that,” Palin added.
An effort by The Christian Post to contact the Perry campaign was not successful prior to publication.
