The Missouri Republican Party has filed the world's prissiest ethics complaint against state Rep. Jason Kander.
Kander, a Democrat who lives in Waldo, has made ethics reform one of his priorities. His efforts to make Jefferson City a less scuzzy place leave him open to charges of hypocrisy -- or so Lloyd Smith, executive director of the state GOP, thinks. Kander, Smith says, believes that the laws he promotes don't apply to him. Smith's white-hot evidence? Kander filed a campaign-finance report one day late.
Smith is also harping on Kander for distributing printed materials that do not display the required disclaimer in a "clear and conspicuous manner," as required by law. "At least one campaign lit piece, which was placed on a door within his district and appears to have been printed from an e-mail or website, lacks the required 'paid for by' disclaimer," the complaint alleges.
Kander, for his part, says he warned the Missouri Ethics Commission that his paperwork was going to be a little late. As for being clear and conspicuous, Kander says the disclaimers on his yard signs are printed in a 14-point font, which exceeds federal guidelines.
Kander added that he was focused on his campaign. Smith, meanwhile, may be spending the rest of his day measuring the distance between car tires and the curbs in downtown Jeff City.
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Prissiest ethics complaint ever?? Wow... So ethics, I guess can now be considered subjective? Whether prissy or not, he filed late. Lawyers don't file anything as important as required financial reports late. Well unless they know someone, or think the rules don't apply to them... But he is "mr. Ethics" right? Surely, this is just something he overlooked? I sure don't want my representative to have a loose definition of what's required of them- not good.
Although the charges against Kander seem pretty light, I notice that Kander's defense does not fully address the charges made. Kander's answer to the charge that he filed his finance report late does not address precisely why the report was late. I'm sure he'd claim that he was having difficulties with the technology (an excuse grade students tend to use when they don't do their online assignments). Realistically, Kander probably just failed to anticipate the deadline, until it was too late to submit the report on time. While this mistake isn't a grave ethical lapse, it does indicate that Kander probably was disorganized when it came to making sure everything in his campaign was completely in compliance with all state stipulations to some degree.
Moreover, the defense against the campaign literature charge? Kander doesn't address it. Notice that he responds to the allegation about the campaign literature by talking about his yard signs. What? That wasn't the question. The item in question was not a yard sign? Again, Kander doesn't seem to have the best grasp on how everything complies with ethics laws in his campaigns. To be fair, he might assume that everything is compliant, that's fine. Regardless, however, if the allegations are true, Kander is, at best, negligent about all the details of ethical compliance in his campaign. How much weight one wants to assign this possibility is subjective.
Ah yes, how will he explain away filing a piece of paperwork one day late and a lit piece it doesn't even sound like he dropped. SHOW ME THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE
Sounds like Kander is cutting corners, like most career wanting politicians criticized in Jeff City... When making something as nebulous as "ethics reform" your platform, you should be ready to make sure everything you do is in line. He is lucky to have a press outlet, like the Pitch, to explain away his sins...
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