RAGA names Alabama AG Steve Marshall to its 2018-2019 leadership team
In the wake of the midterm elections, the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) announced their new leadership team as they look ahead to the future. Among their new leaders is Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. Marshall was appointed in February 2017 by then governor Robert Bentley to replace Luther Strange as Attorney General. Last Tuesday, he was elected to the position from the first time defeating Democratic challenger Joseph Siegelman, 59 to 41 percent. Along with Marshall, the 2018-2019 RAGA executive committee includes: Chairman Ken Paxton, Texas Vice-Chairman Curtis Hill, Indiana Attorney General Chris Carr, Georgia Attorney General Jeff Landry, Louisiana Attorney General Doug Peterson, Nebraska Attorney General Sean Reyes, Utah Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas (past Chairman, 2017-2018) Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Kansas
Steve Marshall, Jospeh Siegelman seek office of Alabama attorney general
The Alabama race for attorney general features a Republican incumbent coming off a season of personal tragedy versus the son of one of the state’s most prominent politicians, now stepping out of his famous father’s shadow. Voters next week will choose between Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall and Democratic challenger Joe Siegelman, the son of former Gov. Don Siegelman. Marshall, 54, is seeking to win the office after being appointed last year by then-Gov. Robert Bentley. Marshall’s wife Bridgette died by suicide in June. As reporters inquired about the details of her death, Marshall made the decision to give an emotionally raw news conference describing his wife’s deeply personal struggles with depression and anxiety. “Hardest year of my life,” Marshall said of the last few months. Wearing an “Out of the Darkness” wristband from the campaign for suicide prevention, Marshall said he has been touched by the support he has gotten from people across the state, including those who share their own stories. He made the decision not to drop out of the race. His wife’s last love note to him encouraged him during the primary runoff. “What has given me strength to get to this point is that Bridgette was my biggest fan and she believed unequivocally that I was the right person for this job,” he said. Marshall, who was a district attorney for 16 years, said as attorney general he has tried to emphasize public safety, including passage of the Fair Justice Act to expedite death penalty appeals, and work with the governor to temporarily stop the early paroles of state inmates. Marshall in May filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Census Bureau seeking to block immigrants living in the country illegally from being included in 2020 U.S. Census counts that will determine how many congressional seats and electoral votes each state gets. “We’re willing to fight for the state. If we don’t prevail, we are going to lose a congressional seat, we believe, so we’ve stood up for the people of Alabama,” Marshall said. Siegelman, 30, said while people might be familiar with his last name, he wants them to get to know him. Despite his lineage, Siegelman said he never aspired to a political career and said he “can’t stand” what politics has become. Siegelman said the office of attorney general should be independent. “We’ve got to be about people, not politics,” Siegelman said. “My number one goal is to do the job of attorney general and take away any political grandstanding and especially any political agenda or even political consideration.” Siegelman said his priorities as attorney general would include addressing the opioid crisis, consumer protection and school and public safety. Siegelman said the attorney general’s office has been too slow to react to Alabama’s opioid crisis. Alabama in 2016 had the highest rate of prescriptions in the nation. In the closing weeks of the campaign, Siegelman has hammered at Marshall for his acceptance of $730,000 in “dark money” from the Republican Attorneys General Association. Siegelman contends the donations — run through multiple political action committees — both violate state campaign finance law and obscure Marshall’s funding sources. Siegelman said that leaves people wondering, “Is he working for the people of Alabama or is he working for one of these special interests out of state that have given him this extraordinary amount of money.” Marshall and the GOP group have maintained the contributions are legal. Growing up, the younger Siegelman said he didn’t realize the full scope of his father’s service and career until he was elected governor in 1998. Don Siegelman was one of the state’s most successful Democrats, holding four statewide offices. His career ended when he was convicted of federal funds bribery. The former governor has maintained his innocence. After law school, Joe Siegelman joined the Cochran Firm practice, where his work included civil rights issues. He also joined his father’s legal team, occasionally speaking to the news media on his father’s behalf as the elder Siegelman fought to overturn the conviction. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Joe Siegelman wants Ethics Commission to act on complaint against AG Steve Marshall
