CBS President/CEO donates maximum to Blunt leadership committee; money may have been funneled to Fiorina

The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric aired a puff piece on the Roy Blunt-Robin Carnahan U. S. Senate race emphasizing how well Blunt was doing October 20, just five days before the company's president and CEO Les Moonves (shown with Ms. Couric) contributed the maximum $5,000 to Blunt's Rely on Your Beliefs PAC, according to documents filed this week with the Federal Election Commission.

And while Moonves is not in the CBS News Department he is the one who signs the checks.

The FEC filing shows Rely on Your Beliefs contributed $5,000 to Republican U. S. Senate Carly Fiorina of California two days later. The maximum an individual can contribute to a candidate for one election is $2,400, but political action committees are allowed to give up to $5,000. Moonves is a California resident.

Ms. Fiorina is not the only candidate to receive a $5,000 boost from Blunt's leadership PAC. The filing shows he also gave the maximum amount to two Missouri Congressional candidates, Vicky Hartzler, who unseated 17-term incumbent Ike Skelton in the Fourth District, and Ed Martin, the former chief of staff for Blunt's son, Matt. Martin lost to Democrat Russ Carnahan.

Others receiving $5,000 contributions from the Rely on Your Beliefs PAC were successful Senatorial candidates Rand Paul of Kentucky and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and losing candidates Dino Rossi of Washington and Ken Buck of Colorado.

Blunt PAC taps lobbyists for big bucks

Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt appears to have no concerns about calls for reform in Washington. D. C.
Documents filed with the Federal Election Commission by the congressman's Rely on Your Beliefs PAC showed that out of $45,500 in individual contributions the PAC received in May, more than $40,000 came from lobbyists.
In addition to the $45,500, the PAC received $224,500 in corporate and PAC contributions during the month.
At least 20 members of the lobbying firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding contributed $200 apiece. The firm represents Nucor, Verizon, Kansas City Southern, Qwest, Aquila, Motorola, and Gannett, among other clients.
Other lobbyists contributing the PAC include:
-Michael Bates, lobbyist for Bell South, $2,500
-John Cline of the C2 Group, which represents Pepsi Co and Fannie Mae, $1,500
-Thomas Crawford of the C2 Group, $1,000
-Douglas Davenport of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, which represents Bell South.
-Sarcoxie native Tony Feather of Feather, Larson & Synhorst, whose clients include AT&T, General Motors, Teamsters, and Advocates for School Choice, $1,000
-G. O. Griffith of Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, represents Bell South, Delta, GlaxoSmithKline, $1,500
-Richard Hohlt, lobbyist for Altria, Bristol Myers, Chevron, and Sallie Mae, $5,000
-Brant Imperatore of Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, $500
-Nelson Litterst, former White House aide, now working for C2 Group, $2,000
-John O'Rourke, lobbyist for Securities Funding Associates, $5,000
-Andrew Shore of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, representing Harrah's Casinos, Atlantic City Coin and Slot Service, Cottonwood Financial, State Farm, $5,000
-Karen Smith, lobbyist for Proctor & Gamble, $2,500
-John Veroneau, former aide to Sen. Bill Frist and to former Senator William Cohen, now works for Cohen's lobbying firm, $5,000
It should be mentioned that not only were none of these people described as a lobbyist in the place on the forms for employment, but no employment at all was listed.

Among the PACS contributing to the Rely on Your Beliefs PAC were: Burlington Northern $5,000, American Hospital Association $2,500, American Express $2,500, American Council of Life Insurance $5,000; American Apparel and Footwear $5,000, Capital One Associates $5,000, Cash America International $5,000, Charles Schwab Corp. $2,500, Chicago Board of Trade $5,000, Edison International $2,500, Ernst & Young $2,500, Financial Services Roundtable $5,000, GE PAC $2,500, J. P. Morgan Chase & Co $5,000, Mastercard Employees $5,000, Merrill Lynch & Co. $5,000, Met Life Employees PAC $2,500, Morgan Stanley $2,500, Mortgage Bankers Association $5,000, New York Mercantile Exchange $5,000, New York Stock Exchange $2,500, Northwestern Mutual Life Federal PAC $5,000, R. J. Reynolds $2,500, Sallie Mae, $5,000, US Bancorp $5,000, Wachavia Group $5,000

The Rely on Your Beliefs PAC donated money to three Congressional races, including the successful efforts of Brian Bilbay to win the Congressional seat formerly held by Duke Cunningham, who is in prison after pleading guilty to accepting bribes. The Blunt PAC donated $5,000 to that race and $1,200 to the California Republican Party.
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Crooks, pervert benefit from Blunt connection to lobbyists

For the past several days, I have  been amazed at the attempts by Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt and the Missouri Republican Party to use references to lobbyists to drag down Blunt's opponent for U. S. Senate, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.

I have noted that Blunt is the last person who should even want the word lobbyist mentioned during this election. Over the past several years, I have written numerous times about some less than savory connections between Blunt and lobbyists.

One has been Blunt's leadership PAC, Rely on Your Beliefs. If your beliefs are soaking in money from lobbyists, by way of direct contribution and through bundled donations funneled from special interests through lobbyists, then Blunt is certainly relying on them.

Some of that money, as I first noted in the September 30, 2006, Turner Report, has found its way to some people whose value systems are a far cry from most of us in southwest Missouri:

It's a tale of four Congressmen whose ethics have been called into question. One allegedly assaulted a woman, was sued by her, and eventually settled out of court.


Another sent suggestive e-mails to teenage boys who were working as House pages. A third is being pressured to resign after he admitted taking bribes, while the fourth has already resigned and has been indicted for money laundering.

The common denominator- All four have received hefty contributions from Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt's Rely on Your Beliefs PAC.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) documents show the PAC contributed $10,000 this year alone to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, $5,000 on Feb. 15 and another $5,000 on March 29.

Florida Congressman Mark Foley, who resigned earlier this week, missed by only one dollar receiving $5,000 from the Blunt PAC this year, the FEC documents indicate. Foley received $3,958 on April 28 and another $1,041 on the same day. The PAC contributed $2,000 to Foley in 2003 and made in-kind contributions of airline travel for the Congressman on two occasions in 2000, adding up to $3,976.

Two embattled Ohio Republicans also benefited from the Blunt PAC's generosity. Robert Ney received $5,000 on March 29 and has picked up $14,000 since 1999, the FEC documents indicate, while Donald Sherwood has collected $10,000 from the PAC, including a $5,000 contribution as recently as Sept. 29, 2005.

