David Barklage

Kinder checks his notes at an April 15 political rally before charging taxpayers to stay for a nice dinner at Oceano and an evening at the Chase Park Plaza

Peter Kinder abandoned his hypocritical "Every Dollar Counts" slogan in 2009, long before details of his inappropriate and excessive travel bills became public.  There are his actual policy positions that are completely contrary to his tea party persona. And there are many examples of using taxpayer money and resources for campaign and personal purposes.  A quick stroll down memory lane:

• 2010: Kinder's Deputy Lieutenant Governor was caught fundraising for a political client using state resources.
   
• 2009: An independent accountants' report found improper financial management of Tour of Missouri monies and raised questions about the nature of some travel expenses.   Further analysis of released documents showed huge bills for luxurious meals, booze and room service.
   
• 2009: Kinder and his staff filmed and produced a factually-challenged video about federal health care proposals in his official office with public resources.  The video pointed viewers to Kinder's campaign website and was distributed exclusively by the campaign, but its creation was financed by state taxpayers.  A Sunshine request submitted after the story broke confirmed that the video was not sent to any members of the public or press, outside of the Kinder campaign. 
   
• 2008: "Kinder was criticized for a practice uncovered by the Post-Dispatch in which he paid bonuses to some of his staff members while others were on leave doing political work. Kinder defended the practice, even though the Post-Dispatch showed that the workers making the extra money were working less during the time of their extra pay, according to time records."
   
• 2007: Kinder was found to have used his state car for campaign events, and subsequently reimbursed the state and started using his personal car.
   

The Post-Dispatch's Tim Logan flags a big $135,000 contribution from the Missouri Association of Realtors to the Missourians for Fair Taxation, a committee formed last week to fight Rex Sinquefield's radical plan to destroy the state budget via ballot initiative.

GOP consultant David Barklage worked for the Realtors last year in their Amendment 3 ballot campaign, and it was widely speculated last month that the Realtors' financial support for the anti-Sinquefield effort was at least partially contingent upon Barklage's involvement. 

That's the logic here, right?

After a prospective coalition of business and progressive advocates met last week to talk about a coordinated response to Rex Sinquefield's radical plan to destroy the state budget, David Barklage's name emerged as a possible campaign consultant to head up the effort. 

If the idea of David Barklage running the anti-Sinquefield campaign makes you scratch your head, you're not alone.  The GOP consultant and his firm, Strategic Communications Group, will be working for at least two statewide candidates in 2012 on record supporting Rex's sales tax hike pipe dream: Peter Kinder and Steve Tilley.   Kinder recently tried to back away from his outspoken support for the bad idea, but facts are facts.   Speaker Tilley is a strong supporter for the mega sales tax hike, perhaps persuaded by the two hundred thousand clams Rex sent his way for uncontested reelection in 2010.

So how would Barklage effectively advise his candidates on how to dance around their support for a bad idea, all while advising the groups trying to beat back Rex's latest bad idea?  That's a good question.  

Just ask supporters of the 2006 ballot initiative to increase the state's cigarette tax how it worked to have a conflicted John Hancock running their campaign. 

Despite his February announcement in Washington, DC and multiple declarations since then affirming his intention to run against Jay Nixon in 2012, Peter Kinder really wants to draw out the coverage of when his campaign will be super duper official.  Check out this line in a weekend story for Missouri Lawyers Media:

David Barklage, speaking as a general consultant for Kinder, said Kinder is "in the process of moving forward to a formal candidacy."

"I think you'll see Peter in the next six months raising a fairly significant amount from firms around the state," Barklage said.

Jiminy Christmas. 

Update: "Vote Yes To Stop Double Taxation" says they will sue to contest the signature county by local election authorities and the SOS. Their release is below the break.

Initiative petitions from the ShowMe Better Courts and the Vote Yes To Stop Double Taxation committees will not be on the fall ballot because they failed to collect enough valid signatures, the Secretary of State's office announced this afternoon.

I suspect this won't be the last we hear about the failed campaigns of  James Harris and David Barklage.  Harris was paid more than $44,000 by ShowMe Better Courts to run their campaign, and Barklage's Strategic Communications Group collected more than $200,000 from the Realtors-backed "Vote Yes To Stop Double Taxation" committee.

"He's not an ideologue. He doesn't do things for what he can get out of it."

GOP Consultant David Barklage, speaking to the Southeast Missourian about his client, Peter Kinder 

The "Better Leadership for Missouri" campaign committee is back in action, lobbying against the nomination of former state Rep. Bill Ransdall to the State Tax Commission.

The committee has been mostly dormant since 2008, when Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder used the account to benefit from overlimit contributions without actually having the money show up on his official campaign ledger.  Fired Up! first reported on the scheme in July 2008, which was noted by the News-Leader yesterday. 

More recently , the account was used to funnel money from Sen. Jim Lembke (R-Lemay) and Rep. Mike Leara (R-St. Louis) to the "South County Citizens for Public Reform" committee. 

