In addition to their millions of dollars individual contributions, the sharks have used PACs to direct even more money into maintaining their ironclad grip on Democrats and to capturing key Republican elected officials.
These PACs include:
Texas Trial Lawyer Assoc.
(TTLA) PAC
This trial lawyer PAC has taken in several million since March 2000, giving most of the proceeds to liberal Democrats. Together with similar plaintiff lawyer PACs Texas 2000, the Constitutional Defense Fund, and the Carl A. Parker PAC, receipts total well over $4 million with over a third of that coming from the Tobacco Five.
Despite his attempt to distinguish himself from Democrat trial lawyers, Mark Lanier has also donated to TTLA. TTLA has given most of its largesse to liberal Democrat legislators likeScott Hochberg, Carlos Uresti, Lon Burnam, Senfronia Thompson, Helen Giddings, Joe Deshotel, and Juan Hinojosa.
However, the TTLA PAC has also given thousands to Republicans like plaintiff lawyer Bryan Hughes, John Carona, and Tony Goolsby.
Texans for Insurance
Reform PAC
This deceptively named PAC is not focused on going after insurance companies, but more broadly on stopping tort reform. The PAC is bankrolled by some of the most well heeled plaintiff lawyers, including in 2006 alone $100,000 fromRichard Mithoff and $10,000 from John Eddie Williams.
The Mikal Watts Law Firm has also kicked in $125,000 while Provost & Umphrey has contributed $100,000. The PAC has traditionally supported liberal Democrat legislators like Scott Hochberg, Garnet Coleman, John Mabry, Leticia Van de Putte, Dora Olivo, and Carlos Uresti.
However, in the 2006 primary, Texans for Insurance Reform PAC also poured in tens of thousands to support Republican plaintiff lawyer legislative candidates Drew Mouton, John Devine, and Wade Gent, all of whom were defeated.
Texans for Family Values PAC
Mark Lanier founded this PAC and his wife Becky serves as the Treasurer. The handful of other contributors includes Baron & Budd, Walter Umphrey, and Williams & Bailey, belying any notion that Lanier operates independently from his liberal Democrat plaintiff lawyer brethren.
In January 2005, Texans for Family Values PAC reported an $8,000 contribution to liberal Democrat Rep. Pete Gallego, who is pro-abortion, belying this PAC’s self-proclaimed commitment to “family values.”
The PAC has also donated to Republicans Carole Keeton Strayhorn, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Steven Wayne Smith, and Harris County District Judge David Bernal.
In the 2006 GOP primary, conservative Republican candidate Rich Phillips in District 47 declined the endorsement of Texans for Family Values PAC after finding out that they are backed by plaintiff lawyers and Democrats.
Christian Attorneys for
Texans PAC
Another Mark Lanier vehicle. This PAC has received $12,500 from Walter Umphrey and donated $2,000 to Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn. It has also funneled money into the Texans for Family Values PAC.
Who Are The Sharks?
Texas has tens of thousands of lawyers and even the majority of plaintiffs’ lawyers in the state do not make large political contributions for the purpose of tilting pubic policy to advance their financial self-interest. But there is a small cadre of liberal personal injury trial lawyers who prey upon Texas businesses and continue to funnel millions of their shark booty to the Democratic Party and liberal Democrat candidates.
An Infiltration Is Underway!
Yes, a shark infiltration is underway. While these trial lawyer tycoons continue to give the vast majority of their largesse to liberal Democrat candidates and causes, they have begun jawboning their way into the Republican Party by making contributions to selected Republicans they believe will do their bidding by stopping common-sense tort reform.
Many of the sharks with the biggest bite are members of the Tobacco Five, the attorneys who feasted on an unprecedented $3.3 billion in legal fees after being hired by former Attorney General Dan Morales, now a convicted felon. The sharks include:
The sharks present both a public policy and political threat to the Republican Party and the conservative movement in Texas. The 2004 Republican Party of Texas platform contains provisions that emphatically support common sense tort reforms, including loser pays for frivolous suits, limits on abusive class actions, bars against suing gun manufacturers for criminals’ misuse of legal firearms, the abolition of joint and several liability whereby defendants must pay for damages they did not cause, and limits on out-of-control asbestos litigation. The sharks are making millions in political contributions to stop these types of reforms that would take a bite out of their millions in jackpot justice windfalls, but help our economy by reducing the $3,300 in indirect costs that litigation imposes on the average American family of four.
Unlike business leaders who make political contributions, trial lawyers have not accumulated their wealth by producing products or services that are voluntarily consumed. Instead, their largesse comes from playing a zero-sum game that exhausts 2.3% of our economy every year. Trial lawyers’ primary purpose in making huge and often conflicting political contributions is not to advance their own deeply held views, but to protect and expand the mechanisms in policy and law through which they can profit at others’ expense.
Believe it or not, a handful of otherwise conservative activists have defended the trial lawyer infiltration, relying on the fallacy that the courts are a free market. However, the courts - even juries while they serve - are in fact instruments of government using the law as a means of redistributing wealth. Of course, that is sometimes justified - someone who is at fault in a car accident should compensate the person they harm.
But some of the key tenants of our civil justice system like strict product liability - where the manufacturer is liable even if they are not at fault - are directly contrary to the conservative belief in personal responsibility. Similarly, unlimited punitive damages allow nine members of a jury to put an entire company or industry out of business with one fell swoop - going far beyond any need to compensate any plaintiff's legitimate suffering. If a government agency tried to fine McDonald's for hot coffee or put Merck out of business for selling a prescription drug that has side effects on a few people while saving thousands more lives, all conservatives would surely lead the outcry against big government.
They Bankroll 80% of the Texas Democratic Party
In addition to the public policy threat presented by these sharks encircling Republicans, it is also the height of political hypocrisy for these plaintiffs' lawyers who have become incredibly wealthy from abusive class action lawsuits to now use their largesse in an attempt to gain a foothold in the Republican Party, even while they continue to bankroll 80 percent of the Texas Democratic Party.
Instead of these sharks admitting the obvious - that what they are after is to stop tort reform and roll back existing limits on lawsuits - they are hiding behind the smokescreen of family values. Mark Lanier may well be genuine in his stated opposition to abortion, but he obviously feels more strongly about tilting the legal system to his benefit or else he would not give money to liberal, pro-abortion Democrats like Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Pete Gallego.Jackpot justice is not a family value.
Most importantly, these sharks have no intention of making a permanent and loyal alliance with the Republican Party or conservatives. Instead, the recent infiltration is a stopgap measure to gain influence while Democrats remain uncompetitive in the state. As soon as Democrats become competitive again in statewide politics, you can be sure that these same plaintiffs’ lawyers will go back to giving nearly 100 percent of their contributions to liberal Democrats. And they will have even more to give if they succeed now in picking off a handful of Republicans to scuttle tort reform.
To be sure, not every Republican candidate or officeholder who takes the shark bait is corrupted by it, and therefore votes against the party platform on tort reform. However, solicitation and acceptance of this money legitimizes it and robs fellow Republicans of the ability to criticize Democrats for being in bed with the trial lawyer lobby.
Once the waters have receded, it will be clear for all to see that Republicans and conservatives will be left high and dry if they swim with the sharks.
