Koster targeted by ethics complaint
Two lawmakers and a former assistant attorney general have filed an ethics complaint accusing state Sen. Chris Koster, a fellow Democrat, of illegally funneling money to his attorney general’s campaign.
The complaint was filed Tuesday by state Sen. Scott Rupp, R-St. Charles, state Sen. Maida Coleman, D-St. Louis, former assistant attorney general Marion Eisen.
The trio said they brought the complaint in response to an Associated Press article last week that described how Koster’s paid campaign staff shuttled money among various committees to get around the state’s campaign contribution limits.
Koster has defended his fundraising tactics as legal. He told Jo Mannies today that the money-raising process followed state campaign law and that he has regularly conferred with the state Ethics Commission to make sure.
The Post-Dispatch detailed earlier this month how Koster and a number of other statewide candidates are collecting contributions in excess of state donation limits, via a legal system of using two different types of campaign committees. Donors can give unlimited amounts of money to the committees, some of whom can then donate ten times the contribution limit to individual candidates.
Koster noted today that those using the same system include one of his rivals, state Rep. Margaret Donnelly, D-Richmond Heights.
Donnelly replied in a telephone interview this afternoon that Koster “is trying to divert attention” from his illegal coordination activities to raise campaign money.
“There’s a fundamental difference,” she said, between candidates who simply receive money from the campaign committees and Koster, who is accused of being involved in setting up at least one of the committees — the Economic Growth Council. The council has donated money to the legislative committees, which then gave to Koster.
She contended that Koster had to be coordinating the money-raising — which is not allowed under state law — because he raised so much of his money that way. The Post-Dispatch reported that he collected 80 percent of his campaign money through the committee setup.
The Missouri Ethics Commission does not comment on complaints. It has until Aug. 6 — the day after the primary election — to rule on the complaint.
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Political editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 
Let’s see, what could the motivation be for waiting to file something like this today, knowing the Ethics Commission can’t say anything about it and won’t rule on it until the day after the primary? Could it possibly be so that an opponent or two can now run commercials using the headlines generated by the complaint itself making it appear these bogus charges have some validity? This way, the cowardly accusers can try to smear Koster all they wish until the election is over without having to deal with the reality that when the Commission does rule, it will rule that Koster has done absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, let alone anything illegal. Kind of sad… and desperate, if you ask me.
This is such boilerplate attack politics it isn’t even funny.
Koster’s opponents, unable to gain any traction for themselves now construct this means of attacking Koster by innuendo. Anyone can file an ethics complaint about anything. It doesn’t mean a thing. But they will use the accusation they have orchestrated to infer that something illegal has occured when that’s just incorrect. It’s rank, cowardly and thankfully it will be all for naught since Koster will be the Democratic nominee.
It’s a shame they have stooped this low, but for many months now neither Donnelly nor Harris would have had a campaign at all if they weren’t having one hissy fit after another about the fact that Koster hasn’t been a Democrat long enough and that he was/is blowing them away on fundraising.
It’s going to be fun seeing Koster grind them up on August 5th!