JEFFERSON CITY _ Missourians continue to be stonewalled by Jay Nixon who has after 30 days has failed to respond to a Sunshine Law request seeking detailed information about his longtime illegal use of state vehicles for political gain.

While State Auditor Susan Montee refuses seek an independent accounting of his illegal use of his state vehicle and despite his spokesman’s admission that office emails are routinely deleted, Nixon won’t provide detailed records stemming from an October 16 Sunshine Law request from the Missouri Republican Party about his illegal travels.

Nixon’s office responded with a letter on October 19 claiming that the request would take 10 business days to compile and that it would not be able to waive fees associated with the request, even though such fees had been waived for earlier requests.

On November 2, Nixon’s office said more time was required and that the information would be provided within six business days from that date. Since Nixon has missed his own deadline to provide the records, he obviously doesn’t feel the need to comply with the law and keep his word to Missourians. Copies of the MRP requests and Nixon’s responses can be found at: http://www.mogop.org/media/nixon_sunshine_oct_07.pdf

“Jay Nixon pays a lot of lip service to the Sunshine Law and loves to grandstand on the issue, yet, when it comes down to delivering on his rhetoric, he chooses to stonewall by refusing to turn over records that will further implicate him for illegally using taxpayer dollars to run his political campaign. The Sunshine Law applies to all Missourians including Jay Nixon, although he apparently believes he is above the law,” said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. “Jay Nixon’s ‘do as I say not as I do’ approach to the Sunshine Law is a disgrace and he must be held publicly accountable for ignoring the law he is sworn to protect.”

Nixon’s willingness to let the Republican request languish, however, should not surprise Missourians since according to The Associated Press he lied to state auditors by claiming that he used an official state vehicle only for state business even though he has admitted to illegally using the vehicle for political purposes.

All of this comes as a hypocritical Nixon grandstands about his plans to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the email practices of the governor’s office while he remains free from public scrutiny regarding his illegal use of the state vehicle and his acceptance of political contributions from Ameren while he was investigating the utility.

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