9/27/2007 5:00:00 AM Hood defends allegations he's influence peddling
JACKSON - Republican challenger Al Hopkins says Democrat Atty. Gen. Jim Hood has a pattern of awarding state contracts for outside counsel to campaign donors who have given more than $400,000.
Hood, in turn, says Hopkins is misleading voters by running campaign ads that exaggerate Hopkins' own work experience.
The two candidates face off in the Nov. 6 general election. They spoke to about 75 people Monday during a luncheon sponsored by the Capitol press corps and Mississippi State University's John C. Stennis Institute of Government.
During his speech at the Capital Club in downtown Jackson, Hopkins pointed out campaign donations Hood has received from private attorneys with state contracts. Among other cases, Hopkins mentioned the $14 million fee awarded to Joey Langston and Tim Balducci, private attorneys who represented the state in a case to recover $100 million in overdue taxes from telecommunications giant MCI. Langston, of Booneville, has been one of Hood's top campaign contributors.
"There is a pattern of behavior that creates an unhealthy perception of your attorney general's office in the state of Mississippi,' said Hopkins, 66, who's in private practice in Gulfport. "We don't know if he's selling state contracts for campaign contributions or just suffers bad judgment."
Hood, 45, is a former district attorney from seven counties in north Mississippi and was sworn in to the statewide office in January 2004. He said the attorney general's office has several contracts that are awarded to private attorneys or law firms on a "first-come, first-served' basis.
"It's kind of like intellectual property. They're bringing you an idea,' Hood said. "And we give it to whomever it is, and if they've got the ability to handle it and the wherewithal to handle it and the money to back it, they've got the case. If they don't, we encourage them to go out and find other lawyers who they can team up with and work the cases. We don't do it on partisanship.'
Hood said Hopkins is misleading voters with campaign ads that say Hopkins has been chief judge of the Mississippi Military Court of Appeals since 1996. Hood said the court has not met since Hopkins has been in the position.
"He's got an ad that indicates he's got 42 years of experience and it tries to infer that it is all on the Military Court of Appeals, a court which has never met,' Hood said. "My opponent's all hat and no cowboy.'
Responding to questions about that, Hopkins said the court meets only when there is a case on appeal, and the last time that happened was when then-Gov. Ray Mabus tried to fire the adjutant general in 1990.
"I'm not padding my resume. That's a true statement. I am the chief judge of the Military Court of Appeals,' Hopkins said. "I guess you could say the people in the military in the state of Mississippi are first-class individuals, every one of them. And they don't get into trouble.'
The attorneys' fees awarded in the MCI case have been a frequent subject in campaign speeches this year. State Auditor Phil Bryant, a Republican who's running for lieutenant governor, has sent Langston a letter demanding that the $14 million be turned over to the state. Bryant says the money should be put into the state budget so legislators can decide how to spend it.
In a news release Monday, Langston said he and Balducci are asking a federal bankruptcy court to confirm the validity of its order directing MCI to pay the $14 million in fees.
Bryant's demand has nothing to do with the law and everything to do with politics,' Langston said.
Going so far as to call Hood's actions illegal, Hopkins said the AG awards the contracts to firms that in turn donate to his campaign.
"In all he has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from attorneys who he has rewarded with these state contracts which I personally believe is illegal," Hopkins said. "The timing of most of those contributions would suggests that the connection is not simply a coincidence.
"They suggest that Jim Hood's version of justice is pay to play," he added.
Hood said the contracts are legitimate and issued on a first-come-first-served basis. He added that with thousands of civil cases in litigation his law firm depends on outside council contracts to manage the work load.
"Our system is first come first served," Hood said. "Lawyers find out about these cases and bring them to us."
He added if they feel the firm or attorney has the ability to be successful in the case then they award them the contract.
However, in response to Hood's explanation Hopkins said that the attorney general still didn't address the contributions he received before and after awarding contracts to specific firms.
"If you look at the situation you see it's first come first serve to those who contribute to Jim Hood," Hopkins said.
Hood said that the firms and attorneys used as outside council are paid using no taxpayer dollars.
Citing the WorldCom case Hood said the state tax commission originally filed a document in bankruptcy court asking for $3.5 million, but by hiring the Langston firm to handle the case the state recovered much more.
"Had I not taken action in that case and those attorneys hadn't brought us that idea we would have at most gotten $3.5 million," Hood said. "And we got $100 million and I got them to throw in the buildings downtown. And when all that was over I said as a penalty for your tax fraud you're going to have to pay our attorney's fees."
At Monday's press conference Hopkins supplied several other instances where law firms or attorneys made donations to Hood's campaign, then later were awarded contracts by the Attorney General.
The following is a list of those instances supplied by Hopkins:
• Baron & Budd of Texas is awarded a contingency fee state contract on Sept. 19, 2005 then donates $19,200 to Hood's campaign on Nov. 7 and 8, 2005.
• Hood Receives $15,000 from an attorney with Bernstein Liebhard & Lifshitz of New York who is awarded a state contract three months later on Feb 16, 2006. Another attorney with the same firm contributed $15,000 a week after receiving the contract.
• On Feb. 14, 16 and 17, 2006, Hood receives three separate donations from three separate attorneys at Bernstein, Litowitz, Berger & Grossman of New York. On Feb. 21 and March 14 the firm is awarded state contracts.
• Attorneys from Bernstein, Litowitz, Berger & Grossman of New York again make a series of donations totaling $6,500 to Hood on April 16, 24, 25 and 26, 2006, which is followed with another state contract on May 17, 2006.
• The firm of Schiffrin, Barroway, Topaz & Kessler of Pennsylvania contributed $11,500 to Hood's campaign in Feb. 2006, then were awarded contingency fee contracts in March and April of 2006.
• The Wolf Popper firm of New York contributed $15,000 on Feb. 22, 2006 then received a contingency fee contract on March 23, 2006.
Reader Comments
Posted: Monday, October 01, 2007
Article comment by:
Michael Pol
I have been watching this for some time now. It doesnt take an Einstein to figure out what Jim Hood is all about. If you want to play with the A.G. of Mississippi, you better be ready to pay.
