Gov. Blunt faces ethics complaint

The Missouri Ethics Commission July 21 referred to the Office of the Attorney General a complaint against Gov. Matt Blunt regarding his campaign expenses. The Democratic Party filed the complaint April 15.

It alleges that Blunt failed to report “an illegal in-kind contribution of a tour bus to his gubernatorial campaign,” according to a Democratic Party news release.

This is the first ethics complaint filed against a sitting governor to be referred to a prosecutor, according to Jack Cardetti, Missouri Democratic Party spokesman.

However, Missouri Republican Party spokesman John Hancock said the issue of the legality of the contribution is a moot point because the party took proper steps to lease the bus.

“It was never a contribution – we leased the bus,” Hancock said. “The commission contends that we should have reported the lease in September and not have waited to see the invoice before we paid.”

Mike Reid, compliance director for the commission, declined comment on the issue but confirmed the commission did refer a complaint against Blunt to the attorney general’s office.

The attorney general’s office confirmed having received the complaint but declined comment on whether it would pursue the matter.

“The bipartisan ethics commission has referred the matter to my office,” Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon said in a statement. “I have been attorney general for 13 years and I have always handled the duties of this office in a professional and nonpartisan manner and I will continue to do so.”

Blunt’s office had no comment.

Cardetti said Blunt failed to report the use of the bus, whether it was a contribution or campaign expenditure.

“They never intended to disclose this,” he said. “They had terminated their committee, and it was clear to us that they were never going to report this. Gov. Blunt was intending to hide this from the public and evade Missouri’s campaign finance laws.”

Hancock said he is unaware of a law requiring campaigns to report expenses before payments are made at the end of a campaign.

“When we make a payment, we report it to the commission, and we believe that is completely compliant with the state’s campaign laws,” he said.

The deadline for reporting campaign expenses for Missouri’s Nov. 2 election was not available, but candidates must file expenses by Sept. 13 for the Nov. 8, 2005 election, according to the commission’s Missouri Ethics Laws for Election to Office.

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