Nixon bashes Blunt fundraising tactics, Donnelly report in
State Rep. Margaret Donnelly, D-Richmond Heights, was the first statewide candidate today to announce that her campaign finance report — among hundreds due today — is in.
She’s among three Democrats who are declared candidates for Missouri attorney general.
Donnelly’s running tally: Raised $589,829.24 ($278,533.49 during last three months), spent $87,757.13 ($52,718.32this period), with $534,071.48.
She also has debts totalling $201,055.86. Donnelly lent her campaign $130,000 in Dec. 26, the report says.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Jay Nixon is taking a swipe at Gov. Matt Blunt over his campaign’s use of a longstanding — but controversial — campaign-finance tactic while donation limits have been in place.
The Missouri Republican Party — which can give no more than $12,750 directly to a statewide candidate – has given substantial sums to lower GOP groups (most of them known as “legislative committees”) who have in turn given $12,750 to Blunt.
Blunt’s report has yet to be filed, but several of those GOP groups have filed their reports. Nixon’s campaign says it has found at least $161,000 given to Blunt that way.
Another $33,000 came from various groups set up by multi-millionaire Rex Sinquefield, who also is openly using such groups to get around donation limits.
Nixon swears his report — which also isn’t in yet — will show he has limited donations from Democratic legislative committees to $1,275 apiece. (I misquoted Oren Shur in an earlier version of this post; my fault, not his.)
However, a sampling of those lower Democratic committee reports indicate that some have sent hefty sums to other statewide candidates, after getting substantial money from the state Democratic Party.
A key likely reason for Nixon’s ire: Blunt has been hammering Nixon for more than a year over legislative-committee money that Nixon received in 2006 after those groups had received similar sums from AmerenUE.
Blunt spokesman John Hancock says Blunt’s jabs are solely because Nixon’s office was investigating Ameren at the time for the Taum Sauk collapse.
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Nixon is such a hypocrite. He accepts laundered money from a company he’s threatening to sue, and that’s ok. But he has the audacity to criticize Blunt for taking money from Republican committees. This guy really has a nerve.