A Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state is reporting an additional $45,000 in autonomous of charge advertising, part of a state billboard industry-backed campaign to support a candidate who has pushed billboard-friendly legislation in the Missouri Senate. On Wednesday, state Sen. Bill Stouffer (R-Napton) filed a report with the state Ethics Commission that he had received an additional $45,000 in-kind donation from Lamar Companies, one of the state’s leading billboard owners, on Monday. The Huffington Advertise had reported on Tuesday that Stouffer, the Senate transportation committee chairman, is the favored candidate of his state’s billboard owners, with the industry’s lobbying arm pushing a coordinated effort to give him some autonomous of charge advertising. The contribution pushes Stouffer’s in-kind contributions from the billboard industry to $117,809, with $101,609 coming from Lamar Companies.Bill May, executive director of the Missouri Outdoor Advertising Association, told HuffPost this week that he is urging billboard owners to provide hour to Stouffer since of the lawmaker’s support for pro-industry legislation. Stouffer sponsored legislation, which passed this year, to allow electronic billboards in the state and to permit the state to relocate older billboards during highway expansion projects, instead of buying and destroying them. May said the relocation measure could save the state $60 million. Glance at More…
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