Missouri’s Republican Secretary of State Jay AshcroftAshcroft’s campaign for governor is facing an ethics complaint alleging it illegally coordinated with a political action committee over a letter attacking his opponents, an allegation Ashcroft’s campaign rejects.
The complaint, filed last week by attorney and lobbyist Jane Dueker, alleges that Committee for Liberty, the PAC supporting Ashcroft, spent $5,244.84 on the March letter — the same amount spent by Ashcroft’s campaign. That figure should have been reported as an in-kind contribution to Ashcroft’s campaign, the complaint states.
That wasn’t the case, Dueker claims, because the contribution exceeded the $2,825 limit on contributions Ashcroft’s campaign committee, Ashcroft for Missouri, can receive during an election cycle.
“This violation is so obvious that this Commission is required to conduct little or no investigation,” according to the complaint to the Missouri Ethics Commission. It went on to say that “every dime” the PAC spent on the letter was “an in-kind contribution to Ashcroft for Missouri.”
“Ashcroft for Missouri filed false campaign finance reports and the Commission should take appropriate action,” the report said.
Jason Cabel Roe, a spokesman for Ashcroft’s campaign, pushed back in a statement to The Star, calling the complaint a “frivolous use of the law” and describing it as a political attack.
“She is trying to make a practice that is allowed by Missouri law sound illegal when it is perfectly legal,” he said. “There is nothing in our fundraising letters that is not on our website or social media.”
Ashcroft’s campaign is now using the complaint to raise money for his campaign. Ashcroft of Missouri sent a fundraising email Wednesday attacking Dueker as a “liberal Democratic lobbyist” who Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoeone of his Republican opponents for governor.
“Are you surprised? I’m not, this is what Democrats are doing now: using the law to attack their political opponents,” the email said. “This complaint is frivolous and misleading, due to practices expressly authorized by Missouri law.”
It remains unclear whether the Missouri Ethics Commission will investigate the complaint. The committee’s work is largely confidential. Liz Ziegler, executive director of the commission, said in an email that state law prohibits her from commenting on complaints before the commission has reached a conclusion.
The complaint comes as Ashcroft leads in public opinion polls in the Republican race for governor, which also includes Kehoe and Sen. Bill Eigel of Weldon Spring. Leading Democratic candidates for governor include Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade and businessman Mike Hamra.
The disputed March letter states that it was paid for by both Ashcroft’s candidate committee and the PAC supporting his campaign. It praises Ashcroft’s lead in the polls but says he is behind Kehoe in fundraising.
The letter goes on to attack Kehoe’s voting record when he previously served in the Senate, saying, “Who needs a Democrat in the Governor’s House when you have Mike Kehoe?”
It briefly attacks Eigel, calling him a “political gadfly.” The letter, signed by Ashcroft, also praises the secretary’s record, calling him “the conservative choice for Missouri.”
Voters reinstated campaign contribution limits in 2016 after Missouri spent a decade as one of the few states without borders. In 2020, voters also approved lower limits for state candidates.
However, these limits have not taken the money out of politics, but instead funneled money into political action committees that can accept unlimited donations. Although PACs cannot be controlled by a candidate, the committees may support or oppose ballot measures and candidates.
Peverill Squire, a professor of political science at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said in an email to The Star that the coordination alleged in Dueker’s complaint “is now a regular occurrence in U.S. elections.”
“However, the laws in question are almost never enforced, largely because violations are time-consuming to document and coordination is difficult to prove in a legal forum,” he said. “There is little doubt, however, that this fundraising letter also functioned as a campaign pitch for Ashcroft and anyone who received it would likely have interpreted it that way.”
Squire also said he is confident there will be more allegations of campaign finance violations as the primaries approach.
“I suspect most voters won’t pay much attention to them for a good reason: they won’t be resolved until long after the election is over,” he said.
Dueker, in a statement to The Star, pushed back on Ashcroft’s campaign’s defense of the letter, saying the secretary of state’s supporters viewed the complaint as a “technical issue.”
“The Ashcroft Campaign Committee’s obvious collusion with the Committee for Liberty PAC has transformed a supposedly independent PAC into a second and illegal Ashcroft Campaign Committee with no campaign finance limits,” she said. “This is a clear violation of the Missouri Constitution and statutes.”
But to Roe, Ashcroft’s campaign spokesman, the complaint was merely a political attack.
“She seems to think that attacking the leading candidate for governor with a bogus ethics complaint will hurt Secretary Ashcroft, but it really shows how desperate the Kehoe campaign is,” he said.
