Ethics Commission documents: Nodler received nearly $10K from Sinquefield

Missouri Ethics Commission records show that newly-appointed Joplin R-8 Board of Education member Gary Nodler accepted nearly $10,000 in campaign contributions from shell committees formed by retired billionaire Rex Sinquefield to allow him to avoid campaign contribution limits.

Sinquefield has long been an opponent of public education and notoriously said at one point that public education was started by the Ku Klux Klan. Nodler was chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

Other Ethics Commission documents indicate that Sinquefield's lobbyist, Travis Brown, provided $1,135.98 in meals and lodging for Nodler and his wife, Joncee, on November 7 and 8, 2008. On November 7, each of the Nodlers received $162.13 worth of meals, with the total increasing to $286.21 apiece the following day. Nodler received lodging totaling $239.30 on November 7.

 Nodler's April 2008 campaign disclosure report shows that he received $9,750 from political action committees established by Sinquefield. He received maximum contributions from Missourians Supporting Teaching Excellence for five regions- North, South, East, West, and Bootheel, and from 11 Your School, Your Choice committees- Central, Southeast, Northeast, Northwest, Southwest, West, Statewide, South, East, and North.

In the February 24, 2008, Kansas City Star, Nodler defended Sinquefield's evasion of Missouri's campaign finance laws.

Several senators were criticizing conservative political financier Rex Sinquefield, who last year set up and funded 100 fundraising committees so he could get around the current law, which limits contributions to $1,350 to each statewide candidate. Under the law, each committee is considered a different person and can give the maximum amount.

Nodler disputed the notion that it showed that Sinquefield was deliberately evading the campaign finance law. On the contrary, Nodler said: Sinquefield was demonstrating how to follow the law to the letter.

The area's newspaper of record, the Joplin Globe, knew about Sinquefield's contributions to Nodler months before it finally printed the information in its pages.

In the April 13, 2008, Globe, reporter Joe Hadsall, who was writing an occasional column on campaign finance, wrote, "Sen. Gary Nodler called me in mid-January and told me that he received some donations from political groups organized by Rex Sinquefield, the retired financial analyst who made news by creating and funding 100 political action committees.

"Nodler, a Joplin Republican, received the donations after the January reporting deadline, he said. He called to explain why I might see records of those donations elsewhere, before showing up in his committee fundraising reports."

From all appearances, Nodler knew this was not going to look good and was attempting to fire a pre-emptive strike by convincing the Globe to spin the news to put him in a more positive light. The senator told Hadsall that Sinquefield had made the contributions because of an earlier column Hadsall had written in which he quoted Nodler as being favorably inclined toward Sinquefield's efforts to pour his money into pro-voucher candidates. Nodler told Hadsall he held those beliefs before Sinquefield formed his political action committees.

Of course, Sinquefield made those contributions because of an article that was published in the Joplin Globe. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Nodler was chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

Despite having information that Nodler had received nearly $10,000 from the controversial Sinquefield, the Globe did not even mention a word about it for nearly three months.

Ethics Commission documents indicate Sinquefield was not the only one who violated the spirit of Missouri's campaign finance laws in an effort to influence Nodler.

As I wrote in the July 15, 2006 Turner Report:

Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, told school counselors attending a May meeting at the Southwest Center for Educational Excellence in Webb City that he supported a proposal to require school districts to start the school year after Labor Day, something that the tourism industry has pushed for years.
Nodler said school administrators had given him "no credible reason" why schools should start earlier than Labor Day.

While school administrators couldn't provide Nodler with a credible reason, Branson tourism industries found nearly three thousand of them, according to Nodler's quarterly campaign disclosure report filed today with the Missouri Ethics Commission.

Out of $4,850 he reported receiving from donors during the past three months, $2,925 came from Branson interests, all of it on June 28, according to the report. Among those contributing were:

-$625 from American Council of Travel, Branson
-$200 from Denver Wood, Vacation Services of America, Branson
-$200 from Cindy Wood, Vacation Services of America, Branson
-$200 from Roark Travel Service Network, LLC, Branson
-$200 from Vacation Services of America, Inc., Branson
-$300 from Travel Access, Branson
-$200 from Thomas Wood, Vacation Services of America, Branson
-$200 from Deborah Wood, Vacation Services of America, Branson
-$200 from Crystal Hedrick, Vacation Services of America, Branson
-$200 from Brant Hedrick, Vacation Services of America, Branson

The $1,400 from various people associated with Vacation Services of America showed another method special interests used to contribute more money than the law allowed at that time.

The contributions were the only ones made by anyone associated with Vacation Services of America that year. The company was already in trouble with the law at that time and had to pay $10,391 in restitution following an action taken against it by then Attorney General Jay Nixon.

According to the Kansas City Star, Vacation Services of America and others were described by Nixon as "allegedly unscrupulous vacation and travel companies."

The article said the companies "made false promises that people would save money, used tough pressure tactics to sell travel packages, claiming high upfront fees and then failed to provide services, and refused to let customers cancel orders."