JEFFERSON CITY • Former state Senate candidate Rodney Hubbard and his treasurer withdrew thousands of dollars in campaign donations, often at ATMs, without documenting how the money was spent, the Missouri Ethics Commission said Tuesday.
The commission fined Hubbard, a Democrat, and his treasurer Joy Camp, both of St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë, more than $350,000 for their roles in violating multiple campaign finance laws related to Hubbard's failed 2008 race for Senate. If Hubbard and Camp pay 10 percent of the total amount of fines, or about $35,000, and don't violate campaign finance laws for two years, the rest of the fines will be wiped out.
The Ethics Commission doesn't keep historical records on fines, but a commission official said the fine was the agency's largest in recent memory.
The commission concluded Hubbard violated campaign finance law by not properly reporting $129,000 in campaign spending and $86,000 in contributions.
People are also reading…
The violations are Class A misdemeanors and could be prosecuted by either the attorney general or local prosecutors separate from any action taken by the Ethics Commission, which only has the authority to issue fines.
A spokesman for Attorney General Chris Koster said the agency was not pursuing an investigation. Representatives of the St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë city prosecutor's office could not be reached. Campaign finance violations at the state level are rarely prosecuted in Missouri.
Among the allegations:
• Hubbard declared that he had refunded a $30,000 donation from retired financier Rex Sinquefield. Hubbard was supposed to be returning money that exceeded donation limits in place at the time. But the commission found other documents that raised questions over whether the refund had been made.
• Hubbard bought a van with cash from the committee and didn't account for it. The report said it was unclear whether the van had any connection to the campaign.
• Hubbard and Camp withdrew more than $12,000 from ATM machines and "failed to report the purpose of the transactions." Two of the cash withdrawals were at Las Vegas casinos, the Flamingo and the Golden Nugget.
• Hubbard failed to properly report expenses paid to campaign manager Antonio French, now a city alderman.
The Ethics Commission held two hearings on the investigation, one in September and another on Dec. 9. Hubbard and Camp were present with their attorneys at the hearings and signed a stipulation agreeing to the findings.
Neither Hubbard nor Camp, Hubbard's cousin, could be reached for comment. A woman who answered the door at Hubbard's house said he was not home.
The commission also found that Hubbard and Camp moved money freely between the candidate's Senate committee and two other committees controlled by Camp: The 58th Democratic Legislative District Committee and the New 5th Ward Democratic Organization.
Earlier this year, lawmakers passed a new ethics law that seeks to stop political committees from donating to other political committees, a practice that has been common in Missouri politics. The law has been challenged in Cole County Circuit Court.
French, who was elected alderman of the 21st Ward last year, said Hubbard and Camp kept the campaign's finances "pretty close to the vest."
"They had their own kind of accounting," French said.
French said the campaign's financial woes became clear as the election grew near. Hubbard indicated the campaign was low on cash, even though reports filed with the state showed a robust war chest.
"Why are we acting like we're short on money? According to our campaign finance reports, we have 100 grand left," French recalled thinking. "Apparently, that was not true."
Hubbard represented the 58th District in the Missouri House from 2002 to 2008, when he lost a hard-fought Democratic primary for the 5th District Senate seat to Robin Wright-Jones. After losing by slightly more than 100 votes, Hubbard sued, alleging voting irregularities. He eventually dropped his lawsuit.
According to the Ethics Commission order, Hubbard's campaign committee failed to properly identify more than $47,000 in expenditures during the campaign, including seven different payments to Salama Market for 'supplies" totaling more than $8,000. The report also identified more than $3,000 in out-of-state travel paid for by Hubbard's campaign committee without properly identifying the expenditure's connection to any campaign purpose.
Marlon Walker and Jake Wagman of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.