To the names of those four Congressman, you can add a $5,000 contribution on Feb. 9, 2006, to the re-election campaign of Montana Sen. Conrad Burns, who is in a tight battle thanks to revelations of his connections with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Mark Foley

Mark Foley resigned from Congress earlier this week after ABC News confirmed he had written inappropriate e-mails to male Congressional pages. This passage was included in a Newsweek article posted less than a half hour ago:

"Foley's sexual leanings were also well known, or at least suspected, by a particularly vulnerable group on Capitol Hill. Every year Congress hires about 100 pages, who can be seen in their distinctive blue uniforms scurrying through the halls, running errands for lawmakers. The pages have been embroiled in earlier sex scandals. In 1983, a pair of congressmen admitted to sexual relations with underage pages (one with a girl, one with a boy). After that, the pages were housed in a dormitory and fairly closely chaperoned. A former female page, who asked not to be identified to protect her privacy, told NEWSWEEK that she and other pages had regularly seen Foley stop and talk to pages on the House floor and in the cloakroom, lingering with them and asking them to describe their experiences in Congress. 'We just gradually figured out he was flirting with the guys,' said the page. 'It made a lot of the guys uneasy. He was kind of creepy.' "

Donald Sherwood

Donald Sherwood's problems were outlined in a recent article in the New Republic:

"In 1999, at a Young Republicans event, he met Cynthia Ore, a Peruvian-American grocery-store heiress and aspiring Hill intern in her early twenties. She was attracted to his salt-of-the-earth charm. "Guys in D.C. try to be so suave," she later recalled in a newspaper interview. 'They drive Bentleys and Ferraris. Don has a truck.'

"But, by September 15, 2004, Sherwood's country charm had worn thin. That was the day Ore called the police from the bathroom of his apartment in Hill House, claiming he had tried to throttle her. When the police arrived, Sherwood protested that he'd merely been giving Ore a vigorous backrub. The police, for their part, determined that Ore did not seem to be "of sound mind." A year later, after their report was made public, Ore sued Sherwood for $5.5 million, but the matter was dispatched with a settlement."

Whether Sherwood was really choking or massaging may never be known. But the episode, while no Chappaquiddick, was pretty sordid for the Tenth. "Nobody has any morals anymore," one constituent lamented in the local paper. And yet, Sherwood vowed to run again.
Robert Ney

Bob Ney, under investigation over the past several months for his connection to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pleaded guilty Sept. 15 to conspiracy and lying to Congress. He admitted to providing services to lobbyists in exchange for gifts and money:

Indeed, Ney's downfall began in South Florida, where he had used his congressional influence to sway the sale of SunCruz Casinos to Abramoff and his New York partner Adam Kidan.

The SunCruz case against Abramoff and Kidan gave Justice Department officials the leverage to pressure the lobbyist to turn on other colleagues, congressional aides and politicians early this year.

The charges against Ney are based primarily on his behind-the-scenes work for Abramoff's Indian tribal clients and for a foreign businessman who gave him tens of thousands of dollars in casino chips and cash. But the charges also include the lawmaker's unusual tactics to help the lobbyist purchase the Dania Beach-based SunCruz gambling fleet.

Tom DeLay

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay resigned after being indicted for illegally using corporate funds in Texas political campaigns. DeLay was also connected with Jack Abramoff and one DeLay aide, Tony Rudy, has already pleaded guilty to conspiring to corrupt public officials.

Messenger misses point on New York Times' Blunt column

While I have been appreciative of the levelheaded fairminded attitude Tony Messenger has brought to his new position as Springfield News-Leader editorial page editor, I have to disagree with his take on this week's New York Times column criticizing Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt.
Messenger claims some of the criticisms of the congressman are "old news" and that Blunt's personal life, in other words his divorce and marriage to a powerful Phillip Morris lobbyist, are not proper areas for criticism.

This argument that Blunt's private life should remain just that is one with which I would normally agree, but not in this case. Altria (the Phillip Morris company) and its subsidiaries have poured considerable money into Missouri political races and into Congressman Blunt's campaign coffers, as well as putting money into Blunt's "Rely on Your Beliefs" fund, which has sent money to Republicans across the nation (including to such notables as Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, and Mark Foley). In just the past few months, the clients of Mrs. Blunt and Blunt's son, Andrew, have steered more than $100,000 into the Seventh District Congressional Committee.

This is all in public records, there for anyone to obtain, but the simple fact is most people do not take the time or the effort to obtain them, and they should not have to be doing so.

The media claims that it is in the business of representing the people, yet as far as I can recall, I never read anything about Roy Blunt's second marriage in either the Joplin Globe or the Springfield News-Leader at the time when it was happening.

I do not recall reading anything in either of this region's two major newspapers about Blunt's secretive unsuccessful attempt to slip a provision into the Homeland Security Act dealing with contraband cigarettes, a provision which I might add would greatly benefit his wife's client.

I do not recall reading in either of those newspapers that the Rely on Your Beliefs fund contributed $12,000 to DeLay's defense fund.

I have no problem with our area newspapers proclaiming the funding that Blunt has brought to the Seventh District, but they also have the responsibility of giving full disclosure about the congressman's activities.

Tony Messenger's mention of the New York Times column is a commendable step in the right direction, but he needs to re-examine his thinking about Blunt and his wife. Roy Blunt's second marriage and his K Street activities have had a dramatic impact in Washington and in Missouri.

Times editorial: Ban leadership funds

Today's New York Times features an editorial calling for an end to the so-called "leadership" PACS established by members of Congress to sock away more money from lobbyists:

Critics in Congress know the free-flowing PACs, as the next big scandal waiting in the wings, should be banned under campaign finance law. The leaders of the House Democratic campaign committee, in fact, have already canceled the committee’s annual ski weekend for lobbyists. Members should follow suit and ban the grossly misnamed leadership PACs as a step toward serious campaign finance reform. "Only a moron would sell a vote for a $2,000 contribution," said one typical House member preoccupied with fund-raising. The comment unfortunately raises the question of what more tempting price might eventually emerge.

The June 27, 2006, Turner Report featured information on how Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt uses his "Rely on Your Beliefs" PAC to squeeze money out of lobbyists:

Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt appears to have no concerns about calls for reform in Washington. D. C. Documents filed with the Federal Election Commission by the congressman's Rely on Your Beliefs PAC showed that out of $45,500 in individual contributions the PAC received in May, more than $40,000 came from lobbyists.

