Opponents of Issue 4, the so-called tort reform constitutional amendment, scuttled a television advertising buy earlier this month after their lawsuit to block a vote on the amendment was successful, according to a report filed Tuesday.
The Committee to Protect AR Families, formed by nursing home patients' advocates to campaign against Issue 4, reported in its October filing with the state Ethics Commission that it purchased a $565,958 media buy with The Griffey Agency in Little Rock on Oct. 3. The report also shows that the group paid $50,117 to Cranford Co., a Little Rock-based advertising agency.
Issue 4 was a proposed amendment to the Arkansas Constitution to limit the fees attorneys can charge for winning medical lawsuit cases and allow the Legislature to set a cap for noneconomic damages in such cases of at least $250,000. In a pair of decisions against the issue, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Oct. 13 that the proposal failed to define what would be considered noneconomic damages. One of the two lawsuits alleging that the amendment was misleading to voters was filed by the Committee to Protect AR Families.
Jordan Johnson, a spokesman for the committee, declined to give details about the extent of the ad buy, but said it was predominantly for TV ads that began airing Oct. 11. Copies of the ads were unavailable Tuesday.
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"We had our strategy, and we were preparing for a pretty aggressive campaign," Johnson said.
The "aggressive" campaign never came to be. After the Supreme Court's ruling, which ordered that no votes be counted for or against the issue, the committee pulled the TV spots, Johnson said.
Now the group is trying to determine how many of the ads ran, and how many they can be reimbursed for, Johnson said.
In other rulings in recent weeks, the Supreme Court also ordered that votes not be counted in Tuesday's election on an amendment to authorize up to three casinos and an initiated act to legalize medical marijuana. Votes will be counted on proposed constitutional amendments on medical marijuana, allowing the governor to retain his power when he leaves the state, lengthening county office terms and expanding economic development efforts.
Committees set up to campaign for and against ballot measures are required to file monthly financial disclosure reports on the 15th day of each month. A final pre-election report covering Oct. 1-29 was due 10 days before next Tuesday's election, but the committees raising money for and against the marijuana and casino proposals were unavailable late Tuesday afternoon.
Health Care Access for Arkansans, the ballot committee that petitioned and campaigned for Issue 4, also had not had its pre-election report uploaded to the Ethics Commission website Tuesday.
The Committee to Protect AR Families reported that it raised $180,560 through most of October and spent $664,843. All of the donations made to the group came from attorneys, law firms and the bar associations of seven states.
Metro on 11/04/2016