NC pharmaceutical baron spends $3 million to help Republicans

UPDATED 11/12/10

Art Pope isn't the only big Republican benefactor in North Carolina.

Fred Eshelman, CEO of N.C.-based Pharmaceutical Product Development, has plowed $3.38 million into the 527 conservative advocacy group RightChange.com, according to IRS records.

RightChange.com, in turn, has spent almost $3 million on ads supporting Republicans and opposing Democrats in at least eight states, according to the Sunlight Foundation. The biggest contributions have been for attacks against Democratic U.S. Senate candidates (and Independent Charlie Crist Florida).

Eshelman hasn't entirely forgotten about North Carolina: He joined up with Art Pope and other conservative donors this summer to launch another 527 group, Real Jobs NC. According to state campaign finance records, Real Jobs NC spent over 1.5 million for a series of controversial attack ads against N.C. Democrats.

Eshelman's RightChange.com made a contribution of $100,000 to Real Jobs NC in July 2010.

Eshelman's massive investment in RightChange.com makes him one of the biggest national contributors to independent political advocacy groups, which so far have spent a staggering $447 million (compared to $68 million in the last mid-term elections).

According to the Sunlight Foundation, RightChange.com ranks as the 18th-biggest spending independent committee in the nation in 2010, and the 23rd-largest if you include Democratic and Republican party committees.

As blogger Greg Flynn notes, there's a certain irony to RighChange.com's unrelenting attacks on government spending. Over the last 10 years, Eshelman's company, PPD, has benefited from over $600 million in federal grants and contracts -- which couldn't have hurt Eshelman in his efforts to become a leading Republican benefactor.