Scandal-ridden Congressmen received lavish funding from Blunt PAC

It's a tale of four Congressmen whose ethics have been called into question. One allegedly assaulted a woman, was sued by her, and eventually settled out of court.
Another sent suggestive e-mails to teenage boys who were working as House pages. A third is being pressured to resign after he admitted taking bribes, while the fourth has already resigned and has been indicted for money laundering.
The common denominator- All four have received hefty contributions from Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt's Rely on Your Beliefs PAC.
Federal Election Commission (FEC) documents show the PAC contributed $10,000 this year alone to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, $5,000 on Feb. 15 and another $5,000 on March 29.
Florida Congressman Mark Foley, who resigned earlier this week, missed by only one dollar receiving $5,000 from the Blunt PAC this year, the FEC documents indicate. Foley received $3,958 on April 28 and another $1,041 on the same day. The PAC contributed $2,000 to Foley in 2003 and made in-kind contributions of airline travel for the Congressman on two occasions in 2000, adding up to $3,976.
Two embattled Ohio Republicans also benefited from the Blunt PAC's generosity. Robert Ney received $5,000 on March 29 and has picked up $14,000 since 1999, the FEC documents indicate, while Donald Sherwood has collected $10,000 from the PAC, including a $5,000 contribution as recently as Sept. 29, 2005.
To the names of those four Congressman, you can add a $5,000 contribution on Feb. 9, 2006, to the re-election campaign of Montana Sen. Conrad Burns, who is in a tight battle thanks to revelations of his connections with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Mark Foley
Mark Foley resigned from Congress earlier this week after ABC News confirmed he had written inappropriate e-mails to male Congressional pages. This passage was included in a Newsweek article posted less than a half hour ago:

Foley's sexual leanings were also well known, or at least suspected, by a particularly vulnerable group on Capitol Hill. Every year Congress hires about 100 pages, who can be seen in their distinctive blue uniforms scurrying through the halls, running errands for lawmakers. The pages have been embroiled in earlier sex scandals. In 1983, a pair of congressmen admitted to sexual relations with underage pages (one with a girl, one with a boy). After that, the pages were housed in a dormitory and fairly closely chaperoned. A former female page, who asked not to be identified to protect her privacy, told NEWSWEEK that she and other pages had regularly seen Foley stop and talk to pages on the House floor and in the cloakroom, lingering with them and asking them to describe their experiences in Congress. "We just gradually figured out he was flirting with the guys," said the page. "It made a lot of the guys uneasy. He was kind of creepy."

Donald Sherwood
Donald Sherwood's problems were outlined in a recent article in the New Republic:

In 1999, at a Young Republicans event, he met Cynthia Ore, a Peruvian-American grocery-store heiress and aspiring Hill intern in her early twenties. She was attracted to his salt-of-the-earth charm. "Guys in D.C. try to be so suave," she later recalled in a newspaper interview. "They drive Bentleys and Ferraris. Don has a truck."

But, by September 15, 2004, Sherwood's country charm had worn thin. That was the day Ore called the police from the bathroom of his apartment in Hill House, claiming he had tried to throttle her. When the police arrived, Sherwood protested that he'd merely been giving Ore a vigorous backrub. The police, for their part, determined that Ore did not seem to be "of sound mind." A year later, after their report was made public, Ore sued Sherwood for $5.5 million, but the matter was dispatched with a settlement.

Whether Sherwood was really choking or massaging may never be known. But the episode, while no Chappaquiddick, was pretty sordid for the Tenth. "Nobody has any morals anymore," one constituent lamented in the local paper. And yet, Sherwood vowed to run again.

Robert Ney
Bob Ney, under investigation over the past several months for his connection to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pleaded guilty Sept. 15 to conspiracy and lying to Congress. He admitted to providing services to lobbyists in exchange for gifts and money:

Indeed, Ney's downfall began in South Florida, where he had used his congressional influence to sway the sale of SunCruz Casinos to Abramoff and his New York partner Adam Kidan.

The SunCruz case against Abramoff and Kidan gave Justice Department officials the leverage to pressure the lobbyist to turn on other colleagues, congressional aides and politicians early this year.

The charges against Ney are based primarily on his behind-the-scenes work for Abramoff's Indian tribal clients and for a foreign businessman who gave him tens of thousands of dollars in casino chips and cash. But the charges also include the lawmaker's unusual tactics to help the lobbyist purchase the Dania Beach-based SunCruz gambling fleet.

Tom DeLay
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay resigned after being indicted for illegally using corporate funds in Texas political campaigns. DeLay was also connected with Jack Abramoff and one DeLay aide, Tony Rudy, has already pleaded guilty to conspiring to corrupt public officials.

(Photo: Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt and other House and Senate GOP leaders address the Foley problem during a news conference.)

The seduction of Roy Blunt

As I write this post, I await the righteous indignation of Missouri Republicans, who will feign outrage that I dared to strike a low blow at U. S. Senate candidate Roy Blunt, a man who has devoted his adult life to defending what he describes as “Missouri values.”


The post in question, which I put on The Turner Report late Wednesday night, has fewer words than probably any I have ever published.


The words didn’t really matter. The story was in the pictures.

After trying to maintain the high road in a 22-year journalism career and continuing to do so in my decade as a blogger by keeping politicians’ personal lives out of my stories, I decided it was time to break away from that lofty, but misguided rule.

As Roy Blunt tries to sell himself to Missouri Tea Party enthusiasts as a man who has fought the establishment during his 14 years in Congress and has never succumbed to the temptations of the Beltway, the two pictures tell a much different story.

The first picture came from a Christmas card, Congressman Blunt sent me during his early years in Washington. It is one of those family photos that politicians (and many others) like to send during the holiday season. It features Blunt with his wife at the time, Rosann, sons Matt (the future Missouri governor at that point) and Andrew and daughter Amy.

The second picture features a dressed to the nines Roy Blunt with his much younger second wife, Abigail Perlman, who is wearing an off-the-shoulder formal as they attend a Washington party.

Blunt’s second marriage to Ms. Perlman would normally not be enough to push me into breaking my long-standing rule. Though it’s a sad commentary, many men of Blunt’s age feel the need to trade in the loyal wives who stuck with them as they climbed the political ladder for younger models.

This situation, however, is more than just a repeat of that pathetic model. Ms. Perlman, despite her beauty, is not just some bubbleheaded babe who distracts a powerful politician from his impending mortality. She is also the lobbyist for Altria, a company that has poured hundreds of thousands into the Blunt campaign chest, into his Rely on Your Beliefs PAC, and into the Missouri campaigns of Blunt’s son, Matt. 

And in 2002, as it has been well documented, including during his U.S. Senate race with Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, Blunt, at the time the newly minted Minority Whip, attempted to slip into the Homeland Security Bill legislation that would benefit the tobacco company Ms. Perlman represents.

It has been written many times over the years that Blunt inserted the wording to the bill to help “his girlfriend” or “the woman he was dating.”

And while those assertions have never been questioned (Blunt has continued to insist the pro-tobacco legislation would have helped improve U. S. security), one fact has been conveniently left out of the reporting- at the time Roy Blunt, the bastion of Missouri values, was helping his lobbyist girlfriend, he was still married to another woman.

