A recent Wall Street Journal editorial accuses state Attorney General Gary King of being part of "a nationwide 'pay-to-sue' operation" involving a Houston lawyer representing New Mexico and several other states in a lawsuit against a national pharmaceutical company.

However King on Friday denied any wrongdoing and said he believes the "pay-to-sue" allegations are a part of an effort by big business to discourage lawsuits filed on behalf of consumers.

King said the editorial is "part of the ongoing battle where there are organizations trying to prevent attorneys general from pursuing consumer cases." He named the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as one of those organizations.

He said the pro-business group "would like to drive us into a situation where law firms that are pro-consumer could not contribute to candidates, whereas all the businesses could continue to contribute to the candidates who they could convince to terminate the lawsuits," King said.

The controversy concerns Houston lawyer F. Kenneth Bailey, whose law firm is suing Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, on behalf of New Mexico and several other states. The suit involves an anti-psychotic drug called Risperdal and contends the company hid dangerous side effects of the drug and wrongly marketed it to elderly people and children. The state purchased Risperdal through the Medicaid program, King said.

King said the state originally joined the suit in 2006 — the year before he took office. Last year, he said, Bailey's contract was extended. Though the contract extension didn't go out to bid, King said, initially there was a competitive bidding process for the Janssen case.

In Pennsylvania, one of the other states suing the drug company, Gov. Ed Rendell in recent days has gotten in political hot water over large campaign contributions and free jet rides from Bailey. Soon after the contributions, Bailey signed a sole-source, contingency-fee contract with the state through Rendell's office to sue Janssen. (The Pennsylvania attorney general had refused to take the case.)

"Mr. Bailey's Janssen suit is part of a national pay-to-sue operation, as he and his Bailey, Perrin & Bailey law firm have taken their pre-packaged lawsuit to many states," the WSJ said in the editorial published on Thursday.

The editorial listed contributions made to several Democratic attorneys general, including $50,000 for King, who received contributions from Bailey or his law firm.

The National Institute of Money in State Government's Followthemoney.org Web site verifies the amount for King in the editorial. There were two $25,000 contributions to King in the fall of 2006 from Williams Bailey, the law firm Bailey was associated with at the time. (Bailey later started Bailey, Perrin & Bailey.)

King isn't the only New Mexico politician to get money from Bailey or his firms. The lawyer gave Gov. Bill Richardson's re-election campaign $10,000 in May 2005. In 2002 Williams Bailey gave $25,000 to the campaigns of both Richardson and then Attorney General Patricia Madrid. Madrid couldn't be reached for comment Friday night. Bailey also contributed $25,000 to the Democratic Governors Association in June 2006, when Richardson was chairman of that organization.

Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos on Friday said, "I don't know who this is," when asked about the Bailey contributions. He declined further comment.

Bailey also contributed $85,000 to the Democratic Attorneys General Association, which, according to Followthemoney.org, contributed $78,000 to King's campaign. King noted that his Republican opponent, Jim Bibb, got a total of $650,00 from the national Republican State Leadership Committee, which he said is funded partly by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and drug companies.

"I'd call that 'pay-not-to-sue," King said.

King noted that in his political races, his biggest contributors are himself and his family. In 2006 he spent more than $240,000 on his race, while the King Ranch contributed $180,000.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.