Eric Dial says he not a real lobbyist ..Read this
 Georgia has seen its share of corporate takeovers -- Atlanta-based BellSouth absorbed by AT&T; Georgia-Pacific swallowed up by Koch Industries. Now we're about to see an attempted corporate takeover of a very different target: the Georgia Supreme Court.
The immediate goal is the ouster of Justice Carol Hunstein, who has served on the court for 14 years (she was appointed by then-Gov. Zell Miller, who is backing her bid for re-election.)
Hunstein hasn't been unfriendly to corporate interests, but she hasn't been obedient either. So, following a pattern that has worked in other states, business groups have formed what they call the Safety and Prosperity Coalition to defeat Hunstein in November, hoping to use her as an example to force the remaining Supreme Court justices to toe their line.
Of course, a political campaign attacking Hunstein as too protective of the little guy against big corporations probably wouldn't work very well with voters. So coalition members have instead decided to depict Hunstein as an extreme liberal who is soft on crime and criminals. The line of attack was laid out explicitly in a fund-raising letter mailed in July by Hunstein's opponent in the nonpartisan race, attorney Mike Wiggins.
In that letter, Wiggins noted that conservatives have taken control of the legislative and executive branches of Georgia government, leaving the judiciary as conservatism's "last frontier." He described Hunstein as "far and away the most liberal member of the court on the ballot" who adopts "an extremely liberal interpretation of virtually any question that comes before her." Furthermore, Wiggins says, she has "an almost singular focus on undermining the work of prosecutors in criminal cases."
(Wiggins also cautioned that any charge that he might be politicizing the judiciary "is, of course, absurd.")
If true, Wiggins' indictment of Hunstein's performance would probably be enough to persuade Georgia voters to replace her. But if false, it would suggest that Wiggins plays too loose with the facts to be trusted in the state's highest court. (Wiggins has no experience as a judge and little or no experience in the courtroom. He has spent the last five years as a political appointee in the Bush administration.)
Fortunately, two nonpartisan studies of Hunstein's voting record on the court are available, and both reach the same conclusion. Far from having "an almost singular focus on undermining the work of prosecutors," Hunstein has ruled more often on behalf of prosecutors than almost any other member of the court.
The Fulton Daily Report, a local newspaper covering the courts and the legal community, analyzed Hunstein's votes in 99 criminal cases that divided Georgia's top court. It found that Hunstein "sided with the government 39 percent more often than did the court as a whole."
A law review study of Georgia death penalty cases from 1998-2003 reached that same conclusion, stating that Hunstein "has one of the most conservative voting records on the bench," having sided with the prosecution in 75 percent of the death penalty cases to come before the court.
Clearly, the charge that Hunstein is somewhere to the left of Teddy Kennedy is a fraud. The real reason she has been targeted is to pack the court with justices who will protect a business when it is sued for such things as product liability, workers' compensation and malpractice. Nonetheless, the Safety and Prosperity Coalition plans to hammer Hunstein as soft on crime by spending $2 million or more against her.
Because the group is an independent committee, it can accept unlimited contributions. It has already collected $50,000 from DaimlerChrysler, $25,000 from the American Insurance Association, and $100,000 from the Georgia Medical Association.
According to forms filed with the state Ethics Commission, the coalition had raised barely $300,000 as of Sept. 30. But in an interview Wednesday, H. Eric Dial, the group's chairman, didn't seem discouraged. He has the backing of influential leaders in the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and it's likely that big money will pour into the race late, to minimize public attention to contributors.
Dial described the members of his coalition as "numerous groups interested in civil justice reform who represent hundreds of thousands of Georgians, as well as victims, victims groups and people interested in a more victim-friendly judiciary."
Coalition members interested in "civil justice reform" -- in other words, judges friendlier to corporate interests -- are glaringly apparent. But I was curious about which victims-rights groups had joined Dial's coalition.
"Oh, multiple groups," Dial said.
I asked for the names of just one or two.
Silence.
"Multiple groups," Dial finally repeated. "I'm not at liberty -- I don't know that they want their names used."
It's hard to know what to make of that. Maybe those groups don't exist. Or maybe they just don't want their names publicly associated with such an effort. I wonder why that would be.
• Jay Bookman is deputy editorial page editor. His column appears Thursdays and Mondays.
Financial supporters
Major contributors to the Safety and Prosperity Coalition, created to oppose re-election of Georgia Supreme Court Justice Carol Hunstein.
Georgia Medical Political Action Committee..$100,000
DaimlerChrysler..............................$50,000
Georgia Hospital Association ................$50,000
Independent Agents of Georgia PAC............$50,000
American Insurance Association ..............$25,000
Coca-Cola Bottlers Association ..............$25,000
Source: State Ethics Commission
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