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“The same trial lawyers who have concocted schemes for years in their attempts to control the Alabama Supreme Court are at it again; but this time they’re trying a new tactic – funneling their money to Republican candidates.”
Tom Parker, who is challenging Justice Jean Brown for a seat on the state’s high court, received $150,000 from trial lawyer PACs, although he failed to report the contributions on his most recent disclosure report.
Pam Baschab collected $558,525 from the trial lawyer PACs, or an astounding 99 percent of her total contributions. All of the trial lawyer cash came through four brand new PACs specifically set up to funnel money from the trial lawyers to their slate of candidates.
Jerry Stokes, the trial lawyer candidate for Place 3, admitted in today’s Birmingham News that most of his money came from the same three trial lawyer PACs that donated heavily to Baschab and Parker. He also failed to report $173,000 in contributions from trial lawyer PACs even though the PACs themselves reported the missing contributions.
The plaintiff firms who bankrolled Parker, Baschab and Stokes used an intricate web of more than 14 political action committees to hide their contributions from Alabama voters. AND... The statewide GOP ballot is headlined by three Supreme Court races, which have been cast in part as a referendum on former Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was ejected from office last year after defying a federal judge's order to remove his Ten Commandments display from the Alabama Judicial Building.
Moore has endorsed candidates -- Tom Parker, Moore's former spokesman; Pam Baschab, court of criminal appeals judge; and Jerry Stokes, retired circuit judge from Andalusia -- for each of the three seats. Business community endorsements and contributions have lined up largely behind an alternative slate: incumbent Justice Jean Brown, Shelby County District Judge Patti Smith and Jefferson County Probate Judge Mike Bolin.
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