Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C000953 10/09/2014 MO REPUBLICAN PARTY House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc. PO Box 1313 Jefferson City MO 65102 10/9/2014 $250,000.00

[emphasis added]

Still, the HRCC has plenty of cash remaining.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: they’ll always have all the money they’ll ever need (May 10, 2014)

Campaign Finance: What on earth for? (August 10, 2014)

Campaign Finance: the HRCC has a really, really, really good day (August 11, 2014)

Campaign Finance: there’s nothing new under the Sun (August 16, 2014)

Campaign Finance: from one pocket to the other (October 7, 2014)

…who’s getting propped up.

Previously: Campaign Finance: Who is getting propped up this time? (October 3, 2014)

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C141122 10/06/2014 CITIZENS FOR STUMPE RSLC-MISSOURI PAC 1201 F ST NW STE 675 WASHINGTON DC 20004 10/4/2014 $100,000.00

[emphasis added]

Who? That passed through pretty quickly.

C141122: Citizens For Stumpe

611 East Capitol Ave Ste 1 Committee Type: Candidate

Jefferson City Mo 65101 Party Affiliation: Republican

[….] Established Date: 03/17/2014

[….]

Election History

Election Year Primary Outcome General Outcome Political Office

2014 Successful Circuit Judge Circuit 19 Division 4

[emphasis added]

For Circuit Judge in Cole County. That’s quite an infusion for a circuit judge race. Why on earth would a republican entity dump so much cash on this race?

The Circuit Court in Cole County must be a really interesting place. Heh.  

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C051039 10/03/2014 RSLC-MISSOURI PAC Republican State Leadership Committee 1201 F Street, NW Suite 675 Washington DC 20004 10/3/2014 $100,000.00

[emphasis added]

That’s quite an infusion, especially when compared to what was there before:

C051039: Rslc-Missouri Pac

1800 Diagonal Road Suite 230 Committee Type: Political Action

Alexandria Va 22314

(571) 480-4860 Established Date: 02/10/2005

  Termination Date:

Information Reported On: 2014 – April Quarterly Report

Beginning Money on Hand $36.93

Monetary Receipts + $250.00

Monetary Expenditures – $62.00

Contributions Made – $0.00

Other Disbursements – $0.00

Subtotal     $188.00

Ending Money On Hand   $224.93

[emphasis added]

That’s just…impressive. Let’s take a look at the past:

RSLC [Republican State Leadership Committee]-MISSOURI PAC campaign finance reports in 2014.

Nope, not much going on there.

RSLC [Republican State Leadership Committee]-MISSOURI PAC campaign finance reports in 2013.

Nothing much to see there.

RSLC [Republican State Leadership Committee]-MISSOURI PAC campaign finance reports in 2012.

Not much there. Until right before the 2012 election:

CONTRIBUTIONS AND LOANS RECEIVED

RSLC-MISSOURI PAC [pdf] 10/29/2012

Republican State Leadership Committee 1201 F Street, NW Washington DC 20004 10/16/2012 $1,000.00

Republican State Leadership Committee 1201 F Street, NW Washington DC 20004 10/22/2012 $35,000.00

Republican State Leadership Committee 1201 F Street, NW Washington DC 20004 10/25/2012 $200,000.00

[….]

CONTRIBUTIONS MADE – SUPPLEMENTAL FORM

RSLC-MISSOURI PAC 10/29/2012

Friends of Robert Cornejo

PO Box 346

St Peters MO 63376

10/17/2012

$1,000.00

Schoeller for Missouri

PO Box 746

Willard MO 65781

10/22/2012

$25,000.00



Friends of Peter Kinder

PO Box 712

Jefferson City MO 65102

10/22/2012

$10,000.00

Schoeller for Missouri

PO Box 746

Willard MO 65781

10/25/2012

$200,000.00

[emphasis added]

Ah, they were propping up the 2012 republican Secretary of State candidate.

And they continued right through to the bitter end:

CONTRIBUTIONS AND LOANS RECEIVED

RSLC-MISSOURI PAC [pdf] 12/6/2012

Republican State Leadership Committee 1201 F Street NW Washington DC 20004 10/29/2012 $250,000.00

Republican State Leadership Committee 1201 F Street NW Washington DC 20004 10/31/2012 $50,000.00

Republican State Leadership Committee 1201 F Street NW Washington DC 20004 11/2/2012 $25,000.00

[….]

