Amended report shows Steelman money from committees
More campaign finance reports are due in Missouri today, but in the process of waiting for them to come in, I came across another interesting amended filing by Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who is running for governor in the Republican primary against U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof.
Steelman has been funneling much of her support from trial attorneys through legislative committees, thus making it harder to determine where her base of support comes from. And in her latest amended report, she adds about $67,000 in in-kind contributions from five legislative party committees.
Those committees each gave maximum $13,450 contributions by paying the Catalyst Consulting Group money for fund-raising expenses. Catalyst is run by former Jim Talent staffer Daniel Pfeifer and it shares an address with Steelman consultant Jeff Roe. (Catalyst does not show up on Steelman’s reports).
So why the delay? Each of the committees, the Republican Sixth Congressional Committee, and Republican legislative district committees from the 29th, 30th, 32nd and 34th, filed their July reports on time. Steelman’s report says it had software problems.
Steelman’s hardly alone in the game of using legislative committees to hide either donations or expenses. Much has been made this year about the Dems’ Economic Growth Council and the GOP’s Better Leadership for Missouri group. They are just the tip of the iceberg.
Checking the various legislative committees that gave to Steelman, many of their contributions came from, that’s right, other legislative committees.
So much for transparency in government.
Correction, Tony, the Economic Growth Council isn’t the “Dems’”. It was set up for and has been coordinated by one guy, who is a Republican: Chris Koster.