By Max McCoy



Globe Investigative Writer



Four years after winning his party’s nomination for a state Senate seat by 73 votes, Gary Nodler of Joplin has rocketed near the top of legislative power and state political influence.

The fuel for the trip: nearly a quarter-million dollars in contributions to his election committee.

And counting money given to the leadership political action committee that bears Nodler’s name and the legislative committee for his district, the total approaches half a million: $450,112 since 2001.

As assistant majority floor leader, Nodler is the third most senior Republican in the Missouri Senate. He also holds two important committee positions, chairman of the Education Committee and vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee.



Although a legislator’s voting record is a typical yardstick for measuring a politician’s performance, Terry Jones, professor of political science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, says the real power is in the leadership positions.

“Not all elected officials are created equal. Some have more clout than others,” Jones said. “If I want a friend in the Legislature, there is no better friend than somebody who has a leadership position. One thing that leaders have much more control over than the rank and file is the calendar.

“To do you wrong in the Legislature is not to come out and speak against you, it is just to bury whatever it is you want to have happen.”



Nodler’s rise is the result of a combination of factors, according to political science experts interviewed by the Globe: term limits and redistricting that shifted the paradigm for Missouri politics in 2002; caps on contributions to individual candidates that created a boom in political committees that funnel money to candidates; and the tried-and-true strategy of spreading money to help elect colleagues in hopes that they will remember the favor when it comes time to choose legislative leaders.



And what do those who contribute hope to gain?

William Gipson, chief executive officer of Empire District Electric Co. and a former lobbyist for the utility, said the reason the company gives to candidates such as Nodler is simple.

“The idea is to try to maximize our ability to influence public policy for the area that we serve,” Gipson said. “I think we have successes and I think we have failures, but overall I would have to judge it successful.”



Four-way race



Nodler, a 55-year-old Neosho native, was elected in a four-way race during the 2002 primary for the seat that previously had been held by Marvin Singleton. Singleton, a Republican and a Seneca physician, was among the half of state senators who were ineligible to run for re-election because of the two-term-limit that was approved by Missouri voters in the 1990s.



At stake was control of the General Assembly. The Democrats held the House 87 to 76, and the Republicans controlled the Senate by a margin of two seats. A change in just a few seats could dramatically tip the balance of power.

When it was over, the Republicans controlled both chambers, with margins of 17 members in the House and six in the Senate. Nodler’s closest rival in the primary was Gary Burton, who easily carried Jasper County.

But Nodler carried the 32nd District’s other two counties, Dade and his home county of Newton, and won by 73 votes — three-tenths of 1 percent of the 25,287 votes cast in the GOP primary.

He was unopposed in the general election.



Nodler had run for office once before, in 1996, when he lost the primary election for 7th District U.S. representative to Roy Blunt. Nodler, a 1972 graduate of Missouri Southern State University with a degree in political science, was U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor’s district staff director until Taylor retired in 1988.

The next year, Nodler was appointed regional administrator for the Small Business Administration, a post he held until President George H. Bush left office in 1993. Later, Nodler owned a cable television service in Seneca and operated a consulting business.



In 2001, when Nodler decided to run for state office — or, according to some accounts, was talked into running — his first campaign contribution, in the amount of $275, was from his brother, Charles, an archivist at Missouri Southern State University.



The money trickled in during the coming year, with contributions limited by law to $575. With three other Republicans vying for the 32nd District seat, Nodler received no support from party committees.

According to disclosure reports on file with the Missouri Ethics Commission, Nodler spent heavily in the run-up to the Aug. 6 primary, including $30,000 in television, radio and newspaper advertising. About two-thirds of that amount was spent on television advertising. Also, $1,126 was received by the Joplin Globe.

On the day of the primary, Nodler paid $5,203 to Feather, Larson & Synhorst for operating a phone bank. The Arizona telemarketing and political consulting firm worked for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in the 1990s. It promises “direct contact” with voters, bypassing what often has been characterized as the media filter.

Feather, Larson & Synhorst also contributed $575 to the campaign.



Alphabet soup



Once Nodler won the 2002 primary, the money started flowing into his election campaign. Total contributions amounted to $231,703, and political action committees topped the list of donors.

From 2001 to 2005, PACs contributed $70,450, or about 30 percent. That means that about $1 out of every $3 given to Nodler’s campaign committee has come from a political action committee or an interest group. The PACs include an alphabet soup of acronyms that can be difficult to decipher.



The HBAM PAC ($1,100 in total contributions) is the political action committee of the Home Builders Association of Missouri, while AMECPAC ($825) is the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives. Other, more recognizable, PACs include Roy Blunt’s leadership PAC, the Rely on Your Beliefs Fund, which contributed $575 in 2002.

Businesses came in second, with $57,250 in contributions, or about 25 percent. Businesses that have contributed to Nodler include Altria Group Inc., which owns Philip Morris, and the Ameristar casinos in Kansas City and St. Charles.

