09.05.07
TX-Sen: Democratic Primary, Experience And Money, Still
Bad news for Mikal Watts today, Senate candidate played up contributions to justices. Don’t get EOW wrong we have absolutely no problem with trial lawyers, especially the work they do holding corporations accountable. EOW also has never believed the GOP talking points that “exorbitant” jury verdicts, which are almost always lowered on appeal, are the cause of astronomical insurance premiums. That’s just greed that causes that. Anyway. This doesn’t look good for Watts.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mikal Watts of San Antonio once tried to pressure a legal opponent into a $60 million personal injury lawsuit settlement by claiming he would have an advantage on appeal because of his firm’s “heavy” campaign financial support to an appellate court’s justices, “all of whom are good Democrats.”
There is no evidence that his firm’s support of justices of the 13th Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi ever gained him any undue influence.
But a nine-page letter Watts wrote to opposing counsel in 2001 apparently was intended to make an out-of-state corporation think the donations could sway the court. Watts is running for the Democratic senatorial nomination against Houston state Rep. Rick Noriega.
“This letter seems to confirm what everybody thinks about Texas justice. Very seldom is it this well-articulated,” said Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, an organization that advocates for campaign finance reform. “It confirms the fact Texas courts are filled with politics.”
Watts mentioned his campaign donations to the justices in an April 26, 2001, letter to a lawyer representing American Electric Power in an automobile accident case. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount four months later without going to trial.
Watts attempts to smooth it over a bit.
Watts said Tuesday he noted his contributions in the letter because defense lawyers always tell trial lawyers they cannot win their cases ultimately because the Texas Supreme Court consists of all Republican justices.
“It was in response to the garbage we hear from defense lawyers every day,” Watts said.
Opposing counsel, he noted, typically will say, “It doesn’t matter what a jury is going to do because we’ve got nine angry Republicans on the Texas Supreme Court who will take away whatever a jury does.”
Watts said he was only trying to point out that if he won at the appeals court level, it would be unlikely that the Supreme Court would accept the case on further appeal.
In the election cycles surrounding the 2001 letter, Watts and his law firm donated a total of $82,500 to five of the six justices sitting on the 13th Court of Appeals.
As Kos says.
I honestly have little interest in trashing Rick Noriega’s Democratic opponent in the Texas Senate primary, but this is bad.
[...]
It’s things like this that make Rick Noriega — already an incredibly impressive man — extra appealing.
More on this from BOR, Mikal Watts: A Pattern of Buying Influence. EOW likes what Burka says about this, Don’t Put It In Writing, the title pretty much speaks for itself. He also has a pretty good analysis of the Democratic Primary and how each candidate would far against Sen. Cornyn at the end of the post.
The primary: Noriega has a great personal story; the question is whether he can raise enough money to get it out to the electorate. Watts has oodles of money, but no compelling personal narrative. The question is whether money or an Hispanic surname is the greater asset in a Democratic primary. Does the name “Victor Morales” mean anything to you? It meant something to congressmen John Bryant and Jim Chapman, who lost the 1996 Senate primary to the unknown schoolteacher, and the Hispanic vote means more in the Democratic primary today than it did then.
The general election: Neither candidate is that well known. Cornyn is the favorite but not an overwhelming one. Most national surveys rate the race as “Republican favored,” one step short of “Strong republican.” If Watts wins the primary, his background as a trial lawyer will hurt him, but Cornyn will carry a lot of the baggage that has piled up during Bush’s second term. Watts will have enough money to focus the race on Cornyn’s record. If Noriega wins the primary, he has the better shot to beat Cornyn if he can raise the money.
It’s a pretty clear choice. Do you want substance or cash as your candidate next fall? It’s kind of like what EOW said a little while back, Experience And Money Needed To Win. If we get Rick Noriega some money he can win, Watts…not so much.
Great write up in the Startlegram about Noriega’s visit to Fort Worth and Rep. Lon Burnam, The citizen-soldier and the political prophet.
In a church turned reception hall, state Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, told local Democrats last week that Fort Worth Rep. Lon Burnam is a prophet.
Burnam was the lone representative in 2005 to vote against electing Tom Craddick as speaker of the Texas House. In 2007, Burnam led another House dissent against Craddick, but this time he wasn’t standing alone.
Perhaps Burnam is foretelling the future with his endorsement of Noriega to win the Democratic nomination for the 2008 U.S. Senate race. Noriega, citizen-solider, believes that Texans are as frustrated as other Americans with the Iraq war debacle and yearn for experienced leadership to end that conflict.
As battalion commander of an infantry unit in the Texas National Guard, he has led troops in Afghanistan and guarded the southern U.S. border.
Noriega said he’s running partly because of his warrior ethos, which demands you leave no soldier behind.
“We have 160,000 brothers and sisters right now who I think are being misled by civilian leadership that has never walked the walk,” he said.
Noriega claims that his experience at the front lines and the border gives him the expertise to formulate policy based on the realities of war and diplomacy. After five terms as state representative from District 145, he said he’s ready to go to Washington to help fill the leadership void.
Noriega’s the definite choice if we want to get rid of John Cornyn.