JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Ethics Commission officially dismissed a complaint filed against Rep. Craig Redmon, R-Canton, that accused him of misreporting lobbyist gifts to other legislators under his name.
The Commission met last Friday and made their decision after finding no proof that Redmon had committed any ethical violation after the Kirksville Daily Express reported in May that Redmon would occasionally “claim multiple dinners from a lobbying event in an effort to help legislators who are sensitive to having anything on their report.”
“It sounded like he had a knee jerk response to a reporter,” James Klahr, the executive director of the MEC, said. “Unfortunately, it ended up into a full fledged complaint… we found nothing that substantiated that quote.
“We investigated the complaint and talked to numerous lobbyists and we did not find any evidence that he had, in fact, had lobbyists misreport expenses that should have gone to some other legislator to him.”
Redmon was “relieved” at the MEC’s decision.
“The whole time, I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong,” he said. “To hear it from them was a fine thing.”
Redmon also corroborated the findings of the MEC, saying that when the reporter from the Kirksville Daily Express called, his mind was focused on other matters.
“I was busy doing work, I was there at the Capitol working on bills, and I wasn’t paying attention,” the representative said. “My 100 percent focus was not on [the reporter], and he asked me some questions and I think I gave an off the cuff remark… I don’t blame the reporter, I’m blaming myself for not being focused on the interview.”
Redmon said the experience was a learning opportunity, namely that he would now devote his entire focus onto a reporter when a reporter was interviewing him.
The complaint was made by Progress Missouri, a progressive advocacy organization based in Jefferson City. Although the ruling has come down and Klahr says the complainant has no right to an appeal, the executive director of the Progress Missouri, Sean Nicholson, is still skeptical of Redmon’s actions.
“I’m having a hard time reconciling Redmon’s competing statements,” Nicholson said. “He told the Kirksville Daily Express and Associated Press that he claims freebies for his colleagues, misleading the public and Ethics Commission. But now he says he ‘misspoke and wasn’t paying attention to questions.’ Give me a break.”
