Non-election year contributions bring total trial lawyer contributions to candidates and incumbent officeholders to more than $35 million since 1999
SACRAMENTO – Personal injury and other plaintiffs’ lawyers hit the $1 million mark in political contributions to incumbent state officials and candidates for office during 2009, according to data compiled by the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC).
During the year leading up to the legislative and statewide elections in 2010, trial lawyers gave $567,000 to incumbents and candidates for statewide office and $464,000 to Senate and Assembly candidates and officeholders. Political action committees controlled by plaintiffs’ attorneys gave $272,000, but contributions from individual lawyers and their firms totaled nearly three times as much – $759,000.
The 2009 contributions brings the total given by trial lawyers to California statewide and legislative officeholders and candidates to just under $35.2 million since the 1999-2000 election cycle, according to CJAC’s calculations, which are based on campaign finance reports filed with the Secretary of State’s office.
This figure greatly exceeds the $8.8 million in trial lawyer campaign contributions during the past decade that was contained in a study* released Wednesday by the Fair Political Practices Commission. The FPPC listed the trial lawyers as the 25th largest special interest group in total spending on influencing government decisions but its calculations included money spent lobbying officials while omitting contributions made to candidates and incumbents from lawyers, their firms, and family members. Those latter contributions made up 71 percent of the total given.
“The bottom line is that personal injury lawyer and other plaintiffs’ lawyer money is enormous by any measure, especially given the contributors’ narrow focus of promoting their litigation industry,” said CJAC President John H. Sullivan. “The lion’s share of trial lawyer money going to candidates and office holders comes directly from individual lawyers and their firms, not trial lawyer campaign committees. Therefore, these lawyers’ ongoing attempt to influence our government is far greater than even the high level documented by the FPPC and most others attempting to track campaign dollars.”
During 2009, the bulk of the trial bar’s contributions to statewide candidates went to Attorney General Jerry Brown, who is running virtually unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor, and to two Democratic candidates each for attorney general and insurance commissioner.
During 2009, trial lawyers gave Brown’s campaign $142,300.
In the race to succeed Brown as attorney general, the plaintiffs’ lawyers gave $53,800 to former L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and $51,600 to San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris.
In the contest for insurance commissioner, they contributed virtually the same amount to two candidates – $78,000 to Assemblyman Dave Jones of Sacramento and $71,300 to Assemblyman Hector de la Torre of South Gate. Eleven percent of Jones’ contributions and 7 percent of de la Torre’s funding last year came from trial lawyers.
In Senate races, five Democratic candidates have received $10,000 or more from trial lawyers, led by incumbent Mark DeSaulnier of Concord, who has received $19,600, which is 15 percent of his total contributions. The other top recipients of trial lawyer money were Assemblywoman Mary Salas, who is running in a San Diego-area Senate district, and Senator Mark Leno, who is running for re-election in San Francisco. Salas, who is running against fellow Assemblyman Juan Vargas, has received $15,200 (5 percent of her total), while Leno has picked up $14,900 (also 5 percent of his total).
Five candidates for the Assembly – again, all Democrats – have received $10,000 or more in trial lawyer contributions, led by Betsy Butler, a former fundraiser for the plaintiff attorneys’ lobbying group, who has received a staggering $68,300 (26 percent of her total) in her race for an open seat in Los Angeles County. Two other Democratic candidates have received $20,000 or more – Richard Gordon, who is running in a Silicon Valley district – and incumbent Mike Feuer from Los Angeles.
Sullivan said that while political contributions are a legitimate part of our freedom to communicate and select government representatives, the public should be informed when a powerful special interest is conducting a massive program to elect representatives purely in the interest of pursuing its own narrow agenda.
More information – as well as a breakdown of contributions to each candidate and incumbent – is available on CJAC’s web site
- Big Money Talks: The 15 Special Interests That Spent $1Billion to Shape California Government, State of California Fair Political Practices Commission, March 2010