Looking at the ethics report for Governor Nixon’s campaign, one expense in particular seems abnormally high: his campaign is spending a lot more than the average campaign on cell phones.

His January report shows an expense of nearly $3,500 for the month of December, with the previous two months costing over $1,500 each (not including apparent incidental expenses near the $500 level). Previous reports show similar patterns: routine bills for $500-$1500 and up for cell phones. The question that keeps coming to mind: Why would any campaign need to pay this much for phones?

His campaign staff is not large enough to be costing this much, unless they are routinely buying the newest phones or going with a bare-bones service that leaves them getting nickel-and-dimed with overages (both options which would probably have been remedied by now if his consultants care at all about containing costs). The only logical explanation is that some of the many phones being paid for by the campaign are going to people in Nixon’s official office.

Is Nixon using campaign-funded cell phones to skirt Missouri’s open records laws? Does he encourage his employees to use the campaign’s communication resources to cover their tracks when they are discussing sensitive issues? This is a question that the press should be looking into.

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