Koster Attacked by Dems

Chris Koster is getting it from all sides. Below is the text taken from Rep. John Burnett's newsletter, which was circulated on January 24, 2008.

Chris Koster was attacked this week by both of his Democrat rivals for Attorney General. Koster, the former Republican who switched parties recently to become a Democrat, voted with Republicans this week in the Senate to strip the contribution limits from the campaign laws and allow unlimited political donations. The bill was Senate Bill 1038. Only the Democrats voted against the bill. All Republicans joined by the new Democrat Koster voted for it.

Koster also walked out of a committee meeting to avoid a key vote on school vouchers. That ducking of the issue brought a blast from his rival State Rep Jeff Harris who said: " Koster is clearly finding it difficult to shed his long held Republican postilions - like his strong support of vouchers. Rather than let the voters know exactly where he stands on this pivotal issue involving funding for our schools, Koster ducked."

Two big issues - campaign limits and school vouchers. If Koster is running for the Democratic primary, he's sure making it rough on himself.

Vouchers and Open Enrollment, one politican at a time

Rex Sinquefield is on a mission; to buy enough politicians to get school vouchers and open enrollment in Missouri. Those ideas are the exact opposite of the alleged Republican principles of smaller government and local control. Who wants Matt Blunt running the North Kansas City school district?

You will recall a previous post on Buying Vouchers, One PAC at a Time. That one discussed how Rex set up 100 PACS to pass his money through since the Missouri Supreme Court struck down the unlimited contributions that the Republicans put in place. You will also remember the hub bub about Missouri School's getting a bad report grade from President Bush's Department of Education. Getting told by Bush - a guy who struggles with the English language - that your schools stink really hurts.

So here's the question, who has been benefiting from Sinquefield's mission to get school vouchers? Rep. Jerry Nolte? Sen. Luanne Ridgeway?

Buying Vouchers, One PAC at a Time

What's the hottest story coming out of the recent quarterly reports. No, it's not Jay Nixon raising more than Blunt when the caps are in effect. Its not even Dr. Sam Page having a great quarter. Its BILLIONAIRE Rex Sinquefield creating 100 PAC's and giving each of them $2,500 to get started. Yep, he just dropped $250,000 in to the old political bucket and quess who got almost half of it..

The Post did a pretty extensive write up on this extremely strange move. Why would someone do such a thing, even if they are worth a billion. Rex is the kind of guy that can and HAS written Blunt a hefty $100,000 check. As the Post pointed out, "A network of PACs, with each giving $1,275, would be a legal way for donors like Sinquefield to get around the limits while helping favored causes and candidates."

Who is Rex Sinquefield? Let's see what his friends say - "We just click on so many levels, on so many issues," said Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican who agrees with Sinquefield’s quest to abolish Missouri’s income tax. According to Wikipedia, Rex Sinquefield was the co-founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors and was its co-chairman until his retirement in 2005. In the 1970s, he did influential research on historical stock market returns and pioneered many of the nation's first index funds. Rex is a huge pro-voucher supporter.

Rex Sinquefield set up these 100 PACs and who got the money? Chris Koster. The Columbia Daily Tribune did a great job tracking Koster getting $99,450 from Rex's new PAC's. The Tribune also reported "the campaign spent $63,384.73 during the fundraising quarter, with bulk of that money going to Axiom Strategies - a firm run by GOP strategist Jeff Roe." Here's the link to Koster's recent MEC filing.

All Democrats want to welcome Senator Koster to the party. It's a big tent. Two issues that don't fit under our tent, however, are school vouchers and Jeff Roe. Expect an uproar from Harris and Donnelly about their position on school vouchers.