My apologies in advance for a reasonably short diary--one that I've admittedly cobbled together in haste from information passed on to me from two friends who, like me, are Floridian progressive Democrats plugged into the political climate here in the Gator State.
It's about a fundraising email we've received from former FL Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham, whose enthusiastic support of Blue Dog candidate Lori Edwards is striking us as, to say the least, suspicious.
More info w/links at the jump.
So a fundraising email from Senator Graham arrives in some of our email inboxes, with the simple (and misleading) subject line reading, "President Obama." However, Senator Graham doesn't really want to talk about the President, but about his fundraising efforts for Congressional candidate Lori Edwards:
President Obama will not be able to pass the changes we need unless we continue to send good public servants to Congress.
In the past few years we have made great gains in our effort to elect Democrats in Florida. However, we must keep working hard! We will not be able to accomplish all of our goals unless we continue to support good candidates who believe in the ideas that we all share.
Lori Edwards is exactly the kind of candidate that we need to get behind. She has won the support of her constituents in every election since 1992, first as a state representative, and now as Supervisor of Elections, and she will be a powerful advocate for bettering the lives of hard working Floridians.
Support our shared priorities by contributing up to $4800 to Lori’s campaign before the deadline at midnight tonight!
Thank you for your support and best wishes,
Sincerely,
Senator Bob Graham
As one of my friends has astutely observed, Lori Edwards is a Blue Dog who hasn't given any indication on her campaign site or in the email above that she will back a meaningful public option in healthcare reform. In fact, the campaign email above doesn't even mention healthcare reform at all. Her Meet Lori page gives a passing, trite mention of working with "both Democrats and Republicans to...expand access to quality affordable healthcare" (gee, bipartisanship--where have we heard that before?), but gives no specific stance on exactly what kind of "access" she intends.
Keep in mind that Lori Edwards is a Blue Dog Democrat who has already served in Tallahassee as the state representative for Florida’s VERY conservative 65th District in eastern Polk County, and is currently Polk County's Supervisor of Elections. It is hard to believe that she'd serve as a progressive Democrat advocating for real change in healthcare reform, or any other policy issues important to bringing about meaningful change in America.
My friend also points out that Bob Graham currently sits on the Board of Directors (mentioned by his full name, D. Robert Graham) for WellCare Health Plans, which, as another friend researched and informed us via email, is somewhat, ummm, ethically compromised:
Wellcare is completely tax payer funded, accused of defrauding Kid Care by filing claims to the states for payment of services on behalf of recipients and then denying the claim to the patient!
95% of their campaign contributions go to Republicans and they have settled with the federal elections folks as they would give the same republican candidates donations from different corporate entities to explicitly skirt campaign finance laws.
Bob Graham sits on the Board of Directors of this company and personally will benefit from Edwards' positions and likely voting.
More information on Florida's KidCare program, the program WellCare allegedly defrauded:
Through Florida KidCare, the state of Florida offers health insurance for children from birth through age 18, even if one or both parents are working.
My friends aren't idly speculating about Graham's links to WellCare and the vested interest his association with WellCare suggests should a Blue Dog be elected to the FL-12 Congressional seat. They've got some facts to back up these suspicions (bolding in excerpt is mine):
WellCare Health Plans has agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $10 million in civil penalties to put an investigation to rest. The company still faces several other federal and state investigations, but it never hurts to get the SEC off your back.
The SEC had been investigating a restated financial report to the agency, which had been refiled because of accounting errors. In its settlement, WellCare said it would pay $2.5 million to the SEC within 30 days, and the rest of the penalty within one year.
This follows a far heftier settlement with the U.S. attorney's office in Tampa, FL regarding Medicaid fraud, in which it agreed to pay $80 million to the state.
More ethically-suspicious WellCare activities--"questionable" campaign contributions:
The Associated Press reported in February that WellCare, its subsidiaries and executives spent $2.4 million in political contributions in the 2004 and 2006 elections. More than 95 percent went to Republicans, who pushed a plan to send more state and federal Medicaid spending through private companies like WellCare.
And about WellCare's funding source? From Wikinvest:
All of WCG's premium revenues and over 99% of its total revenues come from government payments of Medicare and Medicaid premiums.
To call WellCare's actions "corporate welfare"--a private insurance company continuing to siphon off the public dole while leaving patients in the dust--is putting it very mildly.
But we in the grassroots progressive community do have a better option in the 2010 elections. It's not just a Blue Dog Democrat versus an even redder Republican in Florida's Congressional District 12. Running against SOE Edwards in the 2010 primary is Navy veteran and progressive Democratic candidate Doug Tudor is a true grassroots candidate who is working with Down with Tyranny! to elect more and better Democrats and oust the Blue Dogs. Even better, he has an ActBlue contribution page. :)
If you can help Doug's campaign by contributing to his campaign before the month's end (snail-mail donations are also accepted), you'd be helping to fight Big Insurance and the Blue Dogs who keep Big Insurance powerful and corrupt. If you're in the Central Florida area and have some time to help out on the ground, you can also volunteer. Do it for Doug, and do it for America. :)