Truth Alert: Putting new anti-Hawley ad to the test
Election Day is still months away, but ABC 17 News has a Truth Alert.
The Senate Majority PAC is running an anti-Josh Hawley commercial on KMIZ and other stations across the state.
The ad starts with the announcer saying, “You can sweep it. You can scrub it. You can toss out the dirty governor, but you won’t clean up Jefferson City with Josh Hawley around. After taking 50 grand, Hawley dragged his feet investigating Greitens.”
As ABC 17 New has reported on previous Truth Alerts, Josh Hawley did accept around $50,000 of in-kind donations from Greitens for Missouri. In-kind contributions are value for services and often include advertising.
As far as Missouri Attorney General Hawley “dragging his feet” investigating the former governor? This is what Hawley said on January 22nd, after the Greitens’ affair scandal broke 10 days prior: “So the allegations of blackmail and the criminal allegations that have been made, under Missouri statutes the jurisdiction is with the prosecuting attorney in the place where those are alleged to have occurred… this office does not have jurisdiction over that type of criminal behavior.”
The commercial continues: “Now, Hawley is running from another dirty scandal, refusing to investigate an allegedly illegal pay-to-play scheme involving a donor who gave Hawley’s campaign nearly $3 million.”
There is truth, spin error and the unknown in this part of the ad.
The commercial accuses Hawley of refusing to investigate an illegal pay-to-play scheme involving a donor who contributed nearly $3,000,000 to his campaign for attorney general. The ad cites an article in The Kansas City Star from May of 2017, regarding pay-to-play allegations regarding the contributions of David Humphreys to Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard.
As far as contributions by Humphreys to the Hawley for Missouri campaign, ABC 17 News dug into the Missouri Ethics Commission financial reports and found Humphreys actually gave the campaign $4,750,000 – and an even $5,000,000 if you count the quarter of a million dollars to Hawley’s campaign from Humphreys’ mother.
There were no limits on campaign contributions in Missouri at that time. Although the amount may seem staggering to most of us Missourians no laws were broken.
