"It would be very, very horrifying to trial lawyers if Bush were elected,"
Posted on 07/24/2004 8:29:57 AM PDT by joesbucks
"It would be very, very horrifying to trial lawyers if Bush were elected,"
Politics/Elections News Source: New York Times Published: March 23, 2000 Author: LESLIE WAYNE Posted on 03/25/2000 18:57:48 PST by harry palmer
Trial Lawyers Pour Money Into Democrats' Chests ow that they have triumphed over the tobacco industry, trial lawyers have found a new target, Gov. George W. Bush, and they have been spending huge amounts of money from the tobacco settlement to keep him and other Republicans from being elected.
To trial lawyers, especially those involved in the tobacco litigation, Mr. Bush has become their worst nightmare. He has made attacks on lawyers a campaign centerpiece, pointing with pride to his record in Texas of curbing civil litigation, capping legal fees and limiting jury awards.
It has all been under the banner of tort reform, or what Mr. Bush said were efforts to rid the legal system of junk lawsuits.
The lawyers who have specialized in bringing civil lawsuits, however, saw Mr. Bush's statements not only as a threat to their livelihood, but also to their ability to hold corporate America legally accountable for its actions.
To that end, while trial lawyers have long been heavy Democratic Party donors, the prospect of a Bush candidacy, along with the possibility that like-minded Republicans would retain control of Congress, has ratcheted up the stakes, and the donations.
"It would be very, very horrifying to trial lawyers if Bush were elected," said John P. Coale, a Washington lawyer involved in the tobacco litigation, who has given over $70,000 to the Democrats. "To combat that, we want to make sure we have a Democratic president, House and Senate. There is some serious tobacco money being spread around."
Moreover, with the lawyers' fees in the tobacco settlement running into the hundreds of millions, even billions, many of those trial lawyers have had a lot more to donate this election cycle. More than a half-dozen law firms involved in the tobacco settlement have each given the Democratic Party more than $100,000 in the unlimited, unregulated donations known as soft money, some writing checks as large as $400,000.
Three law firms involved in the Texas tobacco case -- Ness Motley Loadholt Richardson & Poole, Williams Bailey, and Nix Patterson & Roach -- accounted for $1.135 million in soft money donations to the Democrats.
One of the biggest Democratic donors has been Peter G. Angelos, the lawyer who represented the state of Maryland in the tobacco litigation and who gave $400,000. "I will do whatever necessary to see that candidates who espouse the position that Bush does are defeated at the polls," said Mr. Angelos, also the owner of the Baltimore Orioles.
Over all, trial lawyers raised $2.7 million in soft money donations for Democrats in 1999, of a total of $49.4 million in soft dollars raised so far by the party, according to a recent report from Common Cause, a Washington nonprofit group. (By contrast, the Republicans got $2,800 in soft money from trial lawyers, Common Cause reported, of $57.8 million in soft dollars over all.)
The Democratic haul was more than double the $1.12 million in soft money donations from trial lawyers in 1995, the year prior to the last presidential race. And, the largest portion of the 1999 money, $1.65 million, went to a Democratic Party committee supporting Congressional candidates, reflecting the view of many trial lawyers that a Democratically controlled House could halt tort reform.
While money from trial lawyers has gone to all kinds of Democratic committees, the lawyers have made it clear that their No. 1 target was Mr. Bush. Last month, Mr. Bush issued a five-point plan to "curb frivolous lawsuits" and said he wanted to expand nationwide efforts that he had pushed in Texas that he said had saved Texas businesses $3 billion by reducing civil litigation.
"For trial lawyers, the stakes are enormous beyond calculation this year because the potential is there for tort reform to move from the extreme back burner right up to the front depending on how a couple of elections go," said Larry Makinson, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington nonprofit group advocating campaign finance reform.
"If you had Bush in the White House and a Republican House, bingo, tort reform would go to the top of the agenda," Mr. Makinson said. "And the tobacco settlement has been the pot of gold that has enabled trial lawyers to suddenly have lots of capital behind them."
For its part, corporate America has generally been behind Mr. Bush. Haunted by the vision of how civil litigation over tobacco, started by a handful of lawyers, brought some of America's largest consumer products companies to their knees, corporate America has concluded that a Bush presidency would be its best defense.
Mr. Bush's $70 million campaign war chest was financed, in large part, with donations from rich individuals and corporate interests, the same interests that trial lawyers have challenged in court. As a result, a financial version of the arms race has broken out. The more the Bush campaign and the Republican Party in general raised from business, the more trial lawyers said they must raise, and vice versa.
Corporations like the Philip Morris Companies, A.T. & T. and United Parcel Service were the biggest contributors to the Republican Party, while Mr. Bush's top donors were drawn from Enron Corporation, SkyTel Communications and the Chemical Manufacturers Association.
Still, while trial lawyers have been focused mainly on one issue, defeating tort reform and Mr. Bush, corporate America has been donating to Republicans to advance any number of business issues. Big business donors like the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and many large corporations gave to Republicans for many reasons, tort reform being only one.
