JONES QUESTIONS NIXON'S INTEGRITY

Proclaiming that State Attorney General Jay Nixon "flunked" a test of character over Missouri's tobacco settlement, Republican candidate Sam Jones is crisscrossing the state with his message of bringing integrity to the attorney general's office.

Jones also claims that money from large settlements with businesses and industries isn't finding its way into state coffers, and Nixon, a Democrat, puts his own agenda over the legislature's.

"Attorneys general are in alliance with trial attorneys, bullying industry into multibillion-dollar settlements to fund a political agenda that wouldn't see the light of day on the legislative floor," Jones said.

Jones, 55, is a former associate judge and prosecuting attorney from Mount Vernon, Mo., where he is in private legal practice. He was head of the Missouri State Tax Commission from 1981-86 and guided the state through a total reassessment.

He repeatedly has criticized Nixon over aspects of a November 1998, $6 billion settlement with tobacco companies over the injury Missourians received from smoking. Jones said Nixon hired a campaign donor and political ally, Tom Strong, to be lead attorney as a reward for campaign donations.

He also criticized the contingency fee arrangement made with contracted trial attorneys, including Strong, that allowed them to collect money if Missouri won the case. Jones said Nixon knew Missouri would win and should have promised attorneys only their regular rates.

Nixon spokeswoman Mary Still said Strong, of Springfield, simply was the best man for the job. She said Nixon didn't know who would win the tobacco case, and the fee arrangement struck with Strong and the legal team resembled that in other states, except Missouri's contracted attorneys have been willing to throw out the original fee agreement and negotiate on a more reasonable amount.

"I think Mr. Jones is doing a little Monday-morning quarterbacking," Still said.

Still also said that settlement money goes where it has been appropriated by the legislature or into a revolving fund in the attorney general's office.

Jones has ties to the Cape Girardeau area -- his father was raised in Millersville, Mo., and graduated from Jackson High School in 1922.