[Pharm-policy] Gore Aide Once Wooed Pharmaceutical Group

[James Love]

This is forwarded to the list for SF.   Jamie

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60785-2000Jul6.html

Gore Aide Once Wooed Pharmaceutical Group 

By Dan Balz and Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday , July 7, 2000 ; A06 

When Vice President Gore attacked Citizens for Better Medicare this week
for "polluting the airwaves" with ads opposing the Democrats'
prescription drug plan, he left out one important fact: His own top
message adviser once sought to run the pharmaceutical industry's ad
campaign.

Carter Eskew unsuccessfully made a pitch to the pharmaceutical industry
in mid-1999 to handle the lucrative advertising and public relations
account now being run through Citizens for Better Medicare, an
industry-funded group. A short time later, Eskew left the public
relations firm BSMG Worldwide to join Gore's campaign as chief media
adviser and message shaper.

In their memo to the industry, Eskew and his firm warned that "a leading
presidential aspirant" could turn prescription drugs into a central
issue in the 2000 elections and give industry opponents an "enormous"
forum. He proposed a public relations campaign "to chill support for
legislative efforts to impose . . . price controls on prescription drug
medicines by showing how those measures would stifle the innovation at
the core of the positive image the industry has built since 1993."

Today, Eskew is the chief architect of Gore's new populist message
attacking the drug industry, big oil and other corporate interests. This
week Gore has relentlessly accused the pharmaceutical industry of "price
gouging," called Citizens for Better Medicare "a phony coalition" and
cast the difference between himself and Texas Gov. George W. Bush as one
of "Whose side are you on?"

Asked yesterday about the apparent conflict between Eskew's past work
and the vice president's current message, Gore spokesman Chris Lehane
said, "Where's the hypocrisy? The guy wasn't working for us at the time,
and we never changed our views."

   [snip]

The memo from Eskew's former firm to the pharmaceutical industry was
made available by a source who has worked for the industry and who is
providing assistance to the Bush presidential campaign.

Gore campaign officials said Eskew's past work for the industry is well
known and has had no effect on the vice president. "The vice president
has a 20-year record of taking strong stands against big pharmaceutical
companies, and that record hasn't been influenced by anyone who advises
him now or has advised him in the past," campaign communications
director Mark Fabiani said.

   [snip]


Staff writer Kenneth J. Cooper contributed to this report.

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James Love, Director           | http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology | mailto:love@cptech.org 
P.O. Box 19367                 | voice: 1.202.387.8030
Washington, DC 20036           | fax:   1.202.234.5176
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