Blunt Hartley Cassidy Deal Draws National Notice

Last year, Fired Up! reported that Gregg Hartley, former Chief of Staff to Rep. Roy Blunt received $50,000 for one months work. His task? To convince Governor Matt Blunt to sign a piece of legislation benefitting the Missouri Association of Realtors.

In a story today in the NY Times, that arrangement is highlighted again:

In Missouri, for example, the legislature unanimously passed a minimum-services bill that sent lobbyists on both sides scrambling to sway Gov. Matt Blunt. As they had done in other states, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission urged Mr. Blunt to veto the measure.

Ms. Janik had weighed in with a letter to state associations months earlier, saying the Justice Department was merely lobbying and could not apply federal antitrust laws to cases in which states have regulatory authority.

"Realtor associations have the right to lobby for legislative and regulatory action that they support - even if the effect of such action would be anticompetitive," she wrote in a strongly worded memo.

The Missouri Association of Realtors hired Gregg L. Hartley, chief operating officer of Cassidy & Associates, one of the largest lobbying firms in Washington. Mr. Hartley is a former chief of staff to Representative Roy Blunt, the governor's father and one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress. When Representative Tom DeLay was indicted earlier this year, Mr. Blunt took over his duties as majority leader.

The Missouri association paid Mr. Hartley $50,000 for a single month of lobbying, according to state records, which listed his only task as working to enact the bill. Mr. Hartley did not return calls for comment.

Ultimately, Governor Blunt signed the bill.

It's a real shame that the Governor's lack of integrity brings this sort of unwanted attention to Missouri.