This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Sept. 30, 2009 - Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's U.S. Senate campaign gleefully circulated Tuesday copies of the recent decision by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics to dismiss a complaint filed against her in June by the Missouri Republican Party.
The GOP had accused Carnahan of attempting "to conceal information on her state and federal financial disclosure forms'' about a business, Antolinez International Trade, registered by her husband -- Juan Carlos Antolinez -- with the state. None of the disclosure forms mentioned it.
Carnahan said that's because her husband never started the business, and had simply reserved the name in case he did.
The U.S. Senate Ethics panel agreed with Carnahan, ruling that the GOP complaint "lacked substantial merit."
Carnahan's lawyer has sent a copy of the dismissal to the Missouri Ethics Commission, which governs state campaigns, to recommend that the commission reject the GOP's state complaint on the same issue.
But just to be on the safe side, her campaign said, "To address any concerns the Missouri Ethics Commission might have, we have amended the relevant reports'' so that they now mention the non-existent business.
The Missouri GOP issued the following statement this morning from executive director Lloyd Smith:
Robin Carnahan was forced to come clean and report Juan Carlos Antolinez’s company, which three months ago she claimed didn’t even exist. Her new filing raises more questions about her response to our initial complaint, the nature of the business, and why it was absent from her disclosure forms for so many years. You would expect better from the person whose job it is to maintain business records in the State of Missouri.”
