PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Contact: Christian Badger
(573)442-7980
Columbia, Missouri – With the news that Sen. Chris Koster will soon announce for Attorney General, the Harris for Missouri campaign issued the following five questions for reporters to ask to Sen. Koster.
1. What message does it send when a candidate for Attorney General knowingly skirts the campaign finance law by accepting contributions from a single donor like “Right Wing Rex” Sinquefield in excess of the contribution limits put in place by Missouri voters? Why did you take this laundered money from Sinquefield and when do you plan to give this money back?
2. Why should Democrats trust that you share their values when you helped champion Matt Blunt’s agenda in the Senate, including his cuts to Medicaid and the unconstitutional voter ID bill that would have hampered the voting rights of seniors and poor Missourians?
3. You claim to be a champion of working families, who are struggling to finance higher education, and yet you conspired to help Matt Blunt’s pork-barrel agenda on MOHELA, taking money that could have gone toward lowering the rates on student loans and instead putting it toward photo-op groundbreaking ceremonies to boost Blunt’s re-election. How do you reconcile that?
4. Why haven’t you joined Jeff Harris and Margaret Donnelly in returning your over-the-limit contributions? Do you disagree with Missouri voters who overwhelmingly approved the campaign finance limits? And as Attorney General, will you be similarly reluctant to comply with rulings from the Supreme Court?
5. Again, you claim to be on the side of working families, yet as a state Senator you received a perfect 100% score from the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and a 0% score from ProVote. How do you explain the discrepancy between your actual record and your rhetoric today? Do you know of any other “champions of working families” with 100% voting records from the Chamber of Commerce?
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0 responses so far ↓
1 Jim Byrne // Oct 25, 2007 at 7:51 am
I think I can answer #1 and #4 for Chris, as well as for the many Republicans that have retained over-the-limit donations.
On 7/21/07, The Missouri Ethics Commission issued an advisory statement to the members. This statement informed members that donations received after the 7/19/07 ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court cannot be retained. However, those donations received prior to the ruling can be retained.
http://www.moethics.mo.gov/Ethics/GeneralInfo/CommMtgs/2007ComMtgs/20070721AdvisoryOpinion.pdf
Many Democrats are returning donations that were received prior to the ruling, but this is more of a political statement than it is a current requirement.
Could Chris actually be a wolf in sheep’s clothing? As the AG really should not be an entity without political power, I don’t care.
Most of the public would never think to look at the MEC’s instruction.
2 Jim Byrne // Oct 25, 2007 at 7:53 am
Sorry..type-O…
second to last sentence should be – As the AG really should be an entity without political power, I don’t care.
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