This Wall Street Journal article thinks so. The article highlights Darrell McGraw’s incumbency with Dan Greear’s attempt to unseat him as the new Attorney General this November.
“As state attorneys general have become more brazen with their power, and as outside groups have started shining a light on their backroom practices, voters have become uneasy. It’s this sense of disquiet that candidates like Mr. Greear are tapping into as they promise to refocus lawsuits, rein in the tort bar and restore a sense of justice to prosecutorial office.”
“…To Mr. Greear’s advantage, his opponent is a case study of abuse in office. Mr. McGraw, in more than 14 years as West Virginia’s attorney general, has been a pioneer in the practice of filing questionable lawsuits against big companies, secretly doling out the legal work to outside trial lawyer friends who reap millions in fees. Those lawyers then turn around and donate heavily to Mr. McGraw’s re-election.”
Filed under: A Few Great Men, Elected Officials
Hey !
What if the state AG just stuck with real state stuff ?
Oh, like, say suing people for damaging state property (which should be limited anyway ) or violating state contracts ( again, of which there should be few and far between )
If you’ve got a gripe with an evil, greedy company, then :
(1) talk to the company ;
(2) stop doing business with it, and tell all your neighbors and friends ;
(3) tell the company that you and your friends are going to take out an ad to warn people about the problem if they don’t change. Send the company a draft copy of the ad ;
(4) sue them yourself. Yeah, and if you want, you can hire some of the AG’s lawyers. But, then again, you might want to get good lawyers if the case is important.
The problem is that when the state starts to protect us from something, then we get more of the problem since people are not as vigilant and discriminating. It becomes a vicious cycle — as we become more and more dependent on the state AG, the AG becomes more cocky and aggressive. They start overreaching,
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire; West virginia is getting a reputation — and there are 49 other states that don’t have this kind of reputation. So, tell me where businesses are going to set up shop. Do you think out-of-state businesses can define or describe “economy” any better than us locals.
And, no, the definition of “economy” should not words like “if it’s OK with the AG” or “Byrd” or “fair” or “unnecessary profit ” or “until we get enough from the other guy” or”…feel like needing” or”..like the way we’ve always treated productive people” or “unless it could jeopardize our state disability payments”, etc.
There should be separation of society and state. The AG should be only begoing to court for damages incurred by dog feces on the lawn of the state Capitol.
Society can handle the rest, sir.