Paper should check its facts, AG says

SANTA FE (KRQE) - New Mexico Attorney General Gary King now says the Wall Street Journal was flat-out wrong when the newspaper claimed a law firm involved in a 'pay-to-sue' operation contributed to his election campaign.

Last month a WSJ column claimed a law firm made big campaign and then won a state contract to sue a pharmaceutical company on the government's behalf.

The firm that won the contract is Bailey, Perrin, Bailey. But according to a letter King sent out Monday, that firm never contributed to his campaign.

It was the Williams-Bailey law firm that made the contribution, he said.

In the letter King described the article as false and questions the journalists' ethics and their methods of fact-checking.

Earlier King had said the contract in question was awarded during the administration of his predecessor, Patsy Madrid, after a competitive bidding process. King said he later extended the arrangement rather than change lawyers in the middle of a lawsuit.

The Journal claimed Bailey, Perrin, Bailey made contributions to a number of attorneys general and won no-bid contracts to handle the multistate lawsuit against a drug maker who alleged hid the risks of a medication sold to state Medicaid programs..