CHEYENNE - In efforts to persuade people to vote a particular way on tort reform this year, doctors and lawyers combined ponied up $1.55 million, their campaign finance reports show.

What did they do with all that money?

They spent most of it on advertising, through television, radio, newspapers, direct mailings, and the Web.

All told, both sides spent more than $1.2 million, or about 79 percent of their budgets, on advertising, between Aug. 27 and the Nov. 2 election, in which voters passed one of two proposed constitutional amendments related to tort reform.

Amendment C, which will allow lawmakers to set up a review before a person files a medical malpractice lawsuit, passed, but voters rejected Amendment D, a proposal to let the Legislature set caps on noneconomic damages plaintiffs could recover in malpractice cases.

The doctors lobbied for both amendments, while the lawyers opposed both.

The attorneys ran a little more high-stakes campaign than the physicians did, according to the reports filed in the secretary of state's office.

The lawyer-backed Citizens for Real Insurance Reform reported $843,123 in spending during the campaign, while the doctor-funded Partnership to Protect Affordable Health Care spent $707,159.

Dave Picard, spokesman for the partnership, said being outspent by almost 20 percent probably did not hurt his group in the public relations campaign.

"I think both sides got their message out equally," he said.

Neither Citizens for Real Insurance Reform spokeswoman Shauna Roberts nor consultant Dan Neal could be reached for comment late Tuesday.

Two companies were the primary recipients of the money. One was Casper-based Ball Advertising Group Inc., which was in charge of the advertising campaign for the doctors.

The company received $563,252 for services including print and broadcast advertising, media coverage, direct mail, postage and setting up a Web site.

That of course doesn't mean Ball Advertising owner Ken Ball and his staff pocketed a half a million dollars. Most of the money bought advertisements.

"We bought a lot of radio, bought a lot of newspaper, bought a lot of television," Ball said.

The company got a commission of roughly 15 percent for running the advertising campaign, he said, and even most of that money was eaten up by the demands of the tort reform campaign on the company's day-to-day operations.

"We spent weeks researching markets, looking at radio, television, newspaper, looking at other markets like the Internet," he said.

The lawyers went through another company, LUC Media of Marietta, Ga., to the tune of $658,897 that paid generally for "advertising," according to the group's report.

The rest of the money on both sides went to various other campaign expenses.

The lawyers gave Magic Box Editorial Co. of Dublin, Ohio, more than $61,000 for advertising production; All Points Communication of Canaan, N.H., almost $35,000 for campaign materials; and A.M.B.I. of Casper more than $26,000 for mailing.

Other spending reported by Citizens for Real Insurance Reform was for consulting, a spokesman, and other expenses, their report said.

The doctors spent most of the rest of their money on consulting, polling, management, media relations, and grassroots organizing from the Wyoming Group, LLC, of Casper; the Grand Teton Group, LLC, of Teton Village; and the Eppstein Group of Fort Worth, Texas; to the tune of $20,000 to $30,000 each.

About another $30,000 flowed to the Wyoming Medical Society for wages, travel, supplies and other expenses.

In contrast to the doctors' political action committee (PAC) giving money to its trade group, the reports show that the lawyers' committee actually received money from its trade group.

The Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association donated $50,000 to the Citizens for Real Insurance Reform in the two weeks before the election. Combined with money the association gave the committee before that, its donation to the PAC totaled $559,000.

The committee raised close to $96,000 in the election's last two weeks most if not all from attorneys and law offices.

The doctors' committee, meanwhile, raised about $118,000 in the two weeks before the election, almost all from doctors, hospitals and medical offices.

As with money received before the last two weeks, most of the lawyers' donations were in amounts of $10,000 or more, while the medical field's donations were generally in smaller amounts from many more contributors.

Both groups reported spending more money than they raised, with the doctors' campaign not even $3,000 in the red and the lawyers looking at a deficit 10 times that size at over $29,000.

Capital bureau reporter Bill Luckett can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at bill.luckett@casperstartribune.net.