Matt Mitgang | Student Life

Former state senator Jeff Smith addressed the media in November 2009 after he was sentenced to 12 months plus one day in prison.

Mr. Smith goes home, almost. Former Missouri state senator and Washington University lecturer Jeff Smith was released from prison two weeks ago.

Smith was released from a minimum-security prison in Manchester, Ky., and sent to a halfway house in St. Louis, according to the Federal Corrections Institute.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) led an investigation into Smith’s 2004 campaign for retired Congressman Richard Gephardt’s then-open seat. The FEC sought evidence linking Smith to an outside campaign aimed at smearing current Congressman Russ Carnahan, Smith’s opponent in the Democratic primary.

The FEC ceased its investigation in 2004 but reopened the case when new evidence came to light.

That evidence came as a result of talks between then Missouri state representative Steve Brown and Milton Ohlsen, who allegedly ran a smear campaign against Carnahan using Smith’s money.

Smith eventually admitted to lying to federal authorities about his involvement in the smear campaign. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.

While in prison, Smith accumulated 47 days of good behavior time and is currently eligible to be released from the halfway house in which he is currently residing on Nov. 18.

Smith, relaying messages through a friend, used Twitter to communicate to the outside world during his sentence in Kentucky.

Prior to his stay in prison, Smith served as a Missouri state senator representing much of St. Louis City. He also worked as an adjunct professor of political science at the University, teaching undergraduate classes in voting behavior and elections.

Smith was featured in a documentary highlighting his 2004 campaign for the Democratic primary.

He holds a doctorate in political science from the University.

(Kate Oberg | Student Life)

Whenever the topic of my future comes up at a family gathering and I admit that I want to pursue a career in politics, inevitably one of my relatives will shake their head and tell me, their voice deep with concern, that politics is a nasty business that I would be better off avoiding.

Yet with all due respect to my beloved family and to Forum Editor Alissa Rotblatt, who included the same advice in her column this Monday, I think that politicians have gotten an unfairly bad reputation. True, there are many politicians who live up to their nefarious image and give the entire business a bad name, but I do not believe that we should give up on politics entirely.

David Brooks of The New York Times put it well this week when he wrote in a Times blog post, “Government should sometimes be shrouded for the same reason middle-aged people should wear clothes.” Politics is full of difficult compromises, brutal partisan attacks and general unpleasantness. It always has been. (Trust me, you should check out the campaign between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. It wasn’t pretty.)

But I think it is worth our time anyways. Yes, it is possible to achieve social change through other means. The truth is, however, that the way we run our government is absolutely crucial to the condition of our society. You cannot really change society without at least being conscious of politics, and I strongly believe that one of the best ways of going about such change is to work within the political realm.

I am not asking each of you to run for office. What I am asking is that you do not dismiss the sometimes-unsavory business of politics without giving it a fair chance. If you do keep an open mind, if you can get beyond the banal talking heads on the 24-hour news networks and the scandals and the partisan drama and all the other theatrics, I think you might find some genuinely inspiring stories.

You do not need to dig up Profiles in Courage to find the good in politics. You can see it in the thousands of people who volunteered long hours in support of President Obama’s campaign because they wanted to make a difference for our country. You can see it in the underdog campaigns of politicians who probably won’t win but are still spending countless hours on the stump due to the strength of their convictions. You can even see it in the case of Ted Olson, because even though Rotblatt described him earlier this week as the antithesis of a politician thanks to his dramatic break with the Republican Party line, he has still spent most of his career engaged in politics.

Finally, as long as idealistic, compassionate young people who truly believe in the integrity of their causes continue to shun politics, all that will be left will be the corrupt clowns whom we all despise. Our country needs better than that.

Eve is a junior in Arts and Sciences. She can be reached via email at elsambor@wustl.edu.

