Tuesday, January 19, 2010

A forgotten area that needs to be emphasized in ethics reform legislation

One of the primary reasons why only cosmetic changes have been made in laws governing the actions of lobbyists in Missouri is a simple one- legislators and elected officials rely on the lobbyists for their campaign contributions.

That does not mean you will see hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of contributions under the lobbyists' names. That is now how the game works. The lobbyists bundle contributions from their clients which gives them an open door to elected officials, and more importantly, an open ear.

Many politicians take pains on their quarterly disclosure report to hide the practice of lobbyists providing contributions for their clients, but not Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield.

Her January report offers not only the names of the contributors, but the lobbyists from whom those contributions were received:

Those included:

Altria Client Services, Eric Donaldson and Andrew Blunt, $2,000
Bank of America- Patricia Holden and John Bardgett $675
Missouri Association of Insurance Agents, Gary Burton, $500
Missouri Dental Hygienist PAC, John Bardgett $500
Missouri Manufactured Housing PAC, Gary Burton, $500
Monsanto, Duane Simpson and Tricia Workman, $500
Norfolk Southern Corp. Gamble & Schlemeier, $250
Pfizer, Drue Duncan, $750
Wal-Mart- Ryan Horn and Jorgen Schlemeier $1,000
Harvey Tettlebaum (lobbyist) $100
Ameren UE Pac, Matt Forck, $1,500
Missouri Hospital Association, David Hale and Brent Evans, $500
AT&T Missouri, John Sondag, $750
Express Scripts, Inc., Rodney Boyd, $1,000

The fact that Mrs. Cunningham places this information in your disclosure report is to be commended.

The self-serving comments of legislators who claim their vote cannot be bought for a sandwich are not. What lobbyists do goes far beyond meals and drinks. And nobody, not the legislators who are considering these bills nor the reporters who have largely ignored them or made fun of them, is talking about it.

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