Pfizer Gives $1 Million to Kentucky GOP to Expand Its Headquarters – The “Mitch McConnell Building”

 

Pfizer donated $1 million to the Kentucky Republican Party in 2021 in what is being called the highest donation to a political party in state history.

The donation will be used to expand the Frankfort Mitch McConnell Building in the state capital.

The donation seems like a perfect fit.

Mitch McConnell has been a staunch supporter of the COVID vaccine and COVID legislation. 

Via The Kentucky Lantern:

In what may be the largest political contribution ever given to a political party in Kentucky, the drug maker Pfizer Inc. gave $1 million last month to the building fund of the Republican Party of Kentucky.

A report filed by Republican Party of Kentucky Building Fund last week with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance listed the $1 million from Pfizer along with five other big corporation contributions in the final quarter of 2022 totalling $1.65 million.

That is an extraordinarily large haul for the fund which had raised only $6,000 during the first three quarters of 2022.

The other large corporate donors to the fund in late 2022 were:

• Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York, $300,000;
• Altria Client Services LLC, of Richmond, VA., $100,000;
• Comcast Corp., of Philadelphia; $100,000;
• AT&T, of St. Louis; $100,000;
• Delta Air Lines, of Atlanta, $50,000.

State and federal campaign finance laws set limits on how much a person or political action committee can give to the executive committee of either political party. (A person can give no more than $15,000 per year.) And corporation contributions to a party’s executive committee are prohibited…

… The $1.65 million added to the GOP building fund would be plenty to pay for a major expansion and upgrade for the party headquarters. The Franklin County Property Valuation Administrator’s website currently lists the taxable value of the current headquarters property at $485,000. The Franklin PVA lists the taxable value of the adjacent vacant lot owned by the Republican Party at $150,000.

A sign identifies the party headquarters as the Mitch McConnell Building, in honor of U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Read the entire report here.