Missouri GOP criticizes Gov. Jay Nixon over fee office award
ST. LOUIS — Even with lawmakers passing a bipartisan proposal to mandade bidding of the state’s driver’s license fee offices, the old political controversy continues to burn.
Today, the Missouri GOP is criticizing Gov. Jay Nixon for awarding another fee office to a political donor. On Friday, the Department of Revenue announced that three more fee offices — in Boliver, Savannah, and St. Charles — were awarded. Two of those offices, in Bolivar and Savannah, were awarded to the current holders of the contract. But the St. Charles office went to Democratic donor Ken Kielty, who ran the office under previous Democrat governors.
Nixon vowed to end the political patronage system of awarding fee offices to donors when he took office in January. Instead, all the offices would be bid. And while the offices have been bid — and the bidding documents are available online — some Democratic donors have won the bids for some of the state’s most lucrative fee offices, and that’s what the GOP is criticizing.
“Unfortunately, Kielty is only the latest in a long line of influential Democrat contributors who have been rewarded with lucrative fee offices,” said GOP executive director Lloyd Smith in a news release.
The GOP also pounced earlier this month when James Montee, a longtime Democrat donor and the ex-husband of state Auditor Susan Montee, won a bid for a fee office.
Nixon and his staff have defended the process because it’s all being done out in the open, through public bidding. Some offices have gone to Republicans, some Democrats, and some non-profit agencies have won bids.
“The process to compete for the right to operate these offices is transparent and open to anyone,” said Department of Revenue director Karen King Mitchell. “It’s been gratifying to see the quality of the bids that have resulted from this new process because the ultimate winners will be the citizens of the state of Missouri.”
In its criticism of the process, the Missouri GOP has said that donors who have given about $80,000 to Nixon have won fee office bids. But the Republican Party hasn’t pointed to any discrepancies in the bidding documents to indicate Nixon has given unfair preferential treatment to Democrats.
Under previous governors, both Democrats and Republicans, the fee offices were openly granted to political supporters. Nixon vowed to end that process when he decided to bid out all 183 offices. Lawmakers could erase the controversy entirely if they passed a bill that would make it illegal for political donors over a certain amount to bid on state contracts.
“But the Republican Party hasn’t pointed to any discrepancies in the bidding documents to indicate Nixon has given unfair preferential treatment to Democrats.”
Of course not, all they can do is say No, no, no! Pathetic. They have NO ideas and can’t even give credit where credit is due.
What a concept… the lowest bid wins. Something the Republicans can’t understand. I’m so sick of hearing them just go on and on and on about total nonsense. They aren’t even making sense to a 3rd grader anymore.
This article fails to answer the most basic questions -
What were the other bids? Who were they from? Was this the ‘best’ for the citizens? Who was the previous operator of the office? Was that person a Democrat or Republican? What is the link to the online bids? Is this one of the most lucrative offices? What are the others? Where is the List?
Who writes and edits this stuff?
Owner of the St. Charles Office (after Kielty and until the bid was announced) was a Republican who received the office when Matt Blunt became governor. A bid was not submitted by this owner for the new office.