Governor wields veto amid intense pressure
Capitol Report for dailies for week of May 29, 2007
By Jim Campbell
OPA Capitol News Bureau
The state Senate buffer that once shielded the Democratic governor from major Republican initiatives has dissolved, leaving him exposed to growing pressure from within and without his party.
Having used his veto against new abortion restrictions and had it sustained by one vote in the now evenly-split Senate, Gov. Brad Henry was immediately bombarded by full-page newspaper ads, phone calls and e-mail urging thumbs up or down on a  massive lawsuit overhaul.
His veto announcement of Senate Bill 507 was sure to engender the kind of praise and outrage produced by earlier rejection of SB 714. 
Supporters, including business and medical interests, declared the lawsuit bill was necessary to curb frivolous lawsuits and reduce insurance rates, while royalty owners and other foes argued it denied them access to legal justice. The governor's switchboard had been jammed.
"We've been blistered from both sides," said spokesman Paul Sund.  
What's more, some of the nation's most extensive immigration reform provisions in House Bill 104 was just a few minor amendments away from Henry's desk, producing a day-long boycott call by a pro-immigration group. That bill returned to the House for expected acceptance next week of the Senate amendments.
Still simmering, although some progress toward a resolution was reported, was the governor's veto of a $6.9 billion general appropriations bill.
Attorney General Drew Edmondson earlier said he thought he could defend SB 507, but suggested a veto would be a safer course to avoid lengthy litigation over it. Weighing in anew on the tort changes, he argued they would have thwarted his efforts to pursue court action against tobacco companies and to protect watersheds from contamination.
"I can not for the life of me figure out why the state should want to limit its own ability to recover damages when the state has been harmed," Edmondson said.
"The governor should veto it," he said, contending the bill would severely damage efforts to "protect Oklahoma and its people in the future."
Among parts Edmondson found most troubling was cause to dismiss a lawsuit unless an expert affidavit is provided within 60 days of its filing, stating that it has merit. That would have made the tobacco lawsuit and the current case against poultry companies impossible.
"These lawsuits have never been frivolous," he said.
 Sen. Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, the Senate co-president and staunch advocate of lawsuit reform, said he was concerned about Edmondson's reference to future lawsuits.
Coffee said future actions by the attorney general "may or may not have merit." Without knowing what class action lawsuits he might undertake, Coffee said, "I do have concerns."
The bill also limits non-economic damages commonly known as "pain and suffering" compensation to $300,000. It further provides that insurance benefits granted a plaintiff be deducted from the potential award won in court. 
Senate author James Williamson, R-Tulsa, said a trailer bill would edit the insurance deduction language from "shall" to "may" and make other minor changes.
Henry, responding to a letter from Coffee about an agreement on the changes, said the bill still had "a number of flaws."
Coffee repeated in his weekly press briefing that seven of 28 reforms Henry previously proposed already are in law and most of the others were in SB 507. 
Commenting on the Senate power-sharing agreement, Coffee gave co-President Mike Morgan of Stillwater "high marks" for working cooperatively while satisfying the Democratic caucus and "keeping legislation off his (Henry's) desk."
In the years of a Democratic majority, major GOP proposals had to first overcome committees chaired by Democrats to make it to the floor, and then usually as amendments to bills with similar content.
Coffee also confirmed that budget negotiations had been underway between representatives of the governor's office, Senate Democrats and Republicans and House Republicans. House Democrats still were not involved.
"It is interesting to note that the governor's office would accept about 99 percent of the $6.9 billion general appropriations bill as I predicted to you," he said.
Coffee said a statement on the Senate floor by Sen. Johnnie Crutchfield, D-Ardmore, that the Department of Corrections will need a $70 million supplemental appropriation next hear "may or may not be correct."
Henry's veto included a $1 million audit of the corrections department, which he called "a waste of money."
"We have insisted that needs to be part of the agreement," Coffee said. "I think that is going to be part of the agreement but we haven't finalized agreement."
Crutchfield, co-chairman of Senate appropriations, said he also favored the audit and predicted it would show the agency "under-funded instead of over-funded."
HHH