KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Ethics Commission says a former Democratic leader who was an executive for one of the state’s most populous counties broke campaign finance laws by using political contributions to pay personal cell phone bills.
The Kansas City Star reports that the commission released an order Friday requiring former Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders to reimburse his campaign committee $2,500. The commission found he found that he used campaign donations to pay bills for cell phones belonging to him, his wife and former chief of staff after he resigned from office at the end of 2015.
Missouri law prohibits political candidates from using campaign funds for personal expenses.
Sanders and his wife, Georgia, who is treasurer for the campaign committee, did not contest the commission’s findings and agreed to the reimbursement.
Sanders served as chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party from 2011 to 2013, while county executive. He was Jackson County prosecutor before being elected executive in 2006.
In 2018, he pleaded guilty to a separate criminal charge of misusing political donations and was sentenced to serve 27 months in custody. He is currently in a halfway house in Kansas City, Kansas, after spending time at a federal prison camp in Yankton, South Dakota.