"We don't have the kind of target operation that trial lawyers do," said Victor Schwartz, general counsel of the American Tort Reform Association, a Washington lobbying group. "When business makes donations, they do to those who support a whole multiplicity of issues. Our members are not single issue people."
Nonetheless, the American Tort Reform Foundation, a branch of the lobbying group, has set up a Web site, www.triallawyermoney.org, to follow trial lawyer donations called "Tracking Trial Lawyers." The group has listed the biggest trial lawyer donors as well as the biggest recipients of their largess -- basically a list of Democratic Party committees and candidates.
In addition to soft money donations, which could be given to political parties in unlimited amounts, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America Political Action Committee has already made $658,000 in donations directly to individual Democratic candidates and to party committees. This political action committee, with its own fund-raising now in full swing, has been one of the largest in each campaign cycle -- in the 1996 election it raised $5.1 million.
Moreover, one prominent trial lawyer, Michael V. Ciresi of Minneapolis, who represented the state of Minnesota in the tobacco litigation, was running for the United States Senate in the Democratic primary there. Mr. Ciresi declined to be interviewed.
Of course, the animosity between trial lawyers and Mr. Bush went back further than Mr. Bush's candidacy, extending to his father. Many remembered President George Bush's derision of trial lawyers in their "tasseled loafers" during the 1992 campaign, and the words still smarted.
"The Bushes and lawyers have been at odds for years," said Russ M. Herman, a Louisiana lawyer involved in the tobacco litigation.
This year, though, the ill will has peaked. Trial lawyers have been gearing up for new battles in Congress to pass a patients' bill of rights and in the courts against health maintenance organizations and the gun industry.
"What's different this time around," said Michael Hotra, vice president of the American Tort Reform Foundation, "is that everyone recognizes that the stakes are higher. We have a candidate who is making legal reform a core issue and we certainly applaud Bush for that."
As for the Web site, Mr. Hotra said that the group had set it up "to emphasize that money won in lawsuits is being strategically reinvested by plaintiffs lawyers in the political process and in more litigation."
And money is what it is all about. "When it comes to political action, corporate America was the pioneer in spending money on campaigns," said Stanley M. Chesley, a Cincinnati lawyer whose firm gave the Democrats $122,500. "They make trial lawyers look like Mickey Mouse. So trial lawyers are attempting not only to catch up, but to be a copy cat. If Bush can raise $70 million, the question is, 'How can you compete?' And there is only one way and that is to raise that kind of money."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It would be very, very horrifying to trial lawyers if Bush were elected," said John P. Coale, a Washington lawyer involved in the tobacco litigation, who has given over $70,000 to the Democrats. "To combat that, we want to make sure we have a Democratic president, House and Senate. There is some serious tobacco money being spread around." I searched using the actual title for this article and it hasn't been posted before.
1 Posted on 03/25/2000 18:57:48 PST by harry palmer [ Reply | Private Reply | Top | Last ]
A little thing called the war on terror got in the way..
let's see what happens in the next 4.
That, in and of itself, is a good enough reason to re-elect GW!
If the Times were an honest newspaper, rather than a bigoted shill for the Democrat Party, the Times would research the thousands of election law felonies committed by employees and friends of trial lawyers to pump illegal money into the Edwards campaign. It's a major story that will never see the front page of the Times.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "The Wussification of America: Fallout from Arnold, John and Sandy"
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John / Billybob
Now I'm glad they dropped our local Red Wings as their farm team. The Twins treat us great compared to that socialist guys team.
Mainly, too many Democrats in the House and Senate have gotten in the way - it's time to clean house!
It is terrifying if these two evil, dangerous shysters were to gain power. War or no war, they are total menaces to our freedom.
Need I remind anyone that the Tobacco Settlement money is being paid for 110% by smokers who pay taxes on cigarettes? Not Big Tobacco and NOT the government. But the cigarette tax payers.
Pretty nice, eh?!
How are the attorney's getting their grimy hands on this money, anyway!
This really makes me mad,my money going to the Dems.
Nope - I'm not going to say anything - I like being able to post here!!!!!!
Tell me about it!
I want to find out HOW they are getting their grimy hands on this money! This money goes to the states, so evidentially, some official in the states are feeding this money to the trial lawyers. Something very fishy here.
Yes indeed..
but they've got a lot of resources and hopes tied to ButtBoy and TreasonMan so don't be surprised at any low trick they pull to accomplish their goal.
Thank you for clarifying that point. I knew it needed to be said, but couldn't express as expertly as you.
Lyon, Cheatham, and Steele. Dewey, Cheathan, and Howe.
I am more thankful every day that I have been rolling my own cigarettes for over four years. At least these attorney's aren't sending MY cigarette tax dollars to the RATS.
This is totally nauseating.
Then the RATS wonder why we think they are so dirty and devious. Well, we find out about their filthy tactics and there is no doubt in my mind just how devious they are! What a bunch!
Are you really?
How did you escape?
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