Published: September 16, 2011
Money talks
Legislators who voted for ‘Gardasil Bill’ got $39,500 from drug’s manufacturer
Many members of the California Legislature who voted in favor of a bill permitting children as young as 12 to agree to treatment to prevent sexually transmitted diseases without their parents knowledge or consent received campaign contributions from Merck, the pharmaceutical company marketing a controversial vaccine against the human papillomavirus, CalWatchdog reports.
The bill, AB 499, has passed both houses of the legislature and is strongly opposed by California’s bishops. Gov. Brown has yet to decide whether to sign the bill into law or veto it.
AB 499, sponsored by Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, is also known as the ‘Gardasil Bill,’ taking its name from a vaccine being aggressively marketed by Merck.
The following are excerpts from a Sept. 6 CalWatchdog article by John Seiler. A link to the full story is provided below:
Key California legislators passing an anti-parent bill grabbed campaign financing from the gigantic Merck conglomerate, a CalWatchDog.com investigation revealed… I cross-matched the votes for AB 499 in the Legislature with Merck Corporate PAC Contributions in 2010 and came up with this list:
Senate:
Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, $2,000
Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, $2,500
Elaine Alquist, D-San Jose, $1,000
Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, $1,500
Juan Vargas, D-Chula Vista, $3,500
Alex Padilla, D-San Fernando Valley, $300
Curren Price, D-Los Angeles, $1,700
Roderick D. Wright, D-Inglewood, $1,500
Lois Wolk, D-Vacaville, $2,000
Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, $1,500Assembly:
Ben Hueso, D-Chula Vista, $1,000
Bob Blumenfield, D-Van Nuys, $1,500
V. Manuel Perez, D-Indio, $1,500
Richard Pan, D-East Sacramento, $1,000
Bill Monning, D-Santa Cruz, $1,500
Felipe Fuentes, D-Arleta, $1,500
Holly J. Mitchell, D-Culver City, $2,500
Speaker John A. Perez, D-Los Angeles, $1,500
Ricardo Lara, D-South Gate, $1,000
Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward, $1,500
Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, $1,000
Nancy Skinner, D-Oakland, $2,500
Jose Solorio, D-Santa Ana, $1,500
Steven Bradford, D-Inglewood, $1,500
Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, $1,000Total that Merck donated to legislators voting yea on AB 499: $39,500.
True, some Merck money went to those who voted against the bill. But an overwhelming amount went to those who backed it. For Merck, which stands to make tens of millions of dollars off the bill, it was an investment that paid off big time.
CalWatchdog is an independent, Sacramento-based journalism venture providing original investigative reports and news stories covering California state government.
To read the full story, Click Here.