Here's a transcript of at least one version of the calls:

Hello, I am calling on behalf of Better Leadership for Missouri. Senator Frank Barnitz’s nominee to the state tax commission will be appointed this week to a full term. As an interim director Senator Barnitz’s nominee immediately voted to increase property taxes on farms resulting in higher taxes on farmers and higher food prices on our families. Barnitz’s nominee has failed to pledge that he wouldn’t raise property taxes on home owners. To protect Missouri taxpayers we need to let Senator Barnitz know that his appointee to the Missouri tax commission should be withdrawn. Missourians can’t afford higher taxes at this time. Call Senator Barnitz at 573- 751-2108 and encourage him to withdraw his nominee for Director of the State Tax Commission. Our address is P.O Box 903 Jefferson City Missouri 65102.

New campaign finance filings show that House Floor Leader Steve Tilley has enlisted the help of David Barklage's Strategic Communications Group.

Barklage is the the top political consultant and former chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.

The word on High Street is that the two reached an agreement to work together around Christmas. Tilley's previous strategic consultant and mentor, Rod Jetton, shut down his consulting business in December after being charged with assault.

Roll Call has a rundown of Jack Goodman's consulting team for his bid in the crowded 7th Congressional District primary. 

Miles Ross will serve as Goodman’s campaign manager. Ross was most recently the executive director of Friends of Roy Blunt, plus was Goodman’s campaign manager for his state Senate campaign in 2005.

David Barklage will serve as Goodman’s general consultant. Barklage advised Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder (R) and freshman Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R) in 2008.

American Viewpoint Vice President Randall Gutermuth will be Goodman’s pollster, while John Thompson will advise communications and John B. Morgan will consult on politics and demographics.

Barklage was last seen handicapping Sarah Steelman's chances for the US Senate based on her outreach to establishment insiders like himself.

Rather than fight for Missouri's families, GOP state legislators insist on fighting amongst themselves. In a must-read piece for The Beacon, Jason Rosenbaum touches on many of the big fights at the Capitol slowing down legislation: Senate Republicans v. House Republicans, Jason Crowell v. Kurt Schaefer, Jeff Roe v. Rod Jetton, John Griesheimer v. "outside forces", John Griesheimer v. Rod Jetton, Kurt Schaefer v. Rod Jetton, Jason Crowell v. Jeff Roe and David Barklage, Jason Crowell's ego v. Ron Richard's ego, Allen Icet v. Gary Nodler, Kevin Engler v. perpetrators of physical violence... 

[W]ith roughly a month to go before lawmakers adjourn for the year, Republicans seem to be turning their aim away from the Democratic governor and instead targeting each other.

Some Senate Republicans are lobbing stinging attacks, questioning the ethics and motivations of their colleagues. Various factions seem miles apart on two of the biggest bills: 1) an economic development package and 2) a proposal to allow utility companies to recover financing costs for the construction of nuclear power plants....

The animosity among Republican lawmakers has been noticeable, going beyond simple differences of opinion.

Just another day in Jeff City:

[Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia] who wrote the new version of the Ameren nuclear plant bill, was offended by the robo-calls his constituents received about the bill. The calls were paid for by Noranda, who hired former House Speaker Rod Jetton as a political consultant to help oppose the Ameren bill....

In debate on the floor, Schaefer asked [Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau], who also employs Jetton as a consultant, if he was paying for the robo-calls. Crowell said no and retorted that Schaefer was getting bad information from two other GOP consultants, David Barklage and Jeff Roe.

Barklage is an Ameren lobbyist. Roe is also being paid to work on the Ameren bill, Crowell said.

“Ameren has got Jeff Roe and David Barklage hired on this thing and they hate Rod Jetton,” Crowell said...

Sigh.

From: Martin, Ed
Sent: Tuesday, August 07,2007 5:43 PM
To: Limbaugh Jr, Stephen
Subject: RE: dinner

I am trying ... need to get home and manage the home front.

All the best.

Ed

Ed Martin
Office of Governor Matt Blunt
(573) 751-5261

----- Original Message--------------------------------------------------

From: Stephen.N.Limbaugh.Jr@courts.mo.gov
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 5:23 PM
To: Martin, Ed
Subject: RE: dinner

To tempt you further, I am serving six reds as a tasting: a Bordeaux, a Burgundy, and a Cotes du Rhone from France, a Brunello from Italy, a Rioja from Spain, and a California cabernet blend. And of course I will have apertifs: Champagne and Tavel Rose. You think the Gov & Mrs. might want to come too on the spur of the moment? If not, anyone else from your office?

----- Original Message--------------------------------------------------

From: Martin, Ed
Sent: Tuesday, August 07,2007 12:040 PM
To: Limbaugh Jr, Stephen
Subject: RE: dinner

I am working on it. Carol has us lined up for some neighborhood function but I am trying to change it!

Ed Martin
Office of Governor Matt Blunt
(573) 751-5261

----- Original Message--------------------------------------------------

From: Stephen.N.Limbaugh.Jr@courts.mo.gov
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 10:36 AM
To: Martin, Ed
Subject: Re: dinner

Simon's home. 6:30. Peter K is wearing shorts. Barklage will be there too. Be prepared to sing at the piano with Di. I will bring a song book or two with my fine wine.

