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1/7/2009
Wednesday morning
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| 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. |
| We dont 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
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