Democratic challenger Mike Lee on Tuesday accused his opponent, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, of compromising her fight against the opioid epidemic by allowing a group she heads to accept at least $700,000 from pharmaceutical companies over the last year.
Rutledge is chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association.
Lee’s campaign provided a list of the contributions the association received from pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors and pharmacy benefit managers — totaling $1,149,204 — based on filings made with the Internal Revenue Service between 2017 and 2018.
However, $714,204 of those contributions were made after Rutledge became chairman of the association in August 2017.
The group has contributed $2,700, the state limit, to Rutledge’s 2018 re-election campaign.
Rutledge has said that bad actors in the pharmaceutical industry contributed to the opioid crisis. Earlier this year, her office sued three major companies, including two that donated to the association .
“She’s done this to serve her own political ambitions,” Lee said. “This is a campaign contribution problem on an epic scale matching our own opioid epidemic.”
In a statement released by Rutledge’s campaign Tuesday, the attorney general called the criticism from Lee “a last ditch effort to make headlines.”
“As I have demonstrated multiple times, I will continue to take legal action against individuals or companies for harming Arkansans regardless of political contributions,” Rutledge said in the statement.
Also Tuesday, Little Rock blogger and attorney Matthew Campbell filed an ethics complaint against Rutledge, claiming that the May 21 donation Rutledge received from the association came before the organization was legally registered in the state. Lee called on Rutledge to return the donation.
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.