JETTON FIRES BACK AT KINDER IN ETHICS FLAP

During a July 11 news conference outside the offices of the Missouri Ethics Commission, House Speaker Rod Jetton fired back at Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a fellow Republican who a couple of weeks earlier criticized Jetton for conflicts of interest by working as a paid political consultant for several other GOP lawmakers. Jetton said he found the criticism puzzling since a top Kinder aide attempted to enlist Jetton’s services during Kinder’s short-lived gubernatorial bid earlier this year.

Kinder, who is running for re-election, has called for a state law prohibiting elected officials from serving as paid political consultants. State Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor, also supports such a law. Their campaign season efforts come two years after state Sen. Rita Days, D-St. Louis, first filed legislation to do exactly what Kinder and Steelman now propose. Senate Republican leaders failed to hold committee hearings on Days’ bills – SB 1167 in 2006 and SB 126 in 2007.

After Jetton’s consulting business first came to light in 2006, he sought an opinion from the Ethics Commission as to its legality. Although Jetton claims the commission approved the arrangement, the opinion actually said that although Jetton hadn’t yet broken the law “the Commission has serious concerns about the ability of an elected official to avoid violation of these laws while conducting a consulting business for compensation.”