Gov. Kirk Fordice sued his attorney general on Friday to stop a lawsuit against tobacco companies over state-borne health costs, saying the lawyer overstepped his authority.
Fordice said the lawsuit was about "big bucks, big money and big publicity," not recouping Medicaid funds spent by state taxpayers on indigents with smoking-related illnesses.Attorney General Mike Moore sued Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. and 12 other cigarette makers in 1994. He accused the companies of lying and altering research.
Fordice said he was asking the state Supreme Court to order Moore to drop the legal action. The governor said his advisers believe the state's highest court can act under a state law that allows the justices to halt any lawsuit.
Later Friday, Moore responded: "Our governor has chosen to take the side of an industry that has lied and killed 425,000 people a year in the past 30 years."