Yesterday a reader commenting on the "Cotter, trial lawyers, and money" story asked:

"Didn't the trial lawyer from Billings, Cliff Clint(?) Edwards set up some sort of special PAC in the past in order to pour a lot of his own money into some of these judge races? I don't remember ever seeing a good explanation of how that could happen."

We figured the answer to that warranted a stand alone-post for an answer.

The PAC that this person is thinking of is actually the Montana Trial Lawyers Association PAC, called the Montana Law PAC - the same one referenced in the Cotter story from yesterday.  I don't have numbers handy this morning on contributors to the MT Law PAC for 2000, but I do have their 2004 campaign finance reports, and these figures should raise some eyebrows.  Their major 2004 contributors include:
Alexander Blewett, Great Falls, $20,000
Cliff Edwards, Billings, $50,000
James Hunt, Helena, $10,240
Gene Jarussi, Billings, $10,240
L. Randall Bishop, Billings, $10,226
Tom Lewis, Great Falls, $10,000
Peter Meloy, Helena, $10,185
David Paoli, Missoula, $10,229
J. David Slovak, Great Falls, $10,240

These nine individuals accounted for $141,360 of the total $337,859 that the trial lawyers raised in 2004.  Incidentally, you'll likely find most of their names on some major plaintiff's cases that have come before the Montana Supreme Court in recent years.  Most of that money, $308,171 was spent on independent expenditures on behalf of Judge Jim Nelson.  To put that in perspective, Nelson's re-election campaign raised only $231,790.  The Trial Lawyers actually spent more to get Jim Nelson elected than he did himself!  (To be fair, a conservative PAC, Montanans for Justice, was set up to help challenger Cindy Younkin, but that PAC raised only $39,850.)

To answer the second part of the question, Montana campaign finance laws allow unlimited contributions from individuals to PACs.  And PACs are allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money on expenditures for candidates as long as there is no coordination with the candidate.

This campaign finance system should work as long as contributions and expenditures are reported and the public has easy access to the information.  If an individual wants to spend $50,000 to help a candidate get elected, he should have the right to do it...but the public needs to know about it, and that's where the Montana press is failing us.  Contributing $50,000 to a PAC is a big deal.  Cliff Edwards knew exactly how his money was going to be spent.  And Jim Nelson knows exactly where that $50,000 that helped him get elected came from.  But the most important people, the voters, had no clue what was going down.

When large sums of money are being tossed around like that, the only safeguard we have is public scrutiny.  A search of the Billings Gazette archives yielded no stories on the huge sums of trial lawyer money connected to Jim Nelson's re-election (if you can find such a story, please set me straight).  It's accurate to say that the trial lawyer's "bought" Jim Nelson's election in 2004, and Chuck Johnson, Mike Dennison, et al turned a blind eye.

The frustrating part is that we know these reporters have it in them to write these kinds of stories.  Remember in 2006 when Mike Dennison pressed hard to find the funding source for the Montananas in Action campaign?  That was a good bit of investigative journalism.  The only difference I can think of between the Montana Law PAC and Montanans in Action is that the former is a liberal group and the latter was a conservative group - yes, that old charge of liberal media bias rears its ugly head. 

Let's hope they can do better in 2008 when the trial lawyers attempt to buy another term for Pat Cotter.

One of the sleeper races in the 2008 election cycle is currently the Associate Supreme Court Justice seat currently held by Judge Particia Cotter. Typicall, Supreme Court races fly under the radar of most voters in Montana, but this cycle it looks like a real donnybrook could be brewing.

Cotter's vulnerability is her leftist record on the bench. She has consistently sided with liberal special interest groups well outside the bounds of mainstream Montana. For instance, of the six Montana Supreme Court cases where the ACLU filed an amicus brief during Cotter's tenure on the court, she agreed with the ACLU's position five times (see below for a list of cases referenced).

Her record with the Montana Trial Lawyers Association (MTLA) is even worse. Of the twenty MT SupCo cases that MTLA filed an amicus brief, Cotter supported their position 17 times. (see below for a list of cases referenced.)

Don't let Cotter's allegience to MTLA shock you too much. During her 2000 race, MTLA's PAC spent $102,543 in independnet expenditures to help get her elected - that's not the money she received from trial lawyers directly, that's just the money expended directly out of the MTLA PAC. Click here for an accounting of the MTLA PAC expenditures.

We don't have numbers on the legal fees that MTLA-member lawyers racked up for their role in these cases, but one has to imagine that the return on the $100,000 Cotter investment was well worth the effort. Expect them to be prepared to make a major investment in buying this seat in 2008 as well.

American Civil Liberties Union :

Highlands Golf Club v. Ashmore, 2002 MT 8 – Amicus brief from ACLU, Cotter signed favorable opinion

State v. Logan, 2002 MT 206 – Amicus brief from ACLU, Cotter signed favorable opinion

State v. Mount, 2003 MT 275 – Amicus brief from ACLU, Cotter signed unfavorable opinion

Wheat v. Brown , 2004 MT 33, ACLU supported Wheat, et. al., Cotter signed favorable opinion

Snetsinger v. Montana University System, 325 Mont. 148 – Amicus brief from ACLU, Cotter signed favorable opinion

Matter of T.L.S., 2006 MT 262 – Amicus brief from ACLU, Cotter signed favorable opinion

Montana Trial Lawyers Association:

Swanson v. Hartford Insurance , 2002 MT 81 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter wrote favorable opinion*

Kloss v. Edward D. Jones & Co ., 2002 MT 129 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter signed favorable opinion

Dorwart v. Caraway , 2002 MT 240 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter signed favorable opinion

Stavenjord v. Montana State Fund , 2003 MT 67 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter signed favorable opinion

Hardy v. Progressive Specialty Insurance , 2003 MT 85 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter signed favorable opinion

Trustees of Indiana University v. Buxbaum , 2003 MT 97 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter signed favorable opinion

Lane v. Montana Fourth Judicial District , 2003 MT 130 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter signed favorable opinion

Wild v. Fregein Construction , 2003 MT 115 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter signed favorable opinion

Shilhanek v. D-2 Trucking, Inc. , 2003 MT 122 - Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter wrote favorable opinion that supported half of the amicus*

Christofferson v. City of Great Falls , 2003 MT 189 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter wrote unfavorable opinion*

Hiett v. Missoula County Public Schools , 2003 MT 213 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter wrote favorable opinion*

Dambrowski v. Champion Int’l Co rp., 2003 MT 233 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter wrote favorable dissent*

Graf v. Continental Western Ins. Co ., 2004 MT 105 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter signed favorable opinion

Orr v. State, 2004 MT 354 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter wrote favorable opinion*

Reesor v. Montana State Fund , 2004 MT 370 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter wrote favorable opinion*

Dempsey v. Allstate Insurance Co ., 2004 MT 391 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter wrote favorable opinion*

Carter v. Mississippi Farm Bureau Cas. Ins. , 2005 MT 74 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter wrote unfavorable opinion*

Frontline v. American Economy, 2006 MT 344 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter wrote favorable opinion*

Seltzer v. Morton , 2007 MT 62 - Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter signed unfavorable opinion

Sunburst v. Texaco, 2007 MT 183 – Amicus brief from Montana Trial Lawyers, Cotter signed favorable dissenting opinion