Blunt aide claims Nixon's office asked Ameren for contributions

~ Both Nixon and campaign committee officials have said there was no coordinated effort to funnel money.

ST. LOUIS -- Gov. Matt Blunt's chief of staff on Wednesday accused Attorney General Jay Nixon's campaign of soliciting contributions from Ameren Corp. after Nixon launched a criminal investigation of the company over the Taum Sauk reservoir collapse.

Ed Martin said Nixon's office asked Ameren's top lawyer, Steve Sullivan, to donate money to Nixon's gubernatorial campaign after Nixon became the state's sole prosecutor over the December 2005 breach of the reservoir at Ameren's Taum Sauk hydroelectric plant.

Martin said Sullivan told him about the contributions during a private meeting in September. Sullivan, through an Ameren spokesman, declined comment Wednesday. Nixon did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The Associated Press reported in June that Ameren gave nearly $19,000 to four campaign committees that then passed on the money to Nixon's campaign. Both Nixon and campaign committee officials have said there was no coordinated effort to funnel money from Ameren to Nixon as he considered criminal charges against the utility.

Martin is the first official to dispute that claim.

"Mr. Sullivan has told me that Nixon's campaign requested the contributions be sent to those committees," Martin said in a letter he sent Monday to politicians in Reynolds County, site of the Taum Sauk plant.

Blunt, a Republican, and the Democrat Nixon are widely expected to be opponents in the 2008 gubernatorial campaign.

Blunt defended the assertion in the letter when asked about it during an unrelated news conference Wednesday.

"I certainly believe that he has produced a letter that's factual," Blunt said.

Cleared of wrongdoing

Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said he wasn't aware if Nixon had asked Sullivan for the campaign contributions. Holste noted that a Missouri Ethics Commission investigation in September cleared Nixon of wrongdoing.

Ameren spokesman Tim Fox also pointed out the ethics commission ruling and said Sullivan would not comment.

"As we commented in June when this first came up, Ameren did not direct the committees to send the donations to any candidate or fund," Fox said.

Nixon said in June that he knew Ameren's donations had been given to his campaign but said the money would not influence his investigation.

He later returned the money to the campaign committees.

Blunt said Wednesday that he has not requested nor received contributions from Ameren while the settlement negotiations have been ongoing.

At issue in the Taum Sauk investigation is whether the company was negligent in the way it operated the reservoir before it collapsed.

Nixon's lawsuit alleges senior officials at Ameren knew equipment was broken at the power plant but ordered it to keep running for the sake of profits. The collapse unleashed 1 billion gallons of water, devastating Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park.

The ethics commission sent Nixon a letter Sept. 8 that said it found nothing illegal in the way the campaign contributions made their way from Ameren to his campaign.

The letter said the allegation that Nixon "directed others to accept or make contributions to influence your official decisions was unfounded."

Martin said he asked Sullivan about the contributions at the Sept. 11 meeting, while they discussed the reservoir collapse. Martin said he brought up the contributions because the situation made him uneasy.

"I looked at him and said, 'I have a hard time trusting you guys because of what you have done in the past,"' Martin recalled.

Sullivan offered to explain himself, and told Martin that someone representing Nixon's campaign asked for the money during a phone call, so Sullivan sent it, Martin recalled.

Sullivan "went on to explain as how he didn't think it was anything illegal," Martin said.

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AP reporter David A. Lieb in Jefferson City contributed to this report.