New not-for-profit plans to advocate for Greitens and his agenda

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A newly formed not-for-profit will be able to advocate for Gov. Eric Greitens and his agenda while accepting unlimited donations and without having to disclose who is making the contributions.

The organization, A New Missouri Inc., will promote the governor's agenda and will be backed "by people who care deeply about seeing the agenda enacted here in Missouri," Greitens' senior adviser, Austin Chambers, told The Kansas City Star.

The governor, who promised ethics reform during his gubernatorial campaign, has declined to disclose who contributed millions of dollars to his campaign and who is now paying for his travel around the state. He's disclosed a list of corporate "benefactors" for his inauguration but has not said how much they contributed or how the money was spent.

That led critics to suggest the new not-for-profit's purpose was to thwart Missouri's open-records laws and its campaign contribution limits.

"If you want to take a massive check and you don't want people knowing who's behind it, this is what you do," said Jordan Libowitz, spokesman for the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "They call it dark money for a reason."

Chambers said the only people complaining about transparency in Greitens' administration are "reporters and Democratic operatives. I don't hear that from people as we are out traveling the state. They're interested in the kitchen-table issues that Gov. Greitens ran on."

State Rep. Gina Mitten, a St. Louis Democrat, said Greitens' ethics reform push is hollow as long as he continues to hide his financial information.

"Creating a nonprofit to act as a washing machine for donations and gifts wouldn't be stopped by any of the ethics reform bills we've debated," Mitten said.

Chambers said Greitens will not be directly involved in A New Missouri's daily operations but there will be coordination between the not-for-profit, the governor's campaign and the governor's official state office. Chambers will work for all three. Meredith Gibbons, the Greitens campaign's finance director, will work out of the office of A New Missouri, as will Greitens' sister-in-law, Catherine Chestnut.

According to the Cole County Assessor's Office, the building that houses A New Missouri recently was purchased by a St. Joseph company with the same address as Herzog Services Inc. Stan Herzog, the company's principle shareholder, is a major Republican campaign contributor who gave Greitens $650,000 last year. Chambers said he wasn't sure if Herzog personally purchased the property.

Paperwork to form the not-for-profit was filed with the state Feb. 5 by Jeff Stuerman, Greitens' campaign treasurer, and Michael Adams, an attorney for Washington, D.C.-based Republican Governors Association, which donated $13 million to Greitens' gubernatorial campaign.