Editor:
Mary McKenna, the Democratic candidate for Platte County Presiding Commissioner, is under investigation by the Missouri Ethics Commission. I know this because on Sept. 10 the Commission notified me that an investigator has been assigned to review her actions (MEC Investigation No. 26-0079-I).
The complaint alleges that McKenna solicited campaign contributions in other people’s names to hide who is really donating. Under Section 130.081 of Missouri law, a purposeful violation of our campaign finance statutes is a class A misdemeanor — up to a year in jail.
In a fundraising video she recorded in April and posted on her own Facebook page, McKenna encourages people to donate to her campaign — and, if they aren’t comfortable having their name on the report, to use a third-party surrogate. She tells a story about a friend who wouldn’t put his name on a donation and how that friend could call his brother-in-law, have the brother-in-law write the check and then write the brother-in-law a check to pay him back. Then she looks into the camera and tells her donors that they can repeat the process.
That is a classic straw-donor scheme. Someone else’s name goes on the donation check and the real donor pays them back. The public never learns the truth of who is making the candidate contributions. Missouri law forbids this practice in one sentence: no contribution “in the name of another person… to conceal the identity of the actual source.” No exception for relatives. No exception for saying it on video. No exceptions, period.
McKenna has attempted to campaign on “accountability” and “transparency.” A candidate who coaches her donors on how to keep their names off her reports has forfeited both words. She told them it doesn’t matter who you have donate on your behalf — and apparently it doesn’t matter if she follows the law. In Missouri, the Show-Me State, transparency matters.
The investigation is underway, but Platte County shouldn’t have to wait for the inevitable outcome. Instead, McKenna should answer the question her own video raised: who is really paying for Mary McKenna? Name every donor someone else reimbursed. If there are none, say so. If she won’t, voters can draw their own conclusion on Nov. 3.
Either way, we can’t trust somebody who is willing to skirt the law simply to win an election. If she’s willing to bend the rules here, what else is she going to do later?
Kim Sincox
Platte County resident
