U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge has invited one of the state’s top advocates for the hospital industry to attend Wednesday night’s speech by President Barack Obama to a joint session of Congress.

Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat, will welcome as his guest Bill Pully, executive director of the N.C. Hospital Association. Etheridge spoke with Pully during his meetings with constituents last month, Barb Barrett reports.

Etheridge invited Pully not only because he had definite opinions about health reform and how it might impact his constituency, but also because Pully seemed opening to seeking new information, according to Etheridge’s office.

Beverly Perdue has received $98,500 from health care-related PACs.

Political action committees representing drug companies, health care providers, insurance companies and industry associations were the single largest group of PAC donors to the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, according to campaign finance reports.

They made up about a fourth of the $376,293 she raised from PACs since her re-election in 2004. Other politicians' campaign committees were a close second, contributing $91,933, with about a third of that coming from other Democratic senators.

The biggest donors were the N.C. Hospital Association and the NP PAC, which represents nurse practitioners. Both gave $8,000. PACs for the Asheville Anesthesia Associates and the Association for Home and Hospice Care of N.C. gave $5,000 apiece. 

Drug companies whose PACs donated included GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Roche, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Wyeth, Pfizer and Abbott Labs. Pharmacy chains such as Kerr Drug, pharmacist managers Medco Health and Caremark and the PILL PAC, which represents pharmacists, also gave.

Perdue also received money from trade groups: The N.C. Medical Society, the N.C. Health Care Facilities Association, the N.C. Association of Nurse Anesthetists, the N.C. Assisted Living Association, the N.C. Association of Long Term Care Facilities and the N.C. Orthopaedic PAC. 

Perdue previously worked at a hospital and has made health care one of the signature issues in her campaign.  

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole returns to North Carolina next week for events during the weeklong congressional recess.

In the Triangle, she has visits in Cary to the Lord Corporation and the Wake County Lincoln Dinner on Tuesday and to the N.C. Hospital Association's winter meeting next Thursday, Barb Barrett reports.

She plans to attend local Republican dinners in Winston-Salem, New Bern and Buncombe County through the week. And she’ll take a swing through the mountains with events still being scheduled in Jackson, Cherokee, Clay and Graham counties next Friday, Feb. 22.

Beverly Perdue has received $47,500 from political action committees in the health-care industry.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate, who worked as a hospital consultant, received money from 22 health-care PACS in the current election cycle, according to campaign finance reports.

The donors include pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca International, Roche Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly & Co.; Caremark, which handles drug management programs; and pharmacists, Kerr Drug and the PILL PAC, which represents pharmacists.

She also received money from industry groups: The Nurse Practitioners PAC, the N.C. Association of Nurse Anesthetists, the N.C. Assisted Living Association, the Association for Home & Hospice Care of N.C., the N.C. Hospital Association, and the N.C. Association of Long-Term Care Facilities.

In addition, she received money from specific medical groups: Anesthesiologists of the Triad, Western Radiologists and Surgeons in Asheville, Piedmont Triad Anesthesia, Asheville Anesthesia Associates, Southeast Anesthesiology Consultants in Charlotte, the Mountain Neurological Center in Asheville, Blue Ridge Bone & Joint and Western Carolina OB/GYN.

The money made up more than a fourth of Perdue's PAC contributions. 

Beverly Perdue raised $6.1 million by the end of 2007.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate raised $5.6 million from major donors, including Sanjay Mundra of the Soleil Group development company, MBM CEO Jerry Wordsworth, Grady-White Boats CEO Eddie Smith and Greenville Daily Reflector publisher Jordan Whichard.

She raised $32,762 from donors who gave less than $50.

She received $171,737 from political action committees, including BB&T, the Women's Campaign Forum and the N.C. Hospital Association, and $60,300 from other politicians' campaigns, including state Rep. Bill Owens, Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand and Sen. Dan Clodfelter.

She gave her campaign $3,340 in in-kind contributions, and her husband Robert Eaves Jr. gave $10,495 in in-kind contributions.

In addition, the campaign owes Eaves $275,000 for loans made during her 2000 campaign for lieutenant governor.

She also received a $5,993 in-kind contribution from the N.C. Democratic Party.

At the same time, Perdue spent $1.5 million on travel, office expenses, mailers, consulting and campaign events.

That left her with $4.5 million in cash on hand.