SACRAMENTO — Personal injury and other plaintiffs’ lawyers have given more than $570,000 to incumbents and candidates in California from January 1 through June 30, according to data compiled by the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC).
Of the $570,000, more than $140,000 came through political action committees, entirely financed by plaintiffs’ lawyers. However, individual lawyers and their law firms contributed three times as much than the political action committees — their direct contributions totaled more than $420,000.
“This is a huge amount of money from a narrow special interest group, given that when they were made elections were more than a year away,” said CJAC President John H. Sullivan. “We believe that before the end of the year many thousands more dollars will flow down this money chute from the personal injury lawyers to those they hope will bend to their wishes.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyers show an early interest in supporting candidates for the offices of attorney general and insurance commissioner, Sullivan noted.
According to CJAC’s research, the lawyers have sent $116,800 to candidates for attorney general, including former Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, and Assembly Members Pedro Nava, Alberto Torrico, and Ted Lieu. (Contributions to individual candidates can be viewed here.)
In addition, plaintiffs’ lawyers have contributed almost equally to two candidates for insurance commissioner: Assembly Members Dave Jones ($48,800) and Hector De La Torre ($45,300). To date, 16% of Jones’ contributions have come from plaintiffs’ lawyers. De La Torre has received 8% of his total contributions from these lawyers. Assemblyman Mike Villines, also a candidate for insurance commissioner, has appeared to receive no money from trial lawyers.
Noteworthy among legislative candidates reporting receiving plaintiffs’ lawyer money is Betsy Butler, a fundraiser for the California plaintiffs’ lawyers’ lobbying group, who is running to represent the 53rd Assembly District. She has received $17,000 — nearly a quarter of her total contributions — from plaintiffs’ lawyers. The district stretches to Venice and includes Torrance, Lomita, and parts of Los Angeles.
Richard Gordon, a San Mateo County supervisor running for the 21st Assembly District, has also benefitted, with $19,700 in personal injury lawyer contributions — nearly 20% of his total contributions. The district encompasses all or part of 13 cities in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
The Civil Justice Association of California regularly tracks political contributions of California personal injury and other plaintiffs’ lawyers and notes that most contribution studies vastly understate the money flowing from this source because they look only at PAC reporting and overlook larger amounts given directly by individual lawyers and their firms. The CJAC data is compiled from records on the California Secretary of State’s web site.
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.
Contact: John H. Sullivan, President
Cynthia Lambert, Director of Communications and Research
916-443-4900