Democrats File Ethics Charges Against Matt Blunt

The Missouri Democrat Party has filed ethics charges against Matt Blunt. The ethical lapse?

In the Blunt complaint filed in April, Democrats charged that the bus -- owned by Blunt's new appointee to the state Highways and Transportation Commission, Mike Kehoe -- amounted to an in-kind campaign contribution and that Blunt violated state law by not reporting it to the Ethics Commission.

Blunt spokesman John Hancock said Monday the campaign believes it followed all ethics reporting requirements and planned to ask Nixon, a Democrat, to step aside and bring in an outside official to investigate the complaint.

"We will be asking Jay Nixon to recuse himself from any partisan investigation of this matter, which is nothing more than a technical determination of how to report a campaign lease," Hancock said.

Blunt officials responded when the complaint was filed that the bus qualified as an expense, which would be paid eventually. In campaign finance reports filed earlier this month, the campaign said it paid $6,159 to Mike Kehoe Ford of Jefferson City for chartering a tour bus that got damaged during the campaign, and $1,203 in fuel costs to Jefferson City Oil Co.

Democrats say that repayment still doesn't amount to the fair market value of the bus.

"Clearly this administration shows little regard for ethical guidelines and acts as though they're above the law," Democratic Party spokesman Jack Cardetti said.

Hancock said the only outstanding issue is whether a lease for a campaign expense, such as the bus, now must be reported up front or only once expenses are paid.

So this tempest-in-a-hopefully-teapot-dome ethical lapse hinges on an interpretation of byzantine campaign finance reporting laws. I hope Jay Nixon, a possible challenger for the governor's mansion in 2008, doesn't try to turn this difference of interpretation into a state-funded in-kind contribution in his campaign.

Of course, the official position of this blog is that we don't care what Republican Jay Nixon loses to in 2008...when Matt Blunt leaves Jefferson City for Washington, D.C.