Been There, Done That

Rewarding Campaign Donors With Political Favors

and Big Money nothing new for Gregoire

Bellevue, WA...Recent news stories in both the Seattle P-I and the Seattle Times have questioned whether Gov. Gregoire has handed out political favors to her campaign donors while in the governors' mansion. But the pattern of questionable pay-offs goes all the way back to her time as Attorney General when she negotiated the tobacco settlement. 

The settlement turned a few well-connected trial lawyers into multi-millionaires. Many of those same favored trial lawyers turned around and donated large sums of money to both Gregoire and the Democratic Governor's Association (DGA). One such lawyer is Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, who received a 5-year prison sentence today for conspiring to bribe a judge.

Scruggs and his firm received approximately $1 billion (not a misprint) in fees from the tobacco litigation, in which then-Attorney General Gregoire was a key negotiator. In October 2004, Scruggs donated $200,000 to the DGA which was then running negative TV ads against Dino Rossi. The DGA is also a sponsor of negative ads that began airing today against Rossi.

"The more light we shine on Christine Gregoire, the more we learn about her habit of handing out political favors to campaign donors and supporters," said Luke Esser, Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. "And Gov. Gregoire's habit of rewarding political supporters didn't just start recently. As Attorney General, Gregoire negotiated a tobacco settlement that made a few trial lawyers into multi-millionaires, who then turned around and gave big to her campaign. One of Gregoire's strongest financial supporters (and one of her ‘closest friends' in the tobacco litigation), Dickie Scruggs, was just sentenced today to five years in prison.

"As governor, Gregoire renegotiated a tribal casino compact that initially would have provided $140 million a year to the state into a deal that gave the state absolutely nothing. Not surprisingly, some of the tribes that benefited from the governor's actions are contributing generously to see her re-elected. And now, today, at the very moment that the incumbent is negotiating contracts with state employees, Gregoire is benefiting from huge contributions by some of those same unions, a clear conflict of interest for the governor. Every day more and more ethical questions are raised about Gov. Gregoire's behavior. These questions will continue unless Gov. Gregoire can break her habit of rewarding campaign supporters with political favors."

A 2004 Seattle Times article noted the connection between Scruggs and other trial lawyers involved in the tobacco settlement and Gregoire's campaign.

"Private lawyers who had worked alongside Gregoire on the tobacco settlement were even more generous....

Lawyers hired by the states to help take their cases to court received millions of dollars in fees from the settlement. Those lawyers and their firms already have contributed heavily to Gregoire's campaign, around $100,000 in direct donations.

On Oct. 8, the DGA got $200,000 from Richard Scruggs, a prominent tobacco attorney who also has made direct contributions to Gregoire's campaign. Scruggs said his firm made between $900 million and $1 billion in fees on the tobacco litigation."

It's not possible to specifically tie individual donors to the DGA to Gregoire's campaign; however, Scruggs said, Gregoire was uppermost in his mind when he made his contribution. ‘She was one of our colleagues and close friends in the tobacco wars, and I'd certainly like to see her get as much of it as possible, but it is not my call.'"

Even back in 2000, Gregoire was denying allegations of pay-offs from her trial lawyer friends.

"Nonsense," insists Fred Olson, Gregoire's director of administration. Critics, he says, are wrong to think the donations "must be a payoff, rather than what they are: a reflection that someone has a high regard for an elected official."

Gregoire will need to keep making denials so long as she continues to engage in such questionable behavior.

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