Fearing a Dem Victory,Drugmakers Fund Key Races (Santorum)

[Divernan]

http://online.wsj.com/page/2_0133.html?mod=topnav_0_0002
(Wall Street Journal headline - front page)
Upping the Dosage
Fearing a Democratic Victory,
Drug Makers Fund Key Races
Cash Fuels Campaign Debate
About Medicare Benefit;
Oil, Finance Follow Suit
Stumping for Rick Santorum
By JOHN D. MCKINNON
October 25, 2006; Page A1

HERSHEY, Pa. -- Few businesses have more at stake in next month's congressional elections than pharmaceutical makers. Assailed by Democrats, drug companies are pouring millions of dollars into close races, giving some Republicans a financial edge. In the process, the industry is becoming not just a campaign backer, but also a campaign issue. Pennsylvania Republican Rick Santorum is a big beneficiary of the industry's push. He was a leading proponent of the 2003 law that gave seniors Medicare coverage for prescription drugs, and helped shape the law in ways that benefited the industry. Battling to keep his seat in a crucial Senate race, Mr. Santorum's campaign has received almost $500,000 from pharmaceutical interests and their employees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group. The industry has also helped fund television advertisements and aided get-out-the-vote efforts.
*********
Companies and business groups have long thrown money at candidates to further their interests. But with a Democratic victory increasingly likely, few recent elections have been so critical, particularly for the drug industry. On the campaign trail, Democrats frequently lump "Big Pharma" with "Big Oil" in attacking Republican ties to industry. Within the first 100 hours of taking over the House, promises House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democrats will rewrite the prescription-drug benefit to take away most of the advantages it handed to pharmaceutical companies.

**************

"It'll take five minutes" to make the biggest change of all -- the proposal to let the government negotiate prices, Ms. Pelosi told a group of about 100 retirees in Sunrise, Fla., earlier this month. She said the benefit was a product of "corruption, putting pharmaceutical companies and HMOs first at the expense of America's seniors." Congressional Democrats propose lifting a ban on the broad-scale reimporting of inexpensive drugs and could toughen the drug-approval process. They've talked, too, of holding hearings into conflicts of interest among Republicans now working for the industry.
************************
Other industries are also pouring money into races in the hopes of protecting their favored candidates. Oil and gas interests worry about a Democratic Congress axing subsidies and have spent $13.6 million on the campaign so far, of which 83% has gone to Republicans. For all of 2002, they and their employees contributed $14.8 million in hard-money donations. Montana's troubled Republican Sen. Conrad Burns is the second-biggest recipient of oil money, according to CRP. He supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.