Barklage resigns as chief of staff for Kinder

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The chief of staff for Missouri's top senator resigned Thursday as Senate Democrats pushed for an investigation of whether his connection to Republican Party fund-raising posed a conflict of interest.

David Barklage had led the office of Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder for about a year.

"For the betterment of the entire Senate, I feel strongly that I must leave my post as chief of staff for your office," Barklage said in a letter to Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau.

"It is clear that if I remain in my current role as your chief of staff that there are those who will use me to distract the Senate from conducting the people's business," he said.

The resignation letter came on the same day that Barklage responded to a Democratic resolution seeking an investigation into whether he violated the Senate conduct code. Barklage said in a separate statement that he had done nothing wrong.

Still, "he has been a distraction," said Sen. Ed Quick, D-Liberty, the minority leader.

Besides earning $70,000 annually as Kinder's chief of staff, Barklage also owns Strategic Communications Group Inc. of Cape Girardeau, which received $117,000 from a Republican senatorial campaign fund largely controlled by Kinder.

The Senate conduct code prohibits employees from using their positions "in a manner designed to create personal gain ... abuse the privileges of Senate employment, or be untruthful to the Senate."