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Missouri State Senator Calls for Investigation into Aaron Dimmock’s FL Candidacy • Florida Phoenix

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A gubernatorial candidate in Missouri is calling on that state’s attorney general to investigate Aaron Dimmock, a Missouri state employee, to determine whether it is legal for him to run for Congress hundreds of miles away in Florida’s First Congressional District against incumbent Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Bill Eigel is a Republican senator in Missouri who is running for governor this fall. In a letter Monday to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, Eigel called for an investigation “into what appears to be a blatant and ongoing violation of Missouri law.” He goes on to say that Gov. Mike Parson “continues to employ Aaron Dimmock despite his ongoing efforts to seek political office.”

Matt Gaetz on his congressional website

The Phoenix reported last week that while Dimmock runs the Missouri Leadership Academy in St. Louis, which trains government employees, he lives and campaigns about 700 miles away in the Florida Panhandle, where he is running as an underdog against Gaetz in the Aug. 20 Republican primary. The winner will face Democrat Gay Valimont in November.

Eigel says Dimmock’s actions “appear” to violate the law, but Dimmock’s press secretary told the Phoenix two weeks ago that he could run because the state law Eigel mentioned “only applies to certain state employees,” a Missouri Office of Administration official confirmed to the Phoenix.

While it may be legal, whether it is appropriate is another question.

“I see no reason why this political candidate should continue to receive a check from the taxpayers of Missouri given the blatant prohibition on this activity,” Eigel writes. “I urge your office to investigate this blatantly illegal conduct by Dimmock and this administration.”

One of Eigel’s Republican opponents for governor is Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe, who was appointed to the office by Governor Parson, but who is term-limited and therefore cannot seek re-election in November of this year.

Dimmock is running against Gaetz in the Republican primary in Florida’s first congressional district

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