Koster continues collecting hefty sums from legislative committees
Today’s campaign-finance filings — the last major ones before next Tuesday’s primary — signal that state Sen. Chris Koster , D-Harrisonville, is continuing his money-raising ways in his bid for Missouri attorney general.
More than 80 percent of the money Koster raised this month came from political-party legislative committees, which can each legally give ten times the individual donation limit of $1,350 for a statewide candidate.
Koster’s percentage was far greater than that reported by other statewide candidates in both parties, many of whom also collected money from political-party committees.
While legal, Koster’s committee collections have prompted criticism from his rivals.
Koster spokesman Danny Kanner said that Koster was simply taking advantage of what state law allowed. “We have played within the rules, whether we like them or not,” Kanner said.
When did money laundering become legal? Someone should have told me sooner.
Kanner’s right, the Koster folks are playing by the rules that Koster so eloquently interpreted. Of course they like that interpretation because it’s allowed Jim Stowers and Rex Sinquefield to donate thousands to Koster’s campaign.
I suppose now we just have to wait for those Ethics Commission rulings on the complaints filed by Democrats and Republicans. It’s hard to believe they will see things the same way.
The sad thing is that even with all of his money funneling, Koster only out raised Harris by round $7k and Harris has much more left to end out the primary. I guess it pays to have the support of the people instead of big money Republicans and legislative committees. Could someone remind, how many votes do those committees get in the primary?
Spot on their Mitch. Harris had a massive quarter. He raised about the same as Koster despite Koster twisting the law, and Harris flat out crushed Donnelly. Like I keep saying, I respect Donnelly, but she’s just not going to win this race. It’s obvious that Harris has the momentum, and it’s time for Democrats to line up behind the only candidate who defeat Koster.
Looks like most of the Koster fundraising continued to come from political committees while Harris and Donnelly raised nearly all their funds from “individuals and businesses”
Koster’s political committee and overall fundraising dollars are misleading through and through. Most of those funds come from a few individuals (via the Economic Growth Council). By one account Koster received 90 percent of his funds this quarter from those committees, and about $1.2 million since the race began.
Guess who has more support in Missouri? If you guessed Koster, you were wrong out of the gate.
As usual, according to the site linked above, Harris is the most diverse candidate in terms of fundraising. That’s a rough proxy for overall geographic support as well, from which we can impute that Harris also has the most support statewide. That seems to match well with the Dispatch’s own poll that gave Harris a 10 point lead.
Jo, why didn’t you mention that Jeff Harris had such an incredibly strong quarter. Without Koster’s funny money, Harris raised something like 20 times more money, and he raised twice what Donnelly did.
Unless we want a Republican like Koster to win, Democrats need to line up behind Harris now. I like Donnelly a lot, but Jeff Harris is our best hope to stop Koster.
Yeah, shecks, it’s that same ol’ Post-Dispatch bias against liberal Democrats. Yep.
What Koster is doing is at least questionable and maybe illegal. He set up a committee to launder money through that committee. He used his staff to do that. There is no indication that any of the other cnadidates did that.
Does anyone have any idea about what is going on with the ethics complaints filed against Koster?
Koster is the worst.
If he wins the Democratic Party will have lost its soul.
Congrats to Harris on a nice few weeks in July, but he’s only raised $840,590 for the entire campaign. Compare that to Donnelly’s $1,038,952 and Koster’s $2,228,044. Money isn’t everything, but you have to be able to get your message out to more than people who read the blogs. Sorry Harris supporters, but maybe in a few years when your candidate has more to offer than a few internet cartoons and a lot of whining, maybe Chris Koster will offer him another summer internship in the Attorney General’s office.
Jeff is leading in the polls despite spending less money. He is also the only caniddate to get newspaper endorsments outside of where he lives. I don’t know who is going to win you don’t know but I would say Harris is doing a great job.
You say he is whining. I say he has the most comprehensive agenda of any candidate and that he will hit the ground running.