If this is the best the GOP opponents of Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry can do to try to derail his gubernatorial train, they might as well quit the race now and save taxpayers the expense of a general election runoff in two months.
In advance of a televised debate that Landry won’t attend because one of the hosts is a nonpartisan but clearly leftist advocacy group, Republican Treas. John Schroder released an attack advertisement that may get some air time at least in parts of the state. The ad points out that Texas lawyer Zach Moseley, as part of the firm in which he is a principal, is alleged to have engaged in a variety of shady practices over a blizzard of suits against insurers regarding recent hurricane disasters that have struck Louisiana.
Already the Western District of Louisiana federal judiciary has hauled him and others of this firm in front of it to explain themselves, as well as mete out fines, over actions such as withholding settlement monies that netted them suspensions, and frowned upon the firm’s aggressive collecting of clients, opaqueness in informing clients of their rights if not outright misrepresentation (taking advantage of a loophole in state law now closed as a result of the negative publicity), and potentially even breaking the law with such actions as forgeries. The state’s Insurance Department already has fined the firm, Moseley, and two others a maximum $2 million besides halting their ability to do business in the state for a time which the court continued.
Interestingly, essentially Moseley outhustled a lot of Louisiana ambulance chasers for this business, enraging them so basically they built the case against him for LDI and federal prosecutors to follow. However, besides vying for hurricane compensation business, the trial lawyers have one other thing in common in a fact pointed out in the Schroder ad: Moseley donated $5,000 to Landry’s campaign on Apr. 5, in the middle of his LDI suspension.
Schroder’s ad convicts Moseley where courts haven’t yet, calling it a “massive fraud scheme,” then asserts that Landry “did nothing to protect” individuals and called the donation “maybe” an attempt to “buy” influence. It then terms this incident as an example of needed political culture change that Schroder would provide.
As with attack ads generally, its lack of context heavily distorts to denigrate the target. Landry didn’t do anything because regulation of insurance matters rests with LDI and regulation of lawyer behavior (at least for the firm’s Louisiana affiliates) rests with the state’s Supreme Court. Other conduct already had been brought to the attention of federal courts. What else was he going to do?
Of course, when you receive nearly 3,000 donations – about nine times what Schroder got in that early April to early July period – it’s hard to keep track of any suspicious names whose funds you might want to reject … unless you’re a candidate hardly registering in the polls grasping at straws to turn things around who therefore goes over the front runner’s contributors with a fine-tooth comb. And note the guilt-by-association tactic works both ways: Schroder accepted $500 from the Louisiana Chinese Chamber of Commerce, who objected to what became Act 537 last session that prohibits foreign adversaries like the People’s Republic of China and those connected to it from acquiring land in Louisiana. Does that mean Schroder’s in bed with Red Chinese communists?
So, some apparently slimy but to date not convicted lawyer – unlikely even known by Landry much less with whom he ever had any communications with him about his legal woes – caught up in a matter Landry’s agency doesn’t have to address and, if criminal charges eventually are filed, the federal government has the authority to prosecute, gives money to Landry, and Schroder wants us to believe that means Landry is of such poor character and ripe for corrupting that Landry feels compelled to help the guy skirt the law? That’s all Schroder has?
If that’s indicative of what the GOP minnows have of the attack persuasion – who not only have to detach voters from Landry but then also find a way to steer them into their columns despite their paucity of funds and Landry’s reported $8 million war chest standing in the way of that – let the fat lady start warming up. You can’t beat something with nothing, and by this Schroder suggests he’s got nothing left by which to convince enough voters to advance his political career.
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