Political Retaliation

Pull up a chair...

I went to the Post Office one day in 2022 to pick up my campaign mail. In between returned postcards that volunteers spent hundreds of hours writing (don’t get me started on the bad data I had for voters in my district), there was a letter from the Missouri Ethics Commission. I felt anxious as soon as I saw the letter and went straight to my car to open it.

It was bad news.

I am qualified to tell you what political retaliation may look like at the state and federal levels in the upcoming years because my State House run gave me an up close and personal look.

Pull up a chair, friend.

Let me start by telling you that I raised a ton of money for my little race in Northwest Missouri. I ended up with about 272K in donations. More than any State Leg candidate in the entire state. More than huge races in St Louis and Kansas City.

That’s what pulling back the curtain and showing the world what is happening in Missouri will do. People listen and act.

Almost every donation my campaign received was from a small donor. The average donation was about $25, so you can imagine how many donors I had. Several thousand donors by the end of the campaign. It was a lot to keep up with. Especially for the two person team running most of the campaign — me and my Campaign Manager/Treasurer.

But, back to the letter. It said I was under investigation for a fraudulent donation. The MEC had launched an investigation and I was to call them immediately to discuss what I had done and what discipline I would face.

Fraudulent donation? Shit!

How could that be? In Missouri, you only have to report donations of over $25, but we were so careful, and tried to be completely transparent, so we reported every dollar. My quarterly reports always included every donation even if it was a single dollar.

But, I live in Missouri…under a GOP supermajority. A supermajority entering its 22nd year. A trifecta. One party rule. An iron grip. Suffocating.

I was scaring the GOP establishment because I could fundraise. Because I wasn’t scared to say what was going on in my state — because I had the nerve to punch up.

Someone had to stop me. Put me in my place.

I knew something was up when my former State Representative Allen Andrews posted this to his Facebook page. I don’t follow him, but thousands of folks in my district do. One of them sent me this screenshot.

Well, that’s weird. A week before the election, my termed-out Representative went to social media to tell thousands of voters in my district, thousands of folks who were eight days from voting for me or my GOP opponent, that I was a liar and also under investigation for falsely reporting a donation?

Eight days before the election…

What happened?

I used Act Blue to collect online donations. My campaign was the victim of wire fraud.

I assume a very astute GOP strategist came up with a plan to harm a small and exhausted campaign like mine: Send a $30 donation to my campaign because it is unlikely the amount would trigger any alarm bells. It is also just over the $25 amount that requires reporting. Put the donation in my Rep’s name — a very common name if I’m being honest — and alert him to the donation so he could trigger an MEC investigation.

The funny thing is, I did report the donation with thousands of others and never saw it because of the small amount. I was also under the impression that Act Blue vets donations. They do not and that misunderstanding is on me.

I never saw this coming.

If the donation had been in any other name, it is doubtful that anything would have been done. This was purposeful. The scheme only worked because the donation was in Allen Andrew’s name. The MEC would react to a current State Rep making a complaint. Or maybe my Rep was in on it from the beginning? Who knows, but it worked.

A note: Allen Andrews went through close to 10K names to find his own in my MEC reports? Allen Andrews found the donation in his name months before, but sat on it until eight days before the election?

Odd.

My initial reaction to the investigation was just to return the donation. I mean, I had 272K…I didn’t need $30. The MEC refused to let me refund the donation.

My campaign, and the lawyer who helped us, demanded a full investigation into who sent the fraudulent donation. The MEC wasn’t super interested in a full investigation. We kept pushing and demanding information anyway.

In the end, we worked with the MEC for almost a year to find the fraudulent donor — and we did indeed find them. Or her. She lives on the East Coast and admitted to donating in Allen’s name.

At least I was cleared of the things Allen Andrews accused me of — I had nothing to do with the donation. I don’t know the woman who sent the donation and she told investigators she didn’t know me. She just felt like a little wire fraud that day I reckon. At any rate, she was not charged or penalized for the fraud.

I was. To the tune of $1,000. And a public reprimand.

The weirdest part is on the day that the MEC published its findings, dozens of GOP operatives were ready to put me on blast for being “corrupt.” Within minutes of the finding, the operatives were all over it. Almost like they were ready for it.

I was just the same as everyone in their party — I was running a con. I was just like the rest of them. Dirty. They had the report to prove it.

These operatives posted the front page of the MEC finding without posting the whole report because it’s outrageous if you have all of the facts. I was blasted over and over again across social media.

For $30.

Learn from me.

I bear responsibility. I should have gone through every donation over $25 with a fine-tooth comb. I should have hired someone to do the vetting that I thought was done from the beginning. I have fault and blame. I also know what this is: political retaliation.

I was doing too much. Raising too much. Punching too hard. They had to stop me.

I don’t have to tell you that billions of dollars flow into campaign coffers across the country from PACs that don’t even identify their donors. Billions.

You know how dirty money works in campaigns and I tried everything to avoid that. We were going to be above the fray. We were transparent. We were going to do things differently. In the end, I have an MEC report with a finding of accepting a fraudulent donation.

For $30.

The Missouri Ethics Commission ruling also set an awful precedent — this scheme can be easily reproduced across the country. It was meant to derail me at the end of my campaign and can be replicated. Easily.

Retaliation.

I have had several folks tell me I shouldn’t repeat this story, but I think silence is worse. The scheme didn’t hurt my personal reputation — it might have cost me a few points in my race, though. The Facebook post garnered a lot of attention from voters in my district.

It would not have changed the outcome of the race. I was beaten soundly.

When we think of political retaliation, schemes like this are easy to miss. If they can target Democrats running for office, maybe they can just keep us from running next time? If we do run, maybe they can make our lives a living hell? Maybe they can create a scheme and then post dirt about a Democrat just days before voting begins?

This scheme to retaliate did show others what the GOP will do to silence people like me.

FAFO. I am louder than ever.

~Jess