Fort Smith nursing home operator Michael Morton and his companies have contributed $113,000 to candidates for the Arkansas Supreme Court -- more than 25 percent of reported donations from all sources, according to a campaign finance analysis by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A longtime political donor, Morton and his companies gave as much as $46,000 to one candidate, Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Wood, who is unopposed in Tuesday's election.
Morton's contributions to political action committees supporting Circuit Judge Michael Maggio of Conway drew scrutiny earlier this year. The donations took place about the same time Maggio decided in July to reduce a Faulkner County jury's judgment in a wrongful-death lawsuit against a Morton-owned facility.
Maggio cut the award from $5.2 million to $1 million. Two state agencies are investigating.
Other big donors to Supreme Court candidates include nursing home interests operated out of Conway and Van Buren, and a Philadelphia-area law firm that specializes in class-action lawsuits. Together, they contributed another $76,000 to Arkansas' Supreme Court candidates.
Their gifts plus Morton's totaled $189,000. That's 46 percent of the Supreme Court candidates' total campaign donations of $413,855.
Lawyer Tim Cullen and Court of Appeals Judge Robin Wynne are competing for Position 2 on the state's highest court. Court of Appeals Judge Karen Baker and Wood are unopposed for two more seats. The races are nonpartisan.
Arkansas' campaign-finance laws ban individuals and corporations from giving more than $2,000 per election to a single candidate. Donation limits also exist for federal and most state elections. They're designed to curb the amount of monetary influence one contributor can have on elections and officeholders, experts say.
But in Arkansas and some other states, contributors who own several companies can legally donate through each of their businesses. In the Supreme Court races, Morton gave maximum contributions through 27 companies he holds. He also personally donated $2,000 to each of the four candidates.
In an interview last week, Morton said he expects nothing more from the judges he supports than for them to "follow the laws of Arkansas. That's all I want."
Morton says he would like to see limits some day on the damages courts can award in Arkansas. He also said he believes that state law doesn't allow plaintiffs to successfully sue him personally in connection with issues in his nursing homes.
"Lawyers are continually trying to pierce corporate veils and sue me personally. If judges are doing the right thing, judges tell them they can't," Morton said.
About his donations to PACs that supported Maggio, who dropped out of a race for a Court of Appeals seat, Morton said, "I did nothing. When the money for Maggio was put in the PACs, that was pure coincidence. I know how that looked. I know what people would think. I don't blame them for wondering. But I've never talked to Judge Maggio myself. ... I've never had anybody talk and say, 'I'll put money in a PAC if he'll do so-and-so' for me."
According to the most recent campaign finance disclosure reports, the other largest donors to Supreme Court candidates include:
• Nursing homes and companies connected with Ovation Health Systems in Conway, $32,000 total. Operated by Brandon Adams and Bryan Adams, the companies' biggest donation was $26,000 to Wood.
• Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check law firm in Radnor, Pa., near Philadelphia, and its employees and family members, $30,000 overall. The law firm gave $10,000 each to Wynne, Baker and Wood.
The law firm touts how much money it has secured for clients worldwide in class-action lawsuits against companies and government. Kessler Topaz is "one of the largest firms specializing in the prosecution of complex class action litigation," its website says. The firm "proudly notes that it has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of its clients and the classes they represent."
The firm has worked with Arkansas clients, according to the website.
A spokesman for Kessler Topaz did not return a reporter's phone calls and emails Thursday and Friday.
• Nursing homes operated by Ken Kilgore and Joshua Kilgore of Van Buren, $14,000. All went to Wynne. Linda Napper, a spokesman for Wynne, said the candidate and the Kilgores grew up together in Fordyce.
Judicial ethics demand that candidates for judgeships "as far as possible should try to avoid knowing the identities" of their campaign donors, candidate Cullen said. Other members of his campaign handle fundraising, he said, and he doesn't specifically know who his donors are.
Accepting gifts from companies or lawyers who may have lawsuits before the courts "is a problem" facing judges in Arkansas, Cullen said.
"We are expected to run statewide campaigns," Cullen said of high-court judicial races. "It's expensive. We have to raise money to get our message out and we're very limited about what we can say.
"I'm open to any reform of the system, but it has to be systemwide and apply to all candidates and all judges," he said.
Wynne's spokesman Napper, who also is his campaign treasurer, said she never discusses donations with her candidate. But both she and Cullen said it's also impossible to avoid picking up some campaign-donor information from news reports.
So how can judges avoid being influenced, particularly by large donations?
Napper said it's a matter of electing the right candidates. And for judges, "you follow the law," she said.
Said Cullen: "Judges are human, but they leave their politics and interests at the door and apply themselves to the law and the facts." A specialist in appellate law, he said he's "seen literally hundreds of examples. ... You'll see judges write an opinion where the result is contrary to what you know are their politics. They're following the law, not their own personal politics."
Cullen also said his treasurer has reported that "corporate contributions account for less than 33 percent of our total campaign expenditures, and that about 40 percent of our donations are from attorneys. These percentages are reasonable and are in line with past judicial races."
Baker and Wood did not return requests for comment.
The newspaper's review of campaign finance records show Wood was the largest fundraiser among Supreme Court candidates, accepting $154,900 total. A little more than half came from Morton and Ovation Health System companies and the Kessler Topaz law firm.
In March, Wood returned about half of donations from some contributors, including Morton and his companies, according to her campaign finance disclosure form.
Baker raised $49,285 overall, with about 60 percent coming from Morton's companies and the Pennsylvania law firm.
Morton said his contributions pale beside estimates of $400,000 in so-called dark money spent on ads critical of Cullen in the Cullen-Wynne contest.
Speakers at a rally on the Capitol steps Thursday denounced nonprofit groups such as the Law Enforcement Alliance of America in Virginia, which is airing campaign messages that attack Cullen's record.
Those commercials and purchases of airtime aren't considered donations to a specific candidate. Candidates don't report them, and the nonprofit groups don't have to release much information about their organization, their donors or their agenda.
Asked last week why he gives so much money to candidates, Morton said: "I don't know what other people give. I'm not making this a contest between me and other donors."
He cited a study that suggested candidates in most circumstances would need $150,000 to win an Arkansas Supreme Court seat.
When he decides to give $40,000 or more to a particular candidate, Morton said, it's because "I think that's what it will take. ... I want them to win."
SundayMonday on 05/18/2014
