Trial Lawyers In Florida Finally Fess Up To Race-Baiting Sleazeball Tactics
September 25, 2009
Florida’s trial lawyers association has finally admitted it was behind a sleazy, racist direct mail piece that tried to scare voters away from the polls in a state Senate race by warning that “armed thugs” and Black Panthers planned to harass them. The Orlando Sentinel has the whole reprehensible story, complete with the trial bar’s pathetic mea culpa.
The executive director of the Florida trial lawyers association, Scott Carruthers, admitted the group’s political operatives approved the piece and paid $69,000 to distribute it to 88,000 homes. Carruthers called the mailer “shameful” and faulted anonymous staffers for “fail[ing] to object” to its racist message.
Nice try, but the apology rings hollow. All along, the trial lawyers lobby tried to hide its attempts to slime candidate John Thrasher, who led the fight for tort reform when he was House Speaker. Wealthy trial lawyers funneled money to a front group called Conservative Citizens for Justice to shield their identities, as I reported in my 9/8 post. Then, after Thrasher won the September 15 primary, the trial lawyers association tried to hush up its involvement by “ignoring a reporter’s requests for information on the flier,” taking a full week to finally acknowledge the group’s complicity in the sleaze campaign.
According to news reports, right after the primary, the trial lawyers lobby “defiantly” said it was trying to “send a message to other candidates in 2010 not to push further tort-reform legislation.” Perhaps it’s time for Florida legislators and Florida voters to “defiantly” inform the trial bar they won’t be cowed by sleazy, racist attempts to trash courageous public servants who believe Florida’s judicial system should serve the people, not the trial bar.
Posted by Dan Pero in the categories: Florida, Trial Lawyers
One Response to “Trial Lawyers In Florida Finally Fess Up To Race-Baiting Sleazeball Tactics”
[...] wasn’t the only one who found the Florida trial lawyers association’s latest mea culpa hopelessly lame. State Senator Gary Siplin, Chairman of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus recently fired off a [...]