Upon watching the news tonight, I saw an ad from backbencher Congressman Kenny Hulshof, and his ad had a special story, and there’s part of the story that deserves more of a context.

15 seconds into this roadsigned adorned ad, the disembodied voice ‘tells’ the story of how “Mean Ol’ Jay” wanted higher gas prices and sued a QuickTrip.

So since you don’t keep 4 1/2 year old newspapers stacked in your house. Here’s some more on that story.

From the 3/31/2004 St. Louis Post-Dispatch

If you sell gasoline too cheap in Missouri, the attorney general may take you to court.

Vegas odds of Hulshof team finding that sentence and totally ignoring the rest – 2:3

So how about the story?

The state sued a QuikTrip in Herculaneum for allegedly selling gas below wholesale prices for 23 days in 1999, claiming the retailer had violated a Missouri law that makes it illegal to sell gas below cost if the intent or effect is to “injure competition.”

(Note: Back in 1999, Gas was around $1 a gallon.)

So, the first question is.. a quote from 2004, a story that effectively happened in 1999. How did this all happen?

As noted in the first quoted paragraph there’s a law involved here. (Jay Nixon apparently didn’t drive through Herculaneum and spot a QuikTrip that infuriated him with it’s savings.)

So what does the article say about this law?

State law bars retailers from selling gasoline below cost. The rationale: Discounted prices could force competitors out of business, leaving a monopoly oil company free to dictate prices.

Seems reasonable enough. And I seem to recall that the Attorney General of Missouri is supposed to pursue possible violations of the law. Jay Nixon isn’t Michael Mukasey, after all.

If Kenny trembles with anger against that law, he could ask for it to be repealed in the next session of the General Assembly if he were to be elected.

But, Kenny Hulshof wouldn’t know much about getting a law passed, seeing as he’s been a backbencher rubber stamp Republican Congressman who has sponsored 96 bills and passed none of them in 12 years. But the story of Congress’ Tony Pena, Jr. is a story for another time.

Fortunately for the cause of competition, the Herculaneum Quiktrip didn’t crush the competition in their town (or in Festus and Crystal City). In fact, no stations closed. It happens. Sometimes violations are suspected but found to not happened.

But.. in a strange twist, unforseen to anybody who just watched the Kenny ad, this legal action by Jay Nixon doesn’t seem to had any impact on the price of gas anywhere.

So.. Now you know, the rest of the story.