Never let it be said (though some have) that I will not admit when I am wrong.
I made a mistake in the May 1 Turner Report when I wrote that Rep. Shannon Cooper, R-Clinton, accepted $1,769.67 in lobbyists' gifts in March. I made another error when I wrote that Clinton had accepted $153.40 worth of entertainment tickets from lobbyist Jay Reichard, representing the Missouri Automobile Dealers Association on March 14.
My only excuse- I was going strictly by documents on file with the Missouri Ethics Commission. Twelve days later, those documents were outdated, as I discovered this morning.
Jay Reichard filed an updated report May 13 which showed that he did not pay for $153.40 in entertainment tickets on March 14. Instead, he supplied Cooper with $613.60 worth of tickets, and Cooper's final total for March was $2,227.84. Out of that total, an incredible $2,009.64 came in a two-day period, March 13 and 14.
As I reported May 1:
According to documents filed earlier today with the Missouri Ethics Commission, Cooper accepted $960 worth of tickets to the Big 12 Conference Basketball Tournament from MU lobbyist Martin Oetting on March 13.
The following day, Cooper, whose penchant for latching onto free concert tickets has been noted numerous times on this blog, picked up $426.01 for out-of-state travel from Ameristar Casino lobbyist Sarah Topp. It should be noted that Ms. Topp does not list Ameristar as one of the five clients who paid for Cooper's trip (whatever this important trip might have been is not specified on the Ethics Commission website). The trip was paid for by Missouri American Water, Missouri Pharmacy Association, Missouri Beverage Association, Miissouri Railroad Association, and Independent Colleges and Universities of Missouri.
Of course, Cooper has filed legislation beneficial to Ameristar Casino, something which has also been noted on this blog.
Cooper's totals were down in the April report, posted today on the Missouri Ethics Commission website. Cooper received $495.88 in gifts during the month, topped by two he received on April 19 from lobbyists connected with the school voucher movement. On that day, he received $96.25 for travel from Travis Brown, representing Pelopidas, Inc. Pelopidas was formed to lobby for numerous ideas, tops among them school vouchers. Cooper also received $180 for entertainment (hunting) from Brent Hemphill. Hemphill's disclosure report credited the gift to his lobbying firm, Hemphill and Associates, but Hemphill is also the lobbyist for the Alliance for School Choice, among other concerns.
More information about Cooper's adventures can be found in the April 24 Turner Report.
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