JEFFERSON CITY - The Missouri Republican Party today began airing a new advertisement
raising serious ethical questions about Claire McCaskill?s handling of
nursing home issues as state auditor because of her husband?s significant
financial interests in the nursing home industry.

Claire McCaskill promised Missourians that she would hold bad state nursing
homes accountable but that all changed when she married Joseph Shepard and
they became a team. Shepard?s nursing homes, cited and sued on multiple
occasions for serious elder care deficiencies, have allowed him to amass a
significant fortune with taxpayer dollars. Claire McCaskill even issued an
audit following her marriage to Shepard that said the Missouri Department of
Health and Senior Services spends too much time investigating so-called
unfounded complaints.

"Claire McCaskill conducted only three audits of the agencies that monitor
nursing homes and coincidentally has received more than $1.6 million of
Joseph Shepard?s nursing home money to finance her campaign for governor,"
said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party.
"This is a very troubling conflict of interest because one of Joseph
Shepard?s senior care facilities is now the focus of a lawsuit relating to
the poor treatment and death of some elderly patients in Missouri¹."

With his nursing home fortune that he shares with Claire McCaskill, a
Shepard company has provided an airplane for McCaskill?s campaigning²
and the couple is building a lavish mansion³ while using a
nursing home-related corporation to pay the mortgage on another mansion⁴.
In the past few years, Shepard has hired expensive trial lawyers to defend
him and his companies in court, but his track record of recurrent violations
indicates that he cannot seem to find the money to provide basic care to
elder residents.

?Claire McCaskill claims that she shares everything with Joseph and admitted
last night that she seeks him out for counsel. But how is it that a
self-professed nursing home watchdog willingly accepts the profits of a
nursing home big-wig who continues to take advantage of the elderly
residents in his facilities??? Sloca said. “ If what she says is true about
sharing everything with Shepard, it is understandable why she would punt
rather than answer questions about her husband.??

¹ St. Louis City Circuit Court, Myers v. Heritage Dunbar
Apartments
² FAA U.S. aircraft registrations, Missouri Ethics Commission
reports
³ St. Louis County Property Transfer records
⁴ St. Louis County Property Tax records, tax history records

ANNOUNCER:  ?Claire McCaskill and nursing homes. The plot thickens.