For Immediate Release February 20, 2002

Contact: John H. Sullivan 916-443-4900 www.cjac.org

Trial Lawyers Running "Stealth" Campaign in Local Assembly Race
"California Alliance" Dumps $52,697 into Levine Campaign in Assembly District 40

SACRAMENTO - The Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) reported today that an elusively-named group dominated by personal injury lawyers has dumped $52,697 into a campaign to promote candidate Lloyd Levine in the March 5 primary election.

The group, called "California Alliance," is part of a last minute scheme by plaintiffs¹ lawyers statewide to send people to Sacramento in the hopes they will carry the lawyers¹ job killing agenda in the Legislature.

"This stealth campaign provides trial lawyers another way to send their money and influence under the radar, hoping local voters won¹t know they are in the neighborhood," commented John H. Sullivan, CJAC president. "We can expect this kind of activity to increase as we get closer to the primary and the general elections. Personal injury lawyers know the average voter stays away from candidates who take a lot of their money."

In addition to $193,643 spent to date statewide in stealth independent expenditures, trial lawyers contributed more than $2.1 million to incumbents and candidates in 2002 statewide and legislative races through December 31, 2001.

"You can already forecast that 2002 will be a banner year for trial lawyer contributions," commented John H. Sullivan, CJAC president. "We expect an election cycle total that rivals 1998, when trial lawyers contributed more than $10.3 million to get friends of their agenda into office."

Sullivan said that while political contributions are a legitimate part of our freedom to communicate and select government representatives, the public should know when a powerful few are running a massive program to elect representatives to promote their narrow agenda.

Contributions by recipient and prior year contributions can be found by visiting CJAC's research page.

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