HECKEMEYER ALLEGES CONFLICT

Congressional candidate Tony Heckemeyer lashed out Friday at Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, accusing her of being a tool of the insurance industry.

The Sikeston Democrat charged that Emerson's support for a bill to limit liability in Superfund pollution-cleanup cases amounted to a conflict of interest.

The Emerson campaign dismissed the accusation.

"The only conflict of interest that has been exhibited today is Mr. Heckemeyer's conflict with the truth in his reckless statements abut Jo Ann Emerson," said Emerson's campaign manager, Atalie Ebersole.

"Mr. Heckemeyer should do his homework so he won't continue to come up short on the facts as he has this time and in the past," Ebersole said.

At a news conference on the steps of Common Pleas Courthouse, Heckemeyer said the Cape Girardeau Republican supported the Superfund measure when she was a lobbyist with the American Insurance Association in 1995.

Emerson has continued to champion the legislation since she was elected to Congress two years ago, Heckemeyer said.

Heckemeyer said the measure is designed to protect insurance companies from having to pay large settlements in Superfund cleanup cases.

"Taxpayers would have been stuck with billions of dollars in cleanup costs," he said, adding that the insurance industry already has put $50,000 into Emerson's re-election campaign this year.

"In the real world this kind of conflict of interest would cost you your job," said Heckemeyer.

Heckemeyer, a former Scott County circuit judge, said judges or lawyers involved in such conflicts of interest would lose their law license.

"We need a Missourian who will look out for our best interests, not special interests," Heckemeyer said.

Lloyd Smith, Emerson's chief of staff, said the so-called Oxley bill -- named after Rep. Michael Oxley of Ohio -- has bipartisan support in Congress. The current measure was introduced last November, and 43 House members have backed the bill.

Smith said the bill has the strong backing of the National Federation of Independent Business, a group representing 600,000 small-business owners.

Emerson's staff said the measure would ensure corporate polluters continued to pay for cleanups but would provide liability exemptions for businesses that weren't major polluters of a site. The measure also would impose limits on the liability of local governments involved with municipal landfills.

Lawmakers who back the bill say the goal is to speed up cleanups and reduce bureaucratic red tape.

Ebersole said Heckemeyer's biggest backers are trial lawyers who have been the biggest recipients of Superfund dollars.

Those dollars should be spent to clean up polluted sites and not as a vehicle for lawyers to "clean up" at the expense of small-business owners and taxpayers, Ebersole said.

"When given the choice, Mrs. Emerson will stand with the taxpayers and small-business owners every time and not the trial lawyers," she said.