Over the past few weeks, we have dissected your actions in our boardroom, wondering about the relationship between your prosecution and the role you once held in leading our inquiring young minds. The Washington University and greater St. Louis communities have come to see you as a cliché, a fraud and a profligate violator of the public trust. This contrasts deeply with the visionary they once knew you to be.

We have thought about it time and time again, and we can only conclude that they are wrong. We at Student Life understand that you diligently continue to lead our inquiring minds, and that what some view as a craven act of career preservation was really just a final example given to us out of fealty to our study of the relationship between ethics and politics. We found politics from a textbook dry and dismal, and out of enthusiasm and loyalty you elected to show us campaign corruption firsthand.

Thus, we commend you, Professor Smith. Forget the others; they simply fail to see your grand pedagogical edifice for the wonder that it is. Know that we do. There are some who say their faith in you is lost; know that ours has been reinforced, understanding now that credulous trust placed in the subject of an award-winning documentary film is trust easily abused. Where others might have merely fed us some simpering parable about the corrupting influence of power, you gave us a profound example of this influence—one that continues to teach us long after we have left your classroom. Where others might have perhaps assigned us some chapters of “All the King’s Men,” you showed us all how urgent and instructive that otherwise-kind-of-cheesy book really is. Where others would have merely cautioned against the poisonous sociopathology that pervades our political climate, you injected that poison into your very veins. For your uncompromising efforts in compromising yourself, we salute you.

Though no tribute befits such a sacrifice, we here ask that the school endow some of its still-available assets in the creation, in your honor, of the Jeff Smith Scholarship for the Sacrifice of Careers so that Students May Learn a Lesson about Ethics. We hope it can in some way consecrate your most noble deeds, and we encourage all of our professors to mimic your pedagogy. Moreover, we ask that the federal prison to which you are headed respects your messianic act for what it is and provide you two pillows at night to rest your crown.

With finest regards,

The Editorial Board

Former state Sen. Jeff Smith (center), D-St. Louis, exits the Thomas Eagleton Federal Courthouse on Tuesday after pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Smith faces up to 20 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine for each count. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

Jeff Smith, a Missouri state senator who frequently taught at Washington University, resigned his Senate seat and pled guilty in federal court on Tuesday to two counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice, after weeks of speculation about a federal investigation into Smith and others who worked on his 2004 congressional campaign.

The first count is for conspiring to obstruct a Federal Election Commission investigation into the St. Louis Democrat’s 2004 congressional run. The other count is for conspiring to obstruct a federal grand jury investigation this year that revisited the 2004 inquiry.

Nicholas Adams, the campaign treasurer from 2004, also pled guilty to two counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Another legislator connected to Smith’s case, state Rep. Steve Brown, D-Clayton, also appeared in court Tuesday and pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Brown also announced his resignation Tuesday.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and/or fines of up $250,000. Officials said Brown and Adams may receive lighter sentences, however, because they provided assistance to investigators.

Sentencing in all of the cases has been set for Nov. 10.

The FBI this past summer was revisiting the 2004 FEC investigation, which centered on anonymous literature allegedly distributed illegally by Smith’s campaign. The literature, in the form of postcards, attacked Smith’s main opponent in 2004, now-U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis.

The charges concern how Smith, Brown and Adams tried to “corruptly attempt to obstruct, influence, and impede” the investigations. All three men acknowledged to Judge Carol Jackson they had misled investigators.

Gov. Jay Nixon announced on Tuesday that both seats would be filled in a special election on Nov. 3.

In mid-2004, Carnahan’s campaign filed a complaint with the FEC about the postcards, alleging Smith had violated federal election law by anonymously spreading “false and malicious information intended to deceive potential voters and evade proper federal disclosures.”

Smith in an affidavit, which he acknowledged on Tuesday as being false, denied any involvement. In late 2007, the FEC found there was not enough evidence to prove wrongdoing on the part of Smith and his campaign committee.

