Official announcement…

Stacey Newman, executive director of the Missouri Women’s Coalition, is officially announcing today that she is seeking the office of State Representative for the 73rd District. She has filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission formally creating her finance committee with Ray Hartmann, St. Louis, as treasurer.

“The late Harriett Woods, former Lt. Governor and a long time mentor, often told me women run for office because they become upset enough to take action. I am extremely upset with the direction of our state government and will fight for change and true progressive policies,” said Newman.

In 2005 the state legislature cut Medicaid health insurance coverage for more than 100,000 Missourians, including over 40,000 children. Missouri schools are in crisis mode with private school voucher proposals threatening public school funding. In July 2007 Governor Blunt signed restrictions into law forcing many women’s health clinics to close and allowing public schools to teach fact-less abstinence-only sex education. The number of Missouri children living in poverty is on the rise due to numerous social services cuts by the current administration.

“This is not the direction I envision for Missouri,” Newman said. “I advocate providing health care for all Missourians, increasing our public school funding, protecting women’s personal health decisions, and supporting stem cell research and cures.

Stacey Newman’s dedication, passion and diverse background have prepared her to effectively represent the 73rd District:

• Democratic National Committee – managed specialized Missouri vote program
• 2004 John Kerry for President campaign – directed the Missouri Women’s Vote Program
• Missouri Democratic Party – coordinated statewide and legislative women’s campaigns
• “Coalition Against Blunt’s War on Women – spokeswoman for 22 progressive organizations fighting Gov. Blunt’s attacks on birth control
• Co-president of Brady Campaign/Million Mom March – St. Louis – worked closely with Governor Holden’s office against concealed weapons legislation
• Missouri registered lobbyist – lobbied for bi-partisan domestic violence and child safety legislation

Stacey resides in Richmond Heights, Missouri and is a retired flight attendant. Her husband, Burt, is an attorney in Clayton who successfully challenged the voter ID law in the Missouri Supreme Court in 2006. Their daughter, Sophie, is a freshman at Clayton High School.

“I am prepared to run, ready to win and pledge to continue the progressive work of Rep. Margaret Donnelly and Sen. Joan Bray who have held this seat for more than 15 years,” said Newman.

From the Governor’s office…

Gov. Matt Blunt’s office today raised questions about information in the Supreme Court Candidates’ applications that was withheld by the Appellate Judicial Commission. The commission asserted Friday the applications they delivered to the governor’s office were complete, but a review found that documents were missing or removed from the original applications submitted by the candidates.

The missing documents include one candidate’s statement of judicial philosophy, another candidate’s list of cases as required by the commission and background check authorizations for all three candidates.

“Upon review, we found that the three Supreme Court candidate’s application materials you sent to our office last Thursday were incomplete,” said the Governor’s Chief Counsel Henry Herschel in a letter to Judge Laura Denvir Stith, the chair of the Judicial Appellate Commission.

After initial research that included a request from each candidate for copies of their original application, it became clear that the commission removed or withheld pertinent information from the applications provided to the governor.

Missing documents include:

• one candidate’s list of cases tried
• one candidate’s statements of judicial philosophy
• background check authorization forms for all three candidates

The commission asked each applicant twenty-five questions including a request for a list of ten legal cases they have tried. The materials sent to the governor’s office did not include an answer to this question by one of the candidates. After contacting the candidate, the governor’s office was provided with a two page addendum that had been provided to the commission but was missing from the application. This addendum listed only four cases that had been tried by this candidate.

Additionally, one of the candidate’s statements of judicial philosophy, provided to the Appellate Commission as an addendum, was omitted. This was particularly enlightening as it addressed head on the question of judicial philosophy by one of the candidates.

The applications from the commission also failed to include the signed permission waivers for background checks and the background checks themselves. It is not known whether the commission ran background checks on the candidates or why copies of the authorization forms were removed from the application files.

The governor’s office previously requested all available information from the Appellate Judicial Commission and has expanded that request to include information about why relevant material was excluded from the provided materials. The request is part of the exhaustive interview process in motion to help Gov. Matt Blunt determine who of the three candidates will serve as Missouri’s next Supreme Court Judge.

