Cornyn's Corporate Sponsors: Industry Breakdowns: Lawyers & Lobbyists

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Cornyn's Corporate Sponsors

Industry Breakdowns: Lawyers & Lobbyists

Lawyers and Lobbyists accounted for another 18 percent of Cornyn’s big-check money. Cornyn received almost $1.6 million from lawyers. Led by Vinson & Elkins ($121,554), attorneys who typically represent business interests gave Cornyn almost $1.4 million. This money far outstripped the $72,834 that Cornyn received from plaintiff lawyers, led by Jamail & Kolius ($10,000). Cornyn received another $114,850 from lawyers who could not be pigeon holed as corporate defense or plaintiff attorneys. Houston immigration attorney Tammy Tran ($20,000) led this diverse group.
Lobbyists gave Cornyn $153,300, led by ex-Congressman Tom Loeffler ($25,000), whose lobby firm and partner gave Cornyn an additional $9,500.⁶ Cornyn’s next largest lobby donor is ex-Texas legislator and railroad commissioner Kent Hance ($20,000). Cornyn issued a 1999 opinion that benefits a waste dump with close ties to Hance (see “Alien Waste”).

Interest Contributions Percent

Business Lawyers
$1,395,993

80%

Lobbyists
$153,300

9%

Other Lawyers
$114,850

7%

Plaintiff Lawyers
$72,834

4%

Other
$4,912

0%

TOTAL:

$1,741,889

100%

Alien Waste

Waste disposal giants Waste Management Inc. (WMX) and USA Waste announced a merger in 1998. In one of his first opinions one year later, new Attorney General Cornyn concluded that a 1991 state law unconstitutionally barred Texas from importing hazardous waste from abroad.¹ Waste companies pushed the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission to obtain this opinion after the agency used the law to block WMX’s Chem Waste from importing hazardous waste to its Port Arthur incinerator. Given a prior U.S. Fifth Court of Appeals ruling striking a similar Louisiana law,² Cornyn’s opinion would be uncontroversial but for the $114,000 he took from interests that could benefit from it. Cornyn has received $43,000 from waste companies, including $36,500 from Chem Waste’s parent companies. Cornyn received another $71,000 from principals of Waste Control Specialists, Inc., which operates a hazardous and radioactive waste dump in West Texas.³ Cornyn received $51,000 from Waste Control owner Harold Simmons and another $20,000 from Waste Control lobbyist Kent Hance.⁴
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1 Opinion No. JC-0017, March 10, 1999.
2 Chemical Waste Management, Inc. v. Templet, 967 F.2d 1058 (5th Cir. 1992).
3 See “Simmons Would Make Billions,” TPJ’s Lobby Watch, March 27, 2001.
4 Hance donations are classified as “Lobbyist” money; Simmons is classified with “Finance” money.

6 Loeffler left Arter & Hadden ($2,000 to Cornyn) in May 2001 to start Loeffler Jonas & Tuggey.