Court records show that Blunt and his first wife were not divorced until April 24, 2003. Blunt filed for divorce Aug. 8, 2002, during the time the legislation was being considered by the House. The Homeland Security Bill passed in November. Online court documents show that a legal separation was granted for the Blunts on Dec. 19, 2002, because the court found there was “a reasonable likelihood that the marriage can be preserved and it is not irretrievably broken.”

It obviously doesn’t help the preservation of your marriage when you are dating a younger woman, a lobbyist at that, and secretly inserting last minute amendments that would have done nothing to aid a country engaged in a war on terrorism, but would have done much to improve the bottom line of the company your girlfriend represents.

So when it came down to it, the decision process was not a difficult one. I could write two thousand words saying the same thing, but all it takes is two pictures to tell Missourians that Roy Blunt has succumbed to the sweet siren song of Washington, D. C.

He may speak Missouri values, but the evidence indicates those are just a memory.

***

If you appreciate the news, information and commentary about the Joplin area published daily in the Turner Report, Inside Joplin and Inside Joplin Obituaries, consider making a contribution at the PayPal button below or by sending your contribution to Randy Turner, 2306 E. 8th, Apt. A, Joplin, MO.

From Turner Report book: Blunt continues to rely on his belief in lobbyists

For those looking for a Christmas present for someone with an interest in Missouri politics, I not-so-modestly suggest The Turner Report, my first non-fiction book. A signing for the book will be held this Saturday, Dec. 8, 1 to 5 p.m. at Hastings Books, Music and Video in Joplin.
The book can also be purchased at Always Buying Books and Changing Hands Book Shop in Joplin, Books N Java in Neosho, and Pat's Books in Carthage, as well as from numerous internet outlets, including Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Following is an excerpt from the book's chapters examining the influence lobbyists and special interests play with the politics of Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt and his son, Governor Matt Blunt:

Though the Democratic Party has control over both Houses, little has changed about the way Roy Blunt’s Rely on Your Beliefs leadership PAC operates. During the first five months of 2007, the PAC had received $346,450 in contributions. Of that amount, only $23,950 came from individuals and nearly all of those were from registered lobbyists. The remaining money came from PACS, with many having the nerve to refer to themselves as “Good Government Funds.” It seems probable that in their dictionaries, “good government is defined as the government that helps to pad their pocketbooks.

The book also includes chapters on current Missouri politics, an in-depth examination of the pivotal 1992 Missouri gubernatorial election, which set the tone for the next 15 years by placing the Blunt and Carnahan families in control of the state's politics, as well as behind-the scenes coverage of many of the stories, both political and non-political I covered during my years at The Carthage Press and the Lamar Democrat.

House shines light on lobbyists' activity

The U. S. House of Representatives, by a 382 to 37 vote Thursday, passed a bill which will reveal the role lobbyists play in raising money for political candidates.
Among those voting for the legislation was Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt, one of those who has been most successful with using lobbyists to raise money for his own political campaign and for his Rely on Your Beliefs PAC, and Fourth District Congressman Ike Skelton.
The rest of Missouri's legislative contingent also voted for the bill, with the exception of Jo Ann Emerson, who was not present for the vote.

Lobbyists have an incentive to help raise millions for politicians since this kind of support obviously opens the door for them with the politicians and enables them to shape legislation in ways that serve their clients:

The measure goes to the heart of how Washington does business by uncovering a hidden practice that sprang up as an unintended consequence of restrictions imposed by campaign finance laws. Because those laws cap individual contributions — now $2,300 per campaign — candidates have been turning to well-connected lobbyists to bundle stacks of checks to make up the millions they need to run their campaigns.

Washington lobbyists hoping for access to lawmakers have the greatest incentive to shoulder such fund-raising burdens. But previous election rules required campaigns to disclose only their individual contributors, not the intermediaries who may have bundled them.

The proposed new rule could expose the heavy reliance of many in Congress on Washington lobbyists to raise money for their campaigns.

Also on Thursday, Congress passed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. The vote was

Extends from one to two years the ban on former senior and very senior executive personnel, former Members of Congress, legislative branch officers and employees, and such individuals who represent foreign entities from making lobbying contacts with any officer or employee of the entity in which such person served before his or her tenure terminated.

Requires public disclosure by Members of Congress and congressional staff of employment negotiations.

Subjects to fines and penalties a Member of Congress or a congressional employee who wrongfully influences, on a partisan basis, an entity's employment decisions or practices.

Amends the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (LDA) to require: (1) quarterly instead of semiannual filing of lobbying disclosures reports; (2) electronic filing; (3) disclosure of registered lobbyist contributions; (4) disclosure by registered lobbyists of all past executive and congressional employment; and (5) maintenance of certain lobbying disclosure information in an electronic data base, available to the public free of charge over the Internet.

Amends the LDA to prohibit a registered lobbyist from making a gift or providing travel to a Member, officer, or employee of Congress, unless the gift or travel may be accepted under the rules of the House of Representatives or the Senate.

Revises criteria, with regard to disclosure requirements, for determining a coalition or association of groups that retain a person to conduct lobbying activities.

Makes amendments made by this Act inapplicable to political committee activities described in the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.

Amends the LDA to increase the penalty for failure to comply with lobbying disclosure requirements.

Amends the Rules of the House to require a Member of the House to prohibit all of his or her staff from having any official contact with the Member's spouse if such individual is a registered lobbyist or is employed or retained by a registered lobbyist to influence legislation.

Requires the Clerk of the House to: (1) post certain travel and financial disclosure reports on the public Internet site of the Clerk's Office; and (2) maintain such information for at least six years after receiving such information.

Six of Missouri's nine House members voted among the 396 to 22 majority. Congressman William Clay voted against the bill, Kenny Hulshof voted "present" and Rep. Emerson was absent.

A review of the last six months

The connection between money and politics has always been a focal point of this blog and since The Turner Report has picked up a few hundred extra readers per day over the last several months, I thought I would provide a brief review of some of the investigative stories newer readers might have missed during the first half of 2006:

JANUARY

More about Gary Nodler and Ethics- This article revealed information of money poured into Gary Nodler's campaign coffers by Moark and its officials.


Hunter loses lobbyist gift title, no recount expected- This post unveiled the first Turner Report Wall of Shame with Rep. Mike Sutherland, R-Warrenton, slipping by Rep. Steve Hunter, R-Joplin, to take the dubious honor of receiving more gifts from lobbyists than any other representative.

Moark attorney/former DNR director defends top polluters- The attorney representing Moark's plans to build new egg laying facilities in the Neosho area, former Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director David Shorr, has changed from representing the people to representing the state's top polluters.

Lobbying firm funneling money to Nodler, PAC- This article was the first to note the money that the powerful lobbying firm of Gamble and Schlemeier has been pumping into the Elect Nodler Committee and the Nodler Leadership PAC.

