JEFFERSON CITY - After two patient months, the Missouri Republican Party demands that Jay Nixon explain why he claims he had no e-mails of public record with his chief of staff for three years. In responding to a GOP Sunshine Law request for his chief of staff’s emails, Nixon invoked attorney client privilege and then released correspondence that laughably contains not one single correspondence between Nixon and the No. 2 man in his office for three years.

The Missouri Republican Party statewide press release on September 26 showed that Nixon had turned over just 200 pages of emails sent by chief of staff John Watson in which weeks and months pass without a single note to Nixon on anyone else on Nixon’s staff. Coincidentally, Nixon’s response to the MRP request was sent unsolicited to various media outlets who felt the issue of Nixon email gaps and attorney-client privilege were not significant enough to warrant coverage. And how serious are the gaps? The emails provided by Nixon show that Watson sent only 19 emails in all of 2004 with only four emails from January through April and none in May, July and August; 27 emails in all of 2005 with only one each in May and August; only 34 emails in 2006 with none written in April; and 215 emails through September 17 of this year? The Nixon documents are available at:  http://www.mogop.org/media/agemails.pdf

“It seems incredible in today’s environment that two months have passed without a single answer from Jay Nixon about his use of attorney-client privilege to avoid answering questions about significant gaps in his chief of staff’s email records and the ludicrous claim that his No. 2 man did not correspond with his boss for three years. The lack of investigation into this situation shows that there is one Sunshine Law standard for Jay Nixon and another for the rest of us,” said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. “It is simply unfathomable that no one is questioning Nixon, whose spokesman Scott Holste admitted to The Associated Press on September 24 that he deletes many of the emails he receives. What emails have been deleted by Nixon’s staff and how does that jive with Nixon’s claims about an email retention policy?”

Along with the email gaps regarding staff, Nixon has yet to be held accountable for failing to produce or being asked to produce emails and other documents regarding his state office’s involvement in accepting Ameren political contributions while investigating the utility. Nixon also has not produced or been asked to produce detailed records regarding his illegal his use of state resources for political purposes.

“There are a lot of records out there that Jay Nixon doesn’t want exposed and his lackluster record on the release of emails and other records has not once been questioned. All Missourians want to know is why? All Missourians want are answers. All Missourians need is someone to ask these questions,” Sloca said.