This just in from the Associated Press:

A Cole County judge has rejected a bid by state Rep. Margaret Donnelly, D-Richmond Heights, “to temporarily block the Missouri Ethics Commission from holding secret hearings on whether campaign refunds are necessary.”

Donnelly, a candidate for Missouri attorney general, has sought to force the commission to open its closed hearings with candidates seeking to retain the over-limit contributions they collected during the six months this year when unlimited donations were legal.

Donnelly contends that closed hearings violate the state’s Sunshine Law.

As of July 19, the state Supreme Court reinstated the state’s 12-year-old donation limits.

As the AP explains, “Most candidates (including Gov. Matt Blunt and Attorney General Jay Nixon) are voluntarily refunding large donations…But candidates can ask the Ethics Commission to keep the money, if they can show that refunding it would pose a hardship.”

Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem declined to issue a temporary order opening the hearings.