Democratic Party Chair Bob Tuke called on the state republican party today, to return the over 300-thousand dollars the republicans have taken from former King Pharmaceuticals CEO John Gregory.
The flap over the Gregory family’s contributions to republicans has been ongoing since the last election cycle. It escalated again yesterday after King Pharmaceuticals signed an 124-million dollar agreement with the U-S Justice Department, settling accusations that it overcharged state Medicaid programs, and didn’t adequately reimburse states for drug rebates.
Democrat Chair Bob Tuke says the money is “dirty.”
“The fine was 124-million, there’s no telling how much money they took unlawfully. So, any money that any republican office holder got or the Republican Party got from the Gregorys is tainted money, it’s blood money, it comes from taxpayers. They ought to give it back.”
Senate Majority Leader Ron Ramsey says calling the donations “blood money” is “ridiculous.” A provision in the draft version of the ethics bill would limit total personal contributions to campaigns or political action committees to 25,000 dollars in a given election cycle, and Ramsey says that’s the democrats’ way of targeting John Gregory.
“We have a fellow that contributed campaign money to us last time and did a great job, a great family pro-business person who’s contributed to us, so that’s one of they’re ways of getting back to us.”
Republican Party chair Bob Davis says Gregory hasn’t committed any wrongdoings so Davis sees no need to return the money. Davis also said that the “strident accusations by the chairman of the other side,” aren’t helpful for the state’s political process.
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