Kinder targets Jetton with ethics proposal
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder today will become the second high profile Republican to target one of his party’s recent leaders with an ethics reform proposal that is a stern rebuke.
Kinder plans a state flyaround starting in Springfield at 10 a.m. to announce his proposal that the Legislature make it illegal for a lawmaker to serve as a campaign consultant or fund-raising consultant for another elected official. Kinder joins Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, in making the very pointed proposal.
The target is Speaker of the House Rod Jetton, whose consulting firm had contracts with several lawmakers, most notably senators Jason Crowell and Luanne Ridgeway, both Republicans.
Kinder said it’s time to put an end to such conflicts of interest. He said he had been working behind the scenes for more than two years to get Jetton to change his consultant arrangement, but that the “tipping point” was the last two weeks of the session, when Jetton clients in the Senate were heavily involved in a filibuster of the “village law” repeal, which Jetton opposed.
“This has been a large pebble in my shoe since i learned of it two and a half years ago,” Kinder told the Post-Dispatch. “I hoped I could counsel certain individuals behind the scenes. In the last legislative session it became clear that wasn’t going to work. This is not acceptable governance.”
Kinder will also announce his ethics reform proposal at 11:45 in Kansas City, 1:30 in Columbia and 3:30 in St. Louis. He will be paying for the flyaround out of his campaign coffers, he said. Kinder is running for re-election. Rep. Sam Page is the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Asked why he’s speaking out now when Jetton’s arrangement had been going on for so long (and after Steelman announced her proposal), he said that he “and others” should have said something earlier, “but I’m saying it now.”
Kinder said, “I dare my friends — Republicans and Democrats — to pass” this proposal.
Kinder said he told Jetton through a text message Monday night of his intent to talk to the speaker about his proposal. The two men plan to speak this morning, Kinder said.
Jetton also signed a consulting contract with fellow House Republican Bob Onder this year. Jetton is offering advice to Onder in his run for the Ninth District Congressional seat. During the legislative session, Onder received heavy floor time in the House to push his immigration and abortion bills that were similar to bills other representatives and senators had also proposed. During the session, both Jetton and Onder denied that their financial arrangement had any effect on legislation before the House.
In the final days of the session, Jetton survived a virtual revolt in the House by members of his caucus who were unhappy at the speaker’s tactics in standing in the way of the village law repeal that had near unanimous support in both chambers.
(5 votes, average: 3.4 out of 5)
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Well Well Well! It turns out that I was RIGHT! I have been saying on all the P.D. blogs that there was a great disturbance in Jefferson City. Many of you on here poo pooed the idea.
Hate to say I told you so, but………………….