Schweich: My donors know better than to ask me for favors; I am not for sale

Ever since word came down that a state audit was going to be done of the Joplin R-8 School District, the C. J. Huff administration has worked overtime to discredit the audit and make it seem as if anything that is uncovered is just politics.

The primary vehicle through which this has been done is to keep on throwing the name of Joplin businessman David Humphreys into the conversation.

Humphreys made a $111,111 contribution to State Auditor Thomas Schweich's campaign earlier this year and Humphreys was the one who wanted audits done of both the school district and the City of Joplin.

Therefore, anything that is uncovered must be suspect.

But just in case that wasn't enough to do the job, Superintendent C. J. Huff prepared constituents for some of the things that might be uncovered in the audit and also for the excuse he was going to use- he may have broken some rules but that was because "people were more important than policies and procedures."

That was exactly what Huff said in an interview with KZRG when he said that policies and procedures were not followed for 18 months after the tornado- there wasn't time to get multiple bids or follow other rules, because the R-8 Board of Education opted out of its responsibility to oversee Huff and make sure he was following the rules and Huff found it much easier to operate if he did not have to deal with messy little things like the law.

And it was all because he put people first and of course, it was "for the kids."

The video that accompanies this post features Auditor Schweich talking about corruption in Missouri government. During his victory speech last week, he blistered candidates who are bought and paid for by one donor, an obvious reference to Rex Sinquefield and gubernatorial candidate Catherine Hanaway.

In this interview, though there is no specific mention of David Humphreys or any of Schweich's other major donors, he does address the influence of money and special interests in state politics, the accusations of corruption against Attorney General Chris Koster, and the possibility that Sen. Claire McCaskill may run for governor.