Let me first say that I am not an attorney, but for full disclosure, I am in my first year of law school. Yesterday’s decision by the Missouri Supreme Court doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It seems that if the Court can rule the new campaign limits unconstitutional, then they can surely decide if the recipients should have to refund money that is over the old limits. We can certainly understand the Court’s attempt to stay out of the political fray, thus their punt to the Ethics Commission, but that’s analogous to being half pregnant! With their original decision, they instantly became chin deep in the sometimes muddy waters of politics – waters made even more muddy by attorney General jay Nixon being the Ethics Commission’s attorney.

Today in a press release, the Missouri Republican party called for Nixon to “immediately step down as the attorney for the Missouri Ethics Commission.” The MOGOP claims Nixon “has the most to gain” from a commission decision requiring that candidates return campaign contributions.

“Jay Nixon has the most to gain from an Ethics Commission ruling that requires contributions to be returned, a serious conflict of interest that requires his immediate removal as the attorney supposedly representing the commission,” said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. “The fact that Nixon went renegade and submitted a brief to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Ethics Commission without their approval is further, stunning evidence of a conflict of interest.”

The MOGOP release claims Nixon’s involvement in the campaign finance legislation case has been a “conflict from the start.” The release says he “openly opposed the legislation while it was debated by lawmakers” and when it was later challenged in circuit court, he refused to appeal a decision overturning a contribution blackout period. Nixon’s failure to appeal that decision ultimately led to the ruling to throw out the entire bill. Nixon’s former chief of staff and campaign manager Chuck Hatfield, represented the plaintiffs challenging the campaign finance reform legislation.

“From day one, it has been quite clear that Jay Nixon put politics before his duty as the state attorney general by acting in collusion with a trusted political adviser to strike down campaign finance reforms that he personally opposed,” Sloca said. “Nixon wants to return to a campaign finance system where he can extort campaign contributions from the targets of his investigations and funnel those contributions to his campaign through party committees because he hasn’t kept pace in spite of the fact that he has received $100,000 donations.”

Related

CDT Politics Blog: “Nixon won’t advise MEC on what to do next”

OzarksPolitics.com “Give Me Your Money Please”

Missourinet audio: “Supreme Court Ruling Could Trigger Huge Campaign Refunds”

FiredUp Missouri: “Blunt Leans on Ethics Commission in Last Ditch Effort to Keep No-Limit Millions”

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