Perry's staff discussed vaccine on day Merck donated to campaign

Governor's office says timing is coincidence, no conspiracy existed.

Gov. Rick Perry's chief of staff met with key aides about the human papillomavirus vaccine the same day its manufacturer donated money to the governor's campaign, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.

Chief of staff Deirdre Delisi's calendar shows that she met Oct. 16 with the governor's budget director and three members of his office for an "HPV Vaccine for Children Briefing."

That day, New Jersey-based Merck & Co.'s political action committee donated $5,000 to Perry and $5,000 total to eight state lawmakers.

The calendar and other documents obtained by the wire service show that Perry's office began meeting with Merck lobbyists about the vaccine as early as mid-August, months before social conservatives, who are now those most outraged by the order, helped re-elect him in November.

Perry spokesman Robert Black said Wednesday afternoon that the timing of the meeting and the donation was a coincidence. He said Delisi had asked budget director Mike Morrissey to update her on the cost of providing the newly FDA-approved HPV vaccine free to young women on Medicaid.

"There was no discussion of any kind of mandates," Black said.

"The Associated Press has tried to create a conspiracy where none exists, and they have offered not one shred of evidence to their baseless accusations that the governor's office has done anything wrong," Black said in a statement Wednesday night.

The governor's executive order issued Feb. 2 directed the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to adopt rules requiring the shots for girls entering sixth grade as of September 2008. The vaccine protects girls and women against the HPV strains that cause most cases of cervical cancer.

The mandate inflamed conservatives, who say it contradicts Texas' abstinence-only sexual education policies and intrudes too far into families' lives. They also say the shots are too new and too costly.

Perry has repeatedly said the vaccine's lifesaving potential far outweighs opponents' concerns.

The documents obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press under Texas' open records law provide details about the relationship between the governor's office and Merck, which makes the only HPV vaccine on the market.

Critics had previously questioned Perry's ties to the company. Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff and Delisi's predecessor, lobbies for the drug company. The governor accepted a total of $6,000 from Merck during his re-election campaign, including $1,000 in December 2005.

According to Delisi's calendar, she met with Toomey three times in the sixth months before the order was issued.

One meeting happened in August, on the same day two that other Perry staffers met with a different Merck lobbyist for a "Merck HPV Vaccine update." The other meetings came just after the November election and just before the legislative session began in January.

Merck spokesman Ray Kerins said he could not immediately comment but would look into the matter. Calls seeking comment were made to a home number for Delisi and an office number for Toomey but were not immediately returned.

Cathie Adams, president of the conservative Texas Eagle Forum, said Black's explanation of the timing of the campaign contribution didn't wash.

"We have too many coincidences," Adams said. "I think that the voters of Texas would find that very hard to swallow."

Merck has waged a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to get state legislatures to require 11- and 12-year-old girls to get the three-dose vaccine as a requirement for school attendance. But it said Tuesday that it was ending those efforts.

The drug company had mainly funneled money through Women in Government, a bipartisan group of female state lawmakers. Many of the group's members have sponsored legislation in other states that would require the vaccine for schoolgirls.

One member of Women in Government is Deirdre Delisi's mother-in-law, Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple. Despite her ties to the group, the elder Delisi has opposed Perry's order and voted for the bill aimed at overriding it.