Big check to Hulshof may have been made too soon

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The $600,000 check was the biggest ever to gubernatorial candidate Kenny Hulshof. But the Republican Governors Association may have been a little too hasty in making the contribution.

A financial report by the Republican Governors Association Missouri 2008 Political Action Committee shows it made the contribution to Hulshof on Aug. 26, two days before Missouri's contribution limits were repealed.

Missouri's old limits applied both to those who made contributions and those who received them. So a political action committee could have contributed no more than $1,350 to a gubernatorial candidate before Aug. 28.

A committee that made a large contribution right before Aug. 28 technically may have violated the law, Joe Carroll, the campaign finance director for the Missouri Ethics Commission, said Wednesday.

But "it's a gray area," Carroll added.

The Ethics Commission has defined the receipt of a contribution to occur when a candidate or campaign committee has possession of a check, which may be before it is deposited. There would be no violation, for example, for Hulshof's campaign to receive the $600,000 check Aug. 28.

But Carroll said the commission never defined when a contribution was made, under the terms of the old contribution limits law.

Now that the contribution limits are repealed, the commission isn't likely to take action against groups that made contributions around Aug. 28, Carroll said.

"You have to be practical about these things," he said.

The treasurer for the PAC that made the contribution to Hulshof did not immediately return calls seeking comment Wednesday.

On Wednesday Hulshof's campaign released a copy of the check, which was dated Aug. 28, and a copy of an accompanying letter from the Republican Governors Association to Hulshof's campaign that also was dated Aug. 28.

The check and letter both apparently were dated in advance.

Hulshof spokesman Scott Baker said they arrived in the mail on Aug. 28. Because the check wasn't personally delivered, the Republican Governors Association had to mail it early to get it to Hulshof on the day that contribution limits were repealed, Baker said.