Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The one thing we can agree on . . .

Got this press release emailed to me by the Bipartisan Coalition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 2008

Marion Eisen 314-454-1371
Senator Scott Rupp 636-357-3600
Senator Maida Coleman 314-761-3288


Bipartisan Coalition files Ethics Complaint against Koster Laundering Scheme - Republicans and Democrats call for Quick and Thorough Investigation


ST. LOUIS - State Senators Scott Rupp (R-2) and Maida Coleman (D-8) joined today with former Assistant Attorney General Marion Eisen, a Democratic lawyer from St. Louis in filing an ethics complaint against Chris Koster's campaign for Attorney General. In an unprecedented move, the bipartisan complaint alleges that Chris Koster illegally coordinated the funneling of contributions in excess of campaign finance limits into his own campaign fund.

"Creating the Economic Growth Council, whose sole purpose was to redirect contributions in excess of the legal limits. First to legislative party committees and ultimately into his campaign violates the law" said Senator Scott Rupp.

"Candidates for Attorney General should be held to highest legal and ethical standard and the questions raised in last week's Associated Press report suggest that Mr. Koster violated the people's trust" said Senator Coleman.

"A thorough and timely investigation is warranted here so the people of Missouri know whether a candidate for the States top law enforcement position violated the law and cheated Missourians out of a fair primary election," added Marion Eisen.

The fundraising activities of Chris Koster's campaign have been the subject of recent media reports that detailed how a campaign staffer was involved in carrying out a scheme to make sure that returned "over the limit" contributions would find their way back into the Koster Attorney General campaign. According to those media reports, first reported by the Associated Press and David Lieb, Susan McNay, a senior staffer on the Koster campaign was directed to various locations across the state delivering checks from the newly created Economic Growth Council to legislative party committees, which in turn handed over checks to the Koster campaign.

"Koster claims he received guidance and the OK from the Missouri Ethics Commission every step of the way," said the coalition. "If that is true then there is no reason to deny a prompt response to our complaint, and thereby restore public confidence in this tainted election process," the coalition added.

In the complaint the coalition also calls on the Missouri Ethics Commission to freeze the use of the funds received by the Koster for Missouri campaign from the Economic Growth Council.

8 comments:

Phil Cardarella said...

If the CCP is really the reform organization we claim, we need to do more than just BS about this on our blog. We need to loudly and publicly condemn this.

Forchrissake! The guy is running for ATTORNEY GENERAL! The best spin on this is such a level of ethical blindness that would disqualify one to be the chief law enforcement officer (as opposed to prosecutor) of the State. And that is the most charitable interpretation of events.

Whether you support Harris (who the CCP endorsed) or Donnelly -- or for that matter Molly Williams -- or if you are just an embarrassed Koster person -- you should be outraged. It is time to make that outrage public, if we are to have any credibility in the future.

Anonymous said...

Phil...

That may be hard to do when the CCP has one of their own facing an ethics violation.

Stephen Bough used Dale Young's MOBAR e-mail list to send a request for campaign donations for Joan Barry to a Xload of people, including judges (at their government e-mail address).

In case you forgot; here's a link.

Dan said...

Jim, Jim, Jim,

Is this part of your claim that judges are tyrants, or dictators, or whatever your overwrought imagination thinks they are?

You do realize, don't you, that there is no prohibition on emailing judges and soliciting funds? Now, the judges cannot use their email accounts to do the same, but sending them an email does not an ethics complaint make.

I kind of feel like I've wasted a few minutes of my life bothering to respond to your nonsense, but Colbert was on a commercial break . . .

Anonymous said...

Dan...

Are you really going to claim that an attorney's attempt to coerce judges into donating to a political campaign is an acceptable practice?

Is that an accepted activity of the profession?

***My Missouri Dictators PowerPoint Slideshow has been up for over a year now. However, to-date, you have failed to identify a single flaw in the information presented, nor have you provided rebuttal to my conclusion.

Dan said...

Jim - is emailing a request equivalent to coercion in your world?

As for not correcting your work, sorry, but there's no way I'm going to invest my time in reading through your incoherent rant. I gave it a quick glance once, saw what it was, and surfed on. It's not well-written, attractively laid out, or plausible.

I don't mind pointing out the flaws in your logic from time to time when you post them in places I read, but what's the point in arguing with a person who sincerely believes the we live in a dictatorship?

I read somewhere once (I wish I could remember where!) that if someone tells you that 2+2 is 5, you should go ahead and correct their mistake. But if someone tells you that 2+2 is 7,482.9734, don't try to correct them - they're working under an entirely different system.

whistleblower said...

"is emailing a request equivalent to coercion in your world?"

I never said it was. Did I? I stated that it is "an attempt to coerce"

Have people been convicted for attempting to coerce someone into unlawful activity? -You know they have!

Is a judge donating to a political campaign unlawful? -It sure is.

***As far as my Missouri Dictators presentation: It wasn't written with the intent of you being the only reader. In fact, I never did, nor do I now, expect you to digest the contents. People don’t like to challenge their faith, and an elitist, such as you, can’t take the chance of having to acknowledge that they were wrong. Your opinion does nothing to debunk its content, nor its reasonable conclusion. That's OK with me. I can't fix stupid. You must do that on your own.

Phil Cardarella said...

Does this mean Jim Bryne is Whistleblower?

Has carelessness solve a great mystery?

But back to the issue...

whistleblower said...

Phil...

I have not tried to hide my identity.

My "whistleblower" account has always linked to my website. At the end of my slideshow I state my name.

So..In response to your question; No, not an accident. I had posted a comment on another blog, that required an account to do so. My google account was saved from that post.