UPDATED: Harris joins Steelman campaign, woos fee-office operators

UPDATED: Harris joins Steelman campaign, woos fee-office operators
By Jo Mannies
04/24/2008 12:28 pm
State Treasurer Sarah Steelman announced this morning that she has added “prominent Republican consultant James Harris as a political advisor” to her campaign for governor.
Harris had been a key operative for Gov. Matt Blunt, first with his campaign and later in his official office.
Harris has been tied to several of the governor’s more controversial activities, including Blunt’s privatizing of the state’s fee office branches. Early in the administration, Harris also oversaw many of the governor’s appointments, including who got awarded those fee-office licenses. (Harris’ grandmother, for one.)
UPDATE: And today, Harris sought to renew his ties to some of those fee-office operators by sending them an email that highlighted a recent KCStar blog about Steelman’s GOP rival, U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof of Columbia, Mo., who has proposed changes in how fee offices are awarded.
The email begins:
“Friends -
“Please do NOT forward. I think Hulshof’s continual flip flop demonstrates that he has become a DC politician and unable to be a conservative agent for change.
“Here is a quote from Hulshof’s top person regarding fee offices. ‘Under a Hulshof administration, zero consideration will be given to political support,’ (Scott) Baker said. Hulshof is opening himself up for Democrat attacks. He should be talking about tax cuts, social conservative issues or innovative ways to make government more efficient, not this.

The Mehlville Fire Department Gets Hotter

Tonight, I understand the MFPD's Board of Directors authorized the hiring of an outside firm to investigate some alleged harassment to one of their employees, Marty Becker. That's quite a coincidence. I understand James Stonebraker has been up in arms about the fact that none of Becker's fellow firefighters will tuck Marty into bed at night. This is quite humorous since the only district firefighter known to have harassed anybody is our current chief. James Silvernail had issues with his his former employer, Metro West Fire Department and their board of directors. He pleaded guilty to harassing them and a restraining order was issued against him after being hired by the Mehlville Fire Protection District. Former Ladue Firefighter Marty Becker is the brother of Mike Becker, Realtor, fee license agent for the state of Missouri and political tool for Chris Brown, Davis Bertelsen, Arron Hilmer, Bonnie Stegman, James Stonebraker, Kenny Hulsof, Rex Sinquefield, etc.