Earlier this year, wealthy out of state funders spent millions trying to buy a couple of laws onto the books here in Missouri, but Cole County courts wisely struck down attempts to institute TABOR and Eminent Domain reform. Now those same funders are seeking revenge, trying to buy a judgeship here by spending obscene amounts of money attacking incumbent Judge Tom Brown.

Just three weeks ago on October 10, a campaign committee called Citizens for Judicial Reform [1] was created. It was later funded to the tune of $175,000 via two contributions. These gifts --one of $100,000 made on October 27 [2] and another of $75,000 made on October 30 [3]-- were in turn used to fund a flurry of negative direct mail pieces and radio advertisements attacking Judge Tom Brown.

Both contributions, all of the $175,000, came from the same source, an outfit called Americans for Limited Government (ALG). Interestingly, a recent report shows that Illinois-based ALG has been operating illegally out of that state for most of the past year [4].

Americans for Limited Government is controlled [5] by a character who'll be familiar to anyone who followed the TABOR and Eminent Domain efforts here, New York real estate investor Howie Rich. It seems Rich has, in addition to funding efforts to buy Missouri laws via the initiative process [6], begun a nationwide effort [7] to target state judges and wreak havoc on state governments.

Also central to the efforts of Americans for Limited Government has been operative Paul Jacob. Jacob --who is the son-in-law of Howie Rich-- serves as the Senior Fellow [8] of that organization, and was a key player [9] in the Missouri TABOR and Eminent Domain efforts. The fact that ugly smear tactics have been used against Judge Brown is unsurprising, given Jacob's involvement.

As several Missourians witnessed when he was on the ground in the St. Louis area to help push the TABOR and Eminent Domain initiatives, Jacob is a believer in cut-throat tactics and intimidation --a strategy captured in photographs [10] of Jacob haranguing a Missouri citizen in front of the Wentzville Post Office.

Rich, Jacob and Americans for Limited Government obviously believe that their bully tactics --like Jacob's patented parking lot shout-down-- can be used just as effectively when translated into radio attack ads against a sitting judge.

These people --Americans for Limited Government and its masters-- are creeps. They previously attempted to ride into Missouri with their pet initiatives, spend $1.5 million to put an item on the ballot, pass it into law, disrupt our state government, and then ride back to New York or Virginia, never to return. Now they are riding back into town, this time with a local judge trained in their gunsights, and with a rucksack full of cash to spend on tearing down his name.

Their first plan got derailed because Missourians don't want to be told by out-of-towners how to run our own state. So should the second.