Cooper Promised, Paid Appointment Czar $10K; Clients Got Posts

Campaign finance reports reveal that Nathan Cooper arranged in 2004 to pay $10,000 to a consulting firm owned by political ally James Harris weeks after Matt Blunt was elected governor. Harris was officially given the title of Director of Boards and Commissions prior to Blunt's swearing in, subsequently overseeing the appointment of several Cooper donors, clients and associates to sought-after posts. Cooper later fulfilled his commitment, paying Harris the $10,000 in early 2006, according to filings.

Word of federal investigations into the current administration's fee office practices has recently become public, with Harris and Cooper figuring prominently in the view of most inside observers. Missouri Ethics Commission filings provide a demonstrable financial link between Cooper and Harris.

On November 29, 2004 Nathan Cooper filed the required "30 day after general election" report for his state representative campaign committee, Friends of Nathan Cooper. On page 5 of that filing, among other expenses reported by Cooper is a handwritten entry that reads:

Liberty Consulting
3 Rustic Hills
Washington, MO 63090
11/20/04
$10,000.00
incurred

The entry indicates that the debt to this "consulting firm" was incurred two weeks after the general election, and 3.5 months after Cooper's last contested election, which was his August Republican primary in the 158th House District. But even more curious than the timing of the debt is the identity of the creditor.

A search of the Secretary of State's database of state corporations turns up one match for Liberty Consulting, LLC. The sole organizer and registered agent of that business is none other than James Harris of 3 Rustic Hills, Washington, Missouri. This is the same James Harris who would be named the Governor's Director of Boards and Commissions and made responsible for distribution of gubernatorial appointments and fee offices.

While Harris was not officially announced as Director of Boards and Commissions until January 4, 2005, there is reason to believe that his ultimate ascension to that position was already known to many in the governor's political circles on November 20th when Cooper committed $10,000 to Harris's business.

A November 13th Post-Dispatch story by Virginia Young indicated that the Blunt transition team was at that moment already in the process of hiring critical members of the governor's administration. The hiring of the individual who would oversee the governor's appointments would naturally have been made early in the transition process. And Harris was not new to the team, but had been a part of the Blunt machine all along, serving as the Political Director of the Blunt for Governor campaign.

With Harris as Appointments Czar and having plied him with a $10,000 commitment, Cooper was within a year able to translate his investment into prized gubernatorial appointments for at least three individuals who were clients of, partners with and contributors to him.

• Damir Huskic of St. Louis was named the fee agent for the South Kingshighway license office in June of 2005. Huskic was a legal client of Nathan Cooper's, having used Cooper to set up and serve as registered agent for his LLC, Palermo Designs. Palermo Designs also gave a campaign contribution of $325 to Cooper's state representative campaign, which he reported on his April 2004 quarterly filing.
• Abid Nisar was named the fee agent for the Bridgeton license office in July of 2005. Nisar was a partner with Cooper in NCA Enterprises LLC, and also Cooper's client, as he set up the entity and served as registered agent. Nisar was also Cooper's client with regard to Nisar's outfit called St. Charles Rock Road Development LLC, for which Cooper also served as registered agent. On his January 2004 quarterly campaign filings, Cooper reported a $300 contribution from NCA Enterprises (p.7) and a $300 contribution from St. Charles Rock Road Development (p.31).
• Naveed Razzaque was appointed to the State Board of Nursing Home Administrators in 2005. Razzaque was a client and partner of Nathan Cooper in ANNA Group LLC, as both men were organizers of the corporation and Cooper served as registered agent. Razzaque kicked $300 of personal money (p.32) into Cooper's campaign, and the ANNA Group contributed $300 as well (p.30). (It's worth noting that Abid Nisar was a fellow organizer with Razzaque and Cooper in ANNA Group.)

After 2005 passed with several of his clients and partners having garnered lucrative appointments, Cooper took the opportunity early in 2006 to make good on the debt he owed to Harris. While Cooper had carried the $10,000 debt on his campaign finance committee's books since it was incurred in November of 2004, his April 2006 report indicates that he finally dispatched that debt.

Cooper's $63,715.71 in expenditures reported during that period included repayment of $53,715.71 in loans to himself and a $10,000 payment categorized as "payment made this period on debts incurred in previous period." Though Cooper failed on his report to itemize the recipient of the $10,000 payment --evidence, some might say, of the criminal tendency to conceal due to consciousness of guilt-- the $10,000 matches the debt incurred to Liberty Consulting on his November 29, 2004 report, which had not yet been repayed.

The implications of the transactions between Nathan Cooper and James Harris between November 2004 and April of 2006 aren't difficult to unpack. The records indicate a clear case of one political figure committing to "owe" large sums to a dummy consulting firm in return for which his clients and partners get "special" consideration for certain appointments, and when such appointments awarded the "debt" is repayed.

There is really little question at this point that Harris and Cooper have performed callous acts of public corruption. The query that requires response is whether this sort of behavior --perpetrated by players at the highest levels of the Blunt administration-- was actively encouraged or endorsed by the Governor, or merely the result of the negligent blind eye he turned to the blackening rot growing at his administration's core.