The proposal targeting a tactic used by former state Sen. Bill Eigel’s campaign received a public hearing Monday, with a vote expected soon on the House-passed measure
BY: RUDI KELLER
Missouri Independent
A Missouri Senate committee on Monday gave a warm reception to a bill intended to bar candidates from raising money with automatically recurring donations, a practice the sponsor of the legislation called “appalling.”
The bill has three main provisions, said state Rep. Jim Murphy, a St. Louis County Republican. The first would require campaigns to make donations a one-time event unless the donor agrees to make them recurring contributions. The second would end all recurring contributions when an election is over. The third would require all solicitations to state the candidate or PAC that will receive the money and if a donation processing service is taking a share of the funds.
Murphy told the Senate Local Government, Elections and Pensions Committee on Monday that the bill is a response to a November report in The Independent that showed how former state Sen. Bill Eigel, a Republican running for St. Charles County executive, was receiving large amounts of money from out-of-state donors originally solicited to give to his failed 2024 campaign for governor.
A Korean War veteran from Nebraska named Russell Wood made 35 donations, starting in December 2024 and totaling $1,050, to Eigel’s campaign for executive. Wood made his first donation to Eigel in October 2023 and was tapped for $1,380 before Eigel terminated the gubernatorial campaign committee in early October 2024.
In an interview with The Independent last year, Wood said he had not purposefully made any political contributions in 2025 and was trying to stop the recurring draws on his credit card.
Wood is one of 141 people nationally — including six from Missouri — who made multiple donations to Eigel’s 2024 campaign for governor who also became contributors to his St. Charles County executive race.
Eigel obtained money from the repeat donors with text and email solicitations that would sign them up for automatically repeating donations unless they removed a check from a small box at the bottom of the solicitation.
“I found it to be appalling,” Murphy told the committee. “Not only did it reflect on him but it reflected on all of us.”
Murphy’s bill passed the Missouri House in February by a 134-16 vote.
During Murphy’s presentation Monday, state Sen. Mike Henderson, a Republican from Desloge, said the bill will protect potential donors.
“What I would do is call this a transparency bill,” he said. “If you’re going to raise money on (the internet), you have to be transparent so people know exactly what they’re doing.”
And state Sen. Jamie Burger, a Republican from Benton, said he’s concerned about retaining the public’s trust.
“I agree with you,” Burger said, “that this is casting a bad light on all of us as politicians.”
In an interview last month with St. Louis Public Radio, Eigel defended the recurring donations as a way to combat deep-pocket donors. The bill, he said, is intended to damage his race for St. Charles County executive.
“I’m making the case that this is more about targeting an individual, me in this case, than it is about what actually makes up good policy,” Eigel said.
Republicans around the state are watching the St. Charles County executive race because of its potential implications for the 2028 elections. If he wins, Eigel becomes a potential primary challenger to Gov. Mike Kehoe, who beat Eigel in 2024 by 7 percentage points.
Through the end of 2025, Eigel had raised $384,000 for his campaign, with another $655,000 raised by BILL PAC, set up to promote Eigel’s political ambitions. He had $335,000 in his campaign account and $125,000 in the PAC account at the end of the year.
Incumbent St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann, who won the office initially in 2006, has raised almost $300,000 for his reelection and had $227,000 on hand. Lake St. Louis Mayor Jason Law, who is also running, has raised $660,000 and had $321,000 on hand on Dec. 31.
Murphy did not mention Eigel by name during his testimony. The goal, he said, is to protect donors who may be triggered to give by a solicitation but not notice every box on the solicitation.
“It’s truth in advertising,” Murphy said. “There’s nothing more to it than that. It’s something we need and should have. It’s a shame it ever happened.”