The Republican Party of Virginia has tentatively agreed to pay Democratic lawmakers almost $750,000 to settle a federal lawsuit stemming from a 2002 incident in which the party's former executive director eavesdropped on a Democratic conference call, sources familiar with the case said yesterday.
Resolution of the case would end a two-year legal nightmare for the Republican Party. The scandal led to the resignation of several top party officials and threatened to drag the Republicans' likely nominee for the next governor -- Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore -- into a civil trial that was set to begin Thursday in Richmond.
Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore (R) says his office contacted state police quickly.
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But it could be a financial blow to the party as it prepares for the statewide elections next year. Shawn Smith, who was named executive director of the state Republican Party yesterday, declined to comment on the possibility of a settlement. He also would not say how much money the party has in the bank.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a draft settlement has been drawn up by attorneys and agreed to in principle but has not yet been signed by all of the 33 Democratic legislators who filed the suit or by all of the defendants. The suit named the Republican Party, former state GOP executive director Edmund A. Matricardi III, former state party chairman Gary R. Thomson, former House speaker S. Vance Wilkins Jr. and Wilkins's former aide, Claudia D. Tucker.
Under the settlement, the party would pay most of the $750,000, and the other defendants would pay the rest, the sources said.
Laura Bland, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Democratic Party, said she could not comment on the case: "I am not the person who is authorized to communicate any information relative to that. I just can't."
The Republican Party had been facing the possibility of higher fines and could have been forced to pay punitive damages if it had been found liable. If the Democrats won the federal suit, they could have been awarded $10,000 per violation, and their attorneys could have collected fees.
The lawsuit stems from two incidents in which Republicans eavesdropped on two conference calls among Democrats as they planned strategy during a redistricting battle in March 2002. Kilgore's office reported the eavesdropping after his staff became aware of it.
Matricardi pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge and was stripped of his law license. Thomson and Tucker pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, as did other party operatives.
The Democrats then filed the lawsuit and took aim at Kilgore. The lawmakers said their motivation was in part to discover whether Kilgore or anyone in his office had knowledge of the eavesdropping.
Matricardi has said that one of the first people he told about the eavesdropping was Kilgore's chief aide, Anne Petera. Kilgore has said from the beginning that his office acted quickly to refer the case to the Virginia State Police, prompting the investigation.
Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for Kilgore, called the lawsuit a "partisan fishing expedition" and said Democrats have discovered that Kilgore did the right thing all along. "But for the actions of the office of the attorney general, none of this would have come to light," Murtaugh said.
"From the beginning, this case was about two things," said Ken Smurzynski, a lawyer with the D.C.-based firm of Williams & Connolly, who represented the Democrats. "About finding the truth about who knew what, when. And compensating the Democrats . . . and punishing the Republicans who violated their rights."
Smurzynski would not comment about the possibility of a settlement in the case.
