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Pro-right-to-work group begins ad campaign targeting Republican opponents

Democrats are in the super minority in both the Missouri House and the Missouri Senate.
Bill Greenblatt | UPI

A new Missouri political action committee has launched a $1 million ad campaign targeting 20 Republicans in the Missouri House who voted against a proposed right-to-work law this fall.

The PAC is called The Committee for Accountable Government in Missouri. So far, all of its donations have come from members of the Humphreys family, which owns Tamko, a Joplin-based company that specializes in manufacturing residential and commercial roofing products.

David Humphreys, Tamko’s chief executive, donated $500,000 to the group the day before the  September veto session began. His sister, Sarah Humphreys Atkins, gave the committee another $500,000 last week.

In a statement sent out Wednesday, the committee said it is running ads on TV, radio, digital and on billboards. The ads accused the Republicans in questions of being beholden to “special interests.” A spokesman said that’s a reference to labor unions.

The targeted Republicans include 11 in the suburban St. Louis area, primarily in St. Charles and Jefferson counties. All of them voted during this fall’s veto session to sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of the “right to work’’ bill to curb union rights in the workplace. The Missouri House fell 13 votes short of the number needed to override the governor.

Under “right to work,” unions and employers would have been barred from requiring all workers to pay dues or fees if a majority vote to join a union.

Right-to-work backers say such a law would make Missouri more competitive. Opponents say it would drive down wages. Some objected to last session’s bill because it imposed penalties, and possible jail time, on businesses that violated the proposal.

The 11 Republican legislators singled out in the ads are:

Elaine Gannon, R-DeSoto;

Becky Ruth, R-Festus;

Bart Korman, R-High Hill;

John McCaherty, R-High Ridge;

Shane Roden, R-Cedar Hill;

Kathy Conway, R-St. Charles;

Ron Hicks, R-St. Peters;

Chrissy Sommer, R-St. Charles;

Anne Zerr, R-St. Charles;

Kevin Engler, R-Farmington;

Linda Black, R-Park Hills;

Jo Mannies is a freelance journalist and former political reporter at St. Louis Public Radio.