MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - Missouri's Democratic Party is trying to make allegations of wife beating by a top Republican strategist an issue in the 1998 U.S. Senate race.
In a release issued this week, the Missouri State Democratic Committee called on Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., to clarify his relationship with Don Sipple, a media consultant from Washington, D.C., whose two former wives have accused him in a child-custody case of beating them. Sipple won custody of his son in the Callaway County 1992 case.
Sipple was Bond's paid media consultant for his 1992 Senate race. The Democratic Party demands to know the exact status of his current relationship with Bond. David Israelite, Bond's top aide, said Sipple is not on Bond's campaign payroll, nor does he have a contract with the campaign.
The Sipple custody case was first reported by the magazine Mother Jones.
In response, Sipple filed a $12.5 million libel suit against the magazine and the article's author in Los Angeles Superior Court Aug. 22. In his suit, Sipple said he had an ongoing economic relationship with several persons, including Bond and Gov. George W. Bush of Texas. Sipple claims the defendants acted to cause many of his clients to terminate their business relationships with him.
In a faxed press release Thursday, the Missouri Democrats called on Bond to explain his relationship with Sipple. The release points to two checks paid this year from Bond's campaign committee to other consultants with whom Sipple has worked in the past, but lists no checks paid to Sipple.
Candidates for federal office are required to file periodic campaign finance paperwork showing from whom their campaigns raised money and how it was spent.
Israelite called the Democrats' release "disingenuous and misleading."
"(Sipple) was our media consultant in 1992," Sipple said, "but since then we haven't paid him a penny. He is not under any kind of contract or agreement."
Tony Wyche, spokesman for the Missouri Democratic Party, says it's Sipple's statements in his court documents and Bond's campaign finance papers that bring into question the relationship between Bond and Sipple.
"Per Sipple's lawsuit, he is Kit Bond's media consultant," Wyche said. Wyche also said Bond's campaign finance report further demonstrates that Sipple is working with people who are involved with Bond.
The discrepancy between Sipple's court documents and Bond's office's statements shows "someone is lying" Wyche said.
Israelite said the Democrats are trying to make an issue for the 1998 campaign, in which Atty. Gen. Jay Nixon is seeking the Democratic nomination.
"Jay Nixon has a history of dirty campaigns and trying to raise personal issues," Israelite said. "It's in line with his track record. He's trying to deflect attention from his chief of staff's pay raise."