JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – For a political organization as well-funded as Grow Missouri, there isn’t much money can’t buy.
Most recently, the organization made headlines when a massive blimp with its name emblazoned on both sides began soaring across the state visiting small and large towns alike touting its message to “create a great state.”
Its political action and spending is not surprising. While not always successful, Grow Missouri, since its formation last summer, has spent millions to lobby the General Assembly and to support candidates that line up with its financier’s conservative ideology.
What did raise eyebrows and renewed criticism of the organization over the weekend was its actions on Friday, when a public relations firm working on behalf of Grow Missouri solicited five of the state’s political reporters offering them as much as $3,000 each year to “create content” for its website.
Molly Berry, an associate at the Boston-based public relations firm Skyword, sent solicitations to nine people, including five journalists, offering them $250 a piece for three articles a month, “with a focus on tax reform, political news, family life in Missouri, and Grow Missouri’s ‘Create a Great State’ initiative.”
Berry, in an email to St. Louis Post-Dispatch statehouse reporter Alex Stuckey, said reporters could write with their name or anonymously – potentially shielding them from any ethical criticism. Stuckey politely declined. Columbia Daily Tribune statehouse correspondent Rudi Keller and his editor, Matt Sanders, St. Louis Public Radio reporter Jason Rosenbaum, and a fifth unnamed journalist also received the notes.
“This particular offer had the rankest odor of anything I have encountered in my professional career,” Keller wrote on Saturday.
Patricia Travaline, a spokeswoman for Skyword, would not say who the fifth journalist was who received a request to write for Grow Missouri.
“We’re just respecting the privacy of this individual,” she said. “To be clear, not one of the five reporters indicated any interest in the potential writing assignment.”
Amid criticism, Grow Missouri announced on Tuesday it had fired Skyword, calling its actions “indefensible.”
“Grow Missouri does not want the indefensible actions of Skyword to tarnish or further distract from that effort,” said Aaron Willard, Grow Missouri’s treasurer. “Accordingly, Grow Missouri will have no further relationship with Skyword and is moving forward with a reinforced commitment to conducting business with the same high level of professionalism and integrity upon which we have always prided ourselves.”
The latest round of spending by the organization came as incoming House Speaker John Diehl, R-St. Louis, announced his statewide brainstorming effort called “100 Great Ideas.” Grow Missouri announced a $2.5 million contribution by St. Louis billionaire Rex Sinquefield that they said would be used to coordinate with Diehl’s campaign.
Diehl has distanced himself from the organization. He has said his “ideas” tour and their spending are two separate things. Diehl has toned down his effort in recent weeks waiting for the criticism to blow over.