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Nixon rewards another donor with a lucrative fee office

June 29, 2009

Attempts to bury the story with another Friday afternoon press release

For the second week in a row, Gov. Jay Nixon has rewarded a major campaign contributor with a lucrative fee office—and for the second week in row, he has attempted to bury the story by announcing it on a Friday afternoon. This time, Ken Kielty, who is linked to $18,435 in donations to Nixon during the 2008 cycle, was awarded the St. Charles fee office.

“Burying stories by sending out press releases on a Friday afternoon is the oldest trick in the book,” said Lloyd Smith, Executive Director of the Missouri Republican Party. “For the second consecutive week, Jay Nixon attempted to avoid criticism by announcing as late as possible on a Friday that he had rewarded a major campaign contributor with a license office. Nixon clearly knows that his actions fly in the face of his pledge to clean up the process, but instead of actually fixing the problem, he is simply trying to hide it.”

In January, the St Louis Post-Dispatch published an article regarding Nixon’s promise of “transparency” while doling out fee offices. The article singled out Kielty as possible evidence that “the bidding process will be rigged to simply benefit Democratic supporters of Nixon.”

“The Post-Dispatch conceded that the selection of Ken Kielty would suggest that Nixon’s process is a sham—a ‘smoke screen’ as they called it,” said Smith. “Unfortunately, Kielty is only the latest in a long line of influential Democrat contributors who have been rewarded with lucrative fee offices.”

To date, license offices have been awarded to donors linked to more than $80,000 in contributions to Nixon alone. That number is significantly higher when donations of other prominent Democrats are taken into account.

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