Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross — a Blue Dog Democrat playing a key role in
the health care debate — sold a piece of commercial property in 2007
for substantially more than a county assessment and an independent
appraisal say it was worth.

The buyer: an Arkansas-based pharmacy chain with a keen interest in
how the debate plays out.

Ross sold Holly’s Health Mart in Prescott, Ark., to USA Drug for
$420,000 — an eye-popping price for real estate in a tiny train and
lumber town about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock.

"You can buy half the town for $420,000," said Adam Guthrie, chairman
of the county Board of Equalization and the only licensed real estate
appraiser in Prescott.

I'm usually about the last one on board of "pay to play" stories, but
this one really makes Ross look like absolute crap.

And there's mo

But the $420,000 that USA Drug paid for the pharmacy’s building and
land was just the beginning of what Ross and his wife, Holly, made
from the sale of Holly’s Health Mart. USA Drug owner Stephen L.
LaFrance Sr. also paid the Rosses $500,000 to $1 million for the
pharmacy’s assets and paid Holly Ross an additional $100,000 to
$250,000 for signing a noncompete agreement. Those numbers, which Mike
Ross listed on the financial disclosure reports he files as a member
of Congress, bring the total value of the transaction to between $1
million and $1.67 million.

And that’s not counting the $2,300 campaign contribution Ross received
from LaFrance two weeks after the sale closed.

Holly Ross remains the pharmacist at Holly’s Health Mart under USA
Drug. Neither she nor her husband agreed to speak with ProPublica for
this story.