Press release:
End Citizens United (ECU) today named Rep. Chris Collins (NY-27) to the Big Money 20, the group’s top targets to defeat in 2020. ECU’s Big Money 20 campaign is focused on defeating incumbents who benefit most from the corrupt establishment in Washington by showing voters how politicians like Rep. Collins put corporate special interest donors ahead of the people they’re supposed to represent.
“Chris Collins is one of the most corrupt members of Congress and has committed several federal crimes,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “Not only has Collins taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in special interest money, but he has betrayed the trust of his district by using his Congressional seat to give big breaks to the pharmaceutical companies in which he has personally invested millions.
"Meanwhile, New Yorkers with preexisting conditions are seeing their coverage threatened and drug prices skyrocket. Chris Collins is watching out for his bank account and his Big Pharma donors, not New Yorkers. End Citizens United and our members look forward to defeating Chris Collins in 2020.”
The Big Money 20 aims to educate voters about incumbents who represent the worst of Washington and rally support for reforming the political system. The members of the Big Money 20 are incumbents who take money from corporate special interests, mega-donors, and industries like Big Pharma and Big Oil and then put those interests ahead of their constituents.
Collins and his son owned approximately one-fifth of an Australian pharmaceutical company called Innate Immunotherapeutics. Collins convinced five other GOP lawmakers to invest in the company — all while pushing legislation aimed at helping the company succeed. When the company’s one drug failed a clinical trial, Collins breached confidentiality and informed his son who tipped off several other Innate investors and sold millions of shares.
In August 2018, Collins was arrested and charged with 13 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements after lying to the FBI in an attempt to cover up his crimes. But this corruption was nothing new. Collins has been called “Big Pharma’s biggest supporter in Congress.”
He abused the power of his office in order to boost Innate and his other Big Pharma donors, which have given him more than $72,000 by crusading for provisions that would save Innate millions of dollars and make it easier for them to be granted FDA status.
Collins also voted for the GOP tax bill which gave billions in tax giveaways to corporations and admitted to a reporter that his mega-donors were saying to get the bill passed or “don’t ever call [them] again.”
In the 2018 cycle, End Citizens United helped defeat 82 percent of the Big Money 20 targets. ECU will connect its more than 550,000 members to endorsed candidates who are challenging Big Money 20 targets.
ECU has conducted extensive polling and research showing that voters across the political spectrum support getting big money out of politics. ECU is a traditional political action committee (PAC) with more than four million members, including 6,300 in New York’s 27th Congressional District.
ECU raised $44 million in the 2018 last cycle and helped elect more than 150 members to the 116th Congress, including two new U.S. senators and 58 new U.S. representatives. The reform group is entirely grassroots-funded with an average donation of just $14.
NOTE: We asked spokesman Sayed Bawadden about End Citizens United, and specifically if they also listed Democratic office holders, and he responded: "We're a Democratic PAC focused on campaign finance reform, so we only target Republicans."
Also, according to campaign finance disclosures, Collins has raised only $5,000 for the 2020 campaign.
