Former Democratic State Representative Mike Sager is among the many candidates who filed for election on the first day of filing. This is the third election in a row for which Sager has filed (with a failed run at a Raytown aldermanic seat in between.) Sager lost as an incumbent in 2004 despite being in a seat that leans to Democrats.
What makes it interesting that Sager is running again is that he was charged after his 2004 election with theft/stealing, a felony, based on campaign ethics violations. According to prosecutors, Sager lied about loaning his campaign money, so that when he paid himself back he was essentially stealing from his contributors. Sager pled guilty to filing a false report and got what amounted to a slap on the wrist, including one year probation. In addition to the criminal charges, the Missouri Ethics Commission fined him $9000.
All in the past, you say? – hardly. A quick check of CaseNet records shows that the MEC is suing Sager, once again, for failure to pay his fines. What is really interesting is that Sager, a currently established candidate for state representative, was nowhere to be found when it came time for deputies to serve him. The latest attempt to serve Sager was after he filed for office.
This is nothing new for Sager, of course. He has been fined in almost every race he ran. And, before he entered politics, he ran a computer gaming company. The company failed, and Sager was sued many times for incurred debt. In fact, the gaming community was so mad at Sager they could barely hold in their rejoicing when they found out he was being fined and charged with a felony.
Based on past experience, The Source has a suggestion for the process servers. Two years ago Sager dropped out of the race in the last 48 hours. We suspect he will do the same this year to throw the filing for that seat open for another week. If we were process servers, we would be at the Secretary of State’s office waiting for him to appear over those last two days.
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