St. Louis senators top 2005 Hall of Shame- Rep. David Klindt, R-Bethany, topped the senatorial Hall of Shame, with several St. Louis Democrats making the top 10.

National lobbyists pouring money into Blunt campaign- At least $30,000 of Governor Matt Blunt's campaign contributions came from national lobbyists with connections to his father, Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt.

Missouri lobbyists also contributed to Blunt campaign- The headline should explain everything.

FEBRUARY

When great minds think alike- Some area representatives had a bad habit of plagiarizing their weekly columns.

The best task force money can buy- Most of the members of the Healthcare Information Technology Task Force appointed by Governor Matt Blunt had two things in common- they were connected to the medical industry and they donated to the governor's campaign fund.

Governor's brother cashes in on ethanol proposal- Months before word spread about Andrew Blunt's investment in a company that was attempting to cash in on ethanol legislation, this article concerning connections between the Blunts and ethanol interests ran.

More MOARK money connected to Nodler

More about MOARK, committee shell games- This post examined contributions made by MOARK and others to legislative district committees.

MARCH

Speaking with one voice- More on the state representatives' plagiarism

Outside money helps buy Jasper County election- Rep. Steve Hunter convinced many of his legislative buddies to pour money into his wife's successful 2004 face for Jasper County public administrator.

Goodman deals with critical issues- Sen. Goodman described his bill, SB1114 as a bill to protect families; it called for a later start for schools. What he didn't mention was how much extra money it would make for the tourism interests- or how much he was receiving from those same interests in the form of campaign contributions.

Area legislators co-sponsoring vouchers legislation- An incredible amount of money has been poured into the campaign coffers of Missouri legislators by proponents of school voucher programs.

APRIL

Nodler still raking in the bucks- More lobbyists contribute to senator's campaign fund.

Scott leads charge to keep Wal-Mart out of banking- Sen. Delbert Scott, who sponsored a bill to keep Wal-Mart out of the Missouri banking industry, receives considerable funding from banking interests.

June hearing set for Emery- State Rep. Ed Emery asks his lawyer, Sen. Jack Goodman, to have his court date for driving on the wrong side of a roadway and causing an accident delayed because the General Assembly was in session.

Missourian article explores state lobbying reform efforts- Noting Sen. Carl Bearden's quotes in a Columbia Missourian article, The Turner Report pointed out the connections between lobbying gifts received by Bearden and legislation he has sponsored.

Homeschool proponents donate heavily to Nodler PAC- K12, William Bennett's organization contributed $5,000 to the Nodler Leadership PAC. Of course, K-12 is a company that provides curriculum for virtual schools, such as the one in the bill recently signed by Governor Blunt.

Contributors pay Ruestman's NRA dues- It's amazing the things politicians find to spend their campaign contributions on.

Nodler sings praises of virtual school- Sen. Nodler, whose Nodler Leadership PAC received $5,000 from a company that provides curriculum for virtual schools, naturally effusively praises the virtual school bill.

Feb. 21 a banner day for Blunt campaign- The governor's campaign funds increased by more than $15,000, just from the 60-plus contributions that came from people connected with the Thompson Coburn law firm on Feb. 21.

Kinder piling up lobbyists' contributions- This one is just what it sounds like.

Cashing in on voter IDs- Not surprisingly, as it became apparent that the voter ID bill was going to pass in Missouri, a Texas firm that specializes in such things hired a new lobbyist to work in Missouri, Jay Reichard, who shares many of his clients with Andrew Blunt.

Hunter has more lobbyists' gifts than other area legislators combined- An examination of lobbyists' gifts received by Rep. Steve Hunter during the first three months of 2006.

MAY

Rector actions keep doors open for telemarketers- A St. Louis Post-Dispatch story told of how Rep. Rex Rector, R-Harrisonville, singlehandedly derailed legislation that would have toughened Missouri telemarketing laws. The Turner Report noted the campaign contributions Rector had received from the special interests who were opposed to the legislation.

Schaaf's friends are not yours and mine- Rep. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, a doctor, put a roadblock on legislation that would have helped Missourians by penalizing doctors for Medicaid fraud, but would have hurt the doctors who are bankrolling the representative.

Joplin Globe investigates Nodler- When the Joplin Globe began its two-part series on the money behind Sen. Gary Nodler, The Turner Report provided some helpful links.

Shine the light on everything except lobbyists- Sen. Gary Nodler was a co-sponsor of the campaign finance bill which supposedly is going to shine the light on money in politics, yet Nodler has received many campaign contributions from lobbyists, almost none of whom are labeled as such.

JUNE

Democrats lead Hall of Shame inductees- Democratic senators topped the Hall of Shame list for the first half of 2006.

State auditor candidate tops Springfield area in lobbyist gifts- Rep. Mark Wright, a candidate for state auditor, has accepted more gifts from lobbyists in 2006 than any other Springfield-area legislator in 2006.

Gates, lobbyists providing fund for Blunt PAC- Lobbyists' contributions to Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt's Rely on Your Beliefs PAC are outlined.

Gaming Commission appointment is big Blunt contributor- Lawyer Samuel Hais, his firm, and his family all poured money into the governor's campaign fund.

Monroe Street laundry cited by Democrat blog- Rep. Marilyn Ruestman's laundered campaign money is examined.

Governor's health care advisor is lap dog for special interests- The conflicts of interest of Governor Blunt's advisor and former state representative Jodi Stefanick are explored.

Lobbyists pour close to $75,000 into Blunt campaign

GOP Senate candidate Roy Blunt received at least $72,300 from lobbyists during the last quarter and that does not include the money they brought in from clients, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Blunt, who was known for his efforts in making K Street lobbying firms an integral part of the Republican establishment, may well have more contributors who are lobbyists, but only a handful are actually described as such. Others are referred to as partners in their lobbying firms, (none of which, for obvious reasons, have the word lobby in their names), many are consultants, or governmental affairs, or a combination of the two, and one had the words "information requested" in the occupation area of the form, but news articles refer to her as a lobbyist.

The Blunt campaign also had dozens of other out-of-state contributors with no occupation listed, simply "information requested."

The lobbyists represent many interests whose officials also came through with sizable donations, including American Airlines, Walt Disney, and numerous insurance, medical, and pharmaceutical companies, who would benefit from the health care proposal being pushed by the Seventh District Congressman in the video that accompanies this post.

This is not the first time Blunt has relied heavily on the kindness of lobbyists. As I noted in numerous previous Turner Report posts, Blunt's Rely on Your Beliefs PAC has relied on the beliefs and contributions of lobbyists and the special interests they represent.

Complete text provided for Tim Jones' response to State of the State Message

Good evening. I am Tim Jones, Speaker of your Missouri House of Representatives. I am honored to speak with you tonight regarding a bold vision for the future of our state.
 
