Saturday, March 26, 2016

Joplin Progress Committee members prominent among Gaarder contributors

A fourth Joplin Progress Committee contributor gave money to Joplin R-8 Board candidate Mary Gaarder, according to the eight-days-before-election report filed Friday with the Missouri Ethics Commission.

Henry Robertson gave $250 to the Gaarder campaign, joining the three people connected to the Joplin Progress Committee who gave to the retired teacher earlier- $250 from Michael Pence, who is also serving as Gaarder's campaign treasurer, $150 from Abbey Title Company owner Barbara Hicklin and $150 from Dorothy Willcoxon, whose husband Robert gave to the Progress Committee.

Robertson, Pence, Hicklin, and Willcoxon also backed efforts last summer by former Superintendent C. J. Huff and former board member Mike Landis to hand over selection of board replacements from the people's elected representatives to the Jasper County Commission. Their signatures were among 65 on petitions given to the Commission, including 13 Joplin Progress Committee members.

The Joplin Progress Committee, as Turner Report readers will remember, was formed in late 2013 to allow those who contributed $500 or more to the committee to take part in the selection of candidates for the Joplin R-8 Board of Education and Joplin City Council. The committee disbanded in September, but the Joplin Globe felt compelled to include its demise eight months later in an article about Joplin City Council candidates, along with quotes from one of its former leaders, Clifford Wert of Webb City, noting that the group had shut down and its members felt they could accomplish more by contributing individually to candidates.

In addition to Robertson, others contributing to the Gaarder campaign included the following:

Gina Bauman, CPA, $200
Larry Crowe, Overland Park, $200
Hal Roper, Roper Auto, $200
Jeff Crowe, Kansas City, $200
Susan Crowe, Kansas City, $200

Gaarder also reported receiving $1,449 from unnamed contributors who gave $100 or less.

Gaarder raised $3,449 since the 40-days-before-election report and spent $3,327.47, including $187.43 to the Jasper County Treasurer for a voters' list, $542 to the Joplin Globe for newspaper advertising, and $350 to Social Climber Pro for social media.

Her expenditures also included paying off two debts from the previous filing period, $1010.51 for signs and $1,080 for social media.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

She won't win.

Anonymous said...

In today's (Sunday) Joplin Globe - in the "your views" section - Hal Roper wrote a very strong endorsement for Mary Gaarder. No other school board candidates were written about in this section.

This seems to me to be another "end around" by the now defunct Joplin Progress Committee (with help from the Joplin Globe) to get their candidate of choice elected. As listed in this article - Hal Roper contributed $200 to Mary Gaardener's campaign.

Anonymous said...

Martucci, Musser, Sloan.

Anonymous said...

How many candidates had letters endorsing them that weren't printed in the Sunday paper because those authors weren't related to one of Carol Stark's good buddies?

Anonymous said...

Vote anyone but Martucci, Musser and Sloan!!!!

Anonymous said...

Martucci, Musser and Sloan are the only ones to vote for. If you want progress and not the Joplin Progress Committee or whatever it's called now...