St. Louis Post Dispatch

Nursing home donations played role in key races in Senate
By Virginia Young Post-Dispatch Jefferson City Bureau
12/22/2002 12:00 AM

[copyright]2002, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

JEFFERSON CITY - State Senate candidate Norma Champion of Springfield, Mo., got a ringing endorsement this fall from a group called Save our Seniors. The testimonial called her "a true friend of Missouri's retired people" who backs "tough penalties for those who violently or financially abuse seniors."

The flier purported to come from "one of Missouri's leading senior advocacy groups." But that's a stretch: Save our Seniors is a political group organized by nursing home owners. They worked hard for Champion because she was running against Rep. Craig Hosmer, who tried for three years to strengthen sanctions against homes that abuse seniors.

That behind-the-scenes help was just one way nursing homes played a role in key legislative races this year. Their trade groups, owners and facilities gave more than $300,000 in campaign contributions to legislative candidates and political party committees. More than two-thirds of the money went to Republicans - including Champion.

Republicans will control both the House and Senate next year. Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, and House Speaker-elect Rep. Catherine Hanaway, R-Warson Woods, said they hope to pass a nursing home bill. They said it should protect the elderly against abuse without overburdening good operators.

Gov. Bob Holden, a Democrat, announced Thursday that he would push a nursing home reform package. It would require all deaths of nursing home residents to be reported to coroners and increase the civil penalties for providing poor care. Homes currently can escape fines if they file plans showing how they will correct problems.

The sticking point for such proposals has been the Senate, which has killed the legislation three years in a row. A Post-Dispatch review of thousands of pages of campaign finance reports filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission shows that nursing homes focused on electing allies to the Senate.

Among the findings:

The homes' trade group set up seven regional political action committees and thus could donate seven times the $575 contribution limit to Senate candidates.

Champion, R-Springfield, got the most: at least $24,809 in donations and help. She edged Hosmer with 51.5 percent of the vote.

Sometimes the money took a circuitous route. In one case, the trade group gave $10,000 to a Republican Senate district committee, which gave it to two Republican House district committees, which gave it to Sen.-elect Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph.

The industry paid $27,562 to an Ohio consulting firm that hired the Missouri Republican Party to mail the Save Our Seniors flier to elderly voters in four key Senate races.

Nursing homes say they were active in the election because they want elected officials to understand the industry's needs.

"I may be idealistic, but I don't think we're buying votes," said Earl Carlson. He is executive director of the Missouri Health Care Association, the main nursing home trade group. Carlson said he presented facts and figures to make his case "that the senior citizens who live in nursing homes have been abandoned" by the state's policies.

Unhappy with governor

The industry worked especially hard this year to elect Republicans because nursing home owners are unhappy with Holden.

The homes had been receiving millions of dollars from a federal Medicaid loophole. They got the money as a bonus on top of their regular rates. But when the budget crunch hit, legislators diverted most of the extra money to other programs. The governor also withheld the final two installments of the special nursing home grants.

Democratic insiders say Holden told the owners that he would help them next year if revenue collections improved. But some industry leaders cut their ties to the governor and backed Republicans instead.

"It was a very hard line they took," said Todd Patterson, who runs Team Missouri, a political action committee for Democratic legislative candidates. Nursing homes "made the decision to abandon Bob's ship."

Norman Estes, president of Alabama-based Northport Health Services Inc., is often cited as an example. Records show Estes, who usually helps Democrats, gave at least $7,300 to Republicans and $2,500 to Democrats this year. His company owns five homes in western Missouri. He could not be reached for comment.

Beyond contribution limits

The Post-Dispatch tracked donations made this year to candidates in the 17 Senate races, legislative leaders in both the House and Senate, and scores of political party committees at the local and state levels.

Donors identified as nursing home-related include: the Missouri Health Care Association, the Missouri Association of Homes for the Aging, two assisted-living organizations, 17 long-term care companies, 27 licensed nursing facilities and 16 owners or officers.

Together, they spent at least $317,323 to elect legislative candidates. Nearly half the money came from the Missouri Health Care Association, which represents about 350 nursing homes. The association's longtime attorney is Harvey Tettlebaum, treasurer of the Missouri Republican Party.

