Grassroots firm Bonner & Associates has been cleared by a Maryland State Ethics Commission panel of charges it lobbied for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America using "deceptive tactics" and without registering with the state.

The Maryland Citizens Alliance, a non-profit group advocating universal healthcare, filed a seven-page complaint against B&A in March, charging the firm with registration violations and using "deceptive tactics in the guise of a consumer-based organization to do the bidding of the pharmaceutical industry."

B&A's grassroots campaign for PhRMA involved sending faxes, under the letterhead of the Michigan-based "Consumer Alliance," to community groups criticizing an MCA-backed bill aimed at reducing the cost of drugs for seniors and low-income residents. The faxes warned recipients that the legislation, which eventually did not pass, would limit freedom of choice for patients, making it harder for people to get the medicine they need. The "hotline" for the group connected to B&A offices.

Jack Bonner did not immediately return a call for comment.

His D.C. -based firm has done work for Boeing, Ford Motor, Merck, Procter & Gamble and Northrop Grumman, among others.