Larry Taylor Kelly Hancock turn back Trial Attorney efforts
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas We expected that personal injury trial lawyers would start engaging in Republican primary politics being despondent over not being able to advance their job-killing government-expanding agenda through the Democratic Party who now comprise such a small minority of the Texas Legislature.
So while personal injury trial lawyers were unsuccessful in their attempts to elect Trojan Horse candidates in Republican primaries last week Lawsuit Reform-minded candidates were very successful in the Republican primary on May 29.
The plaintiff trial lawyers executed their Trojan Horse strategy in several key Republican primary races and TLR PAC engaged them in battle in each of those races including the following four:
Rep. Kelly Hancock vs. Rep. Todd Smith in Senate District 9.
TLR PAC contributed $340086 to Hancock and the trial lawyers contributed $529276 to Smith who is himself a personal injury trial lawyer. Hancock who is a small businessman and a talented Member of the Texas House defeated Smith by 65 to 35.
Kelly has been a stalwart supporter of tort reform and he will replace Senator Chris Harris (R-Arlington) who was closely aligned with the plaintiff trial bar.
Rep. Larry Taylor vs. Dave Norman in Senate District 11.
TLR PAC contributed $858496 to Taylor and the trial lawyers spent $1034418 against Taylor because Taylor as Co-chairman of an important legislative oversight committee
exposed the excessive fees paid to hurricane plaintiffs lawyer Steve Mostyn by the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association.
Larry Taylor won with 58 of the vote. Larry currently is Chairman of the Republican Caucus in the Texas House.
Elizabeth Ames Jones Donna Campbell and incumbent Sen. Jeff Wentworth in Senate District 25.
TLR contributed $690130 to Jones and the trial lawyers contributed $713254 to Wentworth. Sen. Wentworth (R-San Antonio) has been in public office for three decades and is solidly aligned with the personal injury trial lawyers. He received only 35.77 of the vote and is now in a run-off with Donna Campbell who is an emergency room physician a principled conservative and someone who understands the importance of lawsuit reform to job creation and access to health care.
Rep. J.M. Lozano vs. Bill Wilson and Will Vaden in House District 43.
Rep. Lozano was elected as a Democrat in 2010 but has become a Republican following in the steps of several other conservative legislators in recent years. For that reason the personal injury trial lawyers through conservative-sounding front groups oppose Rep. Lozano whom they also worry will be the strongest Republican candidate in what will be a
hard-fought November contest with the Democrat nominee.
TLR PAC is the largest contributor to Rep. Lozano who lead the field in the May 29 primary and now faces a July 31 run-off against Bill Wilson.
We expect the trial lawyers to spend heavily against Rep. Lozano.
In Texas House races TLR supported Rep. James White against Rep. Tuffy Hamilton in a vigorously contested race. Rep. Hamilton (R-Mauriceville) voted with the plaintiff trial lawyers on two critically important bills. Rep. White won with 54.51 of the vote.
We are disappointed that Rep. Marva Beck lost in her newly-drawn district because she did the State a great service in defeating liberal trial lawyer Jim Dunnam (D-Waco) in 2010 but we expect to have a good working relationship with the victor in that race.
A few other TLR-supported incumbents lost their primaries but the victors in each of those races are expected to be pro-tort reform legislators.
In judicial races TLR-supported candidates did well:
- Supreme Court Justice David Willett won re-election with 57 of the vote;
- Supreme Court Justice David Medina is in a run-off … against a former associate of mass-tort lawyer John OQuinn;
- Chief Justice Tom Gray of the Waco Court of Appeals won;
- Justice Bailey Moseley of the Texarkana Court of Appeals won;
- Scott Field won his nomination for the Austin Court of Appeals.
TLR-supported Jaime Tijerina lost his primary bid for the Corpus Christi Court of Appeals (Jaime was called to service in Afghanistan and was not present in Texas during the
campaign.)
We will communicate with you soon about important primary run-offs. We must continue to be persistent and tenacious in the battle for a fair balanced and predictable civil justice system. We appreciate your support of TLR PAC.
You can access our website for a
recap of all the Republican primary races in which TLR PAC participated. Or for more information please visit
www.tlrpac.com
