CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Perry
Sees Merck’s Shadow on Groundhog Day
21 Corporate Crime Reporter 8, February 15, 2007
It was groundhog day when Texas Governor Rick Perry issued an executive order
directing pre-pubescent Texas girls to get vaccinated for the human papilloma
virus (HPV) – a sexually transmitted virus than can cause cervical cancer.
He then granted the maker of the Gardasil vaccine – Merck & Co. – a statewide monopoly at full price.
Why?
Texans for Public Justice thinks it has the answer.
The group’s current issue of Lobby Watch lays out the ugly facts.
Merck’s PAC spent $74,250 in a single day in September, 2006 to influence elections in five states.
It directed 60 percent of that money to 82 candidates in Texas.
Merck so far has agreed to pay a total of up to $250,000 to three Texas lobbyists this year, which doubled what it spent in 2006.
Merck retained Texas Lobby Group partners Lara Laneri Keel and Valens “Mike” Toomey – who was Governor Perry’s roommate when the two men served in the Texas House in the 1980s.
Texans for Public Justice report that “because of their long, close relationship, many capitol insiders believe that the governor contracted the HPV-vaccine bug from Toomey.”
This is one groundhog day move that may keep coming back to haunt Perry.
And it’s not just liberals who are fuming over Perry’s move.
Conservatives fear any government action – especially vaccination action – and they are not sitting this one out.
Here’s the conservative Washington Times weighing in yesterday:
“Texans were not the only ones surprised on Groundhog's Day when Gov. Rick Perry jumped way out ahead of that national debate. Without going through the usual niceties of a legislative debate, Mr. Perry issued an executive order to make his state the first to require vaccination for schoolgirls aged 11 and 12.”
“Texans have good reason to wonder about Mr. Perry's haste – he's a usually conservative Republican. If any issue calls for reasoned debate and public education, this one does. Nor did it calm anyone's nerves to learn Merck, which stands to make billions from the drug, had hired as a top lobbyist Mike Toomey, who once was Mr. Perry's chief of staff and is very popular with the legislatures. Merck also doubled its spending on lobbyists in Texas this year, according to news reports, as lawmakers considered a vaccine bill not yet voted on when Mr. Perry announced his executive order.”
Call him Punxsutawney Perry.
Maybe
he can come back every year on February 2 to check out the big shadow of the
corporate lobbying machine – guaranteeing twelve more months of Texas
sleaze.
Corporate
Crime Reporter
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