Fee Office Mystery: The Blunt-Graves Connection

The St. Louis-Post Dispatch has done a decent job of piecing together the connections between many of the players in the fee-office scandal on the Eastern side of the state. We know about the role that GOP political operatives Garrett Lott and Andy Cohen play in the management company, and we've heard about the special operation being run by Rep. Nathan Cooper.

But on the Western side of the state, we have heard almost nothing about the extremely cozy ties between the Blunt family and the Graves family.

At the time of the original fee office appointment announcements, Governor Blunt attempted to name two members of Rep. Sam Graves' staff as fee agents. Those two staffers, Dean Brookshier and Naomi Boss, ultimately did not get the offices after the Missouri Democratic Party pointed out that it would have violated the law to name federal employees to the post. Of course others with close ties to Graves did get those offices.

But those two employees were by no means the only two people with extremely close ties to Graves to receive fee offices or other benefits from the Blunt fee office scheme.

For example:

However, much of the story has not been told.

Unmentioned was the role of Marc Radasky, who formerly served as the Labor L.A. for Graves in Washington. Radasky, who is now a law student at UMKC, was awarded the Raytown office, which prior to the Blunt administration, was a branch office run by the state. Though Radasky may seem a bit young and inexperienced to be running a major fee office, apparently, to his credit, he is a pretty snappy dresser.

There has been virtually no discussion by the traditional media of the role played by Stephanie Goodnight. Goodnight is the cousin of Tracy Graves. The Goodnights and Todd and Tracy Graves own adjoining farms in rural Edgerton, Mo.

Goodnight runs KC Management Company. In fact, here's the website registration for kcmanage.com, in the name of the Goodnights. KC Management is the equivalent of the operation that Garrett Lott runs on the Eastern side of the state. KC Management was set up by the law firm of Lathrop & Gage at or near the same time as most of the other shell companies used to perpetuate the Blunt fee office scheme.

According to records obtained from the Department of Revenue, Goodnight acts on behalf of multiple fee agents, including Radasky, who as we noted, is a former Graves staffer. For example, Goodnight played a role in the acquisition by fee agents of the equipment formerly used in the branch offices. State Auditor Claire McCaskill's recent audit determined that Blunt's fee agents received quite a sweetheart deal in those transactions.

As we have previously noted at Fired Up!, shortly after the election in November of 2004, someone directed the attorneys at Lathrop & Gage to begin setting up a series of corporate shells to be used in the fee office scheme. Interestingly, on December 30, 2004, the Republican Sixth Congressional District Committee, a committee controlled by Rep. Sam Graves, paid legal fees of $8,444.79 to Lathrop & Gage. This is a very unusual expenditure for a committee such as the Republican 6th CD Committee. Typically, the only time a party committee would have legal fees of that magnitude would be if they were the subject of an ethics complaint or an FEC audit.

It might be a coincidence that a firm with close ties to Blunt and to Graves just happens to do that much work for a committee controlled by Graves at the exact same time that the exact same firm just happens to be doing work on setting up corporate shells to effectuate the Blunt fee office scheme. Or then again, maybe it's not a coincidence at all.