Attorney general's attention to scalpers spikes as law expires

~ On Wednesday, a law will officially repeal Missouri's ban on selling tickets to sporting events at prices above face value.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- After taking scant action over the past 14 years, Attorney General Jay Nixon has suddenly become an aggressive enforcer of Missouri's ticket-scalping laws -- just as they are about to expire.

It's a politically beneficial move -- one that allows Nixon, the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, to contrast himself with Republican Gov. Matt Blunt.

On Wednesday, a law signed by Blunt will officially repeal Missouri's 18-year-old ban on selling tickets to sporting events at prices above their face value. The new state law also will cancel all city and county ordinances against ticket scalping for athletic events, concerts or anything else.

Nixon, whose record-long tenure as attorney general dates to 1993, had until recently enforced the scalping law just once, according to figures supplied by his office. That occurred in 2004, when Nixon sued a Columbia-based Internet site for hawking pricey tickets to St. Louis Cardinals playoff games.

But Nixon's enforcement actions spiked after lawmakers voted in an August special session to repeal the scalping law as part of a broader economic development bill backed by Blunt.

The change was pushed by Missouri's major sports teams, promoted as a way to satisfy consumer demand and perhaps even lure online ticket brokers to Missouri. Among the lobbyists for it was Blunt's brother, Andy Blunt, who represents Ticketmaster.

On Oct. 4, Nixon announced he had sued three Internet ticket brokers for scalping tickets to a popular Hannah Montana concert in Kansas City.

After coming to the rescue of grade-school girls, Nixon then took aim at an Internet broker scalping some prized tickets to the Missouri-Kansas football game in Kansas City.

That raised Nixon's total scalping enforcement actions to five, four of which have occurred in the past several weeks.

In a recent news release announcing his anti-scalping successes, Nixon noted the scalping laws are about to expire because of a bill signed by the governor.

Attorney general spokesman Scott Holste denied that Nixon's newfound focus on scalpers is intended to highlight a campaign difference with Blunt.

"It's just a matter of enforcing the law," he said.

Instead, Holste cited mere circumstance. First, the market for secondhand tickets has only recently shifted from the sidewalk to cyberspace. The Internet was not even commonly used 10 years ago.

Second, "these have been events that have had incredible demand for tickets, that really has been unprecedented demand," Holste added.

Even so, the circumstances created a prime political opportunity for Nixon.

Political scientist Dale Neuman, a professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, calls it "a very nice kind of populist ploy."

"Because even though the law expires, he's jumped in to use the law while it's still on the books to protect the little guy or protect the home folks," Neuman said.

It's not the first time Nixon has used the legal powers of his office in a way that highlights his opposition to Blunt's policies:

• For more than two years, Nixon has pursued a lawsuit claiming the Blunt administration exceeded its powers in relinquishing the state's right to use an old Boonville railroad bridge as part of the Katy Trail State Park. Blunt wants to allow Union Pacific to dismantle the bridge and use its steel elsewhere. Nixon has lost at both the trial court and an appeals court but has not dropped the fight.
• Last year, Nixon sued the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority for violating Missouri's open-meetings law while crafting a plan that appeased Blunt's desire to use the agency's money for college construction projects. Nixon, who opposed the plan, succeeded in getting the loan agency to admit the violations in a legal settlement.

He also warned the loan authority's board members that they could face legal challenges if they voted to fund Blunt's plan. That caused board members to balk and Blunt to turn to the legislature to win approval for his construction program.

• More recently, Nixon announced he was appointing a special investigator to look into whether Blunt's office has violated Missouri's open-records law and document retention policies by deleting e-mails that should have been saved. Blunt has acknowledged that he and his staff routinely delete some e-mails but has denied violating the Sunshine Law. On the same day Nixon announced his investigation, Blunt ordered his administration to come up with a way to preserve all government e-mails.

Blunt has denounced all of the above examples as political stunts by Nixon, discounting their merit by questioning the motive.

Comparing Nixon's ticket scalping actions to his special e-mail investigator, Neuman said: "There again, he's just looking for ways to juxtapose his position" with the governor, whom he casts as "either reckless with respect to the law or on the side of money brokers or the ticket brokers."

Nixon's public stance against ticket scalpers had another benefit. It came just days after news broke that he was taking his state vehicle and staff to political events. And it turned headlines -- at least temporarily -- away from the negative toward the positive, Neuman said.

In just a few more days, Nixon no longer will be able to pursue ticket scalpers. That political opportunity is about to close.