Court documents say an unnamed individual affiliated with the organization Voters for Truth approached Smith’s campaign committee in July 2004 to discuss the idea of making and distributing the postcards. Smith’s campaign committee introduced Brown, a “close and personal friend” of Smith and not yet a member of the Missouri House, to an unidentified individual.

At that time, Brown agreed to raise funds for making the ads. He raised “substantial” funds for Voters for Truth and personally gave the individual $5,000 in cash.

Though the documents do not name the individual, Brown’s attorney, Art Margulis, said the individual is Milton “Skip” Ohlsen III, a Democratic operative. FEC documents from 2004 linked Ohlsen to the postcards and Smith’s campaign.

On July 23, 2004, Voters for Truth mailed 25,000 postcards to voters in Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District. Carnahan responded by filing the complaint against Friends of Jeff Smith.

On Sept. 8, 2004, Smith submitted the falsely sworn affidavit to the FEC, stating he had “no knowledge of who was responsible for the [postcard] referenced in the [FEC] complaint, nor who paid for the mailing.”

The FBI returned to the 2004 charges when new evidence emerged this year. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on how the new evidence was developed.

Court documents detail several conversations between Smith, Brown and Adams about their plans to mislead investigators in both the FEC investigation and the FBI investigation. Smith is quoted as pressuring Brown to lie to investigators: “Don’t do anything stupid. Stupid would be telling them things that were happening in your brain.” Smith also told Brown he would not be truthful to investigators, saying, “I’d be 90% honest.”

After the court hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith said the crimes were a “classic case of corruption.” John Gillies, special agent for the St. Louis FBI, agreed with Goldsmith.

“At the end of the day, for those of you in the courtroom, this is pure stupidity,” Gillies said. “You’ve got a Ph.D., a J.D. from Washington University, another guy with a master’s, and all of this for what at the end of the day? Just so they could get a little more power and feel a little bit better about themselves that they’re big shots of the town. We will not tolerate this kind of corruption.”

During his court appearance, Smith said, “I am guilty as charged.” Smith left the Thomas Eagleton Federal Courthouse with his lawyers, relaxed and smiling.

Nixon released a statement Tuesday calling the resignations “necessary and appropriate” because both Smith and Brown had “violated the public’s trust.”

After leaving the courthouse, Smith made several comments to reporters, including an apology to his constituents and family.

“This event has humbled me,” Smith said in a statement posted to his Web site. “I have done some significant introspection and that has been the hardest part: coming to terms with my own poor judgments and mistakes.”

In a press release, Missouri Senate Majority Floor Leader Kevin Engler, a Republican, said: “Jeff has made some serious mistakes and will be held accountable for those mistakes, but that should not detract from his accomplishments in the Senate or his hard work on behalf of his community. Sen. Smith was always a very reasonable person in the capitol. He was someone quite frankly that encouraged more bipartisan behavior between our parties.”

Smith has previously taught courses on ethics in politics and campaigning at the University, but a school spokeswoman announced last week that his scheduled class for this fall had been canceled.

The University released a statement on Tuesday afternoon saying it would not comment on personnel issues.

Associate Professor of Political Science Andrew Rehfeld said he doesn’t think that Smith’s plea will adversely affect the political science department as a whole.

“We are and remain interested in being engaged with people who are involved in politics and being engaged with a wide variety of people, and that means we’re going to encounter the real-life problems and turmoil of human beings,” Rehfeld said. “I think what happened is sad, but it goes along with being experienced.”

Still, Rehfeld is concerned that Smith’s actions may diminish the messages of his lessons. He said students likely attribute “some moral perfection” to a professor.

“I think for better or worse this will cause some of the students to question what he taught, and some of that questioning is justified and other of it is probably not,” Rehfeld said. “The lessons that we teach our students are not about us; they’re about a subject matter and on that score, as far as I can tell, especially in the smaller classes that he taught, he was a gifted teacher.”

With additional reporting by Kat Zhao, Michelle Merlin and Dan Woznica