Moments ago, you heard our governor share his proposals for the direction our state should take. While his speech was rousing in rhetoric, it was short on substantive solutions.
 
We have heard similar speeches over the past six years, but despite the governor’s promises we have yet to see him deliver real-world results that will move our state in a better direction. Our governor mistakenly believes that more, bigger government is the answer, that his administration can decide how to better use your tax dollars, and that investments should be made in government programs rather than in the industrious people of this state.

Blunt PAC gives maximum amount to support Roy Moore's Senate candidacy

The most recent campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission shows no one gave more money to embattled Alabama U. S. Senate candidate Roy Moore than Sen. Roy Blunt.

Blunt's support was not a personal contribution to Moore, but came in the form of a $5,000 contribution from Blunt's Rely On Your Beliefs PAC.

The contribution was made October 17, approximately three weeks before the Washington Post first revealed allegations of Moore's efforts to hit on underage girls while he was in his 30s.

Blunt commented on those allegations November 13 in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article

"The women have a more credible story than Judge Moore. Alabama voters should have a better choice and Judge Moore should have better answers to these charges."

Since then, Blunt has made few comments on Moore.

Blunt was not the only Senate Republican leader to make the maximum $5,000 PAC contribution to the Moore campaign.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Bluegrass Committee also contributed $5,000. McConnell, however, asked that his $5,000 be returned and Moore complied, according to the FEC records.

There is no indication that Blunt has made any similar request.

New campaign managers handling Blunt Senate run

From the look of things over the past few days, Roy Blunt's U. S. Senate campaign has three new managers.

Last week, they released the horrendous Ground Zero ad, using images of terrorism in a failed attempt to cash in on the mosque controversy.

Now, a new campaign commercial has been posted on YouTube, attacking Robin Carnahan for alleged misstatements about Blunt's acceptance of campaign contributions from lobbyists.

A Roy Blunt campaign wants to make lobbyists an issue?

The Roy Blunt whose Rely on Your Beliefs PAC is almost entirely funded by lobbyists and special interest PACS wants to shine the spotlight on lobbyists?

The Roy Blunt, who married a much younger lobbyist and whose children are lobbyists wants to make lobbyists  campaign issue?

Those three new campaign managers I mentioned earlier- their names are Moe, Larry, and Curly.

Gates. lobbyists provide funding for Blunt PAC

Connections with lobbyists may be something to avoid in Washington these days, but not for Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt.
Federal Election Commission records for Blunt's Rely on Your Beliefs PAC show most of those who are relying on their beliefs are lobbyists.
In 2006, seven major donations have been made to the Blunt PAC, with five coming from lobbyists or from relatives of lobbyists.
The other two were a $1,000 donation from Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and $2,500 from Tim Case, San Diego, CEO of Goal Financial LLC.
The other donors were:
-Mary Hartley, wife of lobbyist and former Blunt assistant Gregg Hartley, $5,000
-Kirsten Chadwick, lobbyist for the firm of Fierce, Isakowitz and Blalock, whose client list includes MCI, Coca-Cola, Yahoo, Fannie Mae, Intel, and Viacom. The Hill, an influential Washington magazine, recently named Ms. Chadwick one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, $1,000
-Donald Fierce- partner in the lobbying firm Ms. Chadwick works for, $1,000
-Jerris Leonard, assistant attorney general for civil rights during the Nixon administration, now a lobbyist for the firm of Foley & Gardner, whose client list includes U. S. Cellular and Enron, $1,000
-Allison Shulman, Alexandria, Va., Ms. Shulman is the lead lobbyist for the National Association of Convenience Stores, $500

Turner Report signing Saturday at Always Buying Books

A quick reminder: The first Joplin signing for my non-fiction book, The Turner Report, is set for 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20 (this Saturday) at Always Buying Books, 5357 N. Main, Joplin.
Autographed copies of The Turner Report will be available for $17, while autographed copies of my novels, Small Town News and Devil's Messenger, will be on sale at the reduced price of $10 per copy.

The Turner Report book features stories from my newspaper days, as well as reporting and commentary from this blog, and some original work published in this book for the first time. Included in the stories:

-Joe and Joyce Cruzan's battle to have feeding tubes removed from their daughter, Nancy, after an automobile accident left her in a persistent vegetative state.
-The long path to prison for Turnpike Killer Paul Murray
-How Lamar swindler Patrick Graham took investors for $5 million selling shares in a non-existent AIDS vaccine
-How a Joplin-area legislator did his best to gut group home reforms shortly after receiving thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the nursing home industry
-The connection between the company hired to provide the curriculum for Missouri's new elementary virtual schools and the educational voucher movement
-How Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt has used lobbyists to provide the funding for his Rely on Your Beliefs PAC
-A recollection of the 1992 governor's race between Attorney General Bill Webster, Blunt, and Mel Carnahan
-The presidential candidate who returned from the dead
-How state government and the media dropped the ball and allowed 11 people to die in the Anderson Guest House fire
-How powerful self-serving special interests are trying to push educational vouchers on Missouri.

Anyone who is unable to attend the signing, but who would like to buy The Turner Report, can order it through Amazon.com, or the websites for Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and other outlets, or you can order it through me by sending $20 to cover the book and postage costs to: Randy Turner, 2306 E. 8th, Apt. G, Joplin, MO 64801.

Globe sics McCoy on Blunt

Joplin Globe investigative reporter Max McCoy (pictured) explores new House Majority Leader Roy Blunt's connections with indicted former Majority Leader Tom DeLay in the lead story in the newspaper's Sunday edition.
The article also takes a careful examination of Blunt's Rely on Your Beliefs Fund. This is the first time the Globe has really taken an in-depth look at the Seventh District Congressman who has been making quite a name for himself the past few years as a tool for special interests and someone who has no qualms whatsoever about doing whatever his best for himself, his family, and his political donors before he does his job, which if you have forgotten, is to represent the people of the Seventh District.
About the only thing that McCoy's article doesn't explore (and there may be sidebars that do once the print edition comes out tomorrow morning) is the money Blunt poured into DeLay's defense fund. That was covered in the July 21 Turner Report, which said:

"Ethically-challenged House Republican Leader Tom DeLay of Texas has raised more than $1 million for his defense and $20,000 of that has come from Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt, according to documents filed with House's Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.
"Blunt's total was far and away the most donated to DeLay by any of his colleagues, the reports indicated. The money provided by Blunt was all given last year, the reports said. Only two congressmen provided money to DeLay during 2005.
Other four-state officials who donated to the Texas congressman, all of them Republican U. S. representatives were: Tom Cole, Oklahoma, $1,000; Todd Tiahrt, Kansas, $10,000, Todd Akin, Missouri, $1,000; JoAnn Emerson, Missouri, $1,000; and Frank Lucas, Oklahoma, $1,000.
"The documents also indicate that one of the biggest corporate contributors to DeLay was Carthage-based Fortune 500 company Leggett & Platt, which gave him $5,000.
No Missouri individual, other than the aforementioned members of Congress, gave DeLay more than $500.
"The House Ethics Committee admonished DeLay for three violations in 2004, and many of his close associates are apparent targets in a grand jury investigation involving corporate money laundering."

