Here's a BIG reason why my gut has been that Murkowski would be no on Kavanaugh (though I did NOT expect her to be no on cloture)...https://t.co/FibzBkeJkO— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) October 5, 2018
This documentary, which features a certain CMC alum who fought dark money in court when he was MT AG, is available for free online streaming for the rest of this month.
http://www.pbs.org/pov/darkmoney/video/darkmoney/ (Not mandatory viewing for this week.)
Nicholas Florko reports at STAT:
A Republican lobbying firm, the CGCN Group, is behind this week’s launch of the shadowy drug pricing organization, Alliance to Protect Medical Innovation, a partner at the firm confirmed to STAT Thursday.
It is still unclear who is funding the organization, but the group admitted Thursday it relied on some “seed money from people inside the [drug] industry.” The brand drug lobby BIO also said in a new release on its website Thursday that it is joining as one of APMI’s first members.
“APMI is our client and is in the process of naming the executive director,” Ken Spain, partner at CGCN Group, told STAT. “We are helping them with the rollout of the organization.”Rebecca Robbins at STAT:
In 26 years in Congress, Rep. Anna Eshoo has always won reelection by at least 20 points. The Democrat is virtually certain to win big once again in November, buoyed largely by voters in her wealthy Silicon Valley district who do not struggle to pay for their prescription drugs.
So why is a political action committee focused on high drug prices bothering to sink $500,000 into attack ads against her?
The ad blitz from Patients for Affordable Drugs highlights the unorthodox tack the group is taking in the 2018 midterm elections: intervening in races in which there is no hope of altering the outcome.
Of the nine congressional and gubernatorial races in which P4AD has supported or opposed candidates to date, just three or four are competitive, according to STAT’s analysis of election forecasts from the website FiveThirtyEight.
And of the at least $8 million the group has spent in total, as much as $6 million has gone to the races in which the outcome has long been determined.
P4AD, which is funded mainly by the billionaire Houston couple John and Laura Arnold, says that where its money can’t help decide a race, it can still send a message: that politicians running campaigns funded by drug companies will face retribution. But that, too, is a dubious strategy, experts say.
If the goal is to make politicians hesitate before accepting a check, “pharma’s not at the stage of the NRA,” said Bob Blendon, a Harvard professor who studies the politics of health care. “It’s going to be years before somebody runs in this state or that with a major biotech presence [and says] they’re not going to accept [drug industry] funding. I’m not sure it’s a realistic goal.”From from Politico Influence:
TARIFF LOBBYING CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP: Lobbying against the Trump administration’s tariffs continues to be a huge business driver for K Street. Here’s a rundown of the latest registrations: Twin Enterprises Inc. (dba ’47 Brand),a sports licensing and apparel company based in Massachusetts, hired Crowell & Moring to lobby on tariff exclusions; TricorBraun, a St. Louis packaging company, hired Husch Blackwell to lobby on tariffs; Edelman / Char-Broil hired Robert Carlstrom Jr. to lobby on tariffs on Chinese products; and Air Master Awning, a Puerto Rican company, hired Sorini Samet to lobby on Chinese trade actions.
— The lobbying comes as trade associations and coalitions continue their broader push to stop the tariffs. The Tariffs Hurt the Heartland campaign will hold a town hall Thursday with former Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) in Indianapolis. The town hall will also feature Brian Kuehl, executive director of Farmers for Free Trade; Steve Bohman, vice president of global production for Vera Bradley, and others.
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