Spence: Rampant corruption in Nixon administration should be investigated

(From the Dave Spence campaign)

After twenty six-years of living off the taxpayers Jay Nixon has fallen into the trap of believing he’s above the law.  Violating the Sunshine law, raiding other state agencies’ budgets, selling state contracts and board and commission appointments have become the norm in Missouri under Jay Nixon.

    “Jay Nixon’s corrupt actions in office have made Missouri one of the worst offenders of pay-to-play politics,” said Dave Spence, Republican gubernatorial nominee.  “Jay Nixon has violated the public trust and does not deserve a second term as governor.  In a Dave Spence administration ethics reforms and ending pay-to-play will be a priority so that Missourians can once again have faith in the governor”, Spence continued

    Outrageous examples of Nixon’s pay-to-play include but are not limited to:

• Selling his personal residence to a campaign contributor who Nixon also rewarded with an appointment to the Missouri State Board of Governors.  Nixon didn’t care that he appointed that contributor unlawfully because the contributor didn’t live in the correct congressional district.  Jay Nixon now lives completely off of the taxpayers and does not own a home. (Cole County Property Records, Peter Hofherr Personal Financial Disclosure, Southeast Missourian, 11/2/11)

• Deborah Price who is in charge of board and commission appointments gets paid a full time salary but only shows up half the time.  Thousands of Missourians have been impacted by the inability of certain governmental bodies to act because Nixon won’t make this staffer do her job and fill vacancies.  There are over 1,000 vacancies on boards and commissions. Nixon is breaking the law by hiding records related to this mysterious woman’s employment. (Missouri Boards and Commissions website, accessed 10/17/12, Spence For Governor Press Release 10/1/12, Spence for Governor Press Release 10/10/12)

• Jay Nixon awarded a BILLION dollar Medicaid contract to a campaign contributor who didn’t even have the provider network required to participate in the bid.  That campaign contributor gave Nixon $65,000 and funneled hundreds of thousands more to his campaign through other committees. (FollowTheMoney.Org, KC Star, 4/14/12)

• Jay Nixon has taken almost $5 million dollars from personal injury attorneys and labor unions this cycle.  In return, Jay Nixon has stood in the way of needed reforms like Workers’ Compensation fixes, Employment Discrimination reform, Right-to-Work and other common sense policies that would make Missouri more attractive to people wanting to expand or grow a business. (Missouri Ethics Commission)

• A former Missouri governor was indicted and pled guilty to funneling campaign contributions to the Missouri Democrat Party for Jay Nixon. (KMOX, 4/12/12)

• The State Auditor recently found that Jay Nixon had misappropriated approximately $1.7 million dollars from state agencies to pay for his personal travel.  Those are dollars that should have gone to agencies already feeling the strain because of the terrible Jay Nixon economy.  (Audit of The Office of the Governor, September 2012)

• Nixon vetoed workers’ compensation reform in 2012 that would have shifted occupational disease cases into the workers’ compensation system. In a letter to Senate leaders, Nixon signaled a compromise, asking for an exemption for occupational diseases, allowing them to remain in the civil court system. Mesothelioma attorneys, who benefit financially from cases in the civil courts, have donated about $400,000 to Nixon’s campaign, and Nixon rewarded them with a veto of this bill. (FollowTheMoney.org, MEC)

• Nixon campaigned to reform the fee office bid process.In 2009, Nixon’s first year in office, eight of the nine most lucrative license offices in the state were awarded to major donors linked to more than $150,000 in donations to prominent Democrats.

• The Lee’s Summit and St. Joseph fee offices were awarded to James Montee, an influential Democratic activist, wealthy donor, and ex-husband of former Auditor and Democrat Lt. Gov. candidate Susan Montee. Montee and his law firm have donated over $125,000 to the Democratic Party and its candidates, including Claire McCaskill, Robin Carnahan, Barack Obama, and the Missouri Democratic Party. In January 2012, the FBI indicted 14 people for obtaining fraudulent documents for over 3,500 illegal immigrants since November 2009 at Montee's St. Joseph fee office. The Defendants made over $5 million by obtaining driver’s licenses and other state IDs from Montee’s St. Joseph fee office, oftentimes posing as translators for the illegal immigrants and coaching them to answer questions asked by fee office employees.  What did Nixon crony James Montee know about the illegal activity and what is his role in the operation of the office?  Why did Jay Nixon award these patronage offices to a supporter when he said he wouldn’t?  (MEC, KC Star, 1/11/12)

• In June 1998, Jay Nixon hired prominent trial lawyer Tom Strong, a Nixon campaign donor, to handle the Missouri tobacco settlement lawsuit. Shortly thereafter, Nixon approved Strong’s hiring of other trial law firms with substantial Democrat donor histories and Democrat ties. The settlement netted the attorneys a $111 million payday. Strong and his legal team have donated $559,000 to state-level officials since 1992 with 90% of the sum going to Democrats.  After the settlement, $94,000 went to Jay Nixon’s coffers alone. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch asked, “…how can the public feel confident in the attorney general’s choice of a lawyer when the lawyer is one of his biggest donors?” (STLP-D, 6/30/98, AP, 1/15/02, STLP-D, 5/18/00, STLP-D editorial, 5/28/00)