By Adam Pagnucco.
Council Member Will Jawando’s acceptance of a $3,900 PAC check from an anti-union law firm is not the first time he has faced controversy over political contributions. The incident brings back memories of an episode he would like to forget involving one of America’s most notorious pharmaceutical executives.
In 2015-16, Martin Shkreli, founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals and widely known as the “Pharma Bro,” was one of the most hated men in America. After acquiring Daraprim, an antiparasitic drug used by AIDS patients, Shkreli hiked its price by 5500%.
Condemnations poured in from across the political spectrum. Hillary Clinton branded the “price gouging” as “outrageous.” Donald Trump said Shkreli “looked like a spoiled brat” and called the price hike a “disgrace.” Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman Elijah Cummings wrote, “The enormous, overnight price increase for Daraprim is just the latest in a long list of skyrocketing price increases for certain critical medications… Americans should not have to live in fear that they will die or go bankrupt because they cannot afford to take the life-saving medication they need.”
Hillary takes on the Pharma Bro.
As for Shkreli, he stood by the price hike and said this to a journalist who asked about it: “It’s a great business decision that also benefits all of our stakeholders… I don’t expect the likes of you to process that. You are such a moron.”
Shortly before the price increase scandal erupted, Shkreli made two $2,700 contributions to Jawando’s District 8 Congressional campaign. (Jawando would lose this race but would be elected to the county council two years later.)
Shkreli’s contributions to Jawando occurred right before he became a household name.
Washington Post MoCo beat reporter Bill Turque reported on these contributions in December 2015. Turque wrote:
Jawando said Friday that he didn’t know Shkreli until he was introduced to him by a friend in New York’s financial sector late last summer. He declined to identify the friend.
He said they met at a reception, where they spoke about their similar immigrant family backgrounds. Shkreli, 32, is the son of Albanian and Croatian immigrants who worked as janitors, according to various published profiles. Jawando, also 32, has a Nigerian father.
“He heard my story and it resonated with him,” Jawando said. “He said he wanted to support me.”
Jawando kept the money after news of the price hike broke. He said that he had been clear with Shkreli when they met that he was a strong supporter of anti-price-gouging regulations for drug companies and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate with the industry for lower prices for seniors.
He said that when Shkreli was indicted, he decided to donate the funds to The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington.
As Turque noted, Shkreli was indicted for securities fraud in December 2015 and eventually sentenced to prison. Jawando later returned half of Shkreli’s contributions and sent the rest to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington. He kept $22,900 from six other employees of Shkreli’s company. Open Secrets reported:
But what about the $22,900 from six other Turing employees? The campaign is keeping that. “They didn’t do anything illegal,” said Aubrey Sylvester, Jawando’s campaign manager. “They weren’t indicted for anything.” Asked whether the fact that such a significant portion of the campaign’s total contributions has come from employees of a single company — one that’s currently being investigated for pharmaceutical price gouging — would affect Jawando’s policies, Sylvester said no.
Jawando sent money to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington quickly but waited three months after the Washington Post article to return the rest of the Pharma Bro’s money.
There are important differences between this incident and the Jackson Lewis contribution, which Jawando told the Post he would return. First and most importantly, Jackson Lewis is not under a federal indictment. The issues concerning the law firm are related to allegations of conflict of interest with MCPS and its union avoidance practice. But second, while Jawando’s relationship with Shkreli appears to be a one-off encounter, he has taken five different contributions from Jackson Lewis attorneys since 2016 (not counting the large PAC check). Labor unions in Montgomery County and Maryland may be wondering if Jawando ever knew of the firm’s role in opposing union organizing campaigns while he accepted this money.
And so here is the dent in Jawando’s progressive armor. His record in office has unquestionable progressive credentials, including his efforts to defund police and his successful campaign to pass rent control. And yet, he was willing to keep the Pharma Bro’s money until he was indicted and has a record of accepting money from a law firm widely detested by the labor movement. Jawando is free to accept any legal contributions he wants. But if issues like this continue to surface, it will cause hesitation by some in fully accepting Jawando as the county’s next great progressive leader.