From yesterday's AP wire, via the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, "Medicare card providers invest big in Bush":

A few weeks after the Bush administration named Medco to be one of the first Medicare drug card providers, a company executive helped throw a $100,000 fund-raiser for the president that was headlined by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.

The role of Medco Specialty Pharmacy Services President Alan Lotvin, a co-chairman of the mid-April event in New Jersey, is just one of the ways prescription drug card providers have reached out to Washington politicians over the last two years.

In all, companies that won approval from Thompson's department to be the first Medicare drug discount card providers spent at least $35 million lobbying in 2003, and their executives and lobbyists donated or raised hundreds of thousands of dollars more for Bush's re-election, an Associated Press review found.

Democratic rival John Kerry received a much smaller amount from the same group.

While spokesmen for Thompson and Lotvin say the fund-raiser wasn't connected to the drug cards, a longtime Washington lobbyist says it provides a textbook example of how big companies sow goodwill and win access when business is pending before the government.

"I think it is generally recognized in Washington that involvement in the campaign finance process certainly often can be very helpful to your legislative agenda," said Wright Andrews, a former president of the American League of Lobbyists. "It does tend to provide you better access in that people logically are likely to at least ensure that they hear you out."

[. . .]

A handful of the winning companies make up the greatest share of the political spending.

In addition to Merck and Medco, others with seven-figure lobbying expenses in 2003 included Blue Cross & Blue Shield Association (at least $8.1 million), Aetna (at least $2.9 million), Wellpoint Health Networks (at least $1.5 million),Pacificare ($1.42 million) and United Healthcare ($1.2 million).

Some lobbyists who helped the companies make their case in Washington last year have strong ties to the Bush re-election campaign or administration.

For instance, PacifiCare's lobbyists last year included Tom Loeffler, who raised at least $200,000 for Bush's 2004 campaign, and Jack Howard, a former White House employee who worked as deputy assistant to the president for legislative affairs.

Company executives also have played a role in the Bush campaign. United Health Group's chairman and chief executive, William McGuire, earned the label Bush "Pioneer" by raising at least $100,000 for Bush's campaign, as did Todd Farha, chairman and CEO ofWellcare Health Plans, and Samuel Skinner, a member of card provider Express Scripts' board of directors.

Michael Hightower, who collected at least $200,000 for the Bush campaign to become a Bush fund-raising "Ranger," is vice president of government relations for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Florida.

The political donations of employees of companies that won the prescription cards overwhelmingly favored Bush - at least $280,000 of their contributions went to the president's campaign compared to about $60,000 for Kerry's campaign, Federal Election Commission records show.

[. . .]

Bush spokesman Terry Holt said the money Bush received from drug-card company employees represented a tiny fraction of the more than $180 million Bush has raised.

That's right - it's nothing compared to what power plants donate.