This week's Political Eye mentions Gentry Trotter getting paid to provide good press for Francis Slay in the Evening Whirl.

But Trotter doesn't show up on the mayor's campaign finance filings.  Trotter does show up on a committee called Citizens for a Better St. Louis, Bradley Ketcher treasurer.  For the October quarter, Trotter was paid $6,000.  The committee isn't listed as supporting any candidate, but has been supportive of Slay efforts including a $10k donation to the WeCan Coalition and a direct expenditure of Prop G in 2006.

The committee has been funded by the usual businesses that show up on these reports - AB, Stone Layton, Gallop Johnson.

In other news, Slay announced another endorsement today - the Ironworkers.

St. Louis City mayor Francis Slay filed a report over the weekend that showed a fresh $50k in contributions - $25,000 from Thompson Coburn, $20,000 from Eastern MO Laborer’s Educational & Benevolent Fund, and $5,000 from FUSE Inc.  While the big law firms and labor have been lining up with the incumbent for some time, FUSE is a nice catch.  It’s a prominent minority-owned advertising firm. In St. Louis’ hyper-racial political environment, that's good news for Slay.

UPDATE: Jake has pointed out that Thompson Coburn received tax breaks from the city.

Randy Turner did some digging through MEC reports over the weekend:

Rex Sinquefield shut down most of his 100 PACs now that campaign contribution limits are off; and he notes in that post that AG-elect Chris Koster receieved $45k from the PACs.  he also writes of Sen-elect Jane Cunningham receiving $15k from a Rex PAC.

UPDATE: I stand corrected. The committee is there.  I didn't search acronyms.

According to the new campaign finance law, out-of-state committees have 14 days after their contribution to appoint an in state treasurer and file a committee report to Missouri Ethics Commission.

Republican State Leadership Committee - Missouri PAC which donated $1,100,000 to Gibbons on October 2, still has yet to file its paperwork.

Missouri Republican Party sent two in-kind contributions of $61,767.81 to Hulshof for Governor on September 30.

Staffing? offices? TV buy?

Hulshof's campaign hasn't responded to my phone calls. Any guesses out there?

Democrats should pick these both up next month.

House 85 - Cloria Brown – Vicki Englund

Brown raised $5,780 while Englund raised $20,775

Brown spent $2,041 and Englund spent $17,486

Brown finished with $20,032 on-hand to Englund’s $20,459

Brown just hasn’t been a strong fundraiser; She's working hard going door-to-door, but this still goes to the Democrats.

House 91 - Randy Jotte – Jeanie Kirkton

Jotte raised $19,686 while Kirkton raised $19,370.

Jotte spent $2,618 and Kirkton spent $22,765.

Jotte finished with $22,220 on-hand to Kirkton’s $61,719.

Nothing in these reports dispels the probability that Kirkton will take this seat for the Democrats.

Ed Martin’s nascent pro-life group, Missourians United for Life, in a recent $5k+ Filing showed its major sponsors. They are Fred Sauer ($33k), Drury Development ($10k), and the Missouri Leadership Fund ($10k).

Rep. Jim Lembke raised $110,014, spent $22,869 and has $226,756 on-hand. Additionally Lembke’s report showed $6k in-kind contributions from the Jane Cunningham campaign; that reflects the fact that Cunningham staffer Kit Crancer is helping Lembke with his mail program. As a refresher to how this compares Joan Barry’s report: Barry raised slightly more ($142k), spent a lot more ($137k, all worthwhile voter contact expenditures) and finished with a little less ($213k) on hand than Lembke.

Joan Barry, running in Harry Kennedy’s seat against Rep. Jim Lembke, released her quarter. She raised $142,170, spent about the same amount, $137,966 and finished with $213,220.  Major expenses included mail (about $75k) and TV time (about $45k). That’s a good report. Most of the money was spent on voter contact and she’s still in good cash position with a month left.

Democrats have moved to a more vocally optimistic posture on this seat in the last month. While it’s not “safe,” they clearly expect a Hold.

Neither Rodney Hubbard nor Robin Wright-Jones have filed 30 Day After reports.

Neal St. Onge’s 30 Day Report has raised eye-brows of a couple of St. Louis County Republicans.

These folks are wondering where all the mail went. Most people following the senate race only saw two pieces of mail from St. Onge, yet he clearly according to his last campaign finance filing, he paid for more:

Brewers – printing and postage - $23,533

USPS – postage - $14,883

KAMA – mailing - $8,674

KAMA – mailing - $1,726

KAMA – mailing - $34,119

USPS – postage - $59,535

Total: $142,470

The usual rule of thumb is that a senate district mailing cost about $15,000 start to finish. Even if he was using an expanded universe of voters, there should have been postcards and mailers littering the district.

The Black Women's PAC which sent a pair of negative mailers against Rep. Rodney Hubbard over the weekend filed Limited Activity in their July report, meaning they had raised less than $500.

It quickly sprang to life though in the last week.

Funding the anti-Hubbard attacks are: Missouri National Education Association ($20,000), Missouri School Administrators PAC ($5,000), AFSCME ($2,500), Electrical Workers Vol Pol Educ & Leg Fund ($2,000).

On the last page of Recorder of Deeds Sharon Carpenter's July campaign finance filing, she notes that a $1,200 check from Hubbard for Senate was returned for insufficient funds. 

