A justice is not required to disqualify himself from a case even when one of the lawyers or the parties made a campaign contribution to him or an independent expenditure on his behalf during an election.
"Our contribution to him was our way of supporting him in all the important work that he is doing that directly affects our industry," said Glen Corso, a spokesman for one of the companies, PMI Mortgage Insurance Company, which donated $5,000.
Asked whether the industry's campaign contributions to him had shaped his thinking about the issue, he replied, "Categorically, absolutely not".
That's not true; most of his funding comes from donors, with election commission reports showing $3,817,978 in contributions to him in the third quarter, plus a $100,000 self-contribution by the candidate, against $4.2m in disbursements.
The advertisement takes George W. Bush to task for several decisions he has made as governor of Texas and tries to link them to large contributions to him and the Republican Party from the insurance, nursing home and drug industries.
For more than a year, a special grand jury under Mr. Catterson's direction has investigated allegations of wrongdoing in Sheriff Mahoney's department, including charges that the sheriff pressured correction officers and deputy sheriffs into making political contributions to him in exchange for promotions.
But tobacco opponents have raised concerns about Mr. Thompson's participation in two international trips financed largely by Philip Morris, as well as more than $72,000 in contributions to him from employees and executives of the company and its food and beer subsidiaries.
(In 2008, shortly before his party won a majority in that November's state elections, he reportedly told a group of lobbyists that they should consider contributions to him as being like an I.P.O.: "The longer you wait to get in," one lobbyist recalled his saying, "the more it will cost you, and if you don't get in at all then it will be painful").
If nothing else, he said, the event's hosts provided him with a small contribution to sustain him for the ride home, "great cupcakes".
For someone like Bush, with a strong need to feel in control, to tolerate a mere staff aide's becoming as big a celebrity as Rove shows how deeply he must appreciate Rove's contribution to getting him elected to office — to the point, perhaps, of doubting that he could win without him.
In 2000, the UN put sanctions on Unita's leadership, at last making a real contribution to isolating him.
