By Max McCoy

Globe Investigative Writer

The top contributors to the Nodler Leadership Political Action Committee form an exclusive club.

They represent the richest and most powerful individuals and institutions in the Joplin area. Their ranks include a chief executive officer whose salary is more than 10 times the median income for Jasper County, libertarian millionaires who give lavishly to conservative candidates, the area's largest manufacturer and the region's electric utility.

The committee is named for state Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin. It was established just eight months after Nodler was sworn in for his first term in January 2003, and by the 2004 general election it was pumping tens of thousands of dollars into the state GOP machine. That was the year that Republicans took the governor's mansion and both houses of the General Assembly.

In all, the leadership PAC spent $116,000.

Now, Nodler is one of the most powerful members of the Missouri Senate - so formidable, in fact, that the local Democratic Party chairman said recently that no candidate could be recruited to run against him in the upcoming general election because he appears unbeatable.

Because Nodler also is unopposed in the GOP primary, he is virtually assured of a second and final term.

Nick Myers, a Joplin certified public accountant, is treasurer of the Nodler Leadership PAC. During a recent interview, Myers said the PAC was meant to promote the senator's leadership style. When asked to define that style, Myers referred the question to Nodler.

Nodler declined to answer that question and all others put to him in connection with the leadership committee and his fund-raising activities in general. He also refused to respond to a list of questions faxed to his Jefferson City office.

But Bill Gipson, the president of Empire District Electric Co. and one of the PAC officers who approves disbursements, did share the committee's philosophy as he sees it:

"The purpose of that PAC," he said, "is to join together like-minded business people in the area to promote the kinds of values that these individuals and their associated businesses might have in terms of trying to influence the political process and public policy."

'A similar philosophy'

The top contributors to the Nodler Leadership PAC are David and Ethelmae Humphreys, the president and chairwoman, respectively, of Tamko Roofing Products Inc., who gave $20,000 from 2003 to 2005. Ethelmae Humphreys also is a director of the CATO Institute, a nonprofit libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Members of the Humphreys family are the most generous political contributors in the Joplin area. During the past five years, according to the Federal Election Commission, they gave $211,000 to candidates and joint committees during national elections.