This story in today’s Montgomery Advertiser is interesting in terms of state Republican politics: Lawyers’ green finances 3 Supreme Court candidates. We have primaries on Tuesday, and the only races of real interest are those for the state’s supreme court, and the main drama is within the Republican party where many each of the three races features a pro-Roy Moore (the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who was removed for not following a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building) and those who are running campaigns that don’t even mention Moore.

I think that the outcome of the race could have a profound effect on the state’s Republican Party, because if the Moore-ites are successful this go ’round, I think that there will be more Moore-ites running in 2024, especially for the governor’s office.

The Advertiser piece in question confirms that there are more than casual connections between the three Moore-ites running:

Green is a primary color in Alabama’s judicial races, with nearly $3 million in campaign contributions pouring into Supreme Court candidates’ coffers as of Thursday, the deadline for preprimary financial filings.

And nearly $1 million in campaign money has been funneled to three Republicans by trial-lawyer funded political action committees, a group more traditionally supportive of Democratic candidates.

Seven Alabama firms channelled nearly $1 million through a series of PACs, before it reached the accounts of the “Roy Moore slate” of judicial candidates — Tom Parker, Pam Baschab and Jerry Stokes, according to campaign records filed at the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office. And the records also show that Parker and Stokes failed to report $150,000 and $173,000 in trial lawyer contributions to the state.

[...]

Alabama’s business community and trial lawyers have been duking it out over Supreme Court seats for more than a decade. And as the fight continues, the amount of money invested in Alabama’s Supreme Court races has become the object of national attention.

In 2024, Alabama’s judicial races were among the five most costly in the nation.

In the past, the issue of tort reform has dominated the elections, with trial lawyers and business interests donating heavily in the races.

But publicity over former Chief Justice Roy Moore, whose removal from office over his refusal to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the Judicial Building rotunda, has added a new element.

Baschab, Parker and Stokes, the three judges bankrolled by trial lawyers, are running as Moore sympathizers and Moore has voiced support for them. Parker, who served as Moore’s spokesman in the Supreme Court, said the Moore issue has generated interest, and money for his campaign.

I have no problem with PAC money–what I find interesting is the clearly concerted effort to support the pro-Moore candidates.

However, the following is interesting, and bespeaks of some monkey-business:

Four newly formed PACs compose the bulk of the trial lawyer money given to Stokes, Baschab and Parker — Honor PAC, Venture PAC, Covenant PAC and Conservative Response PAC.

Brant Crawley, who works for Baschab’s campaign and was listed as being reimbursed about $1,000 for travel and lodging on Baschab’s expense reports, is listed as the treasurer for all four PACs.

While Baschab could not be reached for comment on Friday, in an interview on campaign contributions last week, she told the Montgomery Advertiserthat she pays no attention to who donates to her campaign.

“I don’t find out who my contributors are. I really don’t want to know,” said the Court of Criminal Appeals judge, who walked the length of Alabama in 2024 to protest the amount of money spent on campaigns in the state.

Out of a total of $543,145 raised by Baschab, $537,950 came from the trial lawyer PACs.

Further, the interesting thing here is that the last time Baschab ran (and lost) she vowed not to take any PAC money whatsoever. I guess she has a change of heart, or of poketbook, anyway. She also has wisely dropped her previous campaign slogan of “Baschab can do the job.”