Key problem of note:
"A majority of NAACP dollars don't come from memberships. They come from corporate America," she said. "A lot of the time we don't agree. But if we can agree on an issue that's mutually supportive of corporate America, I think we should."
Nonsense statement of note:
Huffman said her decision was based on the merits of the two proposals. She said she feared Proposition 79 could deny patients in the state's health care system for the poor access to certain brands of medications.
She's hinting at the provision that would get your butt kicked off the formulary if your pricing is wrong. But California's market is too big...Big Pharma won't abandon that market any more than they abandoned Canada.
Black Leaders Question NAACP on Prop. 78
By STEVE LAWRENCE
Associated Press Writer
8:47 AM PST, November 5, 2005
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The pharmaceutical industry has spent $76.5 million to line up support for its prescription drug initiative on next week's ballot -- and some of the money is causing a rift among black leaders.
The spending includes $1.4 million paid to groups run by blacks, much of it to consulting firms run by two prominent black leaders: Assembly speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and Alice Huffman, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in California.
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters said Huffman and others had "dishonored the NAACP."
The industry spending is aimed at supporting passage of Proposition 78, a measure on Tuesday's ballot that would provide discounted medications to uninsured Californians making up to three times the federal poverty level -- about 5 million people.
Although most of the $1.4 million went to the firms run by Brown and Huffman, some of the money went to the NAACP and several other black organizations for Proposition 78 campaign work.
The criticism began after the state NAACP and about 15 local chapters of the organization endorsed the proposal and opposed the competing Proposition 79, which is backed by labor and consumer groups and would cover twice as many people by including uninsured Californians making up to four times the poverty level.
Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas of Los Angeles said Friday that the NAACP endorsements were "starkly inconsistent" with the group's record as an advocate for minorities and the poor.
Huffman said black leaders critical of her position on the two propositions "want the NAACP to be the enemy of corporate America."
"A majority of NAACP dollars don't come from memberships. They come from corporate America," she said. "A lot of the time we don't agree. But if we can agree on an issue that's mutually supportive of corporate America, I think we should."
Anthony Wright, co-chairman of a group campaigning for Proposition 79, said the drug companies recruited black organizations "to find groups with friendlier faces" to carry their message.
"We know that once voters find out that the drug companies are behind Proposition 78, they reject it and are more likely to join consumer groups in supporting Proposition 79," he said.
Huffman said her decision was based on the merits of the two proposals. She said she feared Proposition 79 could deny patients in the state's health care system for the poor access to certain brands of medications.