That grand jury investigation, as we discovered last week, has led to DeLay's indictment.

Neosho superintendent: I wouldn't be surprised if A. G.'s (harassment) goes away after election

By Tessa Weinberg

Missouri Independent

In 2018, a rash of students were dying by suicide in southwest Missouri. The Neosho School District wasn’t immune.

“We were averaging about a suicide-and-a-half a year,” said Jim Cummins, the district superintendent. “And we knew that that couldn’t continue.”

The district of roughly 4,600 students launched “a full frontal assault” to address the issue, Cummins said. They hired a director of counseling services and convened a monthly meeting of parents, staff and community members to find solutions.

A major part of the district’s efforts also included implementing social emotional learning, an academic concept that aims to bolster kids’ social and emotional skills, like self-efficacy and grit.

By asking students questions like, “How often did you remain calm, even when someone was bothering you or saying bad things?” and “How clearly were you able to describe your feelings?” and assessing students’ responses in conjunction with other metrics, like their grades, attendance and discipline, the district aimed to take a pulse on how well it was building up its students, helping them develop their self-esteem and their ability to persevere in the face of inevitable challenges.

The district didn’t experience another student who died by suicide until recently — the first in nearly four years, Cummins said.

Now those same surveys have landed in Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s crosshairs.

At the urging of a Georgia-based legal nonprofit, Schmitt issued seven subpoenas to school districts — including Neosho — and a civil investigative demand to an education consultant demanding more information about the surveys.

His office called the surveys “invasive” and alleged they include “personal and otherwise unnecessary questions about their parents’ political views and income, and questions about their sexuality, as well as racially motivated or leading questions.”

The subpoenas followed months of behind-the-scenes discussions between the attorney general’s office and the Southeastern Legal Foundation, according to emails obtained by The Independent through an open records request.

Schmitt’s office first reached out to the nonprofit organization in September 2021 to inquire about its federal lawsuit against Springfield Public Schools alleging mandatory racial equity training violated two district employees’ First Amendment rights.

Over the next eight months, the attorney general’s office and the Southeastern Legal Foundation were in periodic contact, with the foundation passing along letters, including one sent to Gov. Mike Parson’s office, and holding calls to “touch base.”

One phone conference was scheduled for the morning of March 10 — three hours before the nonprofit filed an open records request with the Missouri School Boards’ Association (MSBA).

Five days later Schmitt sued MSBA over alleged Sunshine Law violations.

A little over a month after that on April 19, the Southeastern Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit of its own against MSBA over alleged Sunshine Law violations — with some of the lines in the lawsuit nearly identical to language from the attorney general’s own lawsuit.

Kimberly Hermann, the foundation’s general counsel, sent a note to Jay Atkins, general counsel in the attorney general’s office, that morning with a copy of a news release announcing the lawsuit.

“Thanks Kim, I appreciate the head’s up,” Atkins wrote back. “I saw when it went up on Just the News. Good luck!!”

Chris Nuelle, Schmitt’s spokesman, did not clarify the office’s interest in reaching out to the foundation, and said in a statement that the foundation “has brought credible concerns of several parent groups to our office on several occasions, and we take those parental concerns seriously.”

Schmitt has made transparency in schools and challenging school mask mandates a focus of his office and campaign for U.S. Senate over the past year.

With the foundation’s focus on parental and student rights, Hermann said it’s not uncommon for attorneys general to reach out “when we litigate in their state on issues that are important to them.”

Hermann said the March 10 call was to confirm with Schmitt’s office whether a 1988 opinion still reflected their legal conclusion that MSBA is subject to the Sunshine Law, “and both lawsuits rely on that publicly available reasoning.”

“The Missouri Attorney General’s office did not advise SLF on its records request or lawsuit against MSBA,” Hermann said. “SLF sent similar records requests to school board associations in other states, but MSBA is the only state association that has refused to provide the requested records.”

Chuck Hatfield, an attorney representing MSBA in both lawsuits from Schmitt and the foundation, said “one of them is simply following on the heels of the other.”

“Somebody’s cheating off of somebody else’s paper in this whole thing,” Hatfield said. “Their allegations are the same. They’re clearly coordinating one way or the other.”

Meanwhile, school districts facing the subpoenas say the surveys don’t contain the incendiary questions Schmitt portrayed. They’re used for a variety of reasons, from ensuring students’ feedback is heard firsthand to being incorporated to comply with state accountability measures set by the state education department.

“Quite frankly, it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars, because we’re having to take taxpayer dollars to pay the attorneys to represent us against the attorney general of our state,” Cummins said. “And we’re not the first school that’s had to do that over the last year.”

Role of surveys

Like critical race theory, social emotional learning has become a specter that some parents and conservative groups have seized on nationwide.

The Southeastern Legal Foundation, which describes its mission on its website as advocating “for limited government, individual liberties, and the free enterprise system,” called social emotional learning “thinly disguised political indoctrination” in its May letter to Schmitt urging for an investigation into surveys allegedly used in the Webster Groves School District.

In Florida, more than 50 math textbooks were rejected for containing elements of social emotional learning and the state has ended its participation in programs that assessed youth risk factors, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Like the recent focus they’ve received in Missouri, student surveys and the third-party companies administering them have been the subject of scrutiny at school board meetings across the country from Nebraska to Georgia.

The foundation’s May letter to Schmitt focused on surveys in the Webster Groves School District, and examples appeared to include a mix of surveys created by students, outside surveys and ones administered by the district.

But the questions other subpoenaed districts included in surveys which have been posted online largely don’t touch on those topics.

“The survey did not ask students about their parents’ political beliefs, income levels or racial biases, as suggested in the Attorney General’s press release,” said Ryan Burns, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson City School District.

Instead, the district’s surveys focused on students’ emotions, asking questions like: “Do you have a teacher or other adult from school who you can count on to help you no matter what?”

Other districts’ surveys were similar in scope, with Lee’s Summit also touching on questions on race in its climate and equity survey for 6th to 12th grade students, like: “At your school, how often are you encouraged to think more deeply about race-related topics?”

Including student feedback in decisions related to schools’ culture and climate is a key component of the district’s strategic plan, and the district’s equity plan “is also foundationally grounded in building dignity and belonging for all young people and adults in our school community,” said Katy Bergen, Lee’s Summit spokeswoman.

