Life as a Spectator Sport

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Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Between a rock and a hard place

Or when you have to choose between your stockholders and your political cronies. Union Insurance Company declined to pay for the Virginia GOP to settle last year's telephone eavesdropping suit. The state Republican Party paid $750,000 to keep the suit from going forward in court, but Union said its liability clause did not cover the misdeeds alleged to in the suit.

So they are being sued by the Virginia GOP.

I should say that I have no idea which party Union Insurance Comapny may have contributed to, or whether they gave any political contributions at all. But considering that most insurance companies contributed heavily to Republican candidates in the last two elections, it seems likely that Union did as well. If someone wants to clarify that, and I'm wrong, I would be happy to be corrected.

From this article by Associated Press writer Larry O'Dell:
RICHMOND, Va. - An attorney for an insurance company being sued by the state Republican Party sent subpoenas Thursday to several high-ranking GOP officials seeking a broad range of records related to a political eavesdropping scandal.

Among those subpoenaed were gubernatorial candidate and former attorney general Jerry Kilgore, several members of Congress, House of Delegates Speaker William Howell and the campaign committees of U.S. Sens. George Allen and John Warner, attorney Christopher C. Spencer said in a telephone interview.

Union Insurance Co. refused to cover the $750,000 the GOP paid to settle a lawsuit filed by Democrats after the eavesdropping. The Republican Party is suing the company for nearly $1 million _ the cost of the settlement and attorney fees.

Spencer said he wants the Republicans to produce records, including e-mails and other correspondence, shedding light on donations to the party that paid for the settlement.

"I want to know who paid what to whom and why," Spencer said.

Some basic information about donations is public record, but those records "don't tell me the why," he said.

Bryan K. Meals, an attorney for the state GOP, said the quest for records is routine in civil suits.

"We don't think there's anything unusual about what they're doing," he said.

However, the records could provide some new insight into the March 2002 political espionage that resulted in criminal convictions against the state GOP's two former top officers _ Edmund A. Matricardi, who was executive director, and Gary R. Thomson, who was chairman.

Democrats have been especially critical of how Kilgore responded to the case as attorney general. Kilgore, whose office reported the eavesdropping to state police, has insisted he acted appropriately.

"I think the facts are finally going to come to light and we're going to find out what Jerry Kilgore knew and when he knew it," said Mark Bergman, spokesman for the state Democratic Party.

[..]

The Democrats sued in federal court in March 2004, alleging their privacy rights had been violated. Two weeks later, Union told the Republican Party of Virginia that its liability policy did not cover the misdeeds alleged in the Democrats' lawsuit.

The GOP paid the settlement in December.

A hearing is set in federal court in Richmond on Sept. 8 to set a trial date for the lawsuit against Union.
posted by Liz @ 10:32 AM     |


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