Breaking Up with ALEC is Hard to Do For Johnson & Johnson
by Sara Jerving
PR Watch
April 24, 2012
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/04/11460/breaking-alec-hard-do-johnson-johnson

As Procter and Gamble became the 13th major
American firm to announce that it was dropping its
membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council
(ALEC), a few corporations have publicly confirmed their
loyalty to the controversial organization. Johnson &
Johnson is one of the companies that has so far stood by
ALEC, despite ALEC's role in pushing "model" laws that
make it harder for Americans to vote and that advance
the NRA's gun agenda.

Firm Tries to Distance itself from Extreme ALEC Agenda

Instead of quitting, Johnson & Johnson prefers to try to
distance itself from certain elements of the ALEC
agenda, which may explain ALEC's PR move to dump its
"Public Safety and Elections Task Force," where
corporate lobbyists and elected officials voted behind
closed doors on templates for changing gun and voting
laws.

Bill Price, a spokesman for the New Jersey-based Johnson
& Johnson said the company financially supports ALEC and
other organizations because of "a broad range of issues
and, while we express our views to organizations with
which we work, we may not align with or support every
public position each of these broad-based groups takes."
Johnson & Johnson's Vice President for State Government
Affairs Don Bohn represents the company on ALEC's
corporate "Private Enterprise" board, as of 2011.

The company was also a "Vice-Chairman" level sponsor of
ALEC's 2011 Annual Conference, which in 2010, equated to
$25,000. It was also a 2011 sponsor of ALEC's New
Orleans convention's "Kids Congress," which provides day
care and activities for the children, six months or
older, of ALEC legislators and corporate lobbyists.

Despite assertions by corporations that their interest
in ALEC membership can be selective, corporations like
Johnson & Johnson provide ALEC with general support that
makes its operations and agenda possible. ALEC's agenda
includes bills to privatize public schools, prisons, and
public assets, bills to push climate change denial,
bills to repeal the rights of workers, and resolutions
in support of the privatization of Medicare and Social
Security.

Johnson & Johnson Stands to Benefit from ALEC's Agenda

Why would Johnson & Johnson, which sells a host of
consumer products such as its "no more tears" baby
shampoo, Listerine mouthwash, and Tylenol brand pain
killer, risk tarnishing its image by renewing its vows
to ALEC? What does it get in return for its financial
investment, besides one-stop shopping for legislators at
ALEC meetings and the chance to vote as equals with
elected officials on "model" legislation, away from the
eyes of the press and public?

ALEC's corporate bill mill includes numerous templates
that make it more difficult for American families to
hold corporations accountable when their products injure
or kill their child, partner, or parent. Backed by Big
Tobacco, drug companies, insurance companies, and other
global corporations, ALEC has long been pushing changes
to the laws, so-called "tort reform bills," governing
claims by people injured by corporate products.

Johnson & Johnson has also had a seat (and a vote) on
ALEC's so-called "Civil Justice" Task Force, co-chaired
by state senator Bill Seitz (R-OH). His co-chair is
Victor Schwartz of the Shook, Hardy & Bacon law firm,
who is the national point person for the corporate wish
list in this area of the law, working with the American
Tort Reform Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
and other global corporations to push this agenda
forward.

Johnson & Johnson sells numerous products sold in drug
stores across the country, under such names as
Neutrogena soaps and lotions, Acuvue contact lenses, and
Splenda sweetener. It also sells Band-Aids, Neosporin,
and RoC moisturizer and wrinkle cream. Johnson & Johnson
also sells over the counter and prescription drugs, such
as anti-seizure medicines. These include the pain
killers, Tylenol and Motrin, St. Joseph's children's
aspirin, Benadryl, and Rolaids.

Defective Products

Rolaids antacids were subject to a massive voluntary
recall in 2010 due to contamination with a chemical
called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole (TBA). Johnson & Johnson
also recalled more than 135 million units of children's
Tylenol, Benadryl, and Motrin medicines in 2010 for
possible bacterial contamination and the presence of
small metal parts.

In 2010, Johnson & Johnson's then-CEO, William Weldon,
was called before Congress after regulators learned that
the company had also engaged in "stealth" recalls by
buying up products -- supplies of the pain killer,
Motrin -- rather than notifying the public of its need
to recall defective Motrin tablets.

