Georgia’s pharmacy lobby wanted legislation to make it easier for druggists to administer a host of vaccines without a prescription. They got policymakers’ attention the usual way.
The week before the 2014 session, the pharmacists contributed $35,000 to the re-election campaigns of state officials and lawmakers, including Gov. Nathan Deal and more than 50 legislators.
Pharmacy officials say the contributions weren’t deliberately timed to the start of the session, but such last-minute campaign donations are a legislative tradition.
Dozens of lawmakers typically hold fundraisers in the early days of January because they legally can’t accept checks during the two- to three-month legislative session. So, during the first 12 days of the new year, lawmakers raised about $1.2 million in contributions, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s analysis of campaign disclosures shows. Funds raised by Deal, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and state Sen. Jason Carter, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, bump the total to about $1.7 million. The AJC also found that some legislative leaders hauled in large sums at fundraisers they didn’t even attend.
“It is a mad scramble,” said Neill Herring, a longtime lobbyist for the Sierra Club who doesn’t contribute to candidates. “The timing must be related to the donors and their interest in subsequent legislation.”
Under the ethics law passed last year, Deal and lawmakers must report in February what they raised during the days leading up to the session. In the past, these donations often wouldn't be reported until well after a session had ended, and after important bills or the budget had been approved.
The change came about after several AJC reports raised questions about the pre-session fundraisers.
The new disclosure law didn’t slow special-interest money from flowing to lawmakers — this year’s total from pre-session fundraisers jumped 19 percent over last year’s.
Legislators say that may be due in part to the fact that primaries have been moved up this year, meaning they have less time to raise money before facing voters.
Almost all the money comes from lobbyists and companies that are interested in legislation, contracts or state funding. Lawmakers want to collect as much as they can before they have to take a fund-raising break, and lobbyists and the companies they represent are more than happy to oblige.
For Ralston, $14,000 a day in donations
The biggest beneficiaries of the largess, predictably, were legislative leaders. House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, collected $170,000 in donations in the days before the session. Senate President Pro Tem David Shafer, R-Duluth, took in $53,000.
Key committee chairmen also did well. Lawmakers spend many hours each session handling health care legislation. Senate Health and Human Services Chairwoman Renee Unterman, R-Buford, collected $34,000 in the pre-session days; House Health and Human Services Chairwoman Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, reported $22,000.
Many leaders face no or limited opposition for re-election, so the money helps stock huge warchests that can be doled out to help friends with more difficult campaigns. Shafer, for instance, had about $870,000 in the bank at the end of January but regularly goes unchallenged at election time.
A Jan. 9 fundraiser for the Senate leadership was typical of how the system works. Lobbyists were sent invitations by the fund-raising company run by Deal’s daughter-in-law Denise to a 1 1/2-hour get-together at The Capitol Grille in Buckhead.
Participants were told how much they could give and how to address the checks to the leaders. Records show the leaders raised about $76,000 that day, with donations coming from the usual statehouse crowd: the Georgia Chamber; lobbies for nursing homes, doctors and banking lobbies; Georgia Power; trash, cable and title pawn businesses and lobbying powerhouse Troutman Sanders.
Senate Majority Leader Ronnie Chance, R-Tyrone, said he didn't attend the event because he was out of town on business. But he still reported taking in more than $20,000.
‘It’s ridiculous and everybody knows that’
Chance, a former lobbyist, said he is adamantly opposed to allowing lawmakers to collect checks during legislative session. But he doesn’t see any problem with the pre-session fundraisers, even though he understands there might be a perception problem with receiving money from the people who will be lobbying him within a few days.
“I have been here 10 years and I’ve never had a lobbyist come up to me and say, ‘Hey, remember I gave you a contribution, remember I supported you,’ ” Chance said. “It’s never affected me to the point where I thought I’d expect a certain health care company to give me a lot of money this session because I know they want a bill.”
Longtime lobbyist Gary Horlacher said the pre-session contributions are “a genuine attempt to influence the legislative process.
“The truth is, there are plenty of people who know the way to get the job done, or at least they think the way to get the job done, is to give those contributions, strengthen those relationships, and then during the session they happen to talk to that legislator about a little tweak they need in the law,” Horlacher said.
“To deny that political contributions to key players are not going to benefit the interests you are advocating for is, at best, delirious. It’s ridiculous and everybody knows that.”
Top donors have big money at stake
The list of top donors during the final few weeks before the session included the pharmacy, hospital, optometrists, credit union and nursing home lobbies. Some of the groups have big money at stake: for instance, the state budget that lawmakers are currently writing provides about $1 billion a year for nursing home services.
Other lobbies and companies gave money to political action committees that support candidates, sometimes during the legislative session, which is legal. For instance, the House Republican Caucus’ trust, run by House leaders, reported receiving a $15,000 contribution from high-end jet maker Gulfstream on Jan. 22. About two weeks later, lawmakers filed legislation to make permanent a tax break that benefits the company’s clients.
Proposed tax breaks are a frequent source of campaign revenue. A group supporting a tax break for video game designers gave Deal’s campaign $6,000 a few days before the session. The contribution came a month before one of the governor’s floor leaders filed the tax break legislation. Some of the individuals and companies backing the bill had given Deal’s campaign another $12,000 in November.
Some lobbyists say the timing of the contributions are coincidental.
Andy Freeman, top lobbyist for the Georgia Pharmacy Association, said of his group’s Jan. 6 contributions, “We didn’t make a conscious decision to give the money the week before the session began. We give around the same amount each non-election year and it just took us a little longer than normal to give out the contributions to candidates for 2013.”
The organization's legislation, Senate Bill 85, overwhelmingly passed the Senate last year but stalled in the House Health and Human Services Committee. The measure would enable pharmacists to administer vaccines beyond the current flu shots without a doctor's prescription. Qualified and trained pharmacists could give hepatitis, herpes, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus and other shots. Pharmacists hope it will help increase Georgia's low immunization rates if they are able to more easily market and provide the shots. It also could increase their business.
The Medical Association of Georgia, the doctor’s lobby, has opposed the bill, saying physicians should still be involved in which shots an individual patient needs.
‘Disclosure is always good, at any time of year’
Jet Toney, a veteran statehouse lobbyist, gave up on the pre-session fundraisers as the number increased and the schedule became too hectic. The organizations he represents now plan out their contributions months before the session.
“What I am seeing is more combined fund-raising events with multiple legislators doing them at the same time,” he said. “And also more requests from less-senior members of the Legislature.”
Toney backs the change to force lawmakers to report what they raised at the pre-session fund-raisers. “Disclosure is always good, at any time of the year, for all concerned,” he said.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, who has championed ethics reform the past few years, doesn't object to the pre-session fundraisers. But he too thinks telling the public in February where lawmakers got their money, rather than in July, is a good idea.
“The public certainly has a right to know, as legislation moves through the process, where those checks were received,” McKoon said.
“Am I saying any member down here is for sale? I am not saying that, but I am saying the public has the right to have that information,” he said. “It’s an important change. That activity is going to occur, and the question is, are we going to let the public know about it in a timely fashion, and I think we’ve done that.”
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