----- Original Message--------------------------------------------------

Campaign finance reports filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission by Peter Kinder's re-election campaign and a supposedly independent committee suggest that Kinder used an elaborate ploy to retrieve and utilize overlimit contributions raised between January and August of 2007 while campaign contribution limits were lifted.  Monies raised over the limits during that period were ordered returned to contributors by the Missouri Ethics Commission.

Ultimately, Kinder benefited by the use of more than $150,000 that had been returned to contributors by his campaign but later routed into another committee over which his campaign retained de facto control.

Kinder's ruse was premised on a simple idea: that tens of thousands of dollars returned to contributors who gave in excess of the limits while limits were lifted could be raised into another committee called Better Leadership for Missouri, and could then be spent by that committee on items and staff costs that were actually being used for Kinder's campaign.  As a practical matter, this allowed Kinder to benefit from the overlimit contributions without the dollars actually flowing through his campaign account.

s demonstrated below, Kinder's campaign violated the campaign finance laws by effectively controlling an outside committee and accepting illegal and unreported in-kind contributions in excess of the legal limits from that committee.

In a story on the Jetton-Kinder ethics showdown, Rosenbaum writes...

Barklage noted that Kinder never agreed to hire Jetton and had had no
idea whether he would have. A spokesman for Kinder said the first-term
lawmaker would not have hired Jetton.

Ouch! From statewide elected office to freshman legislator in the space of one sentence.  Of course, we should be so lucky.­ 

Part of the reason why the GOP rationale for eliminating campaign finance contribution limits ("We need to do away with limits so we can have transparency!") is so transparently bogus is that the High Priests of GOP campaign hackery go to such great lengths to avoid what few opportunities for transparency the current laws provide.

Consider the subject of a post which I just unpublished from the site, which was about payments by the GOP's Majority Fund Inc. to a consulting outfit run by Weston McKee for "grassroots development."  The payments wound up in the coffers of a consulting firm called "Laurus LLC."

But the Majority Fund's April Ethics Commission report says it paid $12,000 to "Larrus LLC."  And of course, anyone looking to learn anything about "Larrus LLC" --e.g., to find out who, precisely, is getting that money-- would be frustrated in that task since searches of the State's corporation database reveal nothing, because no such LLC exists under that name.

McKee has worked for the Fund for the last year and a decision was made in January to stop paying fees directly to McKee and instead begin paying them to an LLC he controls.  What do you suppose the odds are that Majority Fund
treasurer Buddy Hardin and mastermind David Barklage really didn't know
what the name of McKee's firm are?  I'd handicap the chances at slim to none.

Back in June we wrote about Paul McKee's hiring of close Peter Kinder advisor David Barklage while the lieutenant governor was pushing a massive developer tax credit of which McKee would have been the sole beneficiary.  Now there's more proof --hidden in a poorly-reported Ethics Committee in St. Charles-- that a close ally of McKee's moved tens of thousands of dollars to businesses run by David Barklage over the same period that Kinder ran interference for McKee's $100 million tax credit.

Damir Huskic

James Harris

David Barklage

Buddy Hardin

Jeff Roe

Though we've already examined Peter Kinder's intimate involvement in passing the Paul McKee tax credit bill (HB 327) through the General Assembly this past session, the subject of how the lieutenant governor came to be engaged in the issue hasn't come up.  Any analysis of that topic must include facts about the extraordinary lobby business of one Melanie Moore (in photograph at left).

Several weeks ago, FiredUp Missouri learned that multiple outfits owned by developer Paul McKee --who stood to be the sole beneficiary of tax credit legislation championed by Kinder-- had hired Melanie Moore to lobby on their behalf.  Moore has been connected to Kinder by virtue of her public appearances with the Cape Girardeau Republican at events such as 2005's Inaugural Ball.

Whether payments made by McKee to Moore were for substantive lobbying work or merely served as "inducements" for Kinder to push the bill vehemently is a question that remains unanswered.

To make matters more suspicious, Moore actually went to the trouble of beginning to do business under a different name and closing her old lobbyist registration on the same day that FiredUp posted on lobbyist/client connections between a McKee business and another Kinder loyalist. 

Virginia Young and Jake Wagman of the Post-Dispatch had an interesting story last weekend about a $100 million tax credit bill which passed the legislature this year, the benefits of which would accrue exclusively to one man, developer Paul McKee.  While the piece does well to focus on the key involvement of Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder it completely glosses over the role of longtime Kinder henchman and GOP operative David Barklage in the execution of the scheme.

The story recounts the full-court press put on by McKee --including the hiring of a full complement of Blunt-favored lobbyists-- to pass the tax credit package:

A clearer picture emerged in Jefferson City this year, when the Legislature approved a $100 million tax credit for large-scale developments in impoverished areas. McKee spurred Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder to champion the bill, hired several lobbyists to push it and gave thousands of dollars — and use of a corporate plane — to politicians who helped pass it.