Caitlin Ginley, of the Center for Public Integrity, used data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics to demonstrate that the state officials who have joined forces to file a lawsuit challenging American health care reform have, together, received more than $5 million in campaign contributions from hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, doctors and insurers. Among the governors and attorneys general in the 20 states supporting the suit, a few stood out.
… the Center found that top recipients of industry money include Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who has received more than $1 million from health care professionals since 1996, and former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, who took in at least $970,163 from the industry starting in 1992, when he was a state senator, until he left the governor’s office this week. Other major recipients involved in the lawsuit include former Pennsylvania Attorney General and newly-elected Governor Tom Corbett, who has received about $830,000, and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, with more than $770,000.
Ginley provides details on the donations each of those officials received, as well as several others. No word on how this compares to other samples of 40 high profile state politicians. Physician groups and private doctors played a major role in many of the cases she examined.
