Monday, February 02, 2009

CIRM Vice Chair Story Surfaces in LA Times

The Los Angeles Times, which rarely writes about the state's $3 billion stem cell research effort, has produced an article on the race for the vice chairmanship of the CIRM board.

Written by Eric Bailey, the story casts the contest between Art Torres, chairman of the state Democratic Party, and Duane Roth, a biomedical industry-connected executive and current member of the CIRM board, almost entirely in partisan political terms.

Torres is being support by "Democratic heavyweights" and Roth is the nominee of the Republican governor of California.

One matter that the Times did not mention was the $10 billion federal aid proposal by CIRM Chairman Robert Klein on behalf of the biomedical industry. Torres' presence on the CIRM board would give it extra clout in Washington and perhaps make it unnecessary to hire a $200,000 lobbyist to carry CIRM water in the nation's capitol.

It is not known when the board will actually choose between the two men.

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