BY: RUDI KELLER
Missouri Independent
The PAC backing Republican Jay Ashcroft’s 2024 bid for governor improperly coordinated with his campaign on a letter attacking his opponents, according to a consent agreement approved by the Missouri Ethics Commission.
The Committee for Liberty, which spent $2.9 million promoting Ashcroft’s losing effort, must pay $536 and avoid future violations, states the agreement posted Oct. 15 on the commission’s website.
The Committee for Liberty and Ashcroft for Missouri both paid $5,361 each to produce and mail a letter dated March 8, 2024, and marked as paid for jointly by the committees. The consent agreement states that Committee for Liberty should have either reported it as an in-kind expense on behalf of Ashcroft’s campaign or an in-kind donation from Ashcroft’s campaign.
If there is another violation, the agreement states, the commission can seek a fine of the full amount of the expense.
The agreement said Ashcroft’s campaign also did not report it as either an in-kind donation or an in-kind expense on behalf of Committee for Liberty.
Ashcroft, who was secretary of state at the time, was running against then-Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and then-state Sen. Bill Eigel. Kehoe won the primary and is now governor. Eigel came in second and is running to be St. Charles County Executive.
The March 8 letter labeled Kehoe as a closet Democrat and Eigel as a “political gadfly.”
Ashcroft ran a distant third and is now working as an administrative law judge hearing workers’ compensation appeals.
Democratic attorney and lobbyist Jane Dueker filed the complaint in May 2024, citing the failure of either committee to report it properly. She also complained that the value of the donation to Ashcroft for Missouri exceeded the limit of $2,825 from any donor.
Dueker declined to comment on the outcome of the complaint. She noted that the portion of the complaint against Ashcroft’s campaign has not been resolved.
PACs like Committee for Liberty can accept donations of any size. Candidates are allowed to make joint fundraising appeals seeking money in limited amounts for the campaign and unlimited amounts for their PAC.
That is where the coordination must end. Neither the official committee nor the PAC are allowed to influence the other’s campaign strategy or tactics.