In Missouri, the governor does not appoint a judge to the Supreme Court from citizens at large. Instead an Appellate Judicial Commission, made up of the presiding chief justice, three lawyers chosen by the Missouri Bar and three people appointed by governors, selects a panel of three candidates. Gov. Blunt has appointed only one of the three commissioners, and the others were appointed by former Gov. Bob Holden. The governor has 60 days to appoint one of the three nominated candidates to the Supreme Court.

From the Comptroller’s Office…

The 2007 fiscal year ended June 30 revealing a $2.98 million general fund budget surplus. Comptroller Darlene Green attributed the surplus to some higher than estimated revenue source receipts and allocated funds left unspent by some city departments.

“We beat last year’s earnings tax receipts by 3.6 percent or $4.7 million,” said Green. “This really helped cover some revenue sources that were down from last year, like the amusement tax receipts.”

Other notable revenue sources that beat FY 06 returns were intergovernmental receipts that include gasoline and auto sales taxes and prisoner housing reimbursements (up $5.0 million or 21.2%); hotel and restaurant tax (up $588,000 or 5.1%); and sales tax (up $1.4 million or 3.0%). Property tax receipts were also up 8.3 percent, but that was attributed mostly to an increase in delinquent tax payments.

City Budget Director Paul Payne agrees that the 2007 fiscal year surplus is a welcome change over past years.

“The surplus, while modest, is a positive development. It says good things about the city’s economic growth, which along with continued vigilance on spending, are the keys for ensuring future budgets can meet the city’s needs,” said Payne.

The year end results cited above are unaudited and represent preliminary calculations. The official, audited results will be published later this year in the city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.

This report will be available online at www.stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/comptroller when it is completed.

From the Missouri Ethics Commission…

Click to enlarge

Press Release from Gov. Matt Blunt’s office…

Comparing the actions of Attorney General Jay Nixon to a traffic cop that coerces money from a speeding motorist, Gov. Matt Blunt’s Chief of Staff Ed Martin today said he will testify Wednesday before the Public Service Commission (PSC) despite objections from Nixon. Martin plans to reveal information he received in private about the nearly $20,000 Nixon’s office sought and received from Ameren after Nixon became the criminal investigator in the Ameren Taum Sauk disaster case.

“Anybody knows that law enforcement cannot take money or gifts from suspects or investigative targets,” Martin wrote in a letter to Nixon. “Everyone knows it is wrong for a police officer or deputy to take money at a traffic stop. Everyone knows a prosecutor must not seek money or gifts from a target or defendant.”

Ameren is currently seeking a rate increase for their customers in hearings before the Public Service Commission. Last year, at the request of the Attorney General’s political office, Ameren funneled nearly $20,000 in campaign cash to Nixon through four Democrat Committees after he became the criminal prosecutor in the Taum Sauk disaster case. For more than a year, Nixon denied his involvement in the request for Ameren funds, but this month Ameren revealed that it was Nixon’s office that requested the money even though Nixon was conducting a criminal investigation into the utility company.

Last week, Office of Administration Chief Counsel Rich AuBuchon asked the Attorney General’s Office to take all necessary actions to recognize Martin as a witness to provide testimony to the PSC. When the Attorney General’s office failed to comply with the request, the Administration worked directly with the PSC to allow Martin’s testimony.

Martin said his testimony will show how Nixon’s actions are hurting Ameren ratepayers.

“The Taum Sauk settlement and rebuild are worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” Martin wrote in a letter to Nixon. “The Ameren rate case could cost hundreds of millions more. Put simply, once you asked for and received Ameren’s money, you lost the ability to be trusted as Ameren’s legal adversary. An officer of the law who takes money at a traffic stop will lose the public’s good opinion. It only makes the matter worse if the officer refuses to account for himself. Therefore, I respectfully request that you recuse yourself from any and all dealings with Ameren. This includes the Taum Sauk case and the Ameren rate case.”

Click here to download Martin’s letter.