A contentious U.S. senate race with record spending and an onslaught of negative ads ended last week in Montana during the General Election, but the attack ads against lame duck Sen. Jon Tester have not stopped.
Commercials airing on Montana outlets hammer Tester with 30-second spots accusing the outgoing senator of being in the pocket of “Big Pharma.”
In the commercial, a dramatic voiceover tells viewers, “Tester's Pharma-backed legislation called delinking would hand Big Pharma a $32 billion windfall and hike prescription drug costs for Montana families and employers. Call Jon Tester and tell him to put Montana families before Big Pharma.”
Montanans weary from months of mind-numbing negative campaign ads hoping for a respite don’t seem to have one coming.
A Netherlands Connection
The ads trace back to a group called Conservatives for Lower Health Care Costs (CLHCC), which is registered in Delaware by the Corporation Trust Co. in Wilmington, Delaware. That company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wolters Kluwer, a multi-national information services company based in the Netherlands with operations in more than 35 countries.
David Feider, a spokesman at Wolters Kluwer, said in an email that the company serves as the registered agent “for literally hundreds of thousands of businesses across the country.”
“Given this status, I hope you can appreciate that as a registered agent, we are not responsible for the business activities or legal affairs of any number of customers we represent,” he said.
While the advertisement’s purpose isn’t clear, the commercial seems to be linked to a push by Tester last year to prevent pharmacy benefit managers from price gouging consumers, according to a press release put out by Tester’s office in May 2023.
Unique Post-Election Barrage
Brendan Glavin, deputy research director with OpenSecrets — a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to tracking money in politics — said of the latest round of attack ads in Montana, “It is unique to see this right after the election and to have it outside of the election cycle, but it is pretty common to see these competing business interests attacking each other and using these sort of groups with generic names. Reducing health care costs or whatever, who's against that?”
As for why Conservatives for Lower Health Care Costs registered in Delaware through a multinational company, Glavin said, “That happens a lot in Delaware because of the law there and they set up these corporations and it allows whoever's behind it to hide behind that.
“They don't have to report or do any kind of reporting with the Federal Election Commission for this kind of activity. This is a vehicle that they can use to try to influence policy in a way that would be beneficial to them and keep it under wraps.”
Tester And Delinking
Critics of pharmacy benefits managers say they profit from rising drug prices and have no incentives to push for lower prices.
Tester, meanwhile, said last year that he supports “delinking” or cutting out pharmacy benefits managers from the overall cost of health care.
“For too long, massive PBMs have been price gouging consumers with bad incentives and hidden fees, and it’s about time we hold these massive corporations accountable,” he said in a statement.
The current anti-delinking commercial that accuses Tester of handing “Big Pharma” a windfall could be an effort in support of pharmacy benefits managers.
Whatever the cause, it’s not clear when the ads will stop – something many Montanans really want to know.
Messages to Tester’s office were not returned.
