-Comments Insulting to Victims and their Families-
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Austin Chambers, 314-914-5454
September 9, 2016
Greitens Campaign Manager Austin Chambers released the following statement in response to a news report yesterday showing the Koster campaign ridiculing state resources that could have been spent helping crime victims.
“It is shameful that Chris Koster thinks funding critical state services—such as battered women’s shelters or crime lab technicians—is ‘nonsense.’ He chose to redecorate his office with taxpayer money instead of protecting our people and funding our priorities. Only an out-of-touch career politician would put comfort ahead of victims and their families. This type of attitude is exactly what’s wrong with Jeff City.”
Here’s are just a few things Missouri taxpayers could have gotten instead of a spruced-up office for Chris Koster:
- The state of Missouri could have increased its funding for Emergency Shelters for Domestic Violence Victims by almost 600%.
- The money spent on his vanity project could have paid for 80 new crime lab technicians and more than 80 Children’s Service Workers.
- The state’s entire DNA Profiling Analysis could have been doubled. The program costs less than half of Koster’s office redecoration.
- The state could have paid the salaries of 77 new Highway Patrol Troopers
From the Springfield News-Leader:
Over the past 24 hours, a small group of people supporting Eric Greitens, a Republican running for governor, have targeted Democratic Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Chris Koster over Twitter.
Their weapons: photographs of couches, sofas and even a chaise lounge or two.
The couch photos — some plush, some fancy and some downright ridiculous — and the hashtag “#CouchesForKoster” are meant to call attention to the $3.2 million previously used to remodel the attorney general’s office, which Koster said was in poor shape and in need of repair.
Koster’s communications director, David Turner, described the couch tweets as “inanity.”
“If the Greitens campaign would like to use the last two months of the campaign tweeting out nonsense, we encourage them to continue spending their time in that manner,” Turner said.
And just in case you think all office redecorations have a high price tag…
- U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock’s infamous Downton Abbey Office remodeling cost taxpayers $3.1 million less than Chris Koster’s office redecoration scheme.
- In 1993, the White House’s remodeling project cost only $396,000.
How did the state of Missouri even manage to waste this much taxpayer money on #CouchesForKoster?