Why are oil industry executives contributing to the Jim Smith Supreme Court Campaign?
Sam Hall:
In a time of $4-per-gallon of gas, perhaps Smith’s financial backers should think more about finding ways to cut the cost of gasoline for the consumer than backing a Supreme Court justice who has, for more than a couple of these donors, ruled on their behalf.
Jim Smith's opponent for that seat is well respected jurist Jim Kitchens and to match those slick oil dollars they are trying to raise $50,000 in small donations in contrast to the large donations coming from big business' that want to continue to corrupt our courts.
Meanwhile Smith's opponent, the respect jurist you mentioned, has raised more than $86,000 (not small contributions) from out of state trial lawyers. Hello Kettle? Jim Smith's contributors are mostly from Mississippi. Why do these medical malpractice lawyers and mass tort attorneys from outside of Mississippi want Jim Kitchens on the Court? The answer is obvious and it has nothing to do with "the little guy" in Mississippi or their concern for gas prices.
ReplyDeleteThe trial lawyer money from out of state is defensive money. Let us not forget about the $1,000,000+ dropped by the Chamber of Commerce in the judgship races last cycle. Too bad ole Haley won't allow transparency to see where this money is actually coming from.
ReplyDeleteDefensive money? But Jim Kitchens is the challenger. He is the one wanting to make a change. By definition all his money is offensive money. So again the question is, what do these out of state trial lawyers expect from their $86,000? If you want to criticize the Chamber for putting in money, fine. But be consistent.
ReplyDeleteNot defensive as in who is the incumbent, but defensive as in self preservation. With no transparency on the Chamber of Commerce end and seven figures loot being doled out, what else do the good guys do but raise money from the deep pockets of out of state donors? The Chamber of Commerce dropped over ONE MILLION in Mississippi last cycle. At least you get to know the name and location for the out of state trial lawyer donors. All we get to see is "Chamber of Commerce".
ReplyDeleteThe question is, where is that money comin from? Why does Haley not want the people of Mississippi to know who is spending millions from out of state on Mississippi elections?
You keep talking about the Chamber of Commerce like they are giving to Jim Smith. They aren't. Your post was about contributors to Jim Smith and contributors to Jim Kitchens. And I don't know what Haley has to do with it (I mean, I know about the legislation but that is so off topic of the post, if you don't want to discuss the issue at hand, fine).
ReplyDeleteSelf-preservation? Again, Kitchens is the challenger. Self-preservation means continuing as he is. If you mean it is necessary for him to win, then yes, he needs out-of-state trial lawyer contributors to be competitive because in-state Mississippians like the job Jim Smith has done.
But just as the "awash in oil money" attempts to disparage the Mississippians who gave to Jim Smith, the same implications should be made to Kitchen's contributors - med-mal and mass-tort attorneys from outside Mississippi.
You and I both know that the Chamber of Commerce is coming with their sacks of loot. I saw where they had $60 million plus to spend on this election cycle alone. I will save your last post to point out to you when the Chamber of Commerce unloads in this race.
ReplyDeleteThe issue is transparency. Currently thanks to Haley we have no tranparency in out of state funds coming from large special interest groups like the Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber of Commerce bought the Mississippi Supreme Court and Mississippians deserve to know who bought their right to justice.
You are obsessed with the US Chamber and Haley Barbour. I wanted to talk about your post and contributors to Jim Smith and Jim Kitchens. Save my post? Why? I'm not even arguing with you about the US Chamber - that's your obessession. Next time post about the Chamber. I'm out.
ReplyDelete