Friday, October 5, 2007

Campaign Contribution Update


We all know that the Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that the statute allowing unlimited campaign contributions is unconstitutional.

Missouri Political News Service (an organization that has taken its fair (or unfair)share of pot shots from this blog) is reporting an EXCLUSIVE story that Todd Graves (brother of Congressman Sam Graves) sent an 11 page letter to the Ethics Commission telling them why they lack the power to tell candidates to return excess contributions. I hate to do this, but good story, MPNS
The entire letter from Graves to the Ethics Commission is attached.

Todd Graves' letter is a very well written, thoughtful piece of legal advocacy - yet, I disagree. I assume when a lawyer sends something on his or her firm letterhead it means that they are being paid. Wonder who hired Graves? Many important political folks have hired the firm, including Jeff Roe when he got sued. Matt Blunt has the most to gain. Jay Nixon and Jeff Harris have already said they will return contributions in excess of the campaign limits. Chris Koster - the other person who stands to get hurt if donations must be returned - is now a Democrat, so I trust that he wouldn't hire a firm of high profile Republicans. Maybe a big Blunt donor?

Any thoughts on who the mystery client is?

2 comments:

Sophia X said...

I wouldn't assume there is a client. Could be a loss leader. Using the firm stationary is appropriate because he's writing in his capacity as an attorney and offering a legal opinion.

I do think it's kind of funny that the signature block has Greim's name too. Way to represent your work product, associate!

Anonymous said...

How much you want to bet they found a Democrat to play show horse? A newly minted one or morally weak one.