EXPENDITURES AND CONTRIBUTIONS MADE

RSLC-MISSOURI PAC 12/6/2012

C.Contributions Made (Regardless of Amount)

Schoeller for Missouri

PO Box 746

Willard MO 65781

10/29/2012

$250,000.00

Schoeller for Missouri

PO Box 746

Willard MO 65781

10/31/2012

$50,000.00

Schoeller for Missouri

PO Box 746

Willard MO 65781

11/2/2012

$25,000.00

[emphasis added]

Wow. Those last big bucks contributions were passed through faster than…

In case you’re counting, that was $550,000.00 from one entity directed to one republican statewide candidate. The grassroots just ain’t what it used to be.

Someone explain to us again why imposing campaign finance limits in Missouri is a bad idea.

So, who’s going to get propped up this time? And who’s really doing the propping?

Previously:

Campaign Finance: one last big money dump (November 5, 2012)

Campaign Finance: We got your $50,000.00 right here to make it an even half a million… (November 2, 2012)

Celebrate the grassroots! Not exactly, if you’re a republican… (October 30, 2012)

Campaign Finance: Celebrate the grassroots! (October 28, 2012)

After visiting the Democratic Party tent at our local street fair this morning we went looking for the republicans. At first glance we thought we found them:

While an apt description of the majority party in control of the Missouri General Assembly, it turns out this street vendor was just literally selling nuts.

The past few days, at the Missouri Ethics Commission, from Ron Richard’s (r) campaign committee:

C061710 08/20/2014 COMMITTEE TO ELECT TOM FLANIGAN COMMITTEE TO ELECT RON RICHARD PO BOX 2523 Joplin MO 64803 8/20/2014 $5,975.00

C091287 08/20/2014 ELECT BILL WHITE Committee to Elect Ron RIchard PO Box 2523 Joplin MO 64804 8/20/2014 $5,975.00

C091243 08/20/2014 FRIENDS TO ELECT BILL LANT Committee to Elect Ron Richard P.O.Box 2523 Joplin MO 64803 8/20/2014 $5,975.00

C091060 08/20/2014 MISSOURI FOR CHARLIE DAVIS Committee to Elect Ron Richard Po Box 2523 Joplin MO 64803 8/20/2014 $5,975.00

C091096 08/21/2014 FRIENDS TO ELECT BILL REIBOLDT Committee to Elect Ron Richard PO Box 2523 Joplin MO 64803 8/21/2014 $5,975.00

[emphasis added]

That’s gotta make it more difficult to balance the check book.

No one can say my woman in congress, Rep. Ann Wagner (R-2), isn’t attentive to her constituents. She sends out a regular email newsletter, Ann’s Weekly Roundup, for those who care enough to sign up. This week Rep. Wagner was at pains to disabuse us of any suspicion that she and her GOP colleagues in the House have anything to do with that “do-nothing” congress we’ve heard about:

The American people want solutions.  I have defined myself through my own actions as someone who gets the job done.  Since being sworn-in to be your representative – I have passed four bills, in bipartisan fashion, out of the House of Representatives, which is a major accomplishment.

There is a lot of talk about this do-nothing Congress, but that catch phrase doesn’t ring true with my solutions.  To learn more about my bills, and the 350 other pieces of legislation that are stuck in Senator Harry Reid’s do-nothing senate, please click here.

Let’s take Rep. Wagner’s legislative achievements first. Out of the ten bills she introduced during 2013-14, her most prominent achievements have been efforts to rename post offices, four of them to be exact, in her district. Then there’s the Webster University Centennial commemoration. Of course, all congressmen and women have to make these symbolic gestures to the folks back home and spending time on such trivial pursuits is a universal part of political life. Nobody whould ever hold them against Wagner as long as she manages to effectively represent our interests otherwise.

It’s this last point that makes it so dispiriting when one takes a close look at the “solutions” Rep. Wagner thinks the American people want when she goes about getting the “job done.” Notice she doesn’t tell us in her newsletter just what jobs it was she personally took on. Best I can tell, the lions share of her serious work in congress is shilling for financial and other big corporate interests.

Consider three of the remaining bills Wagner introduced. As we noted in an earlier post, HR 2374 is a shameless effort to return financial regulation to the pre-2008 days that resulted in the Bush recession; it aspired to weaken Dodd-Frank “in such a way that it curtails the ability of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Labor (DOL) to make rules that protect investors.” Her HR1626 is aimed at reducing financial transparency requirements, seeking to amend “the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to prohibit the Securities and Exchange Commission from requiring the disclosure by an issuer of any political expenditure.” Then there’s HR5300 which would weaken the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate coal-fired electricity generation.

