Missouri state senator wants investigation into FL candidacy of Aaron Dimmock

A candidate for governor in Missouri is calling upon that state’s attorney general to investigate Aaron Dimmock, a Missouri state employee, and whether it is legal that he is running for Congress hundreds of miles away in Florida’s First Congressional District against incumbent Matt Gaetz.

Bill Eigel is a Republican state senator in Missouri running for governor this fall. In a letter on Monday to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, Eigel called for an investigation “into what appears to be a flagrant and ongoing violation of Missouri law.” He goes on to say that Gov. Mike Parson “continues to employ Aaron Dimmock despite his ongoing efforts to seek political office.”

The Phoenix reported last week that although Dimmock heads the Missouri Leadership Academy in St. Louis, which provides training to government employees, he has been living and campaigning some 700 miles away in Florida’s Panhandle in the Aug. 20 Republican primary as an underdog challenger to Gaetz. The winner faces Democrat Gay Valimont in November.

Eigel says that what Dimmock is doing “appears” to be against the law, but Dimmock’s press aide told the Phoenix two weeks ago that he can run because the state law Eigel refers to “now only applies to certain state employees.” That was confirmed to the Phoenix by an official with the Missouri Office of Administration.

While it may be legal, whether it is appropriate is another question.

“I see no reason why, given the obvious prohibition on this activity, this political candidate should continue to be able to draw a check from the taxpayers of Missouri,” Eigel writes. “I am asking your office to investigate this obviously illegal behavior by Dimmock and this administration.”

One of Eigel’s GOP opponents for governor is Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, who was appointed to his position by Gov. Parson, who is term-limited and thus cannot run for re-election this November.

Dimmock faces Gaetz in the GOP primary in Florida’s First Congressional District