TRUTH ALERT: Checking ads in state Senate race

With more than $2 million raised between the candidates, mid-Missouri television viewers may have seen several ads from the two vying for the state Senate District 19.

Democrat Stephen Webber and Republican Caleb Rowden run for the district mainly serving Boone and Cooper counties, left open by term-limited Republican Kurt Schaefer this year. Both worked in the Missouri House of Representatives, elected in districts for different parts of Columbia.

ABC 17 News checked a few of the claims made in the latest ads, both of which take aim at their opponent.

A part of Rowden’s ad targets Webber’s first term in the House. In 2009, Webber, a former Marine, cast several votes related to House Bill 62, an extensive bill related to crime. Rowden’s ad claims, “Stephen Webber supported allowing sex offenders near childcare facilities.”

The ad cites his final vote against the bill, which was eventually passed and signed into law, that prohibits those on the sex offender registry from living 500 feet from a school or childcare facility. However, voting records show Webber supported the bill on its first pass through the House. When it came back from the Senate, the bill included a provision that would let people convicted of misdemeanor sex offenses apply to get their name off the registry, if they were 19 or younger when they were convicted. Webber’s campaign tells ABC 17 News that provision swung Webber to oppose the bill.

“This is an outrageous and disgraceful claim from Caleb,” Webber campaign manager Emily Waggoner told ABC 17 News. “Stephen Webber volunteered twice to put his life on the line to ensure that our country and our community are safe.”

Webber also supported an amendment in the House that would have removed foreign sex offenders from the prohibiton of coaching youth sports teams. That amendment, proposed by Rep. Mike Colona, ultimately failed in the House.

Webber’s latest ad focuses on Rowden and his father’s business, Pebble. That company, started by Rick Rowden in 2014, offers computer support and data management for candidates, according to its website and online contribution reports listed with the Missouri Ethics Commission. Those disclosures shows various campaigns paid Pebble more than $218,000 for services like “computer programming,” “marketing services” and “advertising.” Clients include Republican John Brunner’s bid for governor this year, Schaefer’s attorney general campaign and Rowden’s campaign itself (a $1,800 purchase for “website design” in 2015).

Webber’s ad particularly points out the expenditures from Missourians for Fair Taxation, a political action committee currently dedicated to passing Amendment 4, and largely bankrolled by the Missouri Association of Realtors. Rowden served as the chairman of the House Committee on Economic Development, which deals primarily with tax-related issues.

“He steers thousands of dollars of campaign cash to a family business,” the ad says.

It’s not clear what role, if any, the younger Rowden has with his father’s company, or if any of the expenditures by other candidates or groups actually helped him. The state representative appears in his own ads, touting his company, Clarius Interactive, a company that promotes products for “small and medium sized companies,” according to the Secretary of State’s business filings. In 2014, the year Pebble started, Clarius had a registered address of 501 Fay Street in Columbia, the address now listed for Rick Rowden’s company.

Rowden campaign manager Jonathan Ratliff did not respond to an after hours request for comment on Webber’s ad.