Betsy Dirksen Londrigan rejects corporate PAC money
Rep. Rodney Davis has taken over $3.5 million from corporate PACs
Betsy Dirksen Londrigan faced off against Congressman Rodney Davis in the first of two debates for the district on Monday. Dirksen Londrigan, who rejects corporate PAC money and has made ending political corruption a key priority of her campaign, exposed who Rep. Rodney Davis really works for: corporate special interests. Congressman Davis has taken over $3.5 million from corporate PACs throughout his political career, and his relationship with corporate special interests has led him to make decisions in office that have favored his donors and hurt Illinois families.
“Instead of fighting for Illinois families and small businesses, Rodney Davis has spent his time in Washington looking for the next check to cash from the corporate special interest groups that have backed his political career,” said ECU President Tiffany Muller. “The contrast between Betsy Dirksen Londrigan and Congressman Davis couldn’t be clearer: Betsy won’t be beholden to corporate special interests because she doesn’t take their corporate PAC money; Congressman Davis has taken $3.5 million dollars from corporate PACs, and time and again has supported their bottom line in Congress while Central Illinoisans are left behind. We’ll make sure Illinois voters remember that come November.”
On prescription drugs, the contrast between the two candidates could not have been more clear. Dirksen Londrigan exposed the Congressman for taking more than $250,000 from Big Pharma corporate PACs and voting against the Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R.3), a bill that would lower the cost of prescription drugs by granting Medicare new powers to negotiate annual prices for the 250 most expensive drugs on the market. It would make the lower drug prices negotiated by Medicare available to Americans with private insurance. It also stops drug companies from ripping off Americans while charging other countries less for the same drugs. Davis touts his so-called leadership in voting for the disastrous 2017 GOP tax bill that gave $76 billion in tax cuts to Big Pharma. That same year, 30% of Illinois families stopped taking medication as prescribed due to high costs, according to AARP. Rep. Davis’ siding with Big Pharma over his constituents is a failure of leadership that is hurting Illinois families.
On Big Oil and Gas, Dirksen Londrigan exposed Davis’ ties to the oil and gas industry, noting that the Congressman has received over $320,000 from the industry’s corporate PACs and CEOs. Davis has sided with them time and again by voting in their favor in Washington, supporting big tax breaks for the oil industry, and allowing them to get away with not paying their fair share of royalties in onshore oil and gas.
On ComEd/Exelon, Dirksen Londrigan set the record straight about the lies and dishonest smear campaign by Rodney Davis and the Washington establishment. ComEd, which is a subsidiary of Exelon, was recently fined $200 million by the Department of Justice for its corrupt lobbying practices that led to favorable legislation for the utility giant. Congressman Rodney Davis is the only candidate in the race who has taken corporate PAC and CEO money from ComEd and Exelon. He failed to come clean about the $64,000 he’s taken from Exelon’s corporate PAC since 2012, including $10,000 for his 2020 campaign. As Dirksen Londrigan pointed out, “Exelon owns ComEd, Congressman, but you know that. You accepted money both from Exelon’s PAC and from the ComEd Exelon CEO and executives. I know it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the over $3 million that you have taken from corporate PACS, but it is significant.”
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