The leader Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Advise said the state's new chief justice should step aside from the hearing Exxon Mobil's appeal of the largest verdict in state history because of actions taken during her campaign that touched on the case.

Skip Tucker, executive director of AVALA, said Sue Bell Cobb made Exxon Mobil an issue in her campaign and indirectly received large campaign donations from one of the lawyers representing the state in its suit against the oil company.

"At the end of the day, this case is about justice, and in this case, Sue Bell Cobb is unfit to dispense it. We ask her to recuse," Tucker said at a news conference Tuesday.

Cobb said through an aide that she could not respond because Alabama's judicial rules prohibit judges from commenting on pending cases.

Exxon Mobil attorney Dave Boyd said the company has not asked-and has no intention of asking-Cobb to step aside when the Supreme Court hears arguments Feb. 6 on the oil company's appeal of a $3.6 billion judgment won by the state conservation department.

In the lawsuit, the state accused the oil company of intentionally underpaying royalties due from natural gas wells the company drilled in state-owned waters along the Alabama coast. The 2003 verdict was the largest in the United States that year and the largest ever in Alabama.

Tucker, whose business-oriented group fights large jury verdicts, called the size of the Exxon Mobil judgment "outrageous."

Cobb defeated Republican incumbent Drayton Nabors on Nov. 7 to become the only Democrat on the nine-member Supreme Court and the state's first female chief justice. During the campaign, she accused Nabors of receiving large donations from political action committees run by Exxon Mobil's lobbyist, and she used the Exxon Mobil logo in her add.

Tucker said there was never any evidence that Nabers or the lobbyists received campaign funds from the oil company.

On the other hand, 'sJere Beasley firm, which is representing the state in the litigation, gave $496,000 to 22 political action committees, and campaign finance reports show those PACs made large contributions to Cobb's campaign. It is impossible to tell exactly how much of the PAC money that went to Cobb originated with Beasley's law firm, Tucker said.

Cobb should step aside, Tucker said, "in the interest of justice and fairness."

Beasley said that Tucker's group "is representing the interest of Exxon in its attack news conference."

"I am confident that the justices will decide this most important case on the merits and leave politics out of the courtroom," he said.

Boyd, Exxon Mobil's attorney, said, "We have every expectation that this case will be decided fairly based on the law."

Nabers, Cobb's predicator, rescued himself from the Exxon Mobil case because he has been involved in matters related to the litigation while serving as Gov. Riley's state finance director in 2003-2004.