In Missouri, it's legal for state vendors to fund the war chests of politicians.
In Illinois, it's called 'pay-to-play.'
Is Illinois Exporting Corruption into Missouri?
Forbes | June 6, 2016
Across America, taxpayers are concerned about politicians rigging the system.
A prime example is the campaign fund of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
During the 2015 mayor's race, we
found 600 Emanuel donors who contributed $7 million in campaign cash (2011-2014) while their affiliated companies received $2 billion in city payments (since 2002).
If Missouri Sen. Kurt Schaefer's (R-Columbia) campaign for Attorney General is any guide, it looks like the "Show Me" state may be following in Illinois' footsteps.
We discovered that, since 2008, Kurt Schaefer raised $720,000 in campaign cash from 271 individual donors and their affiliated companies that also received $3.1 billion in state payments. Schaefer is the state senate appropriations chairman.
Since 2008, Kurt Schaefer's Top 30 campaign donors (receiving state payments) gave $436,000 in campaign cash, but received $1.2 billion in state payments. All of these transactions, at arm's length, are legal in Missouri.
Search the FY2015 Missouri State Checkbook for payments to vendors,
click here
At Forbes,
search the FY2015 Missouri state checkbook on our interactive map. We found many conflicts-of-interest regarding Sen. Schaefer. What will you find?
The #1 manufactured product in Illinois is corruption. If Missouri doesn't reign in unethical politicians, then Illinois will have a leading export.