“Koster says no illegal activity took place, and that he has regularly sought guidance from the Ethics Commission.”

This is reminiscent of W.C. Fields, when asked why he read the Bible.
“Looking for loopholes………” he replied is his elongated delivery.

All the other candidates are doing it to, people just like to pick on Koster since he will probably win.

Koster has not broken the law. He has not done anything unethical. His opponents know that he has followed Missouri Campaign Finance law, ugly as it may be, carefully.
It wouldn’t be right for him to do what he’s doing just because everybody else is doing it. But it’s right for him to do it, because it’s the law, and it’s the way the system works.

His opponents know that all they have to do is get some stories spinning around, questioning his ethics and practices, because many people believe anything bad they hear about a politician.
I’m not here to convince you that Koster hasn’t done anything wrong. I’m here to tell you to take a second to look at the law for yourself (read the Post Dispatch story, linked above, on how it works) and decide based on the FACTS, not based on a bunch of spin from some opponent’s campaigns.

You’ll find the facts are that Chris Koster followed the law.
Watch the Ethics Commission dismiss the complaint.
Watch the Harris and Donnelly campaigns and supporters find a new way to blast Koster.
Then watch him win the primary and then the general election inspite of it all!

Is someone at the P-D going to follow up on this story?

http://www.mpnblog.com/search?q=kilgore

No issue here. You guys are just mad because a Republican, with substantial support from the leading school voucher advocate in Missouri, is going to be the Democratic nominee for AG.

Sorry, Justin, but Koster smells really bad on this one.

And the “everybody does it” defense won’t hold up because NOBODY ELSE has created an outside group and coordinated its activities using their campaign staff to funnel contributions to them.

And nobody else has exploited the funneling system to the extreme degree that Chris Koster has. If it wasn’t for the funneled money from a handful of Republicans, Chris Koster would be in last place in fundraising among the Democratic candidates?

Think about it. Is there any reason why Republicans would be putting up hundreds of thousands of dollars to help him buy the Democratic nomination?

Shecky: Justin’s point was that it WASN’T ok for Koster to do it because others were doing it, but rather because IT IS LEGAL AND HOW THE SYSTEM IS SET UP. So Koster should be bad-mouthed for being the most successful?

Playa…hata’s.

Look at what is written above:

“We also reported that Koster had benefited the most, percentage-wise, from the practice.”

What does “the most” mean? It means that many candidates do EXACTLY what Koster did. The only difference is you have two candidates whining about the fact that Koster has done so well in raising funds they cannot compete. So instead of conducting a campaign of idea and proposals, they conduct a campaign of smear and innuendo about perfectly legal and widespread fundraising.

Now the sore losers have found someone to do their whining for them in the form of this Harlan character so they can try and keep the nonscandal alive.

There’s only one problem with this strategy: it doesn’t change the fact that Koster didn’t break any rules or laws and has done absolutely nothing wrong. While they alternately whine and hold their breath till they turn blue like preschoolers, Kosters tv ads are blanketing the state and voters are finding out who is the most qualified candidate running for AG. The vast majority of voter are oblivious to all this carping. It will be nice when Aug. 5 rolls around and Koster beats them soundly.

There is no evidence that any other candidate set up a committee to launder funds. The definition of continuing committee “is a committee of continuing existence which is not formed, controlled or directed by a candidate.” The AP article shows in fact that Koster did all three of these and you only need to do one. I have been very involved with a couple of continuing committees before. We never did anything like this.

Running money through legislative district committees while not alwasy kosher is a far different thing. Those committees existed prior to the candidate and exist by law for a diffrent function.

Using your staff to take checks and to pick up checks is also a no no. The proper way to do this is for the ld to receive a check from someone and then whoever solicited the donation to ask for a contributions usually in writing to the candidate committee. If the campaign staff creates the committee takes the checks from the committee to the ldc and picks up the checks from the ldc on behalf of the committee that is simply not kosher. If Koster really got advice from the ethics commission that this was okay he needs to come clean. Because if the ethics commission gave that advice it isn’t consistent with their prior opinion or advice.

In fact, in the AP article Bob Conner says:
Officials at the Missouri Ethics Commission are reluctant to say publicly whether fundraising scenarios such as Koster’s violate campaign finance laws, in case they later are asked to make a ruling.

But “that’s getting awfully close,” said former Ethics Commission executive director Bob Connor, who remains on staff at the commission. “That could come before the commission if somebody thought it was improper.”

Do we want someone as are next attorney general who is “coming close” to violating the law even by the standards of the gutless ethics commission? Do we want to take the chance of Koster as our nominee?

Maybe Koster thinks that having his law partner Kilgore as chair of the ethics commission will mean the investigation is killed. Knowing the ethics commission and their indifference to ever doing anything about anything he may be right.

Jeff Harris has a consistent record when it comes to the ethics commission. He is on the side of good government. Before there was any issue related to Koster laundering money he issued this release:

As attorney general, Harris said he would work with the Ethics Commission to go after inappropriate activity and would press the commission to do more. He said he would assign staff attorneys to monitor complaints, to provide advice, and to file charges wherever they apply.

“I also will not hesitate to use my bully pulpit as Attorney General to criticize inaction and wrongheaded decisions by the commission,” Harris said. “Missourians need a strong watchdog who is not afraid to bark or even bite when politicians and special interests violate the public trust. If the Ethics Commission won’t act on its own, then, as attorney general, I will.”

http://www.electjeffharris.com/news/newsclip.php?clipID=60

The polls show that Jeff is ahead by a decent margin. This is by far the safest way to go.

When I studied the candidates a few months ago and decided to support Jeff I had a generally positive view of Koster. I picked Jeff becuase I thought he had the most comprehensive agenda to be the next attorney general. He worked in the office and he was a democratic leader in the house.

But Koster has been a big disappointment. His has very few proposals of any significance. He only talks about being this super prosecutor when he has problems himself following the law. Every mess he has been involved in is Jeff Harris fault. Fundraising scandal Jeff Harris’ fault even though his own staff did everything and thought it may be illegal. Plagarism Jeff Harris’ fault even though Jeff wasn’t in Jefferson City when that happened. Voting for medicaid. Voting for photo id. Supporting Bush. Supporting Blunt. Supporting Ashcroft. Ex wife attacking you on the blogs. All of it is clearly Jeff Harris’ fault. Maybe Chris Koster should look in the mirror.

I have come to the conclusion that Koster is an unacceptable democratic nominee for attorney general. There are two other candidates. Both of them are great. Jeff leads Donnelly by double digits. I would ask the Donnelly supporters and Donnelly herself to consider the consequences of Koster winning the democratic primary. No way Koster beats Jeff in a two way race. He only wins if Jeff and Donnelly split the progressive vote. Please do the right thing and vote for someone who is going to be the best attorney general the state has ever had and stop someone who is an unacceptable choice.

Gotta love the Koster spinners. How much is he paying you guys anyway? It’s cute.

For the millionth time (and not that it will do anything to sway you). The difference between what Koster did and what others have done, is that he coordinated in creating a group for the specific purpose of funneling money into his campaign. He then used his paid staff to raise the money and channel it through local committees and back to his campaign.

NOBODY ELSE HAS DONE THAT, AND HE WAS IN CONTROL OF THE ENTIRE OPERATION.

And, even if we accept your bogus assertion that it was legal, do you really want someone who would bend the law beyond all reason to be serving in an office like Attorney General?