Jeff Landry is collecting big donations from trial lawyers | Local Politics
Big donations from trial attorneys helped power John Bel Edwards to victory in the 2015 and 2019 governor’s races.
This time, however, lawyers are pouring money into electing attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican who has been Democratic Gov. Edwards’ biggest foe.
Landry and the groups supporting him have raised at least $700,000 so far from trial attorneys, who have long been supportive of Democrats. The amount outpaced how much Edwards – who once sat on the board of the trial attorneys’ association in Louisiana — raised from them at this point in the 2019 race.
The lawyers’ support for Landry adds to the uphill climb for former Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson, a Democrat who is running as Edwards’ political heir. Wilson has been counting on trial attorneys to fund attacks against Landry that weaken his support.
But behind the scenes, trial lawyers say that Landry has been cultivating them, telling them they would have nothing to fear from him as governor and that he would be their best choice among the five Republican candidates.
That argument has won over some lawyers – including John Carmouche, whose Baton Rouge law firm spent millions attacking Edwards’ opponents in 2015 and 2019. Others now support Landry simply because they expect him to win the election. A recent poll found him leading the field with 36% of the vote.
From left, country musicians John Rich, Tracy Lawrence and Craig Morgan perform at a gubernatorial campaign party for Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry Wednesday evening, August 9, 2023, at the Texas Club in Baton Rouge, La.
Trial attorneys occupy one side of a decades-long divide in Louisiana politics. Opposing them are insurance companies, who have fought to limit personal injury lawsuits, as well as oil and gas companies, who complain about lawsuits filed by coastal parishes seeking billions of dollars for Big Oil’s role in the devastating loss of coastal land.
The trial attorneys have signed on with Landry even as he has received six-figure donations from two of their biggest political enemies, Baton Rouge business owners Eddie Rispone and Lane Grigsby, along with a wide array of oil and gas firms.
Glenn Armentor, a prominent Lafayette trial attorney, has long feared that Landry would side with business interests over trial lawyers, and told him so when the two men met for three hours at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse recently.
“He gave me his word that he would be a friend to trial lawyers, and they would be a friend to him,” said Armentor, a major Edwards supporter who has donated to Wilson, but not yet to Landry.
Armentor said Landry argued that trial lawyers would get a better shake from him than from Stephen Waguespack, another Republican gubernatorial candidate who lobbied legislators to make it harder for trial lawyers to file lawsuits during the decade he spent as president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.
Landry, Armentor added, “has been meeting with trial lawyer groups on a regular basis, saying, ‘I need you guys. You’re effective at campaigning. But you really need me because LABI is a big enemy of trial lawyers.’ We believe that. We need Jeff, and he needs us. It’s a mutual thing.”
In an interview, Landry said that, donations aside, he doesn’t favor one group over another. “I will talk to anybody,” he said. “I will talk to every person in Louisiana who cares about crime, education and the economy.” He added that he received contributions from trial lawyers when he ran to be attorney general.
$700,000 collected
If Landry were to accommodate the trial attorneys as governor, he would be following the path of Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor from 2008-16. According to former Jindal aides and then-legislators, Jindal and trial lawyers had what was effectively a non-aggression pact because the governor cared more about other issues. Anti-trial lawyer bills died in the Legislature.
Edwards has been an open and steadfast ally of the lawyers.
“We have not made the deals that other governors or other candidates running for governor have made,” Landry said. “We have told lawyers the same thing we have told doctors and business folks. We’re going to improve the overall business climate in Louisiana. We’re not interested in going after anybody but criminals.”
But just in case Landry breaks his word, several trial lawyers said privately, they are working to elect a state Senate friendly to their view. To ensure that, they are raising money for several Republicans locked in heated battles against other Republicans supported by business interests.
The flashpoint that pits trial lawyers against business interests is called “tort reform.” Tort reformers say it’s so easy under current law for people to file lawsuits and claim big damage awards that companies invest less in the state to limit their legal exposure. That leads to less job creation, they say.
Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry mingles with supporters for his gubernatorial campaign Wednesday evening, August 9, 2023, at the Texas Club in Baton Rouge, La.
Trial attorneys counter that people injured by companies’ negligence need unhindered access to the courts to keep misbehaving companies in check.
LABI and insurance companies made their last big tort reform push in 2020 when they sought to limit the ability of people injured in car accidents to sue, with the pledge that the change would lower insurance rates. In the end, the Legislature approved a bill that both sides and Edwards could support. Since then, car insurance rates have gone up.
This year’s governor’s race has presented a conundrum for trial lawyers across the state because so many candidates are vying for their support. Aside from Landry, Wilson has solicited their donations as has Hunter Lundy, a veteran trial attorney from Lake Charles whose brother Matt is on the Louisiana Association for Justice board.
But state campaign finance reports show that Landry has had more success. Of the roughly $700,000 that Landry and pro-Landry groups have collected so far, Landry’s personal campaign received at least $217,500 directly from trial lawyers, with donations limited to $5,000 apiece.
The bigger money flowed to his PAC, Cajun PAC II, as well as to the Louisiana Republican Party and Protect Louisiana’s Children, another super PAC supporting him. Those groups, which can accept unlimited donations, have hauled in at least $455,000 from attorneys since 2020. Landry’s campaign noted he and his supporters have raised $11 million overall from around 11,000 donors.
