POLITICS: SCHOOL BOND SUPPORTERS COMPLY WITH STATE LAW

JACKSON, Mo. - Supporters of the Jackson School District bond issue simply wanted to get their message out. They never intended to violate the state's campaign finance law, Assistant Superintendent Rita Fisher said Friday.

A campaign committee called Keeping Jackson Schools First paid for 200 yard signs and a billboard to push for passage of a $6 million bond issue on the Nov. 7 ballot. There was only one problem: The signs didn't include a statement listing the committee's name and the name of its treasurer as required by state law.

Fisher said she realized the problem upon reading an article in Thursday's edition of the Southeast Missourian. The article disclosed that opponents of a ballot measure to implement planning and zoning in the county had erected signs that violated state law because they didn't include the name of the committee or individuals who paid for them.

Fisher said Friday the committee would place stickers with the proper information on the signs and add the required wording to a billboard.

"We will get it done," she said.

The committee also has paid for 200 more yard signs, which it intends to erect. Those signs have the proper wording on them, Fisher said.

Leaders of the anti-planning and zoning group Committee to Protect Landowners Rights said earlier this week they only recently became aware of the disclosure requirements. They have said they will comply with the law.

The group's quarter-page ad in this week's edition of the Dollar Stretcher, a shopper with offices in Cape Girardeau, doesn't include the required information showing who paid for the advertisement.

Cape Girardeau lawyer Walter S. Drusch said his firm provided legal advice to planning and zoning opponents this week, explaining the requirements of the state's campaign finance law, but the Dollar Stretcher ad was submitted to the shopper prior to his firm's involvement.

He said Friday that all future ads would carry the proper disclaimer, but he believes the campaign finance law requirement means little to the public.

"Who cares?" he asked. "When you find it out, how much better off are you?"

The required statement is printed in such small type on political signs that it is seldom readable to passing motorists, he said.

Drusch said few Missourians know the campaign finance law or have any reason to learn about it. "They don't wake up knowing this stuff," he said.