CHARLESTON – West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse recently released its annual Dirty Dozen list of delegates that have received the most contributions from the personal injury lawsuit industry.
“Each year, personal injury lawyers spend large sums of money to purchase control of the West Virginia Legislature," Greg Thomas of CALA said. "These numbers show that they are continuing their relentless cycle of attempting to buy power and influence.
“Their objective is to dismantle all of the legal reforms we have managed to establish in recent years, including the significant progress we secured during this year’s legislative session.”
This year’s list includes:
Del. Ty Nestor (R-43) - $24,000
Del. Joey Garcia (D-50) - $21,925
Del. Mark Dean (R-21) - $9,000
Del. Lisa Zukoff – (D-4) - $7,600
Del. Shawn Fluharty (D-3) - $7,500
Del. Brandon Steele (R-29) - $5,967
Del. Doug Skaff (D-35) - $5,300
Del. Barbara Evans Fleischauer (D-51) - $3,850
Del. Kayla Young (D-35) – $3,000
Del. Nathan Brown (R-20) - $2,000
Del. Chad Lovejoy (D-17) - $2,000
Del. Cody Thompson (D-43) - $1,500
Thomas said the list demonstrates that personal injury lawyers and their Political Action Committees still are attempting to buy elections in West Virginia.
He said WVCALA "will continue to serve as a watchdog, fighting against corruption, for the people of our state. West Virginia is not for sale and cannot be bought by greedy attorneys in the injury lawsuit industry."
