Money Talks

"Protection" Money

Remember Rep. Richard Morgan’s “527 Committee, the so-called "N.C. Republican Mainstreet Committee" (NCRMC), which ran all those radio ads for him two years ago? It spent over $230,000! Morgan bragged that it was his "Morgan Protection Plan."

The NCRMC had only 46 donors. Thirty were from the alcoholic beverage industry, including Jim Beam, and the Distilled Spirits Council.

Anheuser-Busch brewery gave $25,000. In return, Morgan backed the alcoholic beverage industry’s "Pop the Cap" campaign to raise the limit on alcohol content of beer. Last year the legislature passed House Bill 392, which increased the alcohol limit for beer from 6 percent to 15 percent, with no corresponding increase in the tax on it.

The largest single donor was a small Virginia tobacco company called S&M brands, which gave $100,000. S&M isn’t a party to the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, so they had a competitive advantage over big North Carolina tobacco companies that pay into the "Golden Leaf" tobacco settlement fund — an advantage they wanted to keep.

So, in return for S&M’s $100,000 donation, Morgan killed House Bill 1100, which had overwhelming support, but which would have leveled the playing field and ended S&M’s competitive advantage. (more…)

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 28th, 2006 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Money Talks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.