QUOTE
Commission Refers Ethics Complaint against Matt Blunt for Prosecution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, July 25, 2005
Jefferson City, MO --- The Missouri Ethics Commission announced today that they have referred a complaint filed against Gov. Matt Blunt for violating Missouri’s campaign finance laws to the Attorney General’s office. This is believed to be the first time since the Ethics Commission was formed in 1993 that they have found probable cause to refer an ethics complaint against a sitting governor to a prosecutor.
The complaint, which was filed by the Missouri Democratic Party, charges that Matt Blunt failed to report an illegal in-kind contribution of a tour bus to his gubernatorial campaign by Mike Kehoe, who he recently appointed to the Highway Commission. Only after the ethics complaint was filed did Blunt’s campaign pay Kehoe for use of the tour bus. However, even then the campaign only paid a third of the bus’s fair market value, again constituting an illegal in-kind contribution well above the legal limit.
“It’s fitting that on the very day the Ethics Commission announces they have found probable cause to refer an ethics complaint against Matt Blunt for prosecution, that Gov. Blunt and his chief of staff are in Sun Valley, Idaho thanking political contributors,” said Missouri Democratic Party spokesman Jack Cardetti. “Clearly this is an administration that shows little regard for ethical guidelines and acts as if they are above the law.”
According to the Republican Governor’s Association website, Blunt and his chief of staff are currently attending a two-day event at Sun Valley Resort to thank special interests that give political contributions to the Republican Governor’s Association Finance Committee, which spent more than $2.5 million on Blunt’s gubernatorial campaign. ( http://www.rga.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ev...ew&event_id=175 )
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, July 25, 2005
Jefferson City, MO --- The Missouri Ethics Commission announced today that they have referred a complaint filed against Gov. Matt Blunt for violating Missouri’s campaign finance laws to the Attorney General’s office. This is believed to be the first time since the Ethics Commission was formed in 1993 that they have found probable cause to refer an ethics complaint against a sitting governor to a prosecutor.
The complaint, which was filed by the Missouri Democratic Party, charges that Matt Blunt failed to report an illegal in-kind contribution of a tour bus to his gubernatorial campaign by Mike Kehoe, who he recently appointed to the Highway Commission. Only after the ethics complaint was filed did Blunt’s campaign pay Kehoe for use of the tour bus. However, even then the campaign only paid a third of the bus’s fair market value, again constituting an illegal in-kind contribution well above the legal limit.
“It’s fitting that on the very day the Ethics Commission announces they have found probable cause to refer an ethics complaint against Matt Blunt for prosecution, that Gov. Blunt and his chief of staff are in Sun Valley, Idaho thanking political contributors,” said Missouri Democratic Party spokesman Jack Cardetti. “Clearly this is an administration that shows little regard for ethical guidelines and acts as if they are above the law.”
According to the Republican Governor’s Association website, Blunt and his chief of staff are currently attending a two-day event at Sun Valley Resort to thank special interests that give political contributions to the Republican Governor’s Association Finance Committee, which spent more than $2.5 million on Blunt’s gubernatorial campaign. ( http://www.rga.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ev...ew&event_id=175 )