Cummins noted supporting the social emotional well-being of students was also one of the major uses schools were approved to spend emergency federal relief funds on, and he said “we’re not ashamed of the questions we asked.”

Surveys also play a role in how schools are evaluated by the state under the Missouri School Improvement Plan 6. Since the plan’s first version, a survey tool called the Advance Questionnaire has been used as part of the process, said Mallory McGowin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Updated to reflect current research, the current version now awards schools two points out of the 100 available for incorporating a survey of their choice to assess ​​school culture and climate by soliciting feedback, including from students.

“Positive school climate and culture are critical to building a foundation of trust and strong learning environments,” McGowin said, stressing that schools should consult with their attorneys to ensure they’re complying with federal privacy laws.

Evan Rhinesmith, director of research and evaluation at Saint Louis University’s Policy Research in Missouri Education Center, said soliciting feedback from students, parents and the broader community, is a new direction for Missouri that’s gained resonance amid the pandemic.

“Schools are getting much more attune with that aspect of wanting to make sure that they are being supportive, and recognizing just ‘Hey, there was a lot that happened…” Rhinesmith said, “and the best way to ensure that we’re able to recover academically from some of those things that we have experienced over the last two years now, is to make sure that we’re helping kids feel prepared to handle everything else that happens in the school day.’”

Asked about schools using surveys to meet state accountability and improvement measures, Schmitt’s spokesman said: “We’re not aware of any requirement that invasive and racially charged surveys be administered to students — that’s why we sent these subpoenas, to get to the bottom of these surveys and to see how school districts are using the data gleaned from these surveys.”

In Neosho, “the development of ‘soft skills’ has been a consistent request in parent feedback,” and Cummins said the surveys hadn’t faced pushback when they were issued. But Schmitt’s subpoenas have forced the district to squelch rumors in an area where things like critical race theory are “a non-issue” in a deeply conservative area of the state, he said.

To Cummins, Schmitt “is trying to single handedly weed out the pool of educators,” who get caught in political issues rather than getting to focus on serving students. Cummins wouldn’t speculate on the motivations behind the subpoenas, but noted Schmitt is running in a competitive GOP primary for Missouri’s open U.S. Senate seat, that is set to take place in August.

“I’ll let people make their own conclusion about why the AG is doing what he’s doing, and I would suggest that if they want to know, we’ll see what happens in August,” Cummins said. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if in August all this stuff doesn’t go away.”

Is Billy Long still fed up?

(The following is my column for this week's Newton County News and for the KY3 website.)

Two words characterized the primary battle for the Seventh District Congressional seat currently held by Roy Blunt.


The minute Springfield auctioneer and former radio personality Billy Long said he was “fed up” with government as usual, “fed up” with the big spending ways of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, and “fed up” with career politicians who had never signed the front of a check, he had latched onto his ticket to the general election.

In a year when Tea Party enthusiasts are ripping anything that smacks of incumbency or experience, veteran state senators Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, and Jack Goodman, R-Mt. Vernon, didn’t stand a chance.

Once the primary passed, and Nodler, Goodman, and the rest of the cast of characters from the Republican primary were in Billy Long’s rear view mirror, the Fed Up Express became a thing of history.

Perhaps it’s the difference in opponents. Instead of two veteran state senators, Long’s chief opponent, Scott Eckersley, is someone who is just as inexperienced in elective politics as Long is.

Or perhaps now that Gary Nodler and Jack Goodman are no longer siphoning money from traditional sources, Billy Long can start raking in the cash from the special interests just like all of the “career politicians” he has spent months criticizing.

No better evidence can be found than in Long’s quarterly disclosure report, filed October 15 with the Federal Election Commission.

Long's contributor list for the past quarter reads like a who's who of big business, including a couple that are reminiscent of recent excesses.

FEC documents show Halliburton and Exxon Mobil each dropped $1,000 into Long's campaign chest.

Halliburton, long associated with former vice president Dick Cheney, was the recipient of billions of dollars, much of that in the form of no-bid contracts, from the federal government. While the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to drain the U. S. economy, Halliburton has been swimming in greenbacks for the past decade.

It would seem that kind of special interest excess would be something that would have the earlier incarnation of Billy Long, the one that apparently vanished after the primary, fed up.

And why wouldn’t Exxon Mobil fit into that same category? After all, it is a company that recorded record profits during a time when average American citizens were paying more than double and sometimes triple what they used to pay for gas.

Surely the old Billy Long would be fed up with that kind of excess.

That’s just the beginning of the traditional interests that began lining up behind “Fed Up” Billy after he no longer needed to be fed up.

The American Bankers' Association gave the maximum $5,000, credit industry law firm Hunter & Williams chipped in with $1,000, and the R. J. Reynolds PAC gave $2,500.

Long also received big bucks from many of the so-called leadership PACs, including $5,000 from the Rely on Your Beliefs PAC of Roy Blunt, the man Long hopes to succeed, plus thousands from the leadership PACS of such Republican luminaries as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and Congressman John Boehner, Eric Kantor, and Paul Ryan.

All of these men would seem to fit into that “career politician’ mode that Billy Long considered to be poison before he safely had the Republican nomination in his hands.

It appears likely that in two weeks, Billy Long will be Congressman-elect for the Seventh District. If that is the case, one question remains- Which Billy Long will be on his way to Washington? Will it be the one who is fed up or will it be just another politician feeding from the public trough.

Billy Long- No town hall meetings in seven years, four trips to Vegas in three months

Seventh District Congressman Billy Long has not held even one town hall meeting since beginning his first term in January 2011, but he found time to go to Las Vegas at least four times in the first three months of 2017.

Long's quarterly campaign disclosure report, filed April 15 with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) shows the congressman reporting $660.42 in lodging at Wynn Las Vegas Hotel and Casino January 11, $427.98 for a meal at the Four Queens Hotel and Casino February 6, $189.34 for lodging at the Wynn Las Vegas March 6, and two separate transactions, $1,325.42 for lodging at Wynn Las Vegas on March 28 and $901.98 for lodging at Wynn Las Vegas March 29.

Long's $117,265.72 in expenditures for the first quarter included 57 meals totaling $17,316.07.

Long received $151,366 in contributions, including $7,000 from lobbyists and $20,000 from insurance, medical, and pharmaceutical PACs.

Sen. Roy Blunt's Rely on Your Beliefs leadership PAC gave Long $10,000, while Koch Industries provided $1,000 and Hunton & Williams, a lobbying firm that represents Koch Industries, provided him with another $2,000.

Other special interest PACs contributing to Long include the following:

-Anthem $2,500
-Express Scripts $2,500
-Sunovian Pharamaceuticals $5,000
-CBS $2,500
-Professional Insurance Agents $1,000
-Bayer Corporation $1,500
-Exxon Mobil $4,000
-21st Century Fox $2,500