Democratic Attorney General Candidate Joe Siegelman held a press conference in Huntsville, Ala. on Thursday to urge the Alabama Ethics Commission to act on the ethics complaint filed against Attorney General Steve Marshall, that they have yet to take action on. The complaint alleges Marshall accepted $735,000 in illegal contributions from the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) Action Fund. The actual complaint was filed back in July by Marshall’s Republican primary opponent, former state Attorney General Troy King. King alleged Marshall accepted the money from the RAGA political action committee and said that the group uses money from other PAC’s to fund their own PAC; violating Alabama’s PAC to PAC money laws. Siegelman’s press conference followed a letter that Siegelman sent to the members of the Alabama Ethics Commission earlier Thursday morning. “In less than three years, Alabama has lost the highest officeholder in every branch of its government due to unethical or illegal conduct. Now we may lose our Attorney General simply over greed for special-interest, dark money,” said Siegelman. “We face not only losing another high officeholder to illegality, but we face a crossroads of whether we are capable and willing to hold the chief law enforcement officer of the State accountable, or allow him to reside above the law.” Marshall’s campaign reacted to Siegelman’s press conference saying, “It is unfortunate that our young, inexperienced liberal democratic opponent has decided to run a false and negative campaign.” To which Siegelman replied, “My opponent criticizes me for being young. I may only be 30, but I know better than to accept $735,000 in illegal contributions. He sadly does not. Notably my opponent chose to attack me rather than respond to the allegations, which were made by a fellow Republican.” Read Siegelman’s letter to the Ethics Commission below:
Judge dismisses Troy King’s lawsuit against Steve Marshall
Attorney General candidate Troy King’s efforts to stop his opponent Steve Marshall’s ability to spend questionable campaign donations fell apart on Thursday when a Montgomery judge, Circuit Judge James Anderson, dismissed a lawsuit King filed against Marshall. It all began Monday, when in an eleventh hour effort kit announced a lawsuit he filed against Marshall — just one week before voters hit the polls to cast their ballots in the primary runoff election on July 17. King alleged that Marshall accepted $700,000 from the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) political action committee and that the group uses money from other PAC’s to fund their own PAC; violating Alabama’s PAC to PAC money laws. King then sued Marshall on Wednesday, attempting to deter Marshall from spending the contributions. “Now, during the 2017 election cycle, according to RAGA’s public filings with the Internal Revenue Service, the RAGA’s PAC has again accepted a number of contributions from other PACs, including, earlier this year, nearly $16,000 from the J.P. Morgan PAC plus another $50,000 in PAC contributions in the last quarter of 2017. RAGA’s PAC has now, during the election cycle, made hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions to Steve Marshall for Alabama, Inc,” said King’s lawsuit, according to WHNT. But Thursday afternoon a Montgomery judge, Circuit Judge James Anderson, dismissed the lawsuit, and denied King’s request for a restraining order against Marshall. “Anderson said the Republican PAC is federally regulated and questioned how he and state law would have jurisdiction over transfers that happened in another state,” the Associated Press reported. After the ruling, Marshall’s campaign released a statement accusing King of abusing the judicial process to stage a political stunt. “He did so routinely as AG and Republicans fired him in 2010 because of it,” the Montgomery Advertiser reported. “We are glad the court has confirmed this and look forward to getting back to the issues Alabama voters actually care about in the final days of this campaign.”
