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recent AP article highlighted the huge fight taking place in the California black community this week. Basically, PhRMA bought off a few major black politicians to push Prop 78 and oppose Prop 79, and one of the sell-outs sent out a deceptive 4-page mailer called "The Black Woman's Guide to California Politics." The mailer, which was distributed statewide to women progressive voters including my mother, features the face of every prominent black politician in the state implying that they all oppose Prop 79 and support 78.
The weekly South Los Angeles newspaper The Wave, exposes the money trail:
Former Assemblywoman Gwen Moore, the owner of the GEM Communications Group public relations firm, and currently the second vice president of the California State Conference of the NAACP, was paid $50,000 by PhRMA, part of which was used to produce "The Black Woman's Voter Guide to California Politics."
The sad thing is that Moore, who is the former Chairwoman of the California Legislative Black Caucus isn't even the biggest name on the list of sell-outs...
Former Speaker of the Assembly and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown proves he is the most expensive piece of black ass in the state cashing in $350,000, and Jerry Brown's Lt. Governor, former Congressman and current California Black Legislative Caucus Chair Mervyn Dymally collected $100,000.
Despite Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally's denial last week of receiving money from Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) to support drug industry-backed Proposition 78 in Tuesday's election, secretary of state records show that Voters Education and Registration Action (VERA), an organization created by Dymally in 1980, received a payment of $100,000 from PhRMA on Oct. 14.
[....]
Dymally said Tuesday that the $100,000 PhRMA payment unearthed this week went to VERA to finance slate mailings and for visiting nine cities in California.
Dymally's response to being caught hoeing has to be included on his list of all-time greats:
Dymally insists that his group's acceptance of drug industry money is just business. "Slate cards are a business," Dymally said. "White people make lots of money on this business and nobody complains about it."
But Big PhRMA didn't stop there. I was over my girlfriend's house last Wednesday or Thursday when I actually saw the Dymally mailer, and on it are the words "NAACP Says YES on 78 - NO on 79." I looked a little closer at it and saw that Alice Huffman, the President of the California NAACP, was right next to Dymally.
Huffman too came at hefty price:
As reported last week, PhRMA has paid Alice Huffman, the NAACP's California state president, $175,000 to work as a consultant to help pass Proposition 78 and defeat Proposition 79. But this week's report shows PhRMA still owes Huffman another $50,000, making her total take to date $225,000 to pass the drug industry's discount prescription medicine initiative.
Huffman brought along almost all of the local NAACPs:
Records show that PhRMA paid the San Francisco Branch NAACP $5,000 to operate phone banks, and the Hayward and El Cerrito branches of the NAACP $4,000 and $2,500, respectively, to distribute campaign literature.
Huffman said last week that, following the state's lead, 14 California NAACP branches have endorsed Proposition 78, but, according to published reports, the Los Angeles Branch is the only one in the state to come out in favor of the labor and consumer-backed position against Proposition 78 and in support of Proposition 79.
I'm just surprised the local branches were so cheap. This is PhRMA for goodness-sake! A few thousand is pocket change for this John.
Well as you can imagine the black politicians listed next to the slimes in "The Black Woman's Guide to California Politics" are irate. Included in the Southern California edition of the mailer are Congresswomen Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Diane Watson, Juanita Millender-McDonald, former State Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite Burke, Majority Whip Karen Bass, State Sen. Kevin Murray (son of First A.M.E.'s Cecil Murray), Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas, Assemblyman Jerome Horton, and State Senator Edward Vincent.
"It is the most deceptive thing I've ever seen," said Oneil Cannon, whose Jewish wife, Adele, received the Black Woman's Voter Guide in the mail. "It has the Legislative Black Caucus in it and it gives you the full impression that everyone pictured here is for Yes on Prop. 78 and No on Prop. 79, when I know that's not the case," Cannon said.
And as they should be the black legislators are pissed:
"This is dirty politics at its worst," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, one of four Democratic House members from California shown on the flier, which arrived in mail boxes this week. "This is serious business, and for someone to just downright attack my integrity in this process is offensive, and I'm not going to stand for it."
"I was outraged by it," said Rep. Maxine Waters. "I do not support the pharmaceutical industry in anyway. People can support whatever they want, but to bring us into it is over the line.
"I was angry. I called Gwen about it and gave her a piece of my mind. I told her: `I hope the drug industry paid you enough to handle a lawsuit because I am willing to sue you,'" Waters added. "I told Gwen she did this because she was paid to push a position that nobody supports."
More from Maxine:
"She 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 said. "This is a common trick that's used by campaign organizations who wish to try to get the support of the black community by implying that black elected officials are supporting their position."
"I have endorsed 79, it's a matter of public record, and any representations to the contrary are simply false and very disturbing," said state Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles, who also is pictured on the mailer. "The pharmaceutical industry, specifically PhRMA, has taken this campaign to new heights in terms of political skullduggery."
"I know PhRMA. I have never supported any position they promoted. I do not support them and I never will," Wesson said.
Most are buying their own slates to show their true positions on Props 78 and 79.