Political war chest raises pharmacy profile in Congress

WASHINGTON —Bolstered by a political war chest that could break the $3 million mark by next year’s elections, campaign fundraisers for the nation’s community pharmacies are starting to give the drug store industry a noticeably higher profile on Capitol Hill.

During the first nine months of this year alone, political action committees organized by the nation’s drug chains and independent pharmacists collected more than $954,000 to help Congressional candidates who support the industry’s positions on key legislative issues.

Those fresh funds are in addition to more than $1.4 million in the industry’s PAC treasuries that was left over from the 2006 federal elections.

During that campaign retail pharmacy political fundraisers largely chose to remain on the sidelines, preserving much of the cash collected during the previous two years. Indeed, an exclusive Drug Store News analysis of industry PAC activity during the last Congressional campaign (Drug Store News, Oct. 23, 2006, page 3) found that with barely two months to go before the 2006 elections only about one-fourth of the money collected by these groups had been donated to individual candidates.

This time around it’s a different story. The industry’s PAC men are showing a willingness to loosen their purse strings and contribute to key House and Senate candidates.

According to the most recent reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, as of June 30 the eight fundraising committees organized by drug chains and independent pharmacy owners had made more than $570,000 in contributions to Congressional candidates—well over half of the total funds collected by these PACs since the last elections.

Contributions that are received early in the election cycle are particularly welcome because these funds can be used during the primary election campaign period—a time when money is tight.

But even though the industry’s political fundraisers are off to a fast start in terms of early contributions, they still have plenty more to use in support of candidates in 2008.

With the first state primaries and caucuses for the 2008 national elections rapidly approaching, PACs sponsored by Rite Aid, Walgreen, CVS, Longs, Kerr Drug, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community Pharmacists Association were collectively in control of a combined political war chest totaling more than $1.7 million.

Although the industry’s political action committees are officially non-partisan groups, during prior elections drug store PACs have tilted heavily toward Republican candidates. Drug Store News’ analysis of campaign fundraising activities during the 2006 elections, for example, found that 69 percent of the industry’s contributions went to GOP candidates.

This time around, though, the political tables are turned. With Democrats in control of both houses of Congress and running all of the key legislative committees of concern to community pharmacy, the lion’s share of the industry’s campaign support is being earmarked for the left side of the political aisle.

According to the latest information obtained by Drug Store News from the Federal Election Commission, 63 percent of the money contributed by drug store industry PACs to House and Senate candidates for the 2008 election went to Democrats.

That figure was even higher for the NACDS PAC, which favored Democrats over Republicans by a 69 percent-to-31 percent margin.

Independent pharmacists are also tilting toward Democrats, with 65 percent of the NCPA PAC’s donations so far going in that direction. Fundraisers for Walgreens also favored Democrats heavily by a 68 percent margin, while the two PACs operated by CVS/Care-mark were a bit friendlier to Republicans, committing 44 percent and 47 percent of their funds to GOP candidates.