Lager joins Mo. GOPs backing consulting limits

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Treasurer's candidate Brad Lager added his voice Wednesday to a mounting number of Missouri Republicans denouncing the political consulting business of House Speaker Rod Jetton.

While serving as the top House official, Jetton also has been paid to work as a consultant and fundraiser by several Republican lawmakers.

Lager worked during the 2004 campaigns for unsuccessful Republican congressional candidate Jeanne Patterson and for the Republican Sixth Congressional District Committee, where he ran a phone bank for northwest Missouri candidates running for the state House and Senate.

At the time, Lager was a freshman member of the House. He now is a senator and is unopposed in the Aug. 5 Republican primary for treasurer.

Lager said Wednesday that his situation was different from Jetton's, because it was temporary and he didn't have the same legislative power as Jetton, who as speaker can advance or hold up legislation. Lager said he worked for other politicians only for several months, when the Legislature wasn't in session, and has not done so since.

Now Lager said he supports proposals by Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and Treasurer Sarah Steelman — a Republican candidate for governor — to prohibit state elected officials from working as consultants for other elected officials or candidates.

"It's a good government initiative," said Lager, of Savannah. "I hope to be the state treasurer. But if I'm not, I'll be co-signing it and voting for it" as a member of the Senate.

Because Lager's four-year Senate term runs through 2010, he can run for treasurer without having to give up his legislative seat.

Jetton has defended his side job as a political consultant.

The Missouri Ethics Commission said in a May 2006 opinion sought by Jetton that state campaign finance and conflict-of-interest laws do not prohibit a lawmaker from working as a consultant for another elected official or candidate.

But the commission expressed "serious concerns" about the ability of a lawmaker-consultant to avoid legal violations and "about the appearance of impropriety that would be associated with such an arrangement."

A spokesman says Jetton plans to make a public statement, likely next week, about the proposals targeting his political consulting arrangements. Because of term limits, Jetton cannot seek re-election this year to the House.