IN LATEST TV AD, HOOD STEALS CREDIT FOR WORK HIS LARGEST CAMPAIGN DONOR DID ON WORLDCOM CASE
Hood’s Credit-Stealing Ad Begs Answers to 5 Lingering Questions Over His Handling of WorldCom Case
1. Did Hood give the WorldCom contract – that paid $14 million – to Joey Langston in return for the $156,839 Langston previously gave to help elect Hood Attorney General?
2. Is the additional $102,875 Hood’s taken from Langston, since giving him the WorldCom deal, part of a quid pro quo?
3. Was the $22,925 Hood took from the Louisiana law firm that split the $14 million with Langston part of the same quid pro quo?
4. If Hood’s claim is true that he contacted “many” Mississippi firms about the WorldCom contract before giving it to Langston, then why has Hood refused to provide the news media with certifiable documentation of his efforts to contact “many” firms?
5. Could Jim Hood have recovered more than 10 cents on the dollar – like other states’ attorneys general did without paying outside attorney fees – if Hood had handled the case himself instead of giving it to his largest campaign contributor?
JACKSON, MS – Al Hopkins, conservative Republican candidate for Attorney General, today respectfully asked members of Mississippi’s news media to view Jim Hood’s latest TV ad, observe how he’s shamelessly claiming credit for someone else’s work and – on behalf of Mississippians throughout the state – press Hood for answers to 5 serious and legitimate questions that have lingered since he gave the MCI/WorldCom contract to his largest campaign contributor.
“In his latest TV ad, Jim Hood’s claim to have ‘won’ $100 million ‘for Mississippi by taking on MCI’ is the most outrageous claim to come out of a politician’s mouth since Al Gore claimed to have invented the internet,” said Hopkins. “Thankfully, Mississippians are a lot smarter than Jim Hood thinks they are. And, instead of letting Mr. Hood steal the credit for someone else’s work, they want answers to at least five serious and legitimate questions that have lingered since he punted the MCI/WorldCom case to his largest campaign contributor.
“If Jim Hood refuses to answer the following questions, Mississippians will be left to conclude that he is brazenly giving state contracts in return for campaign contributions because he doesn’t believe anyone has the nerve to question his actions, let alone hold him accountable:
“Did Jim Hood give the WorldCom contract – that paid $14 million – to Joey Langston in return for the $156,839 Langston previously gave to help elect Hood Attorney General? Is the additional $102,875 Hood’s taken from Langston, since giving him the WorldCom deal, part of a quid pro quo? Was the $22,925 Hood took from the Louisiana law firm, that split the $14 million with Langston, part of the same quid pro quo? If Hood’s claim is true that he contacted “many” Mississippi firms about the WorldCom contract before giving it to Langston, then why has Hood refused to provide the news media with certifiable documentation of his efforts to contact “many” firms? Could Jim Hood have recovered more than 10 cents on the dollar – like other states’ attorneys general did without paying outside attorney fees – if Hood had handled the case himself instead of giving it to his largest campaign contributor?”
DOCUMENTATION:
Hood gives MCI/WorldCom contract to largest campaign contributor. When MCI/WorldCom owed $1 billion in back taxes to the state of Mississippi, Attorney General Jim Hood signed a “Retention Agreement” on September 24, 2004 with Joey Langston, of the Langston Law Firm, turning the state’s case over to Langston, although the Louisiana law firm Lundy & Davis had originally “brought the MCI case to the attorney general’s attention.” (Sources: “Attorney General of the State of Mississippi Retention Agreement”, 9/24/04; Associated Press, 10/23/06)
Two Hood political contributors split $14 million from MCI/WorldCom. The MCI/WorldCom contract that Hood gave to his largest campaign contributor paid $14 million, of which $7 million was paid to the Louisiana firm Lundy & Davis, another contributor to Hood’s campaign for Attorney General. (Sources: Biloxi Sun Herald, 1/13/07; Associated Press, 10/23/06)
Total Joey Langston Contributions to Hood = $259,714: Prior to Hood giving the MCI/WorldCom contract to Joey Langston, Langston contributed a total of $156,839.59 toward Hood’s campaign for Attorney General, including a $100,000 contribution to the Democrat Attorney General Association (DAGA) which DAGA used to help get Hood elected. Since getting the MCI/WorldCom contract from Hood, Langston has given an additional $102,875 to Hood, including another $50,000 to DAGA. (Sources: Mississippi Secretary of State, Elections Division, Candidate’s Annual Report of Receipts and Disbursements, 2003-2007)
Total Lundy & Davis Contributions to Hood = $22,925: In a span of just three days, from Aug. 10-12, 2005, 8 lawyers with the Louisiana firm Lundy & Davis, who initially brought the MCI/WorldCom case to Hood, and received $7 million of the $14 million in fees paid to Joey Langston, gave a total of $22,925 to Hood’s campaign for Attorney General. (Sources: Mississippi Secretary of State, Elections Division, Candidate’s Annual Report of Receipts and Disbursements, 2004-2007; Associated Press, 10/23/06)
Hood’s refused to document the “many” firms he contacted about the MCI/WorldCom contract. While Hood claims that “Langston’s firm was the only one among many he contacted in the state willing to take the case”, Hood has refused to provide the news media with certifiable documentation of the lengths to which he went to contact “many” firms in Mississippi about the availability of the MCI/WorldCom contract. (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 9/14/07)
18 other states (including the District of Columbia) recovered more than 10 cents on a dollar. Those states include: Maryland, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Arkansas, Alaska, Michigan, Missouri, Alabama, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, California, Ohio, New Jersey, and Georgia. (WorldCom settlement agreement, 10/11/05, Buyouts, 11/14/05, AP 11/5/05, Sacramento Bee, 10/27/05)
Hood’s new credit-stealing TV ad script: “100 million dollars. That’s how much Jim Hood won for Mississippi by taking on MCI. Hood won more than 30 times than the state asked for and forced MCI to pay legal fees, not taxpayers.” (Jim Hood TV ad, 10/09/07)
Magnolia Tribune
