Grant Hauschild

Amanda J. Cane

REGIONAL— An expensive pressure campaign launched by a new and shadowy organization is publishing ads and occupying billboards across the state in hopes of derailing an effort by DFLers in the Legislature to rein in the cost of prescription medication.
That campaign has included full-page ads in the Timberjay newspaper, among many others, in recent weeks, targeting newly elected Sen. Grant Hauschild, a Hermantown DFLer, in hopes of getting him to change his mind on the creation of the Prescription Drug Affordability Board. Creation of the board is a provision that’s currently a part of the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection omnibus budget bill.
While the ads and billboards are being purchased by a group calling itself “Minnesotans for Freedom,” DFLers made it clear at an April 14 press conference who they see as the money behind the pressure campaign: Big Pharma.
“Boy, did we make some folks mad, and we made the right folks mad,” said Sen. Hauschild during the press conference. “In my day job, I raise money for families and patients who can’t afford the care and the prescription drugs that they need. But no family should have to rely on fundraising and GoFundMe pages to get their prescriptions,” he said.
The new Prescription Drug Affordability Board, if ultimately created, would serve as a kind of watchdog over the cost of prescription drugs in the state and would have the authority to limit the prices of certain high-cost medications, according to backers of the bill.
The ads from Minnesotans for Freedom (one of which appears in this week’s edition of the Timberjay), suggest that the insurance companies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers, or PBMs, would be the ultimate beneficiaries of lower drug prices, rather than consumers.
Hauschild calls that deflection and argues that the new board would clearly make a difference to many consumers, particularly those who lack good prescription drug coverage. He cites the recent runup in the cost of insulin and its impact on many diabetics as an example and said that’s the kind of medication that would likely be targeted for cost control by the new board.
More broadly, Hauschild said the new board is just one of a number of measures that the Legislature is working on to address the high cost of health care. “It’s easy to attack one piece of that and say it doesn’t do enough,” he said. “This is one piece of a broader effort.”
Who is behind the ads?
It remains unclear exactly who is behind the aggressive ad campaign. The group Minnesotans for Freedom does not show up in any online databases or web searches, and does not appear to have a website. Nor has the group registered with the state’s Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board (CFPDB), thanks to an apparent loophole in the law that allows groups like Minnesotans for Freedom to pressure lawmakers through ads and other means, as long as they don’t expressly urge constituents to call them and ask for a specific vote on a piece of legislation. That’s according to Jeff Sigurdson, executive director of the CFPDB.
The Minnesota Reformer reported that the group is linked to Annette Meeks, the CEO of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, a conservative organization, but the Timberjay has been unable to confirm that. An email to the Freedom Foundation went answered as of presstime. Meeks is a prominent member of the Minnesota Republican Party, and was the party’s 2010 candidate for Lt. Governor.
The ads are being disseminated and paid for by Public Affairs Co., a Twin Cities area public relations firm that specializes in issue advocacy. The company maintains offices in Minneapolis and Sioux Falls.
Hauschild said he supports a measure currently in the Legislature that would require more and prompter disclosure when big monied interests wage campaigns against lawmakers on specific legislation. Hauschild notes that the ads targeting him that have appeared in recent weeks never cite the actual bill they’re targeting and he thinks he knows why. “They don’t want people to actually read the bill,” he said. “It’s very shady.”
Hauschild considered a swing vote
Sen. Hauschild, considered a moderate DFLer who narrowly won his first term last November, said he won’t be swayed by what he views as a misleading campaign.
“I revel in this fight,” said Hauschild. “I revel in being the David to this Goliath that we’re facing: Big Pharma. These folks have such deep pockets. I was driving around the Capitol, and there’s a billboard attacking me here in the Twin Cities. They must have so much money— I represent the Canadian border, I represent a district 200-300 miles away from the Capitol, and they’re putting up a billboard in the Twin Cities attacking me for standing up for patients and families.”
Hauschild’s election win flipped the state Senate from Republican to DFL control this year, and that’s left him as a key vote on a number of initiatives that have been stalled at the Capitol during the past few years of divided government in St. Paul. Hauschild has also been targeted by groups opposed to gun safety legislation, such as universal background checks and red flag provisions. As the senator representing most of northeastern Minnesota, a largely rural region where support for gun rights is considerable, gun groups have worked to pressure Hauschild to vote against such legislation.
Yet recent polling in Minnesota shows overwhelming majorities, including the majority of gun owners, support universal background checks as well as red flag laws.