Suddenly it’s tight: a late surge has brought Staten Island district attorney and Republican Dan Donovan even in the polls with left-wing Manhattan state senator Eric Schneiderman in the race to succeed Andrew Cuomo. [NYLJ, NYDN]
Posts Tagged ‘attorneys general’
November 1 roundup
Election edition:
- On Oklahoma ballot: grossly overbroad measure to ban use of foreign law [Atlantic Wire, Transplanted Lawyer, earlier Volokh]
- Michigan race: “Dems cross the line with bigoted Supreme Court ad” [Stephen Henderson, Freep; earlier on attacks on Justice Robert Young]
- Jacob Sullum is another non-fan of Andrew Cuomo’s record;
- What was the exact nature of that Vancouver fundraiser so many Senate hopefuls attended? Carter Wood wishes he could add a footnote to an already strong column by George Will on the Linda McMahon-Richard Blumenthal Senate race in Connecticut;
- Speaking of which, Will’s latest election roundup column is just out, while Nate Silver at the NYT’s Five Thirty Eight blog offers an outstanding hour-by-hour election-night guide;
- Iowa poll shows former AAJ/ATLA president Roxanne Conlin, of SomePeopleJustNeedToBeSued.com fame, trailing far behind in bid to unseat Sen. Chuck Grassley [WHO-TV via Carter Wood’s PoL election roundup;
- Trial lawyers pour cash into California insurance commissioner race [CJAC]
- Latest effort by New York Times to lionize activist AGs as “next Eliot Spitzers” recalls earlier Times pieces written to same formula, in the most amusing of which it lionized as the next Spitzer Ohio’s since-disgraced Marc Dann. Yet (the shaky electoral performance of such Times favorites as Massachusetts’ Martha Coakley aside) there’s reason to suspect voters this year will return a roster of AGs that’s less inclined toward business-bashing, not more [Jack Fowler at NRO].
- Government a threat to liberty? Doesn’t just depend on whether “our” team’s in charge [Gene Healy, Examiner]
An elected AG for Washington, D.C.?
Really, Washingtonians could do without a grandstanding politico type as chief city legal officer, argues Carter Wood at Point of Law.
October 18 roundup
- Touchy tandem jump: “Gay Skydiving Instructor Sues Over Firing” [Legal Blog Watch]
- Bucks County, Pennsylvania, plans to ticket people who forget to lock their cars [Ryan Young, CEI]
- Soft surface contact only next time: man hit in eye by exotic dancer’s heel wins $650K [NBC Miami, evidently a different case from this 2008 hit-by-exotic-dancer’s-shoe mishap, also in Florida]
- Breyers ice cream class action settlement with $0 for class might draw objections [CCAF]
- “Who are the Top Plaintiff’s Lawyers?” [Mark Behrens and Cary Silverman via AmLaw]
- California voters mulling attorney general choice should keep in mind lawsuit abuse issues [John Sullivan, Daily Journal courtesy CJAC]
- Mine safety enforcement push bogging down in litigation [WaPo]
- Liability a concern as elementary school in Attleboro, Mass. bans game of “tag” [four years ago on Overlawyered]
“State AG Races: Lots of Toss-Ups”
State attorney general races are often lacking in suspense — if only because incumbents seldom lose — but this year there are more genuine races [Joseph Kastner, Ballotpedia via Jack Harper, NRO]
Litigation slush funds, cont’d: Arkansas
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has bestowed $100,000 to assist in construction of the Arkansas Fallen Firefighters Memorial on the grounds of the state Capitol. The money came from the settlement of a lawsuit against the Pfizer drug concern, the connection of which to the cause of fallen firefighters is at best obscure. [Arkansas Online]
August 5 roundup
- Wouldn’t it be nice if Congress lifted the ban on Internet gambling [Steve Chapman]
- Design of New Orleans shotgun houses is an adaptation to tax laws [Candy Chang]
- Lawyer-enriching Costco class action settlement draws an objection from a blogger often linked in this space [Amy Alkon]
- “Fourth Circuit slaps down N.C. attorney general’s suit against TVA” [Wood/PoL, Jackson]
- South Carolina jury’s $2.375 million award based on premise that Nissan should have followed European, not U.S. crashworthiness standards [Abnormal Use]
- City of Cleveland won’t take no for answer in dumb lawsuit against mortgage lenders [Funnell]
- Charles H. Green at TrustMatters hosts Blawg Review #275;
- Duke lacrosse fiasco: Nifong’s media and law-school enablers [three years ago at Overlawyered]
Google Street View and state AGs
They’re piling on now [Lammi, WLF] Earlier here, here.
California high court OKs public contingency fees
Ted at Point of Law has a post mortem on a decision that’s pretty bad, but not as bad as it might have been. More: Legal Ethics Forum, John Sullivan/Civil Justice Association of California, Wood/ShopFloor. Thanks, by the way, to CJAC for citing my writing in their amicus brief (PDF, see p. 10).
“Worst state attorneys general”, cont’d
Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute informs me that Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal has in a sense won his recount after all: a recalculation taking into account a bit of overlooked data has now moved him up from #3 to #2 on this year’s list, though he’s still essentially tied with Oklahoma’s Drew Edmondson. In first place: California’s Jerry Brown, while perennial favorites Patrick Lynch of Rhode Island and Darrell McGraw of West Virginia fill the #4 and #5 places, and a newcomer, William Sorrell of Vermont, makes an appearance at #6.
More: Bader in the Examiner on the selection process.