Steve Godsey

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Steve Godsey is the County Mayor of Sullivan County, Tennessee.


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[edit] Early Career

Before being elected as Sullivan County Mayor, Steve Godsey worked for many years as a small business owner selling used cars.[1] For ten years, he was a sales manager for Dana Corp., and for five he worked as a sales manager at Champion Spark Plug-Cooper Automotive. For eight years, he was a sales manager and special projects coordinator. Godsey attended Bristol Tennessee High School[2], Bristol College (defunct), Appalachian Flight School (defunct)[3], Dana Automotive Technology School, and Cooper Automotive Sales and Mark School.[4][5]

[edit] State Representative

Godsey was previously a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives representing the 1st District, which encompasses part of Sullivan County, and was elected to the 100th through 104th General Assemblies. While serving within the Tennessee General Assembly, Godsey was at various times a member of the Education Committee, the Transportation Committee, the Commerce Committee, the K-12 Subcommittee, and the Small Business Subcommittee.

[edit] Political connection to Altace, pharmaceutical industry

During many of his political campaigns, Godsey has accepted many generous campaign contributions from former King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CEO and current Leitner Pharmaceuticals, LLC CEO John M. Gregory, Gregory family members, and corporate executives employed within the King Pharmaceuticals, Leitner Pharmaceuticals, and SJ Strategic Investments companies founded by Gregory. Gregory is also noted as an important campaign contributor to conservative Republican and anti-abortion political action committees in Tennessee such as the Tennessee Right To Life PAC[6], the State of Franklin PAC][7], and the Tennessee Conservative PAC.[8] Gregory financed and founded the Tennessee Conservative PAC as the political action committee's original president[9].

During 1994, the U.S. National Right to Life Committee announced a U.S. boycott of all Hoechst pharmaceutical products including Altace and by September 17 the anti-abortion organization, Pharmacists For Life International, joined the NRLC boycott, "...against the American subsidiary of Hoechst, AG Hoechst-Roussel, Hoechst-Celanese, its generic subsidiary Coply Pharmaceuticals and the agricultural Hoechst subsidiary" while asking U.S. consumers to "...focus on key Hoechst drugs which have the most economic impact rather than taking an across-the-board shotgun approach" and specifically targeting Altace as a boycott list item.[10][11]

Hoechst merged with Marion Merrill Dow of Kansas City, Missouri in 1995, forming the Hoechst U.S. pharmaceutical subsidiary Hoechst Marion Roussel (HMR). Altace was bringing in under $90 million in U.S. revenues for HMR and Hoechst had stopped promoting Altace within the United States.[12], and King Pharmaceuticals President Jefferson "Jeff" Gregory (brother of then King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CEO John M. Gregory) also began negotiations in 1995 with Hoechst to acquire U.S. distribution rights to Altace.[13]

Hoechst underwent a 1997 realignment wherein its various businesses were transferred to independent companies, including Nutrinova on April 2, and the anti-abortion group Concerned Women For America announced during a National Right To Life Committee press briefing at the National Press Club that the anti-RU486 boycott against the U.S. subsidiaries of Hoechst AG & Roussel Uclaf by the NRTLC "...will be more narrowly focused onto the HMR prescription drugs Allegra, Cardizem, Seldane, Claforan, Lasix, DiaBeta, and Nicoderm" - and Altace is auspiciously no longer included by Concerned Women For Americas as a boycotted Hoechst Marion Roussel product.[14]

The King Pharmaceuticals wholly owned subsidiary Monarch Pharmaceuticals, Inc. --- then under the leadership of Joseph R. Gregory (brother of John M. Gregory), former Vice Chairman of King and former President and Chief Executive Office of Monarch Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of King --- acquired ownership of the U.S. distribution and marketing rights to Altace and other Hoescht products from Hoescht AG subsidiary Hoechst Marion Roussel of Kansas City, Missouri on December 18, 1998, and [15] following a January 1999 merger with Rhône-Poulenc, Hoechst assummed the new corporate identity of Aventis.

Then State Senator Ron Ramsey organized an August 1999 lobbying airlift from Northeast Tennessee aboard King Pharmaceuticals owned corporate aircraft and flew to Nashville meeting with TennCare Director Brian Lapps that was also attended by State Representatives Jason Mumpower and David Davis at the request of King Pharmaceuticals lobbyist[16] and former Tennessee State Senator James "Jim" L. Holcomb. The meeting was successful in placing the recently acquired Monarch Pharmaceuticals (a King Pharmaceuticals subsidiary) branded drug Altace onto the TennCare Preferred Drug List within only 33 days.[17] Lapps resigned as TennCare Director on September 27, 1999.[18] Lapps resigned as TennCare Director underdate of September 27, 1999.[19]

Former King Pharmaceuticals lobbyist Holcomb was later hired during February 2004 "... to manage the firm's governmental affairs" by the Gregory controlled SJ Strategic Investments, LLC on Februaury 2, 2004.[20]

Aventis went on in 1994 to merge with Sanofi-Synthélabo, forming Sanofi-Aventis as the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world.

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