Sunday, May 02, 2010

Humphreys' contributions to Show Me Better Courts up to $400,000

Hoping to make a transfer from Missouri's much-praised judicial selection process to giving the states the best judges money can buy, David Humphreys of TAMKO in Joplin contributed another $150,000 to Show Me Better Courts April 30, according to a 48-hour filing with the Missouri Ethics Commission.

Humphreys contributed $100,000 earlier in the week and has now contributed $400,000 overall, according to Ethics Commission records.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

randy
they are doing petitions. i was approached friday in sarcoxie. the lady did not know much about it when i quizzed her. its fairly deceiving petition, basically focusing on term limits. i was given a name, missourians for better courts, which i could find no info about until i read your blog. when i wanted more info the lady left to go to the senior center.
you can bet if humphreys is sponsoring its not good for the average guy.

Anonymous said...

it doesn't bug me so much when private citizens spend the money they've earned on issues they believe have merit. What really bugs me is that we are forced (through taxes) to pay public school teacher salaries so they can educate our children, and a portion of that tax money they receive as pay goes to union dues. Essentially, a portion of my tax dollars doesn't end up educationg children, but funding teacher unions that work against my interests. The NEA just gave $41,000 to a group called Missouri Early Vote. What's that? Why is it funded with tax dollars? Teachers are members of that union, and their salaries are paid with tax dollars, so the group, in my opinion, is funded with tax dollars. NEA, on its legislative action page, says Missouri is slated to lose 700 teacher jobs, and that NEA is fighting a "fair tax" issue in Missouri that would impact state revenue.
Maybe instead of freezing teacher raises and eliminating positions, the state could just cut the portion of a teacher's salary that goes to the teacher unions until the state's revenue situation improves.

Randy said...

Teachers are not required to join any organizations in the state of Missouri. So this is not of matter of tax dollars automatically going into union coffers. Teachers, just like anyone else in this state, have the right to decide how to spend their money. There is a big difference between teachers paying dues to an organization that represents their interests and one man paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to influence politicians and voters. That is not freedom of speech, as proponents claim, that is the same type of corruption of the system that has led the country into its current economic situation.

Anonymous said...

Of the 1.6 million that this group raised in support of its campaign, Humphreys donated a huge amount, so did the Herzog Contracting Corp. out of St. Joseph, MO -- which donated $275,000 to the cause.

Strange that the Show Me Better Courts "citizen initiative" was only supported financially by 10 or so citizens, with 2 extremely wealthy ones leading the charge. The rest of the money came from shadowy, barely-existent front corporations.