The vote for president-elect of the American Medical Association is expected to be a tossup, say delegates from key states who will be attending next week’s meeting.
The now infamous Sunbeam debacle and the emergence of a credible alternative candidate have created an uncertain atmosphere surrounding the race for the association’s highest-profile position.
Former AMA board chairman Raymond Scalettar, a rheumatologist from Washington, D.C., said he is challenging current Chairman Thomas Reardon, a Portland, Ore., family practice physician. The winner will be president-elect for a year before beginning a one-year term as president next June.
“There’s no question about it that this will be some contest,” said Robert Burnett, a 15-year veteran delegate from California, the state with the largest voting delegation. “It’s a chairman against a chairman. (Scalettar) certainly has a chance to win.”
Delegates interviewed by the Tribune wouldn’t disclose whom they planned to vote for June 17. Some said they expect to make up their minds sometime after hearing from both candidates in a debate Sunday when delegates will be allowed to question both men.
The key issue that could impede Reardon is his stewardship as board chairman during the Sunbeam affair last summer when the AMA announced a plan to sign a multimillion-dollar deal with Delray Beach, Fla.-based Sunbeam Corp. to endorse the manufacturer’s products.
Terms of the deal called for the AMA to allow Sunbeam to use the association’s 150-year-old name on various home health products such as humidifiers and vaporizers.
After an outpouring of criticism, the AMA backpedaled from the deal but was hit with a $20 million lawsuit by Sunbeam as a result.
The suit is still pending, and AMA members are peeved about the lack of disclosure surrounding legal costs and other expenses stemming from the Sunbeam matter.
“The Sunbeam issue is the main issue, and that is where the votes will hinge,” said Walter Kahn, a delegate from Red Bank, N.J. “It will be a good contest.”
Scalettar ran for the AMA’s presidency in 1993 but was unsuccessful. He was the AMA board’s chairman from 1992 to 1993.
“There have been some serious ethical violations and some serious business violations,” said Scalettar, who lost in a close race to become president-elect in 1993.
“This Sunbeam affair has been brushed off by the current board as being done by rogue senior staff people who were then fired for cause and paid off. Dr. Reardon was chairman of the board at the time the Sunbeam contract was signed.”
Five senior AMA staff members, including former executive vice president Dr. P. John Steward, either resigned or were fired for their involvement in the Sunbeam saga.
“Without the Sunbeam matter, Dr. Scalettar wouldn’t be a candidate, but he is and he’s not someone who comes from nowhere,” said Dr. Richard Geline, a Skokie orthopedist. Geline is an alternate delegate but said he expects to vote as a delegate.
The Illinois State Medical Society is offering a resolution demanding full financial disclosure of the Sunbeam affair and for the AMA board to open its meetings to all members.
