Even lobbyists make mistakes

Patrick Bly is a busy man, so you can understand if he makes a mistake every now and then.
On Sept. 30, Bly, the registered lobbyist for Southwestern Bell, mistakenly recorded a $100 gift to State Representative Marilyn Ruestman, R-Joplin. That notation in Missouri Ethics Commission records has been corrected. It turns out that what Bly did that day was to make a $100 donation to Ms. Ruestman's campaign fund.
That donation was among $3,200 worth of contributions received during the past quarter, according to the candidate's disclosure form. Most of those contributions, not surprisingly came from health care, medical, and pharmaceutical interests.
Bly was the only registered lobbyist donating to the campaign, though you could make a strong case to classify the $300 contribution from Grass Roots for Hunter, Rep. Steve Hunter's campaign organization since Hunter is a paid employee of Associated Industries of Missouri, a lobbyist for business interests.
Among Ms. Ruestman's contributions:
-An additional $150 from the Southwestern Bell PAC
-$300 (the maximum allowed for House races) from Missouri Osteopathic PAC
-$300 from NHS Management (a Tuscaloosa, Ala., based nursing home company)
-$300 from Missouri Hospital Association Southwest District PAC
-$300 from Political Action Committee for Health (Healthpac), Jefferson City
-$300 from AstraZeneca, Wilmington, Del., a pharmaceutical company
-$300 from Missouri Insurance Coalition, Jefferson City
-$300 from Joplin physician Christopher Banwart
There is an additional contribution for Ms. Ruestman that I will be writing about in a future posting.
Ms. Ruestman has $33,673.52 in her account, according to the campaign disclosure form.