Richard Aubuchon

The official duties of Rich AuBuchon, Chief of Staff to Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, involve few things unrelated to Twitter these days, but this morning's salvo doesn't even make sense. 

The Governor, House Budget Chairman Allen Icet (R-Wildwood) and Senate Appropriations Chairman Rob Mayer (R-Dexter) signed off on the same FY2011 "consensus revenue estimate" in January.  It's called a "consensus revenue estimate" because they all came to a... consensus on what they thought the revenues would be this year.  

Rep. Scott Rupp (R-Wentzville) is standing up for the rights of Missourians to not pay their taxes.

In his latest newsletter, Rupp expresses great concern with the proposal to allow the state to seize delinquent taxes from people's bank accounts.  Gov. Jay Nixon proposed the idea in January, and fellow Republican Sen. Carl Vogel (R-Jefferson City) has said he plans to sponsor legislation to make it happen. Rupp:

Now, instead of closing loopholes in the tax code, or determining a course of action in which the state government actually looks for even more ways to save money, our governor came up with a “big brother” idea. His thought: maybe the Department of Revenue should be able to get into our bank accounts and seize money when taxes go unpaid. Bank seizures are part of the proposed new laws the governor wants to balance his budget on, to the tune of $22 million this year and $49 million in 2012. Somehow I doubt that these new laws will get a warm reception in the Legislature.

I'm concerned some lawmakers and leaders in the Capitol may have spent too much time debating nonbinding resolutions about federal policies, and forgotten that the General Assembly has actual responsibilities regarding appropriating money in Missouri.

Consider, for example, the following passage from Sen. Kevin Engler's most recent constituent newsletter (h/t The Turner Report):

Also this week, we continued to hear about some of the troubling news of budget withholdings and shortfalls that will affect people’s lives and safety. On top of over a $42 million dollar shortfall of this year’s budget for public education, the governor announced a $24 million withhold of the state’s investment in rural broadband and another $29 million that was supposed to go for interoperability of public safety communications systems. While I understand times are tough for the state. Much of these painful, unexpected cuts could have been avoided if a balanced budget were presented by the governor to the general assembly over the past two years.  (emphasis mine).

What, exactly, is Kevin Engler talking about?

Lt. Governor Peter Kinder says the Missouri Housing Development Commission's plan to provide tax breaks for homebuyers is a "half-baked proposal" that amounts to "welfare."

Rich AuBuchon, Kinder's Chief of Staff, says the entire program is a "waste of money."

Kinder spokesman Gary McElyea echoed comments from AFP's Carl Bearden, who said the program "robbed the poor and gave to other poor" and was just "symbolism, feel good politics."

Back on the Planet Earth, Republicans generally refrain from describing reduced tax burdens as "welfare" or "wastes of money." 

This afternoon, Governor Jay Nixon announced that funding would be released for the 2009 Tour of Missouri. Already, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder's staff is working to convince the media and public public that the Tour has been operated in an open and transparent way to protect the taxpayers' investment. (Even though it obviously hasn't).

Exhibit A: Kinder's Communication Director Gary MyElyea tries to spin away questions about Tour of Missouri, Inc. transparency with KY3's Dave Catanese.

"It's not fair for the Governor to make the statement that the Tour is now willing to provide documents. Tour of Missouri Inc. has always said they're happy to provide any budget documents, and in many cases have provided them to the media," said [Gary] McElyea, responding to Nixon's statement [demanding transparency and accountability].

This is a pretty outrageous claim, considering how Gary McElyea told the Post-Dispatch's Tony Messenger that he wasn't even sure it was legal to disclose contract details on Friday. 

Hiding behind executive privilege didn't work, and trying to make Governor Nixon the target of the suit didn't work, so settling to avoid a trial may have been the last best option.

The state will pay a former staffer of Gov. Matt Blunt $500,000 to settle his wrongful termination and defamation lawsuit.

Scott Eckersley sued the governor and several of his staff members last January alleging defamation of character, wrongful termination and violations of the state open records law. The lawsuit has cost the state well over a million dollars as Blunt and his staffers used the state’s legal defense fund to pay attorneys fees.

When we last checked in, Matt Blunt was trying to hide behind executive privilege in the ongoing defamation and wrongful termination lawsuit of Scott Eckersley. That didn't work, so now the Blunt legal team is trying to make Jay Nixon the target of the suit.  Honestly, I'm not sure my mind can comprehend the weirdness of this latest request:

Matt Blunt says Jay Nixon should be the target of fired former aide's lawsuit

Former Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt is seeking to pass the defense of a defamation and wrongful termination lawsuit to his political rival and successor, Gov. Jay Nixon.

