Compared to the millions he has been pumping into state and national political contests, $6,400 may not seem like much, but that's the amount billionaire Rex Sinquefield of the educational voucher-supporting Show-Me Institute dropped into Republican Steve Helms' unsuccessful effort to unseat Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, as 138th District State Representative.
The money came during the last week of the campaign in the same roundabout way special interests were using before campaign contribution limits were lifted. (And, of course, now they are back in place again.)
Missouri Ethics Commission documents show the Helms campaign received $3,200 on Oct. 30, 2006, from the 140th District Legislative Committee. Six days earlier, the 140th District Committee received $9,600 contribution from Sinquefield. It contributed $6,400 to the 12th District Legislative Committee, with the other $3,200 going to the Helms campaign.
The 12th District turned around and gave $3,200 to the Helms campaign, with the other $3,200 going to Rep. Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles' re-election campaign. Helms may have received even more money from Sinquefield, since he also picked up the same amount, $3,200 from the 23rd District Legislative Committee, which received money from the Missouri Republican Party, which had received an $80,000 contribution from Sinquefield, and the Senate Majority Fund,which received $50,000 from Sinquefield in September and $100,000 during 2006.
With that money, Helms paid Feather, Larson, and Synhorst (FLI), a Phoenix, Arizona firm headed by Sarcoxie native Tony Feather, to make automated phone calls. The company has a reputation for creating phony groups to boost its causes. Feather also serves as a lobbyist for Advocates for School Choice.
Just after the Helms campaign received the Sinquefield money, a fictitious group called Missouri Citizens for Ethics began making automated phone calls in the 138th District accusing Ms. Lampe of accepting illegal campaign contributions, a specious claim based on a complaint filed with the Ethics Commission on Oct. 23, 2006.
The group claims to be interested in revealing ethics violations against any candidate who makes them, but the only case mentioned on its website is the one Lampe violation. That case, by the way was dismissed by the Ethics Commission on Nov. 21, after it was found to be unsubstantiated.
Helms' disclosure report also indicates he spent $9,066.43 on last-minute advertising with the Springfield News-Leader.
1 comment:
How interesting. I'm in Lampe's district and I voted for her. Some of that $$$ probably paid for an eleventh hour Gay bashing mailing that I received-a large picture postcard with a really creepy photograph of (Lesbian??)women on the front. The written message was a nasty reference to Lampe's support of Gay rights. Regardless of how one stands on that issue, hate mongering to gain votes in intolerable. And all women should have been offended by Helms stooping to exploit women by using an offensive photo of females in his political quest.
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