A number of executives who have contributed heavily to GOPAC represent industries that have extensive dealings with the FDA, a prime target of Gingrich and other Republicans seeking to roll back government regulations. These include the family of Schwan Food Products Inc., which gave $279,905 to GOPAC; RJR Nabisco Inc. lobbyist M.B. Oglesby Jr., and William K. Hoskins, vice president for Marion Merrell Dow Inc., a pharmaceuticals firm.
Gingrich has described FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler as "a thug and a bully" and has called the FDA a "job killer." In a post-election speech before a biotechnology industry conference, Gingrich disclosed that he had been working with his Progress and Freedom Foundation to design a replacement for the agency that would be staffed by biomedical "entrepreneurs" who would test and certify products themselves.
Hoskins said he contributes to GOPAC to support the grooming of quality Republican candidates, not to influence government decisions.
"People who are involved in (GOPAC) are very much into the ideals that I'm interested in," he said. "There is no connection in my mind between my involvement in GOPAC and the FDA."
Several other GOPAC supporters who have had run-ins with the federal government have made large contributions.
Flowers Industries is one of five large Southern baking companies being investigated by the Justice Department. Two federal grand juries are looking into allegations of bid-rigging and other anti-competitive activity in the sale of bread and other baked goods. Flowers Chairman Amos R. McMullian gave $62,592 to GOPAC, and founder William Flowers kicked in $21,000. A spokesman for Flowers was not available for comment.
The Justice Department has launched a criminal antitrust investigation of several of Georgia's largest kaolin mining companies, including Thiele Kaolin Co. Chairman Paul F. Thiele, who heads the firm, has given GOPAC $31,100 since 1991.
Southwire Inc., a major employer in Gingrich's old district, was indicted in 1992 for violating federal hazardous-waste recycling laws when its South Carolina subsidiary sent 3,000 tons of toxic-laced fertilizer to Bangladesh. The company president, Jim Richards, has given $80,200 to GOPAC. Southwire declined to comment.
Times staff writers Michael Ross, Dwight Morris and Robert L. Jackson and researchers D'Jamila Salem and Caleb Gessesse in Washington and Edith Stanley in Atlanta contributed to this story.
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Top 10 Contributors
GOPAC, a political committee spearheaded by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), has collected contributions that vastly exceed annual federal election limits. Here are the top contributors from 1985-93:
Donor Residence Amount Occupation Terry and Mary Sheboygan, Wis. $715,457 CEO/president Kohler Windway Capitol Group (kitchenware, sailboats); 1982 Wisconsin guber- natorial candidate Owen Roberts Belleair Bluffs, $324,513 President of Capital Fla. Formation Counselors Inc. (investments) Richard Gilder Jr. New York $310,000 President of Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co. (investments) Roger Milliken Spartanburg, S.C. $255,000 CEO/chairman of Milliken & Co. (textiles) Delores Schwan Marshall, Minn. $279,905 Schwan Food products Philip M. Gelatt Sparta, Wis. $230,300 President of Northern Engraving (graphics machinery) Jesse J. Charlotte, N.C. $220,000 Thompson Clermont Development Co. (real estate) Fred Sacher Grass Valley, $196,000 Orange County developer K. Tucker New York $182,000 Managing partner of Anderson Cumberland Associates (financial group) Robert H. Krieble Washington $172,624 Owner Krieble Associates Inc.
Source: GOPAC donor list