Attorneys for former governor's office counsel Scott Eckersley, who is suing Blunt, assert the request is legally wrong and "a sleight of hand that would make even the most jaded political operative squirm."

The lengths to which Blunt & Co. are willing to go to avoid accountability are breathtaking -- and sure aren't the acts of a crew with nothing to hide.

Fired Up's rundown of all the things Matt Blunt wants Jay Nixon to answer for can be found here. 

No luck for the former governor:

The Western District Court of Appeals agreed with a trial judge that Gov. Matt Blunt could not hide behind “executive privilege” in defense of the defamation and wrongful termination lawsuit of Scott Eckersley.

For a breakdown of the bad behavior Blunt wants to hide, check out our timeline of how the Eckersley firing went down.

----- Original Message-----
From: Sloca, Janice
Sent: Tuesday, September 25,2007 3:51 PM
To: Aubuchon, Richard
Subject: RE: Requested Information
Importance: High

Here to give you an idea... here's approx 7,587 hits Myspace 309 Idslinkup 405 Idsplanet
847 Ad.doubleclick.com 689 a.triba1fusion.com 21 travel sites 484 westlaw 3024 google 601
yahoo 60 Mittromney 461 Hotmail 406

Ebay179
Mormon.org 46
Pandora.com 37
1mages.intellilxt.com 18

Janice Sloca
Administrative Assistant
OA - Commissioner's Office
Room 125, State Capitol
P.O. Box 809
Jefferson City, Missouri 65102
OFFICE:573-751-1851 / FAX:573-751-1212
janice.sloca@oa.rno.gov

----- Original Message-----
From: Aubuchon, Richard
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 3:29 PM
To: Sloca, Janice
Subject: Re: Requested Information

Sorry. I read past that

----- Original Message -----
From: Sloca, Janice
To: Aubuchon. Richard
sent: Tue sep 25 15:25:51 2007
Subject: RE: Requested Information

You're kidding, right??? Remember I told you there were 3,3962 listed .... off hand - I'd
say L-O-T-S (OR) ODDLES . . . .

1'11 get you an approx count .... (at least w/in a couple of hundred or so)

Janice Sloca
Administrative Assistant
OA - Commissioner's Office
Room 125, State Capitol
P.O. Box 809
Jefferson City, Missouri 65102
OFFICE:573-751-1851 / FAX:573-751-1212
janice.sloca@oa.mo.gov

----- Original Message-----
From: Vanderfeltz, Sara
Sent: Tuesday, September 25,2007 1.43 PM
To:Aubuchon, Richard
Subject: RE: Please call Chris with Sen. Shields office - 1-9476 tomorrow

I didn't talkie rumors - those were sent to me - just figured I would get a jump start on being behind on paperwork ............ :)

Sara VanderFeltz
Office of Administration
Commissioner's Office
sara.vanderfeltz@oa.mo.gov
573-751-0337
573-751-1212 (fax)

----- Original Message-----
From: Aubuchon, Richard
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 1:43 PM
To: Vanderfeltz, Sara
Subject: Re: Please call Chris with Sen. Shields office - 1-9476 tomorrow

No talkie rumors...

----- Original Message-----
From: Vanderfeltz, Sara
To: Aubuchon, Richard
sent: Tue sep 25 13:42:03 2007
Subject: RE: Please call Chris with Sen. Shields office - 1-9476 tomorrow

That's the rumor.

Sara VanderFeltz
Office of Administration
Commissioner's Office
sara.vanderfeltz@oa.mo.q- ov
573-751-0337
573-751-1212 (fax)

----- Original Message-----
From: Aubuchon, Richard
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 1:42 PM
To: Vanderfeltz, Sara
Subject: Re: Please call Chris with Sen. Shields office - 1-9476 tomorrow

He is just out of office ... I did not say Eck was out ... why did you ask?

----- Original Message -----
From: Vanderfeltz, Sara
To: Aubuchon, Richard
Sent: Tue Sep 25 13:35:24 2007
Subject: RE: Please call Chris with Sen. Shields office - 1-9476 tomorrow

Yes sir.

Fired Up! Missouri was responsible not only for being the first to report on the Blunt administration's firing of Scott Eckersley for his role in objecting to the Governor's unlawful email retention policy, but also for doing much of the subsequent reporting and analysis on the Eckersley scandal as the story progressed.

This page has been created as a one-stop repository for all of the Eckersley information and opinion thus far compiled on Fired Up!  Below, in chronological order, are Eckersley related items from Fired Up! contributors.