Why are Budweiser, T-Mobile, and health companies supporting an anti-vax lunatic in Kansas?

Because they don't think you'll find out about it

Welcome to a special Thursday evening edition of Progressives Everywhere!

There are a number of big changes coming to this newsletter, including a new name to reflect our expanded mission. A big part of that mission is digging deep into the local and state-level politics and power structures that often go ignored by the national media despite the enormous impact they have on the lives of tens of millions of Americans.

The crippling of local journalism has made it easier than ever for corrupt corporations and bonkers leaders to get away with outrageous assaults on the public good, without ever being held accountable. It’s up to independent media to pick up that slack, and so we’ll be ramping up our work in that area.

That work begins tonight with a look at one of the toxic right-wing state lawmakers in Kansas, the corporations and special interests that fund him, and how they could determine the balance of power in Congress next year.

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It took several days for Republican leaders in the Kansas Legislature to corral the votes required to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of their gerrymandered Congressional map. It wasn’t that several lawmakers were holding out on principle, out of a respect for democracy that has become fleetingly rare for the party; instead, the reluctant legislatures were far-right ideologies looking to extract maximum concessions in exchange for their votes.

In short, they wanted their pounds of flesh — or, in the case of one lawmaker, some strands of intestine.

Republican State Sen. Mark Steffen (SD-34) is, in a word, a quack. The 59-year-old anesthesiologist is under investigation by the state’s medical licensing board for his aggressive promotion of ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and other dangerous Covid-19 “treatments” pushed by the extreme right. He’s admitted to prescribing Ivermectin to patients himself

Along with the organization Kansas for Health Freedom, Steffen has been relentless in his efforts to fight vaccination adoption, mask mandates by private businesses, and any other modest attempts to keep the virus at bay.

In January, Steffen filed a bill that would require pharmacists to fill prescriptions for ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and other dangerous quack treatments and make it easier for parents to exempt their children from vaccination mandates. The bill stalled in the Kansas State Senate’s health committee — until State Senate President Ty Masterson needed Steffen’s vote to override Kelly’s veto.

The two Republicans met with one another to discuss their mutual interests, and shortly thereafter, Steffen’s bill was passed out of committee. Almost immediately after that, Steffen relented and voted to confirm the Congressional map, a gerrymander that puts Sharice Davids, Kansas’s lone Democratic member of Congress, in danger of losing her seat.

The accord was short-lived, as Masterson quickly sent the bill back to committee and stripped Steffen and fellow holdouts of their committee assignments. That inflamed Steffen, and likely hardened his resolve to hold out for more batshit policies in the future,, but perhaps more immediately concerning is the list of people and organizations that have committed themselves to helping him force fringe delirium on the public at large.

Steffen challenged an incumbent when he ran for the State Senate in 2020 and overcame a fundraising disadvantage to win his seat. Since then, he’s racked up donations from across the country, including many from anti-vax true believers who have never set for in Kansas. But Steffen has also received donations from a litany of corporations and PACs that represent them.

In his last campaign fundraising filing, submitted in January to the Kansas Secretary of State’s office, Steffen listed sizable donations from a number of well-known companies, including some in the medical treatment space. Headliner names include insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield, Smile Direct Club, and T-Mobile, which all sent him donations even after he had spent the entire fall campaigning and holding hearings about ivermectin and the “dangers” of vaccines.

Steffen served for a short period in 2020 as a member of the Reno County Commission, where he fought hard to promote ivermectin and other sham Covid treatments. He also ran a campaign that opposed the use of masks even before the vaccine was developed, was virulently anti-abortion, and promised to bring “God, family, and true conservatism” to government (it was literally his campaign slogan).

He also made not-so-veiled statements about civil rights and the Black Lives Matter movement in June and July of 2020, as you can see below.

Why bring up Steffen’s years-old lunacies? Because it underscores just how clear it had to have been to his corporate enablers what they would be supporting when they sent him donations.

The list of contributors that Steffen submitted in October 2020 offers a disturbing look at just how many corporations and corporate associations were willing to indulge his madness. It includes:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield

• The Kansas Chamber of Commerce

• John Deere

• Anheuser Busch

• Cox Communications

• BNSF Railway

• Koch Industries

Perhaps none of those names should come as a surprise, given their deep interest in the tax cuts pushed by Republicans in the state — Koch Industries and the Chamber of Commerce also donated to Steffen during the first half of 2020. But there’s another name on that list that truly stands out: The Kansas Medical Society Political Action Committee.

The organization is a nonprofit that describes itself as “dedicated to improving the environment in which Kansas physicians practice medicine, and to protecting the health of Kansas’ citizens,” which makes its financial support of Steffen perplexing. Yes, he’s a physician, but he’s also long crusaded against any Covid precautions and disparaged medical professionals in favor of them.

Steffen has lately been a frequent guest on maniac pillow kingpin Mike Lindell’s webcasts, where he has continued to rail against the menace of big government boosted Trumpism, and pushed horse worm pills. We’ll keep an eye on campaign finance filings to see which corporations want to support him in that endeavor.

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