The Missouri Independent 100: Tracking the PACs funding state legislative races

The last campaign finance reports before the Aug. 4 primary showed candidates for the Missouri House and Senate had spent $15.3 million for their races, according to records of the Missouri Ethics Commission.

But candidates are only part of the money story.

In many of Missouri’s most competitive legislative races, some of the biggest checks — and some of the loudest campaign messages — come from political action committees representing businesses, unions, gambling companies, healthcare groups and ideological causes.

The names of those committees often tell voters little about who is behind them or what they want. The Missouri Independent is launching a new project aimed at changing that.

The Missouri Independent 100 includes 100 PACs that have been among the most active organized interests in Missouri legislative elections since the start of 2025. The list includes PACs that have decades of involvement representing business or labor interests, PACs created more recently for specific lobbying goals and PACs created by lobbying firms to pool client funds.

Collectively, the PACs have raised $40.8 million, spent $8.8 million and contributed $20.9 million since Jan. 1, 2025. They had $20.9 million on hand at the most recent report and have since reported raising $3 million in large donations. The Independent will update the list as new campaign finance reports are filed, tracking where the PACs get their money, where it goes and the interests behind the committees.

It is no secret why so much money is being spent on legislative races, said Jonathan Ratliff, a veteran Republican consultant.

“These individuals, whether it’s a state representative or a state senator, have a massive amount of influence and ability to shape every Missourian’s life in a lot of different ways,” Ratliff said. “Because of that, there’s a lot of interest and a lot of dollars are invested in them.”

The Missouri Independent 100 builds on reporting and financial tracking done over the three election cycles since the newsroom was founded in 2020. Among the committees on the list are gambling interests that have contributed $1 out of every $8 raised by legislative candidates and their associated PACs since the start of 2025. 

PACs have varying strategies for deploying their funds.

There are PACs like the anti-abortion Missouri Right to Life that spend their funds — $541,000 so far this cycle — in direct support of candidates. And there are committees like HealthPAC, representing the Missouri Hospital Association, that use their funds — $689,600 so far this cycle — for donations to candidates and other PACs.

And there are PACs like AFC Victory Fund, which represents the school-choice advocacy group American Federation for Children, that does both. AFC Victory Fund spent $445,822 to directly influence elections and contributed $470,150 to campaigns before the primary.

Tracking the Missouri Independent 100

Keeping the PAC data up-to-date means regular visits to the Missouri Ethics Commission website for the daily reports of large contributions. While committees are required to report all activity at regular intervals, any committee accepting a donation exceeding $5,000 must report it within 48 hours.

This week, 22 donations of that size, totaling $315,392 have been reported. On Tuesday, donations to two PACs in the Missouri Independent 100. Safer Families for Missouri, operated by the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys received $15,000 from Langdon & Emison, LLC in Lexington and $6,600 from Dollar, Burns, Becker & Hershewe, LC in Kansas City. Paladin PAC, controlled by long-time lobbyist Andy Arnold, received $25,000 from its primary funder, J&J Ventures of Illinois.

On Monday, there were five donations greater than $5,000 to Missouri Independent 100 PACs. They were $24,087.50 from Republican Accountability Project to We The People Priorities PAC; $10,000 First State Community Bank to Missouri Bankers Association State PAC; $25,000 from NEMO Leadership PAC to Let’s Go Brandon PAC; and $10,000 each from V3 Holdings Missouri of Chicago and GRC Moberly LLC of Columbia to MoCannTrade PAC.

Tracking the data also means learning the ways PAC treasurers do their accounting to make sure data is accurate:

Accounting methods identified by The Independent are:

• Election cycle. These committees are the easiest to follow. The fundraising, spending and contribution amounts are tallied for each election and reset to zero when the final report is filed.

• Annual. Committee treasurers who use this method reset their accounting to zero on Jan. 1 of each year. To know what they raise for a two-year election cycle, totals must be added.

• Perpetual. These committees never reset their accounting to zero, so the totals indicate their activity since they were established. To know what they are doing for a two-year election cycle, past activity must be subtracted from the reported totals.

• Always zero: A handful of committees just include activity from the current reporting period without past totals. To know their activity requires manually totaling all reports.

Sometimes, the accounting requirements appear to confuse what should be some of the most astute moneywatchers.

The Missouri Bankers Association has nine PACs, one representing the association statewide, one representing young bankers and seven named for regions of the state. The association filed amended reports Friday for all nine after an inquiry from The Independent questioning the tallies reported since the start of 2025.

By totaling the amounts reported each period instead of relying on the filed reports, The Independent found the bankers’ PACs had raised just under $400,000 since the start of 2025, made $245,000 in contributions and held $380,000 at the time of the most recent reports. 

The totals on the last reports filed before the amendments showed the PACs had raised $76,335, and contributed about $110,600.

After filing the amended reports, bankers association spokeswoman Lori Bruce sent a statement to The Independent acknowledging the math error.

“To be clear, our receipts, disbursements and cash-on-hand were reported accurately for each period,” Bruce said. “The error involves the ‘Total Receipts from the Calendar Year Previously Reported’ field, which is not being populated correctly. We are working to ensure this issue is corrected for future reporting periods.”

What it means

For Missouri Independent readers, the 100 PACs list will bring a sharper focus to our coverage of campaign finance and who is trying to influence elections.

There will be stories about extraordinarily large donations, such as the $1.5 million donated by the Missouri State Medical Association to two PACs created in July that are the most recently formed committees on the list.

And when regularly scheduled reports are filed, The Independent will analyze what they show and follow the money to where it is used to influence elections.

Another key part of the analysis: The committee names themselves do not always make connections obvious.

Arnold’s Paladin PAC is named after one of his favorite television characters. Paladin’s funder, J&J Ventures, wants to put licensed slot machines in Missouri locations. 

Arnold said he understands that PAC names may confuse voters. Some have straightforward names, Arnold said. By understanding the funders behind the name, voters can understand what the candidate has said to the lobbying interest giving the funds.

“It’s safe to assume that when we write a check out of Paladin, it’s written to somebody who has indicated they will support a video gaming regulatory licensing scheme over an unlicensed, unregulated scheme,” Arnold said.

PACs make decisions based on a candidate’s likelihood of winning as well as agreement on issues, Arnold said. And he’s learned to accept that not every candidate will follow through on commitments.

“You may flip on me somewhere down the line,” Arnold said. “But that’s just the chance you take.”

The Missouri Independent 100 project will make it a goal to help readers as they try to decipher which messages are from candidates and which are from lobbying interests.

Voter research shows people pay little attention to the disclosures on ads and direct mail giving the name of the committee sponsoring the message, Ratliff said.

“If it says something positive about the candidate, they believe that’s who paid for it,” Ratliff said. “Very rarely do they spend any amount of time actually checking the disclaimer. Or, if they check the disclaimer, have any idea what that means.”