Dempsey bill designed to protect us from Dempsey

It wasn't quite the bill it started out to be, but Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, was still happy to promote his HB 1900 after it was passed by the General Assembly.
In a joint column written by Dempsey, the House majority floor leader, and Charlie Shields, R-Kansas City, Senate majority floor leader, Dempsey praised the bill, which was signed into law earlier today by Governor Matt Blunt:

Removing the contribution limits, which will not take effect until 2007, will greatly diminish the role of the third-party committees through which money is now channeled. These committees currently engage in a legal form of money laundering. Millions of dollars are donated to these committees and directed to specific candidates, all behind the scenes. If the new bill is signed by Gov. Matt Blunt, candidates will be held accountable by the public, their opponents and the media when they accept contributions of any amount because the money must be given to them directly

Now thanks to the legislation that started with Dempsey, politicians with little self control...like Dempsey...will be saved from themselves.
The new law removes all campaign spending limits and ends the practice of laundering money through legislative district committees, a practice which netted Dempsey $9,000 on March 29, 2005, according to Missouri Ethics Commission documents. On that day, he received $1,500 from each of six legislative committees, the 2nd Senatorial District Republican Committee, Republican 18th Legislative District, 14th Legislative District Republican Committee, 17th Legislative District Republican Committee, 89th Legislative District Republican Committee, and 19th Legislative District Republican Committee.
Not only did all of those committees donate to Dempsey on the same day, but all of the committees share the same mailing address, 320 Monroe Street in Dempsey's home of St. Charles.
Dempsey hasn't limited his funding to the Monroe Street Laundry, however. As recently as Feb. 24 of this year, he accepted $1,500 from the 129th Republican Legislative District Committee, P. O. Box 1222, Joplin.
Now that the finance limits are gone (even though it was an amendment to Dempsey's bill and not in his original one) it should help the St. Charles Republican pull in even more money from in-state and out-of state special interests.
Out of the $2,600 Dempsey received during the first three months of 2006, $1,500 came for the 129th District Committee and $900 came from out of state, $300 from K12, a group that supports vouchers and sells curriculum for virtual schools, and $300 apiece from two pharmaceutical concerns, GlaxoSmithKline, Philadelphia, PA., and Bayer, Pittsburgh, Pa.
On his quarterly report filed Jan 11, Dempsey showed a diversified group of contributors including:
-$300 from Penman & Winton Consulting Group, Inc., Jefferson City, which is a lobbying firm, but as you might guess, that word cannot be found anywhere on the Ethics Commission documents
-$300 from John Bardgett and Associates, Inc., Chesterfield, once again a lobbying firm, but not listed as such.
-$300 from Cash America, Fort Worth, Texas
-$300 from Cingular Wireless, El Paso, Texas
-$300 from the Missouri Vocational Association PAC, P. O. Box 1865, Jefferson City
-$300 from the Rural Telecommunications Committee PAC, P. O. Box 1865, Jefferson City.
The latter two share the same mailing address as the powerful lobbying firm of Gamble & Schlemeier.

Now, thanks to the legislation that started with Dempsey, people can forget about these shenanigans. They can engage in corruption without fear and without interference, and most of all, without these pesky campaign contribution limits.