Press Release – WVCALA Issues "Dirty Dozen" List
West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse conducted its regular campaign finance research report and has announced this year’s “Dirty Dozen” list of political candidates in West Virginia who have accepted the most amount of money from personal injury lawyers.
Half of this year’s list are candidates for Circuit Court Judge, while five more are state legislative candidates. A first for the “Dirty Dozen” list is a candidate for County Prosecutor in Kanawha County. There is also a Dishonorable Mention.
“Personal injury lawyers broke out their hefty checkbooks once again in an attempt to buy influence with Judges and state legislators to the tune of over half a million dollars directly into candidate’s campaigns and over $200,000 in an independent expenditure for Judge Jennifer Bailey in Kanawha County,” said WV CALA spokesperson Pepper Peana.
See their Campaign Finance Reports:
“Big money is being thrown at two long-time Democrat Circuit Court Judges Bailey and Wilson this election, as they lead the “Dirty Dozen” list with Bailey raising $156,666.28 directly from personal injury lawyer interests and Judge Wilson raised $151,325. And as mentioned previously, Bailey’s total is boosted by an independent expenditure of over $200,000 in her race. Personal injury lawyer interests are spending over one third of a million to keep liberal Judge Jennifer Bailey on the bench,” continued Peana.
“We will continue to monitor how much money is being spent by personal injury lawyers in these competitive elections and will release an update version of our report after the next campaign finance report,” she concluded.
*This press release has been updated to include links to campaign finance reports
