Dissatisfied with results of their attempt to control the Democratic caucus in the Legislature this year, the trial lawyers are trying a new gambit -- infiltrating the Republicans.

"It looks like their unhappiness, first with their public image and now with their Legislative one, has propelled a chameleon race to get ahead of their own shadow," commented John H. Sullivan, president of the Civil Justice Association of California. "What's next -- gene splicing?"

Sullivan pointed to material noting the launching of a new branch of the Trial Lawyers' Association calling itself the Republican Trial Lawyer Caucus, self-described as "an organization composed exclusively of Republican trial lawyers and dedicated to raising money exclusively for Republican candidates." According to media reports, they have already put a down payment of $22,000 into the GOP treasury and hired a well known Republican campaign consultant.

Press reports since last summer have described how the trial attorneys, after heavily contributing to Democratic campaigns in 1996, introduced bills they expected would be easily passed by the Democrat majority in both houses. But moderate Democrats balked at the trial lawyer game plan and the bills failed to reach the Governor.

Sullivan predicted that trial lawyers will be making "stealth campaign contributions all over the place" in next June's primary election. He also predicted that voters will be very eager to learn who trial lawyers are directly or indirectly backing. A recent poll showed that only 7% of the electorate would choose a candidate who accepts campaign contributions from personal injury lawyers.

Sullivan said the reason for the public's position was summarized in a New York Times editorial earlier this year: "Trial lawyers contribute heavily to state and federal politicians, largely because they want to block reforms that would eliminate excessive litigation that follows automobile accidents and other mishaps."

Trial lawyers in California were emboldened this year to expand their agenda to promoting bills to scuttle medical malpractice laws that hold down health care costs, make it easier to pursue merit less lawsuits, end-run Proposition 213's auto insurance reform, create a new brand of life insurance law suits, and force people into courts in cases that could easily be resolved through arbitration.