And, just this month, on April 10, a jury determined
that a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary had downplayed and
had hidden risks associated with the antipsychotic drug
Risperdal. The Arkansas Attorney General is seeking
fines of at least $1.1 billion for the 250,000
prescriptions of this drug that the state's Medicaid
program paid for over three and a half years. Johnson &
Johnson is involved in other claims about this and other
products as well.

For example, Johnson & Johnson has faced lawsuits over
defective heart stents as well as hip replacement parts,
the failure of which put at-risk American patients at
additional risk from more surgery to address these
defective medical devices. In the case of the defective
hip joints, some recipients have experienced degradation
of the soft tissue around the joint, leaving injured
Americans unable to fully replace the defective part and
instead suffering long-term disability and reduced
mobility.

Through ALEC's "tort" task force, global corporations
like Johnson & Johnson underwrite an agenda that would
bar American families from suing if their loved one dies
as a result of a drug if that drug were approved by the
FDA. ALEC has pursued such legislation despite the long-
history of inadequate regulation by the FDA and numerous
recalls of dangerous or defective drugs -- including
numerous drugs manufactured by Johnson & Johnson.

The ALEC agenda also focuses its rhetoric on "frivolous"
claims while pushing bills that limit the ability of a
jury that has found that a drug company has acted
dangerously, irresponsibly or recklessly from punishing
the company through substantial damages to deter similar
conduct in the future. Some ALEC legislators have gone
even further than ALEC's templates, as with a bill
introduced in Wisconsin last year that would extend
ALEC's bar on suit for FDA-approved drugs to reach
medical devices, like defective hip joints or heart
stents. The text of ALEC's model bills, along with
analysis, is available here.

Johnson & Johnson had revenue of over $62 billion last
year and has accumulated assets valued at over $100
billion. Last year's profits were consistent with prior
years: in 2010, it had a gross profit of $42.8 billion
on revenue of $62 billion, along with a net income after
taxes of $13.3 billion. It paid its CEO over $28 million
in total compensation that year.

ALEC's Exile of Gun Laws Won't Stop Push for So-Called
"Tort Reform"

Last week, ALEC announced it had reassigned the staff of
its "Public Safety and Elections Task Force" after the
task force was subject to opprobrium for pushing bills
to make it harder for American citizens to vote and that
advance the NRA's extreme gun agenda. In a PR maneuver
to limit corporate and legislative defections, ALEC
claimed this move would allow it to sharpen its focus on
"jobs, free markets and growth." But, when ALEC talks
about enhancing employment opportunity, hiding just
behind that are templates to change the laws so that a
family might not be able to sue a corporation like
Johnson & Johnson for the damages its product caused.

Such policies enrich drug companies while they may
impose devastating losses on families -- all because the
company escapes responsibility under ALEC-promoted laws.
And, many of the bills in the ALEC agenda seek to
supplant the democratic check of the jury system and its
careful evaluation of the facts in an individual case
with the generic judgment of a legislator, who may have
schmoozed and boozed with corporate lobbyists and even
voted behind closed doors on an ALEC task force as an
equal with unelected corporate representatives from
companies like Johnson & Johnson.

The Center for Media and Democracy's Executive Director
Lisa Graves has written off ALEC's announcement to nix
one of its task forces as a public relations stunt.
"ALEC's so-called 'jobs' agenda is a thinly disguised
effort to make it more difficult for American families
to hold corporations accountable ... ," she said. ALEC's
measures "strip workers of their rights to organize or
even get sick pay to help care for their children when
they are ill, limit the ability of the government to
protect the health and safety of American families and
to fight climate changes underway, funnel tax dollars
from public institutions like schools into private
coffers, and to continue a reckless agenda of tax
loopholes and giveaways to some of the wealthiest
corporations and individuals in the world, like Koch
Industries and the Koch family."

CMD, along with Color of Change, Common Cause, People
for the American Way, Progress Now!, and others will
continue to expose ALEC's corporate funders, including
Johnson & Johnson. Already, hundreds of thousands of
Americans have asked ALEC corporations to sever their
ties with ALEC and its extreme agenda.

________________________________

(Lisa Graves and Jonathan Rosenblum contributed to this
story.)

___________________________________________

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