ICYMI: Polis donor, Curative investor introduced company to state officials

 Yesterday Colorado Public Radio published a bombshell report with startling new details about the state’s chaotic response to COVID-19 in nursing homes.

Given the dire impact Curative’s COVID tests had on “morbidity, and potentially mortality” within nursing homes, it’s important to consider how the state was introduced to Curative in the first place.

Emails reviewed by the Colorado Springs Gazette in May showed Curative investor Gary Lauder initially introduced state officials to the firm in July of 2020.

Lauder is a longtime Democrat donor, and contributed over $10,000 to Polis’s Congressional campaigns between 2011 and 2016.

The Governor’s office denied politics played a role in the Curative securing their $90 million no-bid contract for COVID tests. However Polis’s former head of testing Sarah Tuneberg wasn’t quite as explicit in her interview with the Gazette.

“[Tuneberg stressed] she doesn’t recall Lauder playing a role in the state’s contract with Curative Labs … (emphasis added)

With Polis refusing to grant an interview to CPR, one has to wonder whether his administration has even more to hide.

Read more from the Colorado Springs Gazette below.

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Dual controversies hit Polis, Colorado COVID test program
Colorado Springs Gazette
Christopher Osher
May 26 2021

Colorado’s coronavirus testing program pushed what critics contend are flawed tests in nursing homes from a fledgling company run by a 25-year-old college dropout that had the backing of a major Democratic campaign donor with a financial stake in the firm and a tie to Gov. Jared Polis’ administration. […]

Records show that Gary Lauder, the grandson of the founder of the Estée Lauder cosmetics company, was an influential backer of San Dimas, Calif.,-based Curative Labs, which snagged a $90 million contract to provide surveillance testing in Colorado nursing homes, where one of every 15 residents died from the coronavirus. Lauder, a financial donor for Democrats, introduced Curative’s 25-year-old chief executive officer, Fred Turner, a college dropout who turned heads through some of his  entrepreneurial endeavors, and Kacey Wulff,  Polis’ pandemic adviser. Lauder’s California-based venture capital firm is an investor in Curative. […]

Lauder is a big player in Democratic politics, records show.

Lauder and employees of his firm Lauder Partners have donated more than $4.59 million to federal political campaigns or  Democratic campaign committees since 1992, according to the Federal Election Commission. Polis’ congressional campaign committee got $10,300 in campaign contributions from Gary Lauder from 2011 to 2016. Polis won the governorship in 2018

Read more here