Nixon cleared on campaign ethics complaint

ST. LOUIS -- The Missouri Ethics Commission has dismissed a complaint against Attorney General Jay Nixon that alleged his campaign accepted more than $19,000 from Ameren Corp. while investigating the company.

The Missouri Republican State Committee filed the complaint in June. The group claimed someone orchestrated a series of donations that shuttled money from Ameren to Nixon's campaign for governor between January and March, after Nixon launched an investigation into the Dec. 14 Taum Sauk reservoir collapse, which unleashed more than 1 billion gallons of water that devastated nearby Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park and injured a family of five.

Ameren gave four donations of $5,000 to separate campaign groups in the St. Louis area. The groups then gave almost all that money to Nixon's campaign March 31.

Nixon returned the donations after they were reported by The Associated Press.

GOP allegations

In letters to the Republican State Committee and the fund-raising groups involved, Ethics Commission executive director Robert Connor said the commission dismissed the complaint against Nixon because the allegations were unfounded. The letters, dated Sept. 8, were released to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The decision to dismiss the case "was neither surprising nor unexpected," said Nixon spokesman Scott Holste, who would not comment further.

Republican Party spokesman Paul Sloca said he was disappointed.

"We stand by our allegations," Sloca said. "I'm sure [the Ethics Commission] made a good-faith effort to get to the bottom of this, but this is a very tangled web that Jay Nixon has woven to hide these kinds of backdoor election schemes."

Ameren spokeswoman Susan Gallagher did not have any comment on the matter Wednesday afternoon. Earlier this summer, she said Ameren did not tell any of the committees to send the donations to a specific candidate or fund.

Nixon is raising money to challenge Republican Gov. Matt Blunt in the 2008 election.

Nixon has sole authority to file criminal charges in the Taum Sauk case. He is also in discussions with Ameren over a possible legal settlement for damages from the flood.

Connor said Wednesday that at least one Ethics Commission investigator interviewed people within Ameren and the campaign finance committees. The Ethics Commission has subpoena powers, but Connor said no one was interviewed under oath.

There was no evidence that Ameren directed any of the fund-raising groups to donate the money to Nixon's campaign, Connor said.

Connor did note that the fund-raising groups were admonished for small errors in their reports.

Two groups reported that Ameren's donations came from the company's political action committee, AmerenUE PAC, when the money came from the company's treasury, he said.

Gallagher said earlier this summer that Ameren doesn't discuss specific donations.

"Like many large companies, Ameren makes political contributions using corporate funds as well as political action committees," Gallagher said in an e-mail.

Ameren is voluntarily cleaning Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park and has repaid the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for all costs associated with the project. Ameren reached a confidential settlement with the injured family.

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On the Net:

Ameren Corp: http://www.ameren.com

Jay Nixon for Governor: http://www.nixonforgovernor.com

Missouri Ethics Commission: http://www.mec.mo.gov

Missouri Republican Party: http://www.mogop.org