A coalition of Republican attorneys general headed by Arkansas' top law enforcement officer, Leslie Rutledge, received more than $750,000 from the pharmaceutical industry in the past year, according to Internal Revenue Service reports.
On Tuesday, the contributions became the latest fuel in a fiery election race between Rutledge and her opponent, Democrat Mike Lee, who said the money compromised Rutledge's pledge to tackle an ongoing opioid epidemic in Arkansas.
"This is a campaign contribution problem on an epidemic scale, matching our own opioid epidemic," Lee said in a brief news conference Tuesday at his Little Rock offices.
"We know that in the past [pharmaceutical companies] have deliberately misled doctors and patients about the addictive nature of opioids," Lee said. "Our communities are still reeling from this problem."
At least 800 Arkansans died of opioid-related overdoses between 2013 and 2016, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in April.
Speaking in January, Rutledge said that companies that "profited substantially from the sale and distribution" of opioids in Arkansas should be held accountable.
Later in the spring, her office filed suit against three pharmaceutical companies -- Purdue Pharma, Endo Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson -- claiming deceptive trade practices. Purdue and Johnson & Johnson were both among donors to the Republican Attorneys General Association at the time, giving a total of $116,155.
"As I have demonstrated multiple times, I will continue to take legal action against individuals or companies for harming Arkansans regardless of political contributions," Rutledge said Tuesday in a statement released by her campaign.
Rutledge further called Lee "dishonest," and pointed to other association donors that she has taken actions against, including CVS Caremark, Teva, Pfizer and McKesson.
Lee, however, has criticized Rutledge over her decision not to join a wider-ranging lawsuit filed by a group of Arkansas counties and municipalities against 65 pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, doctors and retailers. Named defendants in that suit gave a total $401,555 while Rutledge has been chairman of the association, according to IRS reports.
"These are the very manufacturers and distributors that she refuses to take to court," Lee said of the association's donors. "She's done this to serve her own political ambitions."
Lee's campaign provided a list of the contributions the association received from pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors and pharmacy benefit managers -- totaling $1,149,204 -- based on filings made with the IRS between 2017 and 2018.
Of that total cited by the Lee campaign, $714,204 in contributions were made after Rutledge became chairman in August 2017. This newspaper identified two additional donations -- totaling $50,000 -- during Rutledge's tenure.
Rutledge received a single campaign contribution of $2,700, the state maximum, from the association in May, according to campaign-finance reports.
It's unclear to what extent Rutledge was involved in soliciting donations on behalf of the association. Spokesmen for both Rutledge's campaign and the association declined to shed further details about her role.
Also Tuesday, Little Rock blogger and attorney Matthew Campbell filed an ethics complaint against Rutledge, claiming that the May 21 donation Rutledge received from the association came before the organization was legally registered as a political action committee in the state.
Zack Roday, a spokesman for the association, said the association originally faxed its registration form on May 21, but was then told by the secretary of state's office that the form needed to be submitted online. Roday said the form was resubmitted online that same day.
NW News on 10/18/2018