How not to win friends at the state Capitol

What were the lawyers at a Seattle law firm thinking when they took out hit pieces on three state senators last week?

The full-page newspaper ads told the story of a Vietnam vet and former Bremerton shipyards worker who died at age 57 after a “horribly painful illness” caused by asbestos exposure. They also accused three senators, Puyallup Democrat Jim Kastama among them, of denying asbestos victims justice.

If Bergman Draper & Frockt, the firm that bought the ads, had hoped to win the Legislature over, it failed miserably. Washingtonians don’t have much of a stomach for hardball politics, especially outside of the campaign season.

And lawmakers don’t take kindly to such blatant strong-arm tactics. They’ve killed not only the asbestos bill, but reportedly could be gunning for another measure championed by one of the Seattle firm’s members.

Potentially no one emerges from this dustup looking good. Certainly not the lawyers who used the memory of a decorated fighter pilot to further an attempted end-run around the courts, and not a Senate that seems bent on retribution.

The legislation itself was dubious public policy. It sought to undo a state Supreme Court ruling from December in which the court ruled that a manufacturer was not liable for exposure to asbestos installed after-market.

The bill also had a retroactive clause, which would have allowed Bergman Draper & Frockt to revive their suit. As written, it would have amounted to legislative meddling with case law.

In trying to defend the bill, the law firm apparently failed to do its homework before choosing its targets. Two of the senators – Kastama and Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island – wanted to make changes to the bill to allow the Supreme Court ruling to stand. But the third senator’s only crime seems to be sponsoring the original bill that gave the trial lawyers what they wanted. Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, said he had not yet made up his mind about whether to agree with amendments.

You’d think a firm whose members include Brian Weinstein, a former state senator, would have had a better handle on how to win friends and influence people in Olympia. Tellingly, the savvier state trial lawyers’ association quickly disavowed the ads.

Weinstein and his firm aren’t the only ones with black eyes, though. Senators have threatened to kill a measure dubbed the Homeowners Bill of Rights – not because it has anything to do with the asbestos bill, but because Weinstein pushed it while in the Legislature.

That would be petty, and lawmakers should reconsider. Otherwise, Bergman Draper & Frockt’s thousands will have indeed bought something meaningful – a glimpse into how things really work at the Capitol.

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