Attorneys General Party Associations Continue to Accept Purdue Pharma Contributions.

The nation’s attorneys general have been in prolonged litigation with opiod manufacturer Purdue Pharma. The attorneys general recently divided largely among partisan lines on whether to proceed with a settlement of claims. Republicans have favored the deal, Democrats have not. The partial agreement prompted the Connecticut-based company to file for bankruptcy as part of a resolution of claims.

Attorneys general of both parties agree that they like Purdue’s political contributions to their partisan associations. The OxyContin manufacturer has made generous donations to the Republican Attorney Generals Association (RAGA) and the Democratic Attorney Generals Association (DAGA) in recent years. Between 2014 and 2018, Purdue contributed $680,000 to RAGA and $210,000 to DAGA, according to the AP.

The contributions have not stopped though the company’s bankruptcy appeared imminent. Purdue Pharma has made contributions to both DAGA and RAGA this year. Daily Ructions has learned the company donated $25,000 to DAGA in 2019. This will require some explaining from the attorneys general.

The money is used by the organizations to support candidates and also to underwrite junkets to gatherings with deluxe accommodations that some of the attorneys general, including Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, appear to enjoy. The most recent DAGA event occurred at Vermont’s Equinox Golf Resort and Spa earlier this month. The group gathered at the Four Seasons in Denver in June. The attorneys general get to live for a few days like the Sacklers, the billionaire family that owns Purdue.

The Louvre erased mentions of the Sacklers, for whom a wing of the famed Paris museum was named, this summer. Purdue’s aggressive marketing of the OxyContin has long been seen as the drug that started the opioid epidemic plaguing the nation. The stigma of opioid manufacturing has not extended to political contributions from the Sackler’s company. In any other realm but politics, a company contributing large sums of money to lawyers suing it would raise urgent ethics issues. Like addicts themselves, the attorney generals would rather have the money and soil their reputations than do without the dough from the Sacklers.