Charlie Baker’s bid to ape Scott Brown undercut by health-care cash
GOP gubernatorial candidate Charles D. Baker, hoping to catch the anti-Obamacare wave that propelled Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate, risks being dragged down by a war chest heavy with campaign cash from the health-care industry, records show.
Baker’s big-bucks campaign has taken in at least $90,000 from donors connected to hospitals, HMOs and pharmaceutical companies, according to a Herald review of Baker’s donors.
Democrats - still stinging from Brown’s upset win - already are taking aim at the issue. “One of Brown’s major arguments to voters was that he didn’t owe anything to anyone. If people look at Baker’s financing, it’s clear he can’t make that claim,” said Democratic consultant Michael Shea.
Baker, a former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim, scooped up $12,400 from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care employees alone, including donations from CFO James Ducharme and senior vice president Laura Peabody.
He also raked in more than $20,000 from other health-care honchos such as Fallon Community Health Plan CFO Charles Goheen, Tufts Medical Center Vice President Margaret Vosburgh and Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Baker’s gubernatorial campaign also received:
• $25,000 from other employees at health-care clinics, hospitals and other health-care providers including Beth Isreal Deaconess and Boston Medical Center.
• More than $33,000 from HMOs and health insurance companies such as United Health Group, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Health Plans Inc.
• $2,000 from pharmaceutical agencies such as Pfizer.
Baker’s campaign manager Lenny Alcivar said the money is less than 5 percent of Baker’s total fund raising and vowed the Swampscott Republican won’t be beholden to anyone.
“If the question is independence and freedom from special interests on Beacon Hill, the only answer is Charlie Baker,” Alcivar said. Baker declined to be interviewed.
“Those contributions haven’t kept Charlie Baker from shouting from the rooftops about his number-one priority - keeping health-care costs down.”
Brown, who raised at least $8,000 from health-care-related donors himself, declined to comment on whether Baker’s health-care ties would hurt him. He did say Baker’s knowledge of the industry is vast, however.
“I have heard him speak about health care, and he has an amazing knowledge of the ups and downs of that industry,” Brown said. “He’s very impressive when he speaks about what he went through, what the challenges are and how to deal with them.”
Baker has raised about $2.3 million since August and still boasts a $1.6 million campaign chest, according to his most recent filings with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance. He plans on holding a campaign rally kickoff in Boston tomorrow.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1229027
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