Tuesday, February 08, 2000
Money matches court's decision
Contributors had lawsuit-limit stake
BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS - Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer won another term two years ago as the endorsed candidate of the Ohio Republican Party. Yet party committees gave him only $150 for his campaign.
The GOP's leading financial allies — business and insurance interests — plowed most their money into the campaign of Justice Pfeifer's Democratic challenger.
This odd political twist was no mistake. While few ordinary Ohioans give to judicial candidates, a new analysis by Ohio Citizen Action shows contributions from lawyers and interest groups play a key role in electing the seven justices who have the final say on laws governing virtually every aspect of daily life.
Ohio and Kentucky are among 22 states which elect their Supreme Court justices. Other states appoint justices, but 13, including Indiana, subject the appointees to some form of retention vote to stay in office.
In some cases in Ohio, there is a strong correlation between contributions and how the court votes on issues.
Business and insurance groups, for instance, wanted to oust Justice Pfeifer and replace him with a jurist who shared their support of a law that limited damage awards in product liability and medical malpractice lawsuits. Trial lawyers and labor unions fought just as hard to keep the balance on the court tilted in their favor.
“My fund-raiser tried to solicit traditional Republican sources of money, but he didn't have much success,” Justice Pfeifer recalled Monday. “These groups are trying to handicap how a justice will vote on their issues. Once you've been on the court for a while, you have a track record of opinions that gives them an indication of who you are.”
Less than a year after the election, the court split 4-3 on a decision that struck down the lawsuit limits approved by Republican lawmakers after the GOP won control of the General Assembly in 1994.
Justice Pfeifer and three other members of the majority — Republican Justice Andrew Douglas and Democratic Justices Alice Robie Resnick and Francis Sweeney — were the top recipients of campaign money from trial lawyers and labor unions between 1993 and 1998, according to Citizen Action's computer-assisted analysis of data provided by the Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's office.
By contrast, members of the minority — Chief Justice Thomas Moyer and Justices Deborah Cook and Evelyn Stratton — were the top recipients of money from finance, insurance and business interests.
Citizen Action's report did not include independent expenditures on behalf of candidates, which surfaced during Justice Stratton's 1996 race after the court imposed contribution limits and campaign spending caps.
“I've always felt the money follows a justice's judicial philosophy,” said Justice Stratton, a trial judge who won a spot on the state's high court after former Republican Gov. George Voinovich appointed her to fill a vacancy.
“I was a bit of a gamble because I didn't have any appellate decisions people could review,” she said. “I've never had a contributor tell me how they want me to vote, but I made it clear I was a Republican with a conservative judicial philosophy.”
Justices Pfeifer and Douglas are Republicans, too. Yet both have received only token contributions from business and insurance interests.
“We make contributions to pro-business candidates,” said Louise Hughes, associate director for Ohio government relations at Procter & Gamble. “We don't see Justice Pfeifer making decisions that match the way business interests think.”
With both Justice Resnick and Justice Cook seeking re-
election this year, the money battle is expected to be even more fierce.
“A lot of people are going to perceive these races as a last-ditch stand for business interests,” said John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute for Applied Politics at the University of Akron.
Justice Resnick, author of the decision striking down the lawsuit limits, got $332,223 from trial lawyers and labor unions between 1993 and 1998. Justice Cook, one of the dissenters, got $27,637, none of which came from unions, according to the analysis.
Justice Cook, meanwhile, raised $200,168 from business and insurance interests, while Justice Resnick picked up $37,090.
“I regret this simplistic analysis is being made public,” Jus tice Cook said. “I can only speak for what I do. What these reports don't take into account are the legal merits of individual cases.”
Said Justice Resnick: “I don't think there is any correlation between contributions and justice. If there was, the other side would be giving me thousands of dollars to influence my votes.”
One of the top individual givers to the justices was Carl Lindner, the Cincinnati financier. He gave Justice Cook $20,000 for her 1994 campaign. Employees of one of Mr. Lindner's companies, American Financial Corp., gave another $10,990.
Other top Cincinnati-area givers included Waite Schneider Bayless & Chesley, the law firm of Stanley Chesley, a top trial lawyer and fund-raiser. His firm gave $29,750.
Asked on Monday why Justice Pfeifer only got $150 from Republican Party committees for his 1998 race (Chief Justice Moyer got $170,176), the party's state chairman, Bob Bennett, said Justice Pfeifer didn't need help.
A GOP strategy memo issued two months before the election reached a different conclusion about Justice Pfeifer. “We may not like this situation,” the memo stated. “But there appears to be little chance that it is going to change. ... It is difficult to imagine that enough money can be spent to defeat him.”
Money matches court's decision
City gets big boost in budget
Birthday party turns into 'Saga'
Schools hold off on nuggets
Sewer plan seeks $46.4M
Winburn: OMI needs shake-up
Besieged by good kids and worthy causes
Fight over anti-crime grant may end soon
Jacobs teachers hatch own plan
Land of love in demand
Sheriff candidate appeals
Citizen panel winds up review
Computer buyer finds police data
Council won't move against gun trader
County sued for decision in private
CPS may expand Great Oaks tie
New dinner theater to open in Harrison
Officer of the year sees job as community service
Rapist doesn't want 'predator' label
Man charged with raping boy accused of victimizing others
Man pleads no contest to murder attempt
Queen City's moments to shine reflected in book
Stay out of Ludlow, suspect told
Trial to look at two autopsies, two conclusions
GET TO IT
TRISTATE DIGEST
