Centrist Democrat Kurt Schrader Is Taking Big Money From Pharma Lobby

The dark-money group Center Forward, which is buying the ads, has received millions from the pharmaceutical industry in recent years.

By David Moore, Sludge

Conservative House Democrat Kurt Schrader is getting a boost from Center Forward, a pharmaceutical industry-funded “dark money” group, in his competitive primary race against challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner in Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District.

Center Forward reportedly plans to drop over $300,000 in the Bend, Oregon media market from March 25 through the Democratic U.S. House primary on May 17, according to a media monitoring service alert viewed by Sludge. The group is closely aligned with the Blue Dog Coalition, the moderate bloc that Rep. Schrader has co-chaired in the past, and now helps lead as the PAC chair.

Kurt Schrader speaks to a group of constituents outside with a bridge and trees with autumn foliage in the background

The expenditure will be the largest outside spend in the primary to date when it is reported to the Federal Election Commission. In a comment to The Intercept, Schrader highlighted his cause fighting “dark money in politics,” but now is benefiting from a home-stretch ad blitz by a dark money group closely tied to him and other Blue Dogs.