Boone County state representative raising money to pay for legal fees

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been corrected to reflect that Jones did not file an official complaint.

In the wake of a lawsuit over Twitter blocking, Representative Cheri Toalson Reisch, R-Hallsville, is having a fundraiser Thursday night to raise money to pay for her defense.

Local attorney Mike Campbell sued Reisch in June after she blocked him on Twitter when he re-tweeted Representative Kip Kendrick’s, D-Columbia, tweet criticizing Resich for pointing out her Democratic opponent in the November election had put her hands behind her back during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Campbell claimed a public figure blocking him was a violation of his First Amendment rights. Reisch contends her page is personal.

“If someone’s cussing me out on the phone, I’m going to hang up,” she said. “If somebody’s spewing garbage and vitriol about me, I’m going to block them.”

Reisch’s Democratic opponent, Maren Bell Jones, called the Missouri Ethics Commission over Reisch’s plan to use campaign money for the legal defense to ask what their rules were.

The law pertaining to the use of campaign funds for legal defense is unclear. While campaign funds can’t be used for “personal expenses”, they can be used for “ordinary expenses” relating to the office.

A 2016 ruling decided that Kansas City mayor Sly James could use campaign funds for a lawsuit.

Reisch said that she talked to the director of the Missouri Ethics Commission, who told her it was “perfectly fine” to bill the fundraiser as both a legal defense and a re-election until they make an official opinion.

The commission can issue advisory opinions to people directly affected by the application of the law upon written request.

“I have opened a separate bank account for my legal defense,” Reisch said. “All proceeds from the fundraiser tomorrow night will be split 50/50.”

If she’s re-elected, she wants to file a bill that makes it “crystal clear” that it’s legal to use campaign funds to defend against “frivolous lawsuits.”

Attorney Andrew Hirth, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Campbell, said that because she is a state representative, Reisch would be able to have the Attorney General’s office defend her for free.

“She’s chosen to hire private counsel, which makes no sense to me,” he said Wednesday.

Reisch’s response to that was that the attorney general “has his hands full.”

“He doesn’t need a distraction from what his job is,” she said. “I have excellent representation right now.”