Lilly, O'Toole & Brown Blog

Fate of CSX Deal May Be in Hands of a Single Attorney: "Skip" Campbell

Behemoth multibillionaire CSX works out a sweetheart deal with DOT, subject to legislative approval. Everything breezes along just fine until several of Polk's delegation, notably Paula Dockery, get involved and put together an unusual coaltion, including the Florida Justice Association (i.e. trial lawyers), to defeat the plan at the 11th hour,.due in large part to the proposed provision for CSX immunity from liability for injury/death claims, even those resulting from their negligence. Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows.
 
The Senate elite are not happy - not to mention the Governor. But they have hope - the deal doesn't "expire" until June of '09, after next year's legislative session - so it will be back with a vengeance, no doubt. So who/what holds the key to the final outcome? I'll give ya' 10 guesses, because it's not the usual suspects ...
 
The outcome will be determined by a single lawyer from south Florida, who happens to be a plaintiffs' personal injury trial lawyer. His name is Walter "Skip" Campbell, a former State Senator (and former President of the Florida Justice Association) who most recently lost a close race to Bill McCollum for the Attorney General cabinet position. How can any one guy be so important? Because he happens to be running for the Senate again, and he happens to be running against Jeff Atwater, who in turn happens to be the Senate President - designate, assuming he can win re-election back home in the meantime. Atwater has a ton of money in his campaign coffers - Campbell has virtually none, at this point. That will surely change soon, and my guess is that the prohibitive favorite now will have his hands full - and will lose.
 
If he does, the Senate Presidency will likely go to Alex Villalobos, a close friend and strong political ally of Sen. Dockery - irony can be sweet, huh?