Democrats complain about Blunt bus

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Five months after winning an election for which he traveled the state in a tour bus, Gov. Matt Blunt has yet to pay for the bus.

The Missouri Democratic Party said Friday that it filed an ethics complaint alleging the bus -- owned by Blunt's new appointee to the state Highways and Transportation Commission, Mike Kehoe -- amounted to an in-kind campaign contribution and that Blunt had violated state law by not reporting it to the Ethics Commission.

But Blunt officials contended the bus qualified as an expense, which will be paid eventually.

Blunt spokesman Spence Jackson said the gubernatorial campaign still had not received an invoice from Kehoe.

Blunt's campaign spokesman, John Hancock, said the invoice was delayed because the bus had been damaged and needed body work. A side-view mirror was knocked off when the bus hit a tree in Taney County, he said.

Additionally, Hancock said, they had to wait until the cold weather had passed to remove a large, red-white-and-blue plastic wrap from the bus which had been emblazoned with Blunt's campaign slogan: "Vision Leadership Change." Removing the wrap may have caused paint damage, Hancock said.

The bus is among the last outstanding expenses from Blunt's campaign, he said, and will be paid as soon as an invoice arrives.

Jackson said the campaign signed a lease for the bus before it hit the road this summer, had talked with the Ethics Commission staff about the issue and had listed it as an obligation on their reports.

An amended debt retirement report filed Friday for Blunt's 2004 campaign listed a $1 expense incurred or paid for a bus, but offered no further specifics. The original report filed Wednesday did not list the bus expense.

Blunt announced Kehoe's appointment to the Transportation Commission on Thursday, and Jackson said at the time that the campaign had rented Kehoe's bus.

Kehoe did not immediately return a call Friday. A message on the answering service at his Jefferson City vehicle dealership said he was out of town at Ford meetings.

Jackson said the Democratic Party was in a "desperate search for contrived issues and, of course, will lose this stupid complaint."

Democratic Party spokesman Jack Cardetti countered: "Even though the governor's office clearly feels campaign finance laws are stupid, it doesn't mean they can ignore them."