On one hand, you could conclude that these kinds of corporate favors  masquerading as responsible lawmaking make “do-nothing” seem kind of nice in comparison. On the other hand, though, since Wagner has known from the get go that these bills would never make it alive out of the Senate, they smack of “do-nothing” in the waste of time sense of the word. If she really wanted to get a worthwhile “job done,” instead of pandering to the moneyed interests she tries so hard to represent, she might have gotten her hands dirty and worked on some of the urgent problems the nation faces, helping craft the knd of compromise that might have had a chance of success. She could have used her leadership position to bring some of the crazies around to a more reasonable frame of mind rather than capitulating totally to the GOP looney-tunes wing, which, when one reviews Wagner’s votes and public statements, seems to be the course she chose.  From the costly (to tax-payers) government shut-down to the Ryan Budget, Ann was there, doing her part.

Almost all the House bills that Wagner alludes to when she talks about “350 other pieces of legislation that are stuck in Senator Harry Reid’s do-nothing senate,” represent just this type of time-wasting posturing. If you click on the link that Wagner provided, you’ll see efforts to repeal Obamacare, to weaken Obamacare, to destroy governmental regulatory power, and numerous other flagrant big business giveaways. There’s also HCR 96, Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity Budget, that attempts to privatize and weaken Social Security and Medicare. Bet Wagner et al. are really proud of that – and I’m not being sarcastic.

After looking at this list of stalled GOP legislation, I can only thank God for Harry Reid. I also think it demonstrates that the “do-nothing” label belongs squarely on the shoulders of the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives, which now includes Rep. Wagner herself. Only fools and charlatans would pretend that any of these bills were realistic efforts to govern in a divided Washington. They serve only to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Wagner and her GOP pals have done little or nothing during their time in Washington besides pander to a base that has the sanest GOPers panicked and the craziest all adrenalized and raring to go. Wagner needs to wake up and realize that it’s a little late to try to escape the taint she’s acquired by her enthusiastic participation in the obstructionism and pandering that has characteried the GOP-dominated House.  

State Representative Lyndall Fraker (r) on the funding of republican primary challenges in the House:

Rep. Lyndall Fraker ‏@Fraker4Mo

Mo club for growth continues to slander conservative mo house members spending over a 1/2 mil $ in 4 races. #whoarethefiscalliberals? 9:56 PM – 1 Aug 2014

You can thank Rex Sinquefield.

During the next legislative session we’ll be eagerly looking for Representative Fraker’s (r) ethics reform bill limiting campaign contributions.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: when right wingnut isn’t right enough (June 20, 2014)

Campaign Finance: there is another (June 20, 2014)

Campaign Finance: he really likes him (June 23, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Next! (June 24, 2012)

Campaign Finance: same difference (July 22, 2014)

It’s amateur night at the Apollo.

Signs for the candidates in the republican primary for Johnson County Prosecuting Attorney –

Lynn Stoppy (the incumbent) and Rob Russell (the challenger).

I’m usually the first person in line to yell “Fight!” and elbow my way to a good vantage point so as to fully enjoy the spectacle of a republican primary. The republican primary for Johnson County Prosecutor is no exception.

Tonight’s Warrensburg Daily Star Journal had a number of large color ads (expensive) for candidates in Tuesday’s primary. There’s a large ad paid for by “Missourian’s for Justice”, a PAC, opposed to the reelection of Johnson County Prosecutor Lynn Stoppy (r) and, of course, a large ad by Lynn Stoppy’s campaign taking issue with the PAC’s assertions.

Warrensburg Daily Star Jounal ads for the “Missourians for Justice” PAC (left)

and Johnson County Prosecutor Lynn Stoppy (r) (right) – August 1, 2014.

Newspaper ads are expensive. They are not particularly effective. Yard signs are just as bad. Dollar for dollar a campaign reaches more people far more effectively with direct mail. I’m not particularly interested in schooling republicans on efficient campaign technique and I wouldn’t do so if there was a Democratic Party candidate running in the November General Election. Think about that for a moment.

