Trial lawyers biggest contributors to anti-GOP campaign

By JOHN McCARTHY
The Associated Press
10/22/02 7:09 PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers has bet almost $700,000 that it can knock one of two Republicans running for Ohio Supreme Court seats and keep a court majority friendly to its membership.

The group's political action committee was the biggest contributor to Citizens for an Independent Court, which has raised more that $1.2 million this year in its campaign targeting the Republican candidates -- incumbent Evelyn Lundberg Stratton and Lt. Gov. Maureen O'Connor.

The trial lawyers' PAC gave $699,087 to Citizens for an Independent Court, according to a campaign finance report filed with the Ohio secretary of state's office last week. Other supporters, mostly labor unions, contributed $615,000, the report showed.

The two races are the most important on the ballot for Ohio workers, said Richard Mason, the academy's executive director. Should O'Connor and Stratton win, they could join Chief Justice Thomas Moyer and Justice Deborah Cook, both Republicans, in a majority that might issue rulings more palatable to business.

That could signal the Republican-controlled Legislature to begin passing laws that would place further limits on lawsuits, Mason said.

"There's been a lot of talk on what the General Assembly may or may not do," he said.

On Tuesday, Citizens for an Independent Court released its second television ad, which is set to run in Ohio's major media markets. The group's spokesman, Mark Hatch, declined to say when or where the ads would run. He said he did not want to divulge the group's strategy.

The ad features Oak Harbor resident David Norgard, who won a case he filed against his former employer, Brush Wellman Inc. Norgard said he contracted chronic beryllium disease while working at a Brush Wellman plant in Elmore.

The court ruled 4-3 on May 8 in Norgard's favor, with Stratton among the justices dissenting. Stratton concurred with Justice Deborah Cook's dissent, which said Norgard's appeal should have been denied because he waited too long after contracting the disease to sue Brush Wellman. Stratton did not write an opinion in the case.

In the ad, Norgard says, "They lied about the risks. Then they hid the evidence." He then refers to a nickname Stratton picked up for handing out tough sentences in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

"Eve Stratton calls herself the Velvet Hammer. Yeah, corporations get the velvet. Ohio families get the hammer. ... We need Tim Black and Janet Burnside 'cause they're on our side," Norgard says.

Hatch said he did not know who wrote the ad's script. Academy President Frank Todaro said he expected that the ad would draw charges of negative advertising from Republicans. He said Stratton's record is fair game.

"It is certainly fair to allow Ohio voters to examine the record of the candidates before them," Todaro said.

Stratton, who had read a script of the ad but had not seen it, said she was not trying to protect corporate interests with her vote, but viewed Norgard's case as being beyond the legal statute of limitations.

"Our court created a new right to allow the case to go forward. That's the basis of our dissent," Stratton said. "They pick one vote out of thousands of votes. They aren't examining my record. ... That's a cheap attack on our judiciary."

Burnside hadn't seen the ad, either, but her campaign manager, Betty Sutton, said Burnside stands by an Oct. 1 statement that she would disavow any negative advertising.

"Judge Burnside has been clear and ahead of the game on all this. She does not want negative advertising out there from people who are for her or against her, period," Sutton said.