Perhaps it's a "don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes," but Rep. Neal St. Onge running in the three-way primary to succeed Sen. John Loudon in West St. Louis County, hasn't spent much money according to his 8-Day filing. He spent $25,012 and now has  $147,821 on-hand.

For contrast, consider Gina Loudon spent $128,190 and had $19,699 on-hand.

According to a 24-Hour Notice on MO Ethics, All Children Matter - MO PAC shelled out $23,015 for Rep. Rodney Hubbard's radio advertising campaigns, as well as another $2,500 for the production of the spot.

Additionally the report shows a little over $19k for mailings on behalf of Hubbard and fellow pro-school choice candidates.

82nd District - This is the seat that Rep. Sam Page is vacating to run for Lt. Gov. It's expected to be competitive in November.

Republicans have a primary: Terry Frank (here is his website) and Frank Plescia (here is his). Terry Frank only raised $2,350 this quarter bringing his total on-hand to $4,868. Plescia reported a strong quarter raising $33,975. He now has $26,474 on-hand.

Democrats have only one candidate, Jill Schupp (here is her website). Schupp had another solid quarter, raising $21,546, spending quite a bit ($24,158) and finishing with $28,125 on-hand. 

In 13-SD (St. Charles), Sen. Tim Green, freed from a primary challenge, has stopped raising serious money. He only raised $4,125. And he’s started spending it. He made $21,550 in contributions. Most of that ($15k) went to the 13^th Senatorial Legislative Committee.

In 82-RD (St. Louis County, Sam Page for LG), Frank Plescia (R) raised $33,975. No legislative committees, and really only a smattering of lobbyists and government relations people. It looks like a fair amount of family, and friends.  It’s hard to put $34k together that way, but Plescia did. His biggest expense was to the Keller Group ($6k). He now has $26,474 on-hand.  The Democratic candidate, Jill Schupp, had another solid quarter, raising $21,546, spending quite a bit ($24,158) and finishing with $28,125 on-hand.

In 91-RD (St. Louis County, Fares termed), Randy Jotte (R) raised $7,220 and has $27,166 on-hand. On the Dem side, Jeanne Kirkton (D) raised $22,481, only spent $1,642 and has $51,474 on-hand. Kirkton is clearly one hard-working candidate who’s not taking anything for granted.

In 100-RD (St. Louis County), Nick Haul (R) is the Republican challenging incumbent Rep. Sue Schoemehl. Haul raised $820 and now has $561 on-hand. Schoemehl is safe.

106-RD (Perryville), Rep. Steven Tilley (R) raised $55,705. It looks as if he received $325 from all 100 Rex Sinquefield PACs though I didn’t count them up so he may have missed one or two. Tilley now has $42,572 on-hand.

Heck of a fundraising quarter. Here's the press release:

ST. LOUIS - State Rep. Clint Zweifel, Democratic candidate for state treasurer, filed his fundraising report for the 2nd quarter of 2008.  Rep. Zweifel raised $233,444.82 between April 1 and June 30, bringing his total for the primary campaign to $393,836.79. 

"Democrats are responding to our message of fiscal competence and using the state treasurer's office to voice our values on the issues of the day," Zweifel said.  "In just four months we have raised upwards of $400,000 from 609 contributors."

During the second quarter, 42 percent of Zweifel's contributions came from individuals giving under $100.

"I stood up to Governor Blunt when he kicked 200,000 Missourians off of Medicaid and raided our student loan agency," Zweifel said.  "As your state treasurer, I will stand up for our values: economic opportunity, high-quality education, retirement security and health care access."

About Clint Zweifel
Clint Zweifel was first elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 2002.  He is a leader in the House on state finances where he serves as the ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee and the Special Committee on Tax Reform. Clint led Democratic policy strategy and developed real solutions to help Missouri families.  He also chaired the Missouri House Democratic Campaign Committee in 2006, when Democrats made the largest net gain in seats since 1978.  Clint was named the 2008 Outstanding Legislator of the Year by the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition.

Endorsements
Clint's endorsements include Congressman Lacy Clay, former Governor Roger Wilson, former Lt. Governor Joe Maxwell, State Senators Joan Bray, Rita Days, Jeff Smith, and Victor Callahan, State Representatives John Burnett, Jason Grill, Jason Holsman, Paul LeVota, Jonas Hughes, Beth Low, Jenee Lowe, Kate Meiners, Luke Scavuzzo, Trent Skaggs, Mike Talboy, Martin Rucker, Ed Wildberger, Maria Chapelle-Nadal, Mike Corcoran, Bruce Darrough, Mike Daus, Tony George, Joe Fallert, Mike Frame, Esther Haywood, Ted Hoskins, Rodney Hubbard, Sam Komo, Michele Kratky, Al Liese, Tim Meadows, Jamilah Nasheed, Jeff Roorda, Sue Schoemehl, Mike Spreng, Rachel Storch, Tom Villa, Gina Walsh, Pat Yaeger and Jake Zimmerman.  Clint has also been endorsed by numerous organizations, wards and townships including Change to Win, the Missouri AFL-CIO, Missouri FOP, Missouri NEA, ADVOCATES PAC, PROMO PAC, La Raza Kansas City Political Club, and Jackson County's Committee for County Progress.