NAM, WSJ Comment On Henry Fishing Trip

From The National Association Of Manufacturers ~ Stephen Moore in the Wall Street Journal's Political Diary e-mail (subscription) catches us up on Governor Brad Henry's support for legal reform. By support, we mean, kill:

Five months ago Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma vetoed a tort reform bill to bring common sense litigation changes to the Sooner State. That veto infuriated business and taxpayer groups because Mr. Henry had campaigned for governor promising "a Texas-plus" lawsuit reform bill. In the event, Oklahoma trial lawyers made sure any such reforms, including caps on punitive damages, never saw the light of day. They put a full-court press on the governor. Mr. Henry said he vetoed the bill because of a $300,000 "hard cap" on pain-and-suffering damages. That was a key feature of the Texas lawsuit reform bill he said he supported.

Now it's payback time. Last week Governor Henry went on an exotic fishing cruise off the coast of Brazil with more than a dozen trial lawyer pals. They booked into the Tropical Manaus Hotel in Ponta Negra, Brazil, a highly-rated venue for deep-sea fishing tours. The governor insists he's paying his own way: $4,500. But this is a group of long-time contributors to the Henry for Governor campaigns. Moore notes that one of Henry's shipmates was Shawnee attorney Terry West, the former president of the Oklahoma Trial Lawyers Association, and members of the Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission, which is supposed to keep an arm's length from the governor.

KTOK radio had a report last week: “I’m shocked that he would do it under any circumstances,” said [state Sen. James] Williamson, the author of the tort reform bill vetoed by the Governor five months ago. “But it’s doubly shocking after him vetoing this legislation not too many months ago.”

In our experience, shots of beach resorts have ways of ending up in campaign commercials.

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Wall Street Journal Slices, Dices Henry

From The Wall Street Journal ~ "For a case study in the political power of trial lawyers, consider Oklahoma. The public wants tort reform, the state Legislature wants it, and even Democratic Governor Brad Henry claims to want it. Yet that didn't stop Mr. Henry from recently vetoing an impressive reform bill at the urging of his plaintiff lawyer funders.

"Oklahoma sure needs something. The state is 38th on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's rankings of state liability systems. It suffers badly in comparison to neighboring Texas, which has used its sweeping 2003 tort reform to lure business across the border. Malpractice premiums are high, and rural areas in Oklahoma report shortages of such specialty doctors as obstetricians.

"The good news is that Oklahomans understand the trouble and want change. A public furor erupted in 2003, when former state Senate leader Stratton Taylor -- a partner in a personal injury law firm -- was caught inviting trial lawyers unhappy with the Texas tort reform to sue in Oklahoma. Tort reform has since become a top election issue.

"The issue helped Republicans draw even with Democrats in the state Senate in 2006 for the first time in history. It also helped state Senator Susan Paddack prevail in a Democratic primary runoff against a favorite of the trial bar. Last month Ms. Paddack became the sole Democrat to break Senate ranks and pass comprehensive tort reform on a 25-23 vote.

"The bill's reforms included a stricter definition of 'frivolous' lawsuits, a cap on pain and suffering awards, new standards for expert witnesses and the elimination of joint and several liability. Most impressive, it would have required anyone who wanted to join a class-action lawsuit to sign an agreement to actually be represented by an attorney. The bill would have gone a long way toward making Oklahoma a far more welcoming place for new business and job creation.

"Mr. Henry has been claiming to support reform for three years, and at one point he promised to "out Texas" Texas on the issue. Then again, Mr. Henry is himself an attorney and was elected with the help of trial bar donations. He may also have assumed he'd never have to act on his promises because a heretofore Democratic Senate could always be counted on to kill any reform.
Well, Mr. Henry has now shown his untrue colors. As soon as the Senate passed the bill, Democrats and the plaintiffs bar dug in.

"Democratic Attorney General Drew Edmondson issued a hastily written opinion saying the legislation would make it harder to prevent pollution in the state. Trial lawyers took their usual line, claiming many provisions were "unconstitutional." Mr. Henry used all of this malarkey as an excuse to veto the bill. Even for a politician, this was an impressive back flip with a twist off the high bar.

"Mr. Henry says he wants to work out a compromise, but he delayed his veto long enough to give the Legislature little time in this session. Meanwhile, what he wants the Legislature to abandon is the heart of the bill, including the cap on economic damages. What he says he'll accept isn't even 'Texas lite.'

"Having won re-election last year, Mr. Henry now faces no electoral pressure to stick to his campaign promises. But we hope Oklahomans keep reminding him that his double cross is hurting everyone who wants to do business in their state."

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