Drug Companies' PAC Gives Big After Schwarzenegger's Vetoes

Drug Companies' PAC Gives Big After Schwarzenegger's Vetoes (Source: San Francisco Chronicle)

From the article:

For more than a decade, a trade group representing the nation's biggest drug companies was content to sit on the sidelines of California's legislative races.

But after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed four bills in September that would have made it easier for Californians to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Alliance quickly emerged as one of California's major players and one of the governor's key supporters.

The PhRMA group jumped into state legislative races late in the 2004 campaign — only two weeks after Schwarzenegger's Sept. 29 veto of the industry-opposed bills. It raised nearly $360,000 from its members — most of it during one week in mid-October — for distribution largely to Republican candidates backed by the governor.