Local businesses include Empire District and its PAC, which gave $1,900, and Leggett & Platt Inc. of Carthage, which contributed $1,700.



The Elect Nodler Committee spent $128,049 to the end of 2005, and the biggest category was disbursements to other candidates and committees, with a considerable amount given to candidates in the 2004 general election.

Of the $25,350 in overall contributions from the Elect Nodler Committee, gubernatorial hopeful Matt Blunt topped the list with $1,700 across two election cycles. The limits for contributions to candidates from political committees are about 10 times higher than for individuals.



State Senate candidates who received contributions from the Elect Nodler Committee include Mike Ditmore, Michael Gibbons, Chuck Gross, Chuck Ergason, Bill Stouffer, Bob Yeckel, Jason Crowell, Larry Gene Taylor and Luann Ridgeway.



The two other committees associated with Nodler, the leadership PAC and the 32nd District GOP Legislative Committee, both of which were organized after Nodler took office in January 2003, also spent heavily on Republican candidates in 2004.



The committees, which took in more than $200,000 combined, spent most of their money in the weeks before the general election.

When the dust settled in November 2004, the Republicans had advanced their margins in the Missouri General Assembly to comfortable levels — 23 to 10 in the Senate and 97 to 66 in the House.

The GOP also picked up the governor’s office, with the election of former Secretary of State Matt Blunt. He is the son of U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt.



Neither the Nodler Leadership PAC nor the 32nd District GOP Committee has much money left in its coffers, as of Jan. 1 — only $6,904 for the leadership PAC and $418 for the district committee. Those committees can be expected to experience an influx of money as the November 2006 general election approaches.

Nodler retains more than $100,000 in his campaign war chest, even though he is unopposed for a second and final term in the Senate. That money, of course, was raised before the March 28 filing deadline had passed — and before it was certain that Nodler would be unopposed.



Why didn’t the Democrats field a candidate against Nodler?



“The short answer is that we were unable to recruit a candidate who was willing to run against Gary,” said Joe Cowen, the Democratic chairman for Jasper County. “I assume that most of the people who might consider running decided Gary can’t be beat, and that an effort is futile, so why waste your time and money?”

Cowen said it is difficult to find good candidates, and that money can be a problem. It takes $20,000 to $30,000 to mount a campaign for state Senate, he said, and often more to win.



“It’s because of his money and influence,” Cowen said of the reluctance of potential candidates. “Also, he hasn’t pulled some legislative stunts that can get him in trouble. He didn’t sponsor a bill to make Christianity the state religion, and he isn’t sponsoring a bill to allow people to kill those who come in their homes unannounced. ... Unfortunately, as thinly distributed as we are, we have to pick our battles.”



‘A hundred large’



“Here’s a guy in previous runs who has spent eight to 10 grand, and suddenly he is sitting on a hundred large,” said Chap Rackaway, an assistant professor of political science at Fort Hays (Kan.) State University.

“To have a hundred thousand dollars, at this stage of a campaign, seems remarkable. ... It is definitely an anomaly, and it definitely raises a lot of red flags when you have that much money flowing into a state legislative race.”

Rackaway, who specializes in Missouri politics and has followed Nodler’s career, said it is difficult to interpret what those red flags might mean.



“It’s hard to say because it may be basically a better job of raising money, and when you see competition coming, you pre-emotively raise a lot of money to be able to fight them or to scare them off,” he said. “But it can raise the question that there may be a suspicious motive or practice involved in that spike in money.”

While Nodler has been a vocal supporter this session of campaign finance reform and transparent contributions, his election committee has disregarded or overlooked state campaign laws. During the heat of the 2002 primary election, for example, some expenses — including $2,000 spent on television advertising — were not reported until weeks after the election, after several reporting cycles were missed.



Also, about $20,000 in contributions from individuals that were reported by his election committee did not list the employer or occupation of the donor, information that is required by state law.



Refusing questions



Nodler refused to grant an interview for this report, and he would not respond to questions faxed to his Jefferson City office. The questions were about campaign finance, leadership, and how a legislator balances the welfare of constituents with those of utilities and other interests that lobby and provide campaign and committee contributions.

During an April 28 legislative breakfast in Webb City, Nodler complained that the Globe had failed to report that three bills he sponsored had passed the Senate, commenting, “It was a little too much like real news for The Joplin Globe.”

One of the bills would exempt all vehicles carrying more than 24,000 pounds from sales taxes. Another would provide a penalty short of license revocation for architects and landscape engineers. The third, a school funding measure, would require low-levy school districts to certify that they are providing an “adequate” education.



At the Webb City event, Nodler said: “It is unfortunate that our community is denied access to that (legislative) news. I’d like to know why the Globe doesn’t cover significant information that affects all of our citizens.”



Nodler’s election campaign treasurer, Tom Flanigan of Carthage, also refused to grant an interview. Flanigan, who works as a special assistant on Nodler’s staff, at $18,000 a year, is also the treasurer of the 32nd Senatorial District Republican Committee.