McKee 'Partner' Shuffled Cash to Kinder Pal Barklage During Tax Credit Debate, After Passage

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.

'Voters for Good Government' is a continuing committee organized under the Missouri Ethics Commission rules.  The committee had just a handful of bucks in the bank when developer Thomas R. Hughes kicked in $15,000 on March 12, 2007 during the run-up to municipal elections in St. Charles.  Just two weeks later on March 27th, Hughes ponied up another $43,000 contribution to the committee.  [Ed.note: The First Capitol News has an in-depth recap of all the committee's spending in 2007.]

Hughes is a key ally of McKee's, as the two developers provide the heft behind their St. Charles based front group, Partners for Progress.  You may remember Partners for Progress as one of at least six McKee-connected outfits which hired Kinder ally Melanie Moore Withrow (check out this slide show in which the second slide identifies Moore --a vice president at Partners for Progress-- as a "Kinder associate") as a lobbyist during the period leading up to the creation of Kinder's $100 million tax credit. 

With an investment of $58,000 by McKee partner Hughes in the 'Voters for Good Government' account, committee treasurer and FiredUp! favorite fee agent Buddy Hardin began using local St. Charles candidate campaigns as pretexts for moving the money to companies controlled by chief Kinder advisor David Barklage. 

On March 15th, the committee made a payment of $4,500 to Strategic Communications, which is Barklage's primary consulting business.  On April 19th, the committee made a payment of $6,000 to Atomic Marketing (and incurred another $7,500 cost).  That payment which was directed to 400 N. Broadway in Cape Girardeau --the same address as Barklage's Strategic Communications.  These payments were made in the midst of the Missouri legislative session, before final action had been taken on the Kinder-McKee tax credit legislation.

In the week immediately following the close of the legislative session, the end of which saw the tax credit passed, 'Voters for Good Government' again made payments to Barklage firms.  On May 22nd, the committee paid $8,000 to Strategic Communications and another $1,000 to Atomic Marketing.  All told, "consulting firms" running out of Barklage's Cape Girardeau shop were the recipient of $19,500 in payments from 'Voters for Good Government.'  At least $9,000 of that amount was transmitted to Barklage's firms some six weeks after the date of the elections for which the expenditures were putatively intended.

And there are other payments that are very likely to have been directed by Barklage.  On the same date that the first payment was made to Strategic Communications, another payment in the amount of $8,400 was made to "Weston McKee" for grassroots organizing.  McKee --a neophyte political operative-- appears to be a protege of Barklage.  McKee's past political experience seems to crop up exclusively in state senate races, in which Barklage plays a critical role.  McKee worked as a staffer to the Scott Rupp senate campaign, the John Maupin run against Joan Bray, and as a paid consultant to the Barklage-run 'Majority Fund Inc.' GOP Senate committee (of which Buddy Hardin is also treasurer).  McKee is now a staffer to the Tom Dempsey special senate election campaign.  [Ed. note: despite the name, I could find no evidence that Weston McKee is a close relative of Paul McKee.]

I wonder if Peter Kinder knew that the developers whose water he was carrying during the 2007 session were routing thousands into the pocket of his main man Barklage?  Part of an arrangement, or just an operative trying to get his on the sly?

*** 

Note: In another oddity also pointed out by the First Capitol News, treasurer Buddy Hardin --a close ally of disgraced GOPer Nathan Cooper-- initially accepted and reported the two massive T.R. Hughes checks as contributions.  In an amended report filed a month after the election, he curiously changes his mind and reports those checks as "loans" from Hughes which must be paid back by the committee and guaranteed by Hardin himself.  What was going on with Hardin's borderline fraudulent accounting and reporting is anyone's guess.  Perhaps the media could look into it...