Calif. NAACP catches flack for drug initiative

Steve Lawrence

SACRAMENTO — A $1.4 million effort by the pharmaceutical industry to line up support for its prescription drug initiative has led to a rift among black leaders and prompted a congresswoman to accuse the state NAACP president of dishonoring the venerable civil rights group.

The effort is part of the $76.5 million spent by drug manufacturers to pass Proposition 78 and defeat rival Proposition 79 on Tuesday. Most of the $1.4 million expenditure went to political consulting firms run by two prominent black leaders, former Assembly speaker and San Francisco mayor Willie Brown and Alice Huffman, the head of the NAACP in California.

The companies’ campaign committee also has paid $130,000 to a political committee that Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton, helped organize and $50,000 to a company headed by former Assemblywoman Gwen Moore, D-Los Angeles.

Smaller amounts have been paid to the NAACP and several other black organizations for campaign work on behalf of Proposition 78 and against 79.

Proposition 78 is an industry-sponsored initiative that would set up a program to provide discounted medications to uninsured Californians making up to three times the federal poverty level, about 5 million people. Participation by drug companies would be voluntary.

Proposition 79 is backed by labor and consumer groups and would cover twice as many people. It would provide discounted drugs to uninsured Californians making up to four times the poverty level. Drug companies that refused to offer the discounts could have their medications knocked off a list of prescriptions used in the state’s Medi-Cal health care program for the state’s poorest residents.

The state NAACP and about 15 local chapters of the organization have endorsed Proposition 78 and opposed Proposition 79. Huffman and a spokeswoman for the Yes on 78 campaign said the payments from the pharmaceutical companies did not buy endorsements.

“This is about educating voters and doing voter outreach on important initiatives that would impact these important communities,” said the spokeswoman, Denise Davis.

But some black leaders have denounced the NAACP endorsements and Huffman’s role in the Proposition 78 campaign.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, said Moore and Huffman had “dishonored the NAACP.”

Moore put out a mailer encouraging black women to support Proposition 78 and oppose Proposition 79. It included pictures of black members of Congress and the Legislature, implying incorrectly that they all supported Proposition 78, critics said.

Waters said she talked to Moore and said the former assemblywoman “tried to get me to believe that she was simply educating the people about women legislators and about women’s organizations.”

“I told her she didn’t even believe that herself,” Waters added.

Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles, said Friday that the NAACP endorsements of Proposition 78 were “starkly inconsistent” with the group’s long record as an advocate for minorities and the poor.

“The money trail is rather disturbing here,” he said. “As a member of the NAACP, I just don’t think (the pharmaceutical industry) should be permitted to exploit the organization’s history and its influence.”

Anthony Wright, co-chairman of the Yes on 79 campaign, said the drug companies’ spending through black organizations was part of an effort “to find groups with friendlier faces to carry their message.”

“We know that once voters find out that the drug companies are behind Prop. 78 they reject it and are more likely to join consumer groups in supporting Prop. 79,” he said.

Huffman said her decision was based on the merits of the two measures and not on her business dealings with the Yes on 78 campaign committee, formally called the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America California Initiative Fund.

Huffman said she cleared her role in the campaign with her NAACP executive committee.

“I cannot take a job anymore in California that would hurt our people,” she said. “So I definitely had to take a critical look at whether or not I was doing the right thing for our community.”

Huffman said she feared Proposition 79 could deny Medi-Cal patients access to certain brands of medications and that voluntary discount programs had worked well in other states.

She said she sent a mailer to NAACP members urging support for Proposition 78 and opposition to Proposition 79 but had one of her aides contact local chapters about the two measures so it wouldn’t look as if she was “twisting anyone’s arm.”

“It was more of a soft sell than a hard sell,” she said.

She said black leaders critical of her position on the two propositions “want the NAACP to be the enemy of corporate America.”

“A majority of NAACP dollars don’t come from memberships, they come from corporate America,” she said. “A lot of the time we don’t agree. But if we can agree on an issue that’s mutually supportive of corporate America, I think we should.”

Geraldine Washington, president of the NAACP’s Los Angeles chapter, said her group questioned the sincerity of the drug companies and decided to support Proposition 79.

“If the drug companies were sincere and wanted to do something (to provide discounts), they would have done something by now,” she said. “We thought that if the drug companies ... were required to do so, that it would be much better for the millions of people who would be able to get cheaper drugs.” (Associated Press)