Troy King files ethics complaint against opponent, AG Steve Marshall
The primary runoff race for Alabama Attorney General is once again heating up now that both candidates, Troy King and Steve Marshall, have resumed their campaigns following the tragic death of Marshall’s wife. On Monday, King filed a complaint against Marshall with the Alabama Ethics Commission, accusing Marshall and his staff of accepting PAC-to-PAC money despite the state’s ban. The complaint details how King believes Marshall transferred at least $435,000 from the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) PAC to his campaign fund, which has since been spent on television commercials, robocalls, direct mail to voters and other campaign activities. “As Attorney General, Steve Marshall should be upholding the law, not breaking it. Campaign finance laws should apply to him, just like they apply to everyone else,” King said. “As a former Attorney General, I understand that only when our laws are enforced as written do they act as an honest deterrent to election campaign wrongdoing. I am asking the Alabama Ethics Commission to investigate and prosecute this case swiftly and to the fullest extent of the law.” The state’s PAC-to-PAC ban In 2010, the State Legislature passed the PAC-to-PAC ban in 2010 in order to restrict donor’s ability to hide contributions by shuffling them through multiple PAC’s. AL.com recently reported that Marshall’s campaign found a loophole in the law and is doing nothing wrong. In fact, Marshall’s campaign told Alabama Today they’re pleased to accept the RAGA support. “We are pleased to have received support from RAGA Action Fund and trust they have complied with Alabama law,” Julia Mazzone said on behalf of the Marshall campaign. But King points to similar instance involving a RAGA PAC donation that occurred in 2014. Then former Attorney General Luther Strange tried accept a donation from the PAC, but ultimately returned the funds due to the PAC-to-PAC ban after an ethics complaint was filed against him. “Marshall should return the illegal money he received into his campaign immediately,” King continued. “Steve’s Marshall’s flagrant disregard for the law shows that he is not part of cleaning Montgomery up. Instead, he is among its biggest polluters. The corruption will not end until those who are corrupting the system are removed from office. Alabamians who are sick and tired of business as usual will have their say soon enough when they cast their votes on July 17th.” Knowingly violating the PAC-to-PAC ban is considered a Class A misdemeanor and is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $6,000 fine. This article has been updated to include a statement from the Marshall campaign.
A look at the Alabama AG’s race in the wake of the CBS News investigation
In a Tuesday night report, CBS News revealed Republican attorneys general on a retreat hosted by the Republican Attorney General Association (RAGA) in April on Kiawah Island, S.C… with lobbyists representing groups like Koch Industries, Reynolds America, Select Management Resources and the National Rifle Association to name a few. Among those attendance was Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Alabama’s top law enforcement official. To some, that fact means nothing. But to many, lobbyists represent all that is bad in politics. Over the years, lobbyists gotten a bad reputation and have been credited with having created a “culture of corruption” and are associated with words like “manipulation,” “corruption,” and “bribery.” The question for some, like Marshall’s primary runoff opponent — former Alabama Attorney General Troy King — is whether or not lobbyists, at retreats like the one in S.C., are influencing how Marshall runs the AG office. Just last week, King called out Marshall for attending another weekend getaway in N.C. with lobbyists. “He’s at an exclusive golf club in North Carolina… he is standing there with fat cat donors and lobbyists who spent $25,000 to spend the weekend with him. And $5,000 a person to come to a political fundraiser,” King said during a press conference in Montgomery. Marshall fights back But Marshall says he’s done nothing wrong and will not apologize for working with other AGs. “He will not apologize for working with other AG’s around the country,” Marshall’s campaign told CBS 42. The campaign went on to say, “Troy King attended several of these RAGA meetings during his time as attorney general, so these attacks are just dripping in hypocrisy.” Our check of Alabama’s campaign finance reports shows RAGA contributed 435,000 dollars to Marshall’s 2018 campaign for Alabama Attorney General. Political impact? CBS 42 askedAlabama’s leading political columnist Steve Flowers about how RAGA might play into the upcoming runoff. “For those people who are prosecutors to be wined and dined and given very large contributions through a nebulous organization, it looks a little like play for pay. I think Marshall is looking bad with a black eye cause he’s taken a lot of money from those people… and they are really people that he should be investigating.”