Meanwhile, roughly $75,000 of the $1.1 million that Wilson raised comes from trial lawyers, according to an analysis by the Advocate | The Times-Picayune. Of the $300,000 that Lundy raised from attorneys, about $57,000 came from trial attorneys. The numbers are estimates because Louisiana law doesn’t require donors to list their occupation; the newspaper used business records, addresses and other data to track the lawyer donations.
Lawyers: Landry is best candidate
Some of the best-known trial lawyers have thrown their weight behind Landry.
Gordon McKernan, known for billboards in Baton Rouge that advertise his services to people injured in car wrecks, was in the war room with Edwards on the night of the 2019 election, but he donated $100,000 to the Louisiana Republican Party this spring, which is spending money to elect Landry. McKernan and his wife contributed another $5,000 each to Landry’s campaign directly.
McKernan said through a spokesperson that Landry hadn’t discussed tort reform with him.
“I have a history of supporting the best candidate for the job, not just a party or a single issue,” McKernan said. “I’ve had the opportunity to know Jeff for over eight years and in his capacity as the attorney General. While I didn’t agree with everything he did as AG, he’s got strong principles and has done some powerful things.”
Salim-Beasley, a law firm in Natchitoches, donated $95,000 to the Louisiana GOP, and partner Robert Salim cut a $20,000 check to Cajun PAC II. Morris & Dewitt Trial Lawyers from Shreveport gave $70,000 to the LAGOP, and the Dugan Law Firm has donated $75,000 to Cajun PAC II.
Salim said he knows attorneys who are backing Wilson and Lundy, as well as Landry. One common denominator is Waguespack, he said.
“I think everybody is probably fearful of what would happen to our profession if he were there,” he said.
From left, country musicians John Rich, Tracy Lawrence and Craig Morgan perform at a gubernatorial campaign party for Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry Wednesday evening, August 9, 2023, at the Texas Club in Baton Rouge, La.
Waguespack criticized Landry’s trial attorney support in a statement, saying “a governor must always do right by the people. You can’t save energy jobs or lower insurance costs for families if you sell out to the big trial lawyers, and it is clear the Landry campaign is doing just that.”
Notably, Landry secured at least $75,000 from the Carmouche law firm and others close to them, including a network of LLCs and political action committees. Carmouche’s law firm spent freely to help sink Edwards’ Republican opponents in 2015 and 2019, then-U.S. Sen. David Vitter and Rispone.
Those donations have drawn the ire of one gubernatorial candidate, state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, a former Shell Oil executive who has dubbed him “lawsuit Landry.”
The Carmouche firm is representing 12 coastal parishes in 42 lawsuits against hundreds of petrochemical companies, which allege that the companies’ drilling activities over decades destroyed massive coastal areas. The first case is set for trial Nov. 27.
Several years ago, Landry invoked his right to intervene in that case and asked coastal parishes not to join the lawsuits.
That led Carmouche to say in a recent interview: “Jeff Landry has done nothing to help me, although I know people don’t want to believe it.”
Landry did accept a Carmouche settlement in 2019, when Freeport McMoRan agreed to pay $100 million over 20 years for coastal restoration. Landry said he thought the deal, which sparked blowback from petrochemical companies, was fair to all sides.
Asked why he’s supporting Landry this year, Carmouche replied, “He’s the best candidate to fight crime, to bring jobs to Louisiana and help teachers and kids in the schools. It’s that simple.”
Carmouche and Landry did go duck hunting together with a mutual friend two years ago, Carmouche acknowledged.
“Just because I disagree with John Carmouche on an issue doesn’t mean I dislike John as a person,” Landry said.
Perhaps no trial attorney is closer to Landry than Digger Earles, part of the Lafayette-based law firm Laborde & Earles. Earles, who supported Edwards in 2019, became friends with the attorney general when they attended Southern University Law School together in the 2001-02 academic year.
“I have a long history with Jeff the person, not Jeff the politician,” Earles said. “Jeff’s always done exactly what he said he would do. He’s an honorable guy, and I believe in his message.”
Earles hosted a fundraiser for Landry at his law firm on April 4.
Another trial lawyer supporting Landry is Richard Haik Jr., who also supported Edwards and is part of the Opelousas-based Morrow, Morrow, Ryan, Bassett & Haik. Landry and Haik have known each other for more than 25 years.
“I’ve had a number of policy disagreements with Jeff,” Haik said. “But if I disagree with him, we can talk about it.”
Grigsby, the Baton Rouge business owner, expressed little worry that Landry will side with trial lawyers.
“I don’t believe Jeff will give up anything on tort issues,” Grigsby said. “He recognizes that Louisiana is among the leading states in lawsuit abuse. If a good tort reform hits his desk, it will be signed with fanfare.”
To Grigsby, the donations simply represent an effort to buy access to the candidate favored to be the next governor.
“Where else are the lawyers going to put their money?” Grigsby asked. “Shawn Wilson? They don’t have a choice. They don’t play with losers. They want to maintain at least a cordial relationship. Just because you give a politician money, you don’t buy them.”
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