Posted on 05/14/2006 10:48:54 AM PDT by AzaleaCity5691
Republican incumbents challenged from right
Chief justice and three associate justices face an ideological offensive for control of the court
Sunday, May 14, 2006 By BRENDAN KIRBY Staff Reporter Several Republican justices on the Alabama Supreme Court, which one political expert considers the most conservative in modern history, find themselves under assault this election year -- from the right.
Justice Tom Parker is challenging Chief Justice Drayton Nabers in the June 6 GOP primary, and a like-minded slate is taking on three other Republican incumbents. It is an internecine battle for control of the court that muddies the traditional trial lawyer-versus-business fight that has dominated Alabama judicial races in recent elections.
"It really does," said Tom Dart, chairman of the Alabama Civil Justice Reform Committee, which formed two decades ago to advocate lawsuit reform. "It has changed the dynamic."
In addition to the chief justice race, three incumbent associate justices face opponents.
Lyn Stuart, a former Baldwin County circuit judge, faces Alan Zeigler, a Birmingham lawyer who is the brother of Mobile lawyer and Republican activist Jim Zeigler. Champ Lyons, a justice from Point Clear, faces Opelika lawyer Ben Hand. And incumbent Tom Woodall is running against Henry P. "Hank" Fowler, Parker's staff attorney.
(Excerpt) Read more at al.com ...
Also in 2004, as far as money goes for the "Moore" slate of judicial candidates, all except for Parker derived almost the entirety of their campaign budgets from trial lawyer advocacy groups. The only Moore candidate to win the primary was Tom Parker and he won it narrowly, and I suspect if he had not been on the same ballot as W in 2004, he woulda lost the race to his Democratic opponent for the seat, a man who, interestingly enough, is running for a spot on the Circuit Court here as a Republican. This article further illustrates my point, that, as far as the Southeast goes, trial lawyers are moving into bed with the Religious Right, because they have the money resources that otherwise RR candidates would not avail themselves of, and at the same time, the RR can provide votes that trial lawyer candidates can no longer get, and both are motivated by a distrust of the state's business community.
"Lyn Stuart, a former Baldwin County circuit judge, faces Alan Zeigler, a Birmingham lawyer who is the brother of Mobile lawyer and Republican activist Jim Zeigler."
Is this the same Jim Ziegler who serves on the state Public Service Commission?
As Spock would say ... FASCINATING ...
"Also in 2004, as far as money goes for the "Moore" slate of judicial candidates, all except for Parker derived almost the entirety of their campaign budgets from trial lawyer advocacy groups."
We saw the same thing happen in Texas in recent years. What has happened is the trial lawyers, or sharks, have gien up on Democrats in this increasingly one-party states, and/or are hedging their bets by infiltrating conservative organizations.
There is a website dedicated to exposing this infiltration...
http://www.txsharkwatch.org/
in many cases, there are surprising links from well-known conservatives and the trial lawyers.
"This article further illustrates my point, that, as far as the Southeast goes, trial lawyers are moving into bed with the Religious Right, because they have the money resources that otherwise RR candidates would not avail themselves of, and at the same time, the RR can provide votes that trial lawyer candidates can no longer get, and both are motivated by a distrust of the state's business community."
Right. In some cases, the RR folks don't even know it's happening though.
Many lawyers in the South are conservatives, including Trial Lawyers.
For some reason, Paul's line about uniting the body of Christ with a prostitute comes to mind.
"Many lawyers in the South are conservatives, including Trial Lawyers."
Please check the website I linked to understand.
http://www.txsharkwatch.org/
It's not that simple that these are just conservative lawyers funding this. These same groups that fund some 'right-wing' opponent of a pro-business Judge will turn around and fund leftists.
Trial lawyers are trying to buck against various tort reform changes that are cutting into their business.
In the past, they've been so powerful that reform couldnt happen at all. Now, with Republicans running these states, the tort reform agenda has been moving forward. The excesses of litigation are getting fixed. In Texas, the recent tort reform changes have cut homeowner's insurance and helped business insurance etc get reduced. But money it saves business is comong out of the litigation system and weakening the tort lawyers' business.
The Democrat party in Texas is almost entirely bought and paid for by trial lawyers. But trial lawyers now see that 'owning' a losing party wont be enough... so they infiltrate the Religious Right and certain organizations that willingly or unwittingly will get corrupted by this influence, to push back on tort reform.
It's not about conservative lawyers.This is about raw power, and the trial lawyers groups are not about to go quietly into the night.
Thanks for the information. I live in Georgia and we recently enacted some tort reform. I am a lawyer and when I go to bar meetings or law school reunions, I hear all opinions. Your point about the wealthy trial lawyers buying influence on the right appears to be true. It will be interesting to see how that goes down. My point is that regular lawyers, even some that are trial lawyers (perhaps not the super rich ones) can be conservative.
Yes, although Ziegler hasn't been on the PSC in a long time. He served a single term as a Democrat from 1975-79, his last elective office to date, IIRC.
I make no bones about the fact that I'm a strong supporter of Roy Moore and his political allies. Still, I have concerns that the closeness of these Religious Conservatives to the trial lawyers is troubling (we need more of the former and NONE of the latter). It took a long time to get the anti-tort reform liberal Democrats off the court to replace them with more responsible reformist Republicans, but the failure of many of them to similarly stand firm with Moore against the federal liberals war on religion is equally disappointing and downright sickening.
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