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"                      <p class=\"imgtitle\">Cohen</p>                                <p class=\"imgtitle\">Webster</p>                                <p class=\"imgtitle\">McGraw</p>           CHARLESTON, W. Va. (Legal Newsline) - It looks like West Virginia's contentious election season of 2004 has not been forgotten four years later -- and its legacy is still causing controversy.<br /><br />State legal reform group Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse is furious with the recent passage and subsequent Gubernatorial signing of a campaign finance disclosure law that would require groups that spend more than $5,000 on advertisements to reveal their financial backers.<br /><br />Millions of dollars were spent on a hotly contested Supreme Court race in 2004, and proponents of the law says the recently passed version clarifies a 2005 election reform law passed in response.<br /><br />\"Those pushing this new law, where were they four years ago?\" said CALA executive director Steve Cohen, who worked as Justice Brent Benjamin's campaign manager in 2004.<br /><br />Cohen is still upset that an anti-Benjamin group called \"West Virginia Consumers for Justice\" never fully revealed its sources. Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship spent more than $3 million of his own money on a group called \"And For the Sake of the Kids,\" but made that knowledge public three weeks before the November election.<br /><br />West Virginia Consumers for Justice's largest backer was a group that called itself \"Consumer Attorneys of West Virginia.\" The group spent more than $1 million portraying Benjamin as pro-business.<br /><br />Its spokesperson was Charleston attorney Tim Bailey. One of the attorneys at his firm, Carrie Webster, was the driving force behind the recently signed bill. She is a Democrat in the House of Delegates.<br /><br />\"CALA is at risk of facing disclosure of what I would assume are mostly out-of-state contributors,\" Webster has said, according to a report in the Charleston Gazette. \"My position in 2008 and in 2005 are the same: Money that comes in to the election process should be disclosed.\"<br /><br />Webster could not be reached for comment.<br /><br />\"While the disclosure requirements are unambiguous about third-party political ads, to this day we do not know who pumped $2 million into West Virginia Consumers for Justice for that highly public campaign,\" Cohen said.<br /><br />Cohen said the law will help Attorney General Darrell McGraw, a frequent target of criticism from CALA who is running for re-election this year against Republican Charleston attorney Dan Greear.<br /><br />By forcing groups to reveal their hidden identities, Cohen feels some will be hesitant to donate against McGraw for fear of retribution.<br /><br />Chief Deputy Attorney General Fran Hughes has long claimed CALA is an arm of out-of-state business interests. The vice president of the West Virginia Association for Justice (formerly the state's Trial Lawyers Association) also supported the law.<br /><br />\"An out-of-state special interest group should not be allowed to spend whatever they want to influence the outcome of a West Virginia election without disclosing who they are and who they represent,\" Michael Romano said.<br /><br />Cohen also feels Webster may have been acting with her best personal interests in mind when she championed the bill.<br /><br />Webster works for the Charleston law firm Bucci Bailey & Javins, which was hired by McGraw to pursue a lawsuit against VISA and MasterCard. The firm is one of four to represent the State, with both in-state firms (the other is Wheeling's Wexler Toriseva Wallace) featuring McGraw contributors.<br /><br />The four firms stand to collect nearly $4 million in attorneys fees in a settlement that would provide discounts on \"Energy Star\" home appliances during scheduled sales.<br /><br />Cohen also noted that Webster's husband, Greg Skinner, is a member of McGraw's staff.<br /><br />The controversy may end up -- where else? -- in court.<br /><br />Cohen said a challenge to the law will prove it is a violation of First Amendment rights.<br /><br />\"West Virginians are intelligent people who can interpret campaign information on their own without the legislature and Governor effectively narrowing their access to information,\" he said.<br /><br /><em>From Legal Newsline: Reach John O'Brien by e-mail at john@legalnewsline.com.</em>"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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