Deep imPACt

Mark Montiel, who's running against Attorney General Troy King in the Republican primary, claims King violated state campaign law by receiving almost $100,000 from a political action committee funded by 13 companies. Alabama bans corporations from directly giving individual candidates more than $500 per election cycle, but a legal quirk allows them to pump much more money into PACs that are free to contribute as much as they want.

King says he did nothing illegal, and we may find out if that's true after the hearing on Friday. What's certainly true is that he did nothing unusual for these parts; The Birmingham News says almost half of the money that statewide candidates gathered from June to January came from PACs. If the judge bars the practice, things could get interesting in a hurry.