Calling the shots on donations was nursing home chain owner Don Bedell of Sikeston, chairman of the group's political action committee, or PAC. He worked the Capitol halls in May to kill the elder-abuse bill.

The association got around state contribution limits by giving money out of eight pockets. A satellite PAC was set up in each region of the state. So when nursing home owners really liked a Senate candidate, each of the seven satellites plus the main committee could give the maximum, for a total of $4,600 per election.

Nursing homes didn't invent that trick, which the Ethics Commission says is legal. Trial lawyers have parceled out money from three offshoots since 1996. The bankers association has seven gift-giving arms.

Another way around the contribution limit is through political party committees. That's not limited to the two big ones at the state level. The parties each have more than 200 committees - one for each House, Senate and congressional district. Each can give candidates 10 times the contribution limit for individuals.

Shields, who won a Senate seat in St. Joseph, got $15,000 indirectly from nursing homes through Republican Party channels. He also received $16,514 in donations and nursing home help, the second-highest amount for a candidate. He is considered the front-runner to head a Senate committee on health and aging.

Shields said nursing home owners are squeezed by inadequate funding, rising insurance premiums and strict state rules.

"I do know it's a tough industry," Shields said.

"Senior advocates" flier

The Save our Seniors fliers that were mailed in the Champion-Hosmer race didn't count as a direct campaign contribution. They were "independent expenditures," which are not subject to limits.

Though the Missouri Health Care Association paid for the fliers, the group was not identified as the sponsor. The only clue was on the return address, which listed the association's treasurer, nursing home executive Michael Woodard of Florissant, and the association's office address in Jefferson City.

Carlson, the association's executive director, said he did not believe the flier had misled voters by not mentioning it was financed by nursing home owners.

"The idea was that these are advocates who are interested in nursing homes and the people who live in them, and it should be portrayed as such," he said.

The flier said advocates for the elderly had endorsed Champion. But it is Hosmer who has been the hero of groups such as the American Association of Retired People for his tireless pursuit of tighter laws against abuse and neglect.

"The problem is, AARP, the Silver-Haired Legislature, they don't endorse," Hosmer said. "I've told the AARP, 'political muscle is like regular muscle. If you don't flex it, you lose it.'"

Champion did not return calls seeking comment.

Nursing homes used the Save our Seniors fliers in four races, including one in St. Louis County. Fliers were mailed on behalf of Republican Senate candidate John Lewis, who lost to Rep. Joan Bray, D-University City.

Bray said St. Louis County residents were familiar with the need for nursing home reform because of a tragedy in April 2001. Four elderly residents died of overheating at a nursing home in University City when the air conditioning was not working. The home's operators escaped both criminal charges and hefty civil fines.

"When people in your community die, it certainly does bring it home to people," Bray said.

No strings

Republicans who received industry money say it came with no strings attached.

"I have not had any reason to believe that anyone who gave me any money wanted anything out of me other than information and access," said Sen.-elect Jon Dolan, R-Lake Saint Louis. He got the fifth-highest nursing home donations: $7,300.

Kinder, the Senate's leader, helped kill last year's bill because he was concerned about a provision giving injured nursing home residents more time to file lawsuits. "It was going to drive insurance companies out of the state," he said. "How is that going to help nursing homes?"

Kinder said the nursing home donations pale in comparison to trial lawyers' $1.7 million in campaign contributions to Democrats in the last four months alone.

The nursing home industry supported a few Democrats, such as the new minority floor leader, Sen. Ken Jacob, D-Columbia. He received $4,175, while his Senate district committee collected an additional $11,000.

Sometimes the industry's money went beyond state borders. In February, Mary Coleman, a state legislator in Mississippi, got $5,000 from a Missouri nursing home group and $1,000 from an assisted-living group.

Why did they help someone in Mississippi? Because Rep. Charles "Quincy" Troupe, D-St. Louis, asked for the money. At the time, Troupe oversaw the Missouri House committee that was developing the Medicaid budget for nursing homes. He had a St. Louis fund-raiser for Coleman, then a candidate for president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.