The Strange Case of the Eli Lilly Five Grand

In a late expenditure report filed 10/19/09 an independent expenditure committee basking in the hilarious title Alliance for California’s Tomorrow; A California Business Coalition (interpretation: a front for whatever corporate donors and PACs want to spend money on to promote their own enrichment by manipulating the Legislature, and meanwhile keep their hands clean – sort of). This particular IE was in support of Linda Ackerman, naturally. They paid for a mailer.

The report shows three donations: $10,000 from California Cable & Telecom Association (10/15/09), State Building & Construction Trades Council of California(10/16/09), and the real curiosity – $5000 contributed last July 20th.

Why did Eli Lilly, the drug maker, just happen to put five big ones in an IE in the middle of July. What for? It doesn’t seem that it could have had anything to do with the other money put in for the Ackerwoman campaign in mid-October. On July 20th the Duvall story was still a month away from breaking, although the actual incident had already occurred, and apparently several people already knew it was out there. So the reason for the mid-summer contribution is strange. Was it just a periodic payment Eli Lilly tossed into the Alliance for California’s Tomorrow kitty? That seems pretty hard to believe. So what was it for? And how did it come to be used for in the 72nd campaign?

Yet, consider this coincidence-wise: one of the 2008 board members of The Pacific Policy Research Foundation (Linda Ackerman’s fake 501(c0(3) Hawaiian vacation scam) was Dan Howle; and Howle directs government affairs in Sacramento (lobbyist) for pharmaceutical giant…Eli Lilly. It’s a small world after all in Sacramento. And boy is it loaded with lobbyists.