GOP director: Nixon playing politics as usual

The Missouri Republican Party is continuing to hammer Gov. Jay Nixon about rewarding his campaign contributors. The following news release was issued this afternoon:

Lloyd Smith, Executive Director of the Missouri Republican Party, issued the following statement on Jay Nixon’s appointment of John Temporiti:

“Not content in rewarding his campaign contributors with lucrative fee offices, Jay Nixon continues appointing moneyed insiders with plum government positions. The latest example, Nixon’s appointment of prolific Democratic fundraiser John Temporiti to the Missouri Housing Development Commission, comes a week after bipartisan criticism over Nixon’s failure to end political patronage for license offices.

“Temporiti , the past Chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party, former lobbyist, and current treasurer of Charley Dooley’s campaign committee, has solicited extraordinary amounts of money from the same politically influential developers he will work with every day at the MHDC. Nixon’s appointment of Temporiti proves his lack of commitment to cleaning up the MHDC, an agency so rife with conflicts of interest and cozy relationships that it has been the target of an FBI investigation.

“The Missouri Republican Party calls on Nixon to end the play-to-play system that he has used to fill so many plum government positions by withdrawing Temporiti’s appointment and selecting someone without so many potential conflicts of interest.”