Area417

Important Reminder for Missouri Voters!

January 9^th: Last day you can register to vote for February presidential primaries!

From the Inbox: Minuteman Chris Simcox Coming to Missouri

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE— 23  February 2007
Contact: Bryan Rudnick (703) 822-4665

WHO:  Chris Simcox, Founder & President, Minuteman Civil Defense Corps

WHAT: To address the need for securing our nation’s border and the strict enforcement of immigration laws.

WHEN: Saturday, February 24 @ 6:30 p.m.

WHERE:  Valley Park Middle School (in the cafeteria) ,  1 Main Street ,  Valley Park, MO (directions)

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) is a peaceful, law-abiding and citizen-led initiative organized to stand watch at our borders and in our neighborhoods, report illegal activities to the proper authorities, and build border fencing on private lands using private donations.  Additionally, MCDC seeks to urge local and federal officials to enforce our immigration laws in order to keep our families and country safe.  MCDC conducts border watch operations that assist the activities of the U.S. Border Patrol, reports employers of illegal aliens, and advocates to keeps tax dollars from being used for illegal alien benefits.

Citizens Against Government Waste Name Claire McCaskill And Six Others As "Porkers Of The Month"

 

Citizens Against Government Waste honor Senator Claire McCaskill with a joint Porker Of The Month award.

...For failing to live up to campaign promises to reform earmarks or eliminate corruption and attempting to preserve a giant loophole in earmark reform legislation, CAGW names the seven freshmen senators who voted to kill the DeMint earmark amendment its Porkers of the Month for January 2007.

Link to Citizens Against Government Waste: porkerofthemonth

The Reformer, Claire McCaskill

KC Buzz Blog has also noted Crusader Claire's little problems with donations to her campaign.

The Federal Election Commission says Sen. Claire McCaskill’s campaign may have accepted “excessive and/or prohibited” donations from 19 people in the final weeks of the 2006 election.

The commission sent a letter to McCaskill for Missouri this week, asking for further information about the donations, which were made between Oct. 19 and Nov. 27, then disclosed Dec. 7 of last year.

How is it that this former state auditor, who says she's going to use her auditing skills to closely monitor government spending, can't even keep tabs on her own campaign finances?

Claire McCaskill And Reform (Or Not)

Update: While McCaskill claims she wants to see more transparency regarding lobbyists, all of her fundraisers are closed to the press. (Stearns, Matt. Ethic reforms won't change D.C. overnight)

Continuing from the previous post, it should be noted that Crusader Claire recently hired a former lobbyist as her chief of staff.

Sean Kennedy’s appointment last week as McCaskill’s chief of staff follows his tenure since 2004 as a lobbyist for SBC Communications, now part of AT&T.

...McCaskill will serve on the Commerce Committee, which oversees telecommunications and reviewed the AT&T-SBC merger.

“If I were AT&T, I’d probably be pretty happy that my guy is now chief of staff to a member of the Commerce Committee, and I would have expectations,” said Massie Ritsch, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan Washington watchdog group. “The challenge for Sen. McCaskill’s office is going to be not giving undue access to a former employer. It’s hard to say ‘no’ to people you used to work with and give other people the same access and treatment.” (Sterns, Matt. Senator hires ex-lobbyist Kansas City Star

Missouri blogger The Source sees problems with McCaskill too:

Unfortunately, Claire McCaskill’s finance committees have a history of discrepancies and inaccuracies. Now that she is attempting to skirt the law and raise money for them, the Source thought it would be a good idea to make sure she’s doing so legally this time around...

Claire McCaskill: Politics As Usual

Missouri's junior senator knows which side her bread is buttered on.

While on the stump, she knew voters were sick of the undue influence of lobbyists, so she styled herself as a crusader for change. The banner on McCaskill's campaign site still trumpets "Claire McCaskill, Bringing Real Change and Accountability to Washington" and features her "15 point plan to make sure Washington works for us."

But, like most politicians, once she arrived in Washington, it was a different story:

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, won election last year with a populist campaign bashing special interests and corporate lobbyists. This week, she invited dozens of them to a fundraiser: $1,000 per political action committee, $500 per individual. Among the invitees were some of Washington's biggest interests: Big Ag, Big Pharmaceutical, Big Telecom, Big Tobacco.

Hosting the fundraiser: Blackwell Sanders, a law and lobbying firm that Richard Martin, McCaskill's campaign manager, just went to work for as a "government affairs" specialist. (Sterns, Matt. Culture of money, access enduring under Democratic control McClatchy Washington Bureau

Do you suppose the clients of Blackwell Sanders (listed here on Open Secrets) will have easy access to McCaskill's office?

McCaskill defended herself, noting that it takes mountains of money to get elected. "Each individual senator has to make sure that their moral compass stays sharp and that they don't blow the line." (Hananel, Sam. McCaskill raises money from "broken system" she wants to change Kansas City Star)

Missouri Sunshine Laws

Since the previous post was about Missouri's Sunshine Laws , I thought I'd offer these links--test your knowledge of the law here. The MO Attorney General also has a page devoted to the law here.

Missouri Amendment 2

Formula for the passage of a constitutional amendment:

Wads of cash + artful deception + shameless play on emotions = the passage of the Stem Cell Research Initiative.

O'Reilly & St. Louis Talker Jamie Allman On The MO Stem Cell Debate

Hat tip to PubDef

Missouri Amendment 3: Just Say No

John Kennebec of Camdenton wrote this wry letter to STLtoday.com concerning the the tobacco tax amendment:

The tax envisioned in Amendment 3 is wonderful. This remarkably forward-looking tax is all that a truly progressive tax measure should be. Since it is primarily a tax on the poor, who smoke in far larger numbers than those who are better educated and compensated, it provides a number of advantages that largely have gone unmentioned:

— The poor are unlikely to raise any meaningful complaint about being disproportionately taxed. 

— It gives the elite, educated, wealthy and politically correct an opportunity to control the behavior of their fellow citizens.

— Instead of addressing the health concerns of smokers, the tax can replace health care money, which will be directed into the general fund to avoid increasing the taxes of the elite, in the exemplary manner of state lottery moneys.

All in all, a perfect tax.