| Summary |
| Summary |
Tort Dodgers: Business Money Tips Scales of Justice
22 business PACs spent $3.1 million on winning candidates in the last election cycle, finagling to get the Texas Legislature to relieve businesses of their responsibility for seriously injuring employees, customers and neighbors.
Texas' biggest PAC, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, raised $1.5 million in the last election cycle, spending $854,826 on the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and current members of the 75th Legislature. TLR alone gave more than twice as much money as did the Texas Trial Lawyers.
45% of TLR's money came from just 18 wealthy families. The PAC's biggest boosters are the families of Houston construction magnate and TLR President Richard Weekley ($120,000); Houstonian Robert McNair, owner of the largest privately held U.S. power company ($75,000); Houston construction tycoon Harlan Crow ($52,500); and the richest man in Texas after H. Ross Perot, corporate raider Harold Simmons ($50,000). 79 percent of TLR's money came in the form of 375 large contributions of $1,000 or more.
TLR and the Texas Civil Justice League (TCJL) contributed one-third of the money coming from the 22 tort PACs; medical PACs accounted for 30%; land development PACs accounted for 21%; and petro-chemical PACs accounted for 9%.
Sen. Troy Fraser is the biggest recipient of tort PAC largess. Fraser took $153,91l from the tort PACs, including $100,000 in TLR-supplied media services. The other four members of the "Tort PAC $100,000 Club" include: Lubbock Sen. Robert Duncan, Dallas Sen. David Cain, House Speaker Pete Laney and Sherman Rep. Ron Clark.
Civil defense lawyer Ron Clark is the poster boy of tort dependency. Clark took $126,423 from tort PACs--almost $20,000 more than Speaker Laney. This tort money accounted for 45% of the money in Clark's war chest. Other dependency poster boys include: Center Rep. Wayne Christian (42%); Corpus Rep. Gene Seaman (29%); Horseshoe Bay Sen. Troy Fraser (19%); and Carthage Sen. Drew Nixon (18 %).
Some of the tort PACs' main water carriers have professional or commercial interests that pose appearances of conflicting interests. Sen. Fraser, who owns an 800-employee manufacturing company, sponsored a 1989 workers' comp revamp that has robbed compensation from thousands of families of injured and killed workers. Other sponsors of key tort bills, such as Rep. Rob Junell of San Angelo and Sen. Bob Duncan of Lubbock, have something in common with Rep. Clark: They are civil defense attorneys.
Although TLR professes to be "bipartisan," Republicans pocketed 73% of the money TLR gave to current members of the Legislature. TLR spent 51% of its money on just eleven close races, giving Republicans 89% of this money. Similarly, TLR spent 52% of all its money on 11 freshmen victors (many of whom ran close races). Republicans took 98% of TLR's freshmen money.
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