Menu
State representative's race heats up
The election of 2008 has drawn a lot of attention, mostly for the tone of the campaigns being waged by candidates on both sides of the aisle. The race for the Missouri 125th District representative is no exception. A radio ad by Carla Keough, the Democratic candidate for the 125th District seat, and a letter by Jim and Nancy Wilson, Richards, along with several blogs aligned with the Democratic party have brought the incumbent, Barney Fisher's finances into question.
The radio ad tells listeners to expect a mailing from Keough that will detail "a sad betrayal" of the 125th district. The mailing details a list of votes Fisher is alleged to have made. The first example given by Keough is March 27, 2007, when Keough said Fisher voted against HB2 but on that date HB2 was tabled without a final vote.
While the Wilson's letter and the blogs highlight Fisher's financial problems they don't give any information about them except the amounts involved. Fisher responded with an open letter to Keogh and the Wilsons that detailed the reason for the difficulties and what brought them on.
"From 1998 to 2003 my wife, Mary, and I went through some very difficult financial times, due primarily to excessive medical expenses above what our insurance would pay (80 percent)," Fisher wrote. "Mary had three surgeries and I had two. One of my wife's out-of-town specialists wouldn't even accept our insurance, charged us more than he said he would, and the surgery didn't work.
"The specialist's fees were a heavy financial burden when combined with the fact that we owned our own business and when one or both of us couldn't work, we weren't making any money while bills, both business and personal were piling higher and higher.
"Also, in 1998, I caught one of our suppliers cheating us out of $1,500, wouldn't adjust our account, and finally sued us. We won. The supplier settled with our attorney for what we really owed the supplier plus interest. That was a seven-year fight."
Fisher said that while there are still bills remaining from those days, he and his wife are current or ahead of all of them.
"While appreciate your concern of our private medical and financial affairs, I want you and the voters to know that we're financially OK now," Fisher wrote. "Ten of our creditors from those dark days are paid off with interest and of the remaining five, we are ahead of two who will be paid off in about 12 months and the last three creditors will take about another three years. While we're not on easy street, we're OK and no person or business has lost one cent on account of us, in fact, they all made money on us."
Fisher went on to say what he and his wife didn't do when the bills stacked up.
"Jim and Nancy, here's what we didn't do," Fisher wrote. "We didn't seek the protection of the courts, we didn't borrow money from family or friends, and we didn't ask any government to bail us out. We did liquidate assets and kept working our way out of trouble."
Fisher also said that Keough was committing an ethics violation by using printed matter included in a mailing from Keough, that purports to be Fisher's voting record which lacks a required notice.
"Finally, your politically motivated letter is just the type of campaigning that most people are sick of," Fisher wrote. "But you should be aware that the enclosure of your letter that pretends to be my voting record is a violation of Missouri's ethics laws, a violation that my opponent has been committing since June. You two have unwittingly helped dig her hole deeper. At their discretion, the Missouri Ethics Commission may deal with my opponent's ethics violations before or after the election."
Joe Carrol, Missouri Ethics Commission, said that he couldn't comment on any case that might come before the commission but he did say that Missouri law requires the notice on every piece of printed matter that a campaign would distribute.
"I can't say anything about specific cases because I can't prejudice them if they were to come before the commission," Carrol said. "What I can say is the law does require all printed matter a campaign distributes, no matter what it is, to have a notice stating who is paying for it."
RSMO 130.031.8 says, in part: "Any person publishing, circulating, or distributing any printed matter relative to any candidate for public office or any ballot measure shall on the face of the printed matter identify in a clear and conspicuous manner the person who paid for the printed matter with the words 'Paid for by' followed by the proper identification of the sponsor pursuant to this section."
Fisher also noted that he understands that such attacks, however unwarranted, often occur during campaigns, but he's not going to embark on a smear campaign of his own, and thanked supporters for rallying around him in light of the Democrat's campaign tactics.
The writer says she/he is disappointed that we did not give Carla a chance to respond. Our calls went unanswered. Due to the amount of election coverage we are attempting to provide, we couldn't wait any longer.