I recently received a slick, expensive looking mailer urging me to vote to re-elect Dale Lawler for Henry County Southern District Commissioner in the upcoming primary. The thing I found most laughable about it was the part about local government transparency. Mr. Lawler helped keep quiet the efforts of a big Chicago company to bring a huge intrusive solar farm to southwestern Henry County.
I had been watching the Missouri Ethics Commission website for campaign finance reports filed by Lawler and had not found that he had even established a committee required by law to spend money on elections. The law requires candidates to file publicly available reports so the voters can know who is bankrolling their efforts to get into office. When I looked at the mailer more closely, I saw that it was paid for by R.E.D. PAC and mailed from a company in Iowa. It said that the treasurer of that outfit is somebody from a suburb of St. Louis. I decided to do a little checking on the Ethics Commission website and found out that R.E.D. PAC in Missouri was just established on July 8, 2024, and that it had $110,000 of money from RED PAC from the State of Texas poured into it. I wasn’t able to find out much about who funds RED PAC of Texas.
There was a similar mailer sent out to folks in the north half of the county wanting them to re-elect Rick Fosnow. It was paid for by the same mystery (not really a mystery) political action committee. It has the exact same message as Lawler’s. Exactly!
Residents of Walker and Davis Townships just got a mailer paid for by Renew Action PAC. It is no surprise that Ranger Power, the company behind the solar farm, has given Renew Action $25,000 in the last couple of months.
Why the sudden out of state interest in little old Henry County? Could it be that big out-of-state companies are trying to buy our local politicians by sending “dark money” to them? It sure seems funny to me. But what do I know? I’m just a simple country lawyer.
If Mr. Lawler and Mr. Fosnow really wanted to be transparent, they would have called for a town hall meeting years ago when Ranger power snuck into town with their non-disclosure agreements. Instead, they, and the other commissioner, Jim Stone, along with county clerk Rick Watson kept it quiet and just made vague little meeting minute entries. Kind of makes you wonder.
This issue doesn’t just affect Davis and Walker Townships. What happens when a big noisy solar power inverter is put right next to your house, or worse yet, a big landfill?
Richard Shields
Clinton, Missouri.
Former Henry County Prosecuting Attorney
