Leavin' on a Jet Plane

So, Jason Noble missed the story.

The story isn’t that a lobbyist forgot to file business relationship paperwork. The story isn’t that a legislator and a lobbyist even have a business relationship. The story, buried deep in the Prime Buzz story was that Steven Tilley, our State House Majority Floor Leader spent a significant amount of his campaign funds paying a company that pays him.

It’s the old bait and switch. I’m going to send a significant amount of money to a company I partially “own” (which those campaign funds may have been his ownership payments) and then keep those funds for myself.

Using political contributions for personal gain is unethical and illegal under state law. And I would bet nickels to dollars that is exactly what happened in this case. Floor Leader Tilley is only lucky that the true story will only be told on a little blog that no one reads instead of in the Kansas City Star.