Matt Blunt Didn't Unbalance Budget into Coffers of PR

The Missouri newspapers wail and tear at their hair that Matt Blunt didn't spend millions of dollars of the state budget on marketing and public relations to lobby for Missouri's military bases during the BRAC proceedings. State officials:

State officials opted not to hire consultants, saying they didn't want to use taxpayer money without any guarantee of success.

"The bottom line is this was an independent process and it was not going to be influenced by how much money was spent on outside consultants," said Paul Sloca, chief spokesman for the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

Sounds like a good idea to me. I don't understand why we allow our governments to spend money on public relations or advertising at all. However, some local officials think the state should have poured money into the coffers of the journalists' friends:

"I think it's unfortunate, because that's how you retain tax dollars in our state, is by keeping quality jobs," [St. Louis County Executive Charles] Dooley said. "In my mind, we cannot afford not to be aggressive in this type of endeavor."

Dooley would spend the taxpayers' money to enrich consultants while possibly subtly altering the BRAC cuts. Matt Blunt did not.

But that's why this blog is Draft Matt Blunt 2008 and not Draft Dooley 2008.