The people who deal with a county prosecutor on a regular basis (attorneys and law enforcement) want someone who does a good job. They’re not particularly interested in any other criteria. If they can do their jobs without any extraneous grief they’re happy. So, when an incumbent county prosecutor draws a primary and a PAC is paying for ads against that incumbent people should take notice. Do we have any idea why there’s a primary challenge? Not really. All we know from the ad is that someone is unhappy.

The PAC:

C141349: Missourians For Justice

1402 Young Circle Committee Type: Political Action

Raymore Mo 64083

[….] Established Date: 06/02/2014

On July 22, 2014 the PAC filed an “Amended Statement of Committee Organization” stating that it was opposed to the reelection of Johnson County Prosecutor Lynn Stoppy (r).

And who is funding the PAC?:

MISSOURI ETHICS COMMISSION

CONTRIBUTIONS AND LOANS RECEIVED

MISSOURIANS FOR JUSTICE [pdf] 7/12/2014

12. TOTAL ANONYMOUS CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSON GIVING $25 OR LESS $0.00

13. TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS GIVING $100 OR LESS $500.00

Todd Branson 1402 Young Circle Raymore MO 64083 self — mortgage lending 6/1/2014 $100.00

Michael Hanna PO Box 812 Warrensburg MO 64093 self — dentist 6/13/2014 $500.00

Marguerite Hanna 991 Mitchell St. Warrensburg MO 64093 retired 6/12/2014 $500.00

Barbara Rhodes 1005 Plaza Pl Warrensburg MO 64093 retired 6/24/2014 $650.00

Stephen Angle 233 NE 51 Warrensburg MO 64093 self — attorney 6/19/2014 $500.00

Vest Drive Apartments 223 E. Market St. Warrensburg MO 64093 6/13/2014 $500.00

[emphasis added]

That’s not particularly informative, other than the small number of individuals involved.

We took a shot in the dark and looked at the Missouri Secretary of State web site for business filings:

Name(s) Vest Drive Apartments, LLC Address

Type Limited Liability Company Charter No. LC0541674

Domesticity Domestic

Registered Agent

Hanna, Jeffery A.

223 East Market St.

Warrensburg, MO 64093

Status Active

Date Formed 9/17/2003

Interesting.

Previously:

All national politics is local (July 1, 2014)

Correlation, causality, stupidity, paranoia – part 2 (August 3, 2013)

Correlation, causality, stupidity, paranoia (August 2, 2013)

The Johnson County recount case is finally over – for sure, sort of – part 2 (February 25, 2009)

Today, via Twitter:

Tony Messenger ‏@tonymess

Every day @EdMartin4MO and @ToddAkin are in the news is a bad day for the @missourigop. 2:35 PM – 10 Jul 2014

You had better believe it.

There’s a primary election in August. The large campaign signs have been springing up like mushrooms.

Signs for the candidates in the republican primary for Johnson County Prosecuting Attorney –

Lynn Stoppy (the incumbent) and Rob Russell (the challenger).

Johnson County is a relatively small county and as such, has a relatively small population of attorneys. Among the essential qualifications to be eligible to be a county’s prosecuting attorney one must “…be a person learned in the law, duly licensed to practice as an attorney at law in this state, and enrolled as such…” The pool of potential candidates is very small when compared to the general population. In addition, an attorney in private practice who resides in any particular county is confronted with a powerful economic disincentive in making the decision to run for prosecuting attorney. The pay, while good, does not generally compare to what they can earn in private practice.

With a small pool of potential candidates, made even smaller by the economic disincentive, it can be a rare occurrence to have an incumbent prosecuting attorney in a smallish county challenged in the primary. When it does happen we tend ask, what’s up with that?

Johnson County Prosecuting Attorney Lynn Stoppy is facing a challenge in the republican primary from Rob Russell. We have no real idea of the why.

In our present political environment we need to remember that all national politics is local. Almost a year ago in Warrensburg, the Johnson County seat:

Correlation, causality, stupidity, paranoia (August 2, 2013)

Apparently, if you read the Internets, a Saudi national accused of a murder in Warrensburg had the charges against him dismissed by an elected republican prosecutor in the courtroom of a now republican circuit judge because President Obama personally intervened in the case when he visited town last week….

Lynn Stoppy has been the Johnson County Prosecuting Attorney since January 2007.

Previously:

Correlation, causality, stupidity, paranoia – part 2 (August 3, 2013)

Correlation, causality, stupidity, paranoia (August 2, 2013)

The Johnson County recount case is finally over – for sure, sort of – part 2 (February 25, 2009)