Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Campaign Financing, Presiding Commissioner Race

Published by Dick Schaefer, Unpaid, Part-time Contributing Writer and Amateur Investigative Reporter


Have you ever checked into the campaign financing for any of your local election races?  To be honest, I had never before looked into the financing of any local election campaigns.  I was always too busy working, making a living for my family and enjoying life.

But I have time to look into things like this now that I'm retired.  That's why I looked into the campaign financing for the Presiding Commissioner race in  Gasconade County.  I went to the Missouri Ethics Commission website at www.mec.mo.gov.com/.  Then I clicked on "Information about >>> Campaign Financing".  That brought me to a menu where I selected "Campaign Finance Searches >>> Candidates".  Then I did searches for the candidates for Presiding Commissioner.  I expected to find campaign finance information for all three candidates: Ron Jost (R), Larry Miskel (R) and Jerry Spurgeon (D).

But here's what I did find when I entered my search parameters as follows:

Registered Candidates and Candidate Committees

Election Year -- Select Year -- -- 2010

Political Office -- COMMISSIONER

Political Subdivision -- GASCONADE COUNTY

Committee Status -- All Committees -- ACTIVE TERMINATED

SEARCH FOR: COMMISSIONER IN -- ALL -- IN GASCONADE COUNTY

MECID -- A101288

COMMITTEE NAME -- MISKEL FOR PRESIDING COMMISSIONER

LAST NAME -- MISKEL

FIRST NAME -- LARRY

YEAR -- 2010

OFFICE SOUGHT -- COMMISSIONER

DISTRICT SUBDIVISION -- GASCONADE COUNTY

STATUS -- Active

Well, you can just imagine my surprise (and disappointment) when all I could find was information regarding Larry Miskel's campaign finances.  As of this date (7/28/2010), Ron Jost (R) and Jerry Spurgeon (D) have not yet registered anything about their campaign finances with the Missouri Ethics Commission.  When I looked further into this question, I was told that a candidate who expects to be self-financed and expects to limit their campaign contribution receipts and outgoing expenditures to $1,000 or less need not file all the otherwise required financial reports with the Missouri Ethics Commission.

Hmmmmm?  So then, by finding nothing on file for Jost and Spurgeon, am I to conclude that Messrs. Jost and Spurgeon expect to have campaign contributions and expenditures (including donations in kind) which total $1,000 or less?  I suppose that is the inescapable conclusion ..... unless Jost and/or Spurgeon are just late in filing their reports which were due on 7/15 and 7/26 (8-days prior to primary election date).

As for Larry Miskel's campaign finance reports, they are all there on file with the Missouri Ethics Commission.  They all appear to be in good order .... filed on time or ahead of deadline dates, very organized and very complete.  If you'd like to take a look at them, you can click on the following link and you will be taken directly to a summary page without need for navigating through the Missouri Ethics Commission website:
http://www.mec.mo.gov/EthicsWeb/CampaignFinance/CF_CommInfo.aspx?MECID=A101288&Year=2010

When you reach the summary page, just click on the "blue" hotlinks near the bottom of the page to access various campaign committee statements and financial reports.

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Editorial Comment: Hermann Hearsay Traffic Rankings Improving Dramatically Since July 1st

Published by Jimmy Oldsun, NDRIRSRWRAFTC & Editor

During the past month, Hermann Hearsay has experienced a dramatic improvement in our traffic rankings as measured and reported daily by Alexa.com.

On July 1st, our traffic rankings were as follows:
  • Alexa U.S. Traffic Ranking:  337,491
  • Alexa World Traffic Ranking:  well over 1 million
As of today, 7/28, our traffic rankings are as follows:
  • Alexa U.S. Traffic Ranking:  146,071 (improvement of 191,420)
  • Alexa World Traffic Ranking:  970,583 (first time under 1 million)
Because our Alexa World Traffic Ranking has dropped under 1 million for the first time , we will begin tracking our World Traffic Ranking along with our U.S. Traffic Ranking on a daily frequency
and report it along with the other 'Performance Metrics' which follow each of our postings.

We are grateful to our many loyal readers and to the new readers we have picked up during the month of July!  Our pledge to you is that we work to continuously improve the quality and accuracy of our content. 

We have decided to keep our daily format the same for the time being.  We will continue to bring you our 'Quote Of The Day', our 'Laugh Of The Day', our 'Photo Of The Day' and one or two news analysis articles or political opinion commentaries.  In the future, we may add a 'Bible Verse Of The Day', a 'Song Of The Day' or a 'This Date In History' column.  We are also considering the addition of daily history education column ....... either 'Missouri History' or 'U.S. Founding Father History'. 

But before we tamper with our current format, we'd like to hear from you.  Afterall, YOU are the customer of our work.  What would you like to read about on Hermann Hearsay?

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Alexa U.S. Traffic Ranking: 146,071
Alexa World Traffic Ranking: 970,583
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Photo Of The Day - Wednesday, 7/28/2010

Published by Lois Lame, SSALRCYTMVDQJCP & Assistant Editor

Business at 'Mid-Missouri Mule Rides' near Bland has been picking up since A. E. Newman began offering his "romantic champagne and caviar mule rides at sunset" just three months ago.  Because of the increasing demand by young lovers from all over the region, Newman has purchase three more mules.  The mules in the photo below were purchased from a rancher in Montana.


'Moe', 'Larry' and 'Curly'
Photo provided by A. E. Newman

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Laugh Of The Day - Wednesday, 7/28/2010

Published by Lois Lame, SSALRCYTMVDQJCP & Assistant Editor

“I went into a McDonald's yesterday and said, "I'd like some fries." The girl at the counter said, "Would you like some fries with that?"”  ~ Jay Leno

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www.vemmadrinker.blogspot.com/ (Premium Nutritional Drinks)

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Quote Of The Day - Wednesday, 7/28/2010

Published by Lois Lame, SSALRCYTMVDQJCP & Assistant Editor

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant."  ~ Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis


Louis Dembitz Brandeis (pronounced /ˈbrændaɪs/; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish parents who had immigrated from Europe. He enrolled at Harvard Law School, graduating at the age of twenty with the highest grade average in the college’s history.

The following was excerpted from a 3/16/2006 article witten by Blair Horner on the New York Public Interest Research Group's website.  For full article, click on:  http://www.nypirg.org/goodgov/blair/blair31306.html .

"When the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis stated, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” he was of course referring to the development of public polices, not opining on health practices. This week [2nd week in March] celebrates “Sunshine Week” – the national effort to ensure that American democracy conducts its business openly. Brandeis’s sentiments are the cornerstone of the federal government’s Freedom of Information Act as well as versions of it at the state level. Simply put, it was Brandeis’s view that an open government is a more accountable, and less easily corrupted, government.

Americans support open government, but their enthusiasm is often eroded by politicians’ claims that openness can help the nation’s enemies. Clearly one good example is the effort by the Bush Administration to conduct its activities in secret and then justifying such secrecy as due to the threat posed by terrorists. While there can be no doubt that the nation should debate just how open society should be, there can also be no doubt that there is simply no way to be an informed citizen unless you have access to important governmental information.

An ignorant citizenry is easily manipulated by powerful special interests that seek to manipulate public opinion based on emotional, poll-tested, reactions, since there is no real way for voters to check the facts.

Secrecy also creates a breeding ground for corruption; openness is an important part of ensuring that governmental officials are acting in the best interests of the public.

But openness is not enough either. Someone must be empowered to take a stand against wrongdoers."

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