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DENTIST’S PAST RAISES HACKLES License renewed in prison Pediatric dentist Tony Rizzuti served six years on child porn charges but kept credentials

BY ROBERT PATRICK • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Federal regulators are limited Probation officials refused his request to work at family clinic; lawyer vows a fight

ST. LOUIS • In 2010, Missouri officials renewed the license of a pediatric dentist who was serving a six-year federal prison sentence on a child pornography charge.

It would take until 2012 for the Missouri Dental Board to file a complaint seeking discipline against Anthony “Tony” Rizzuti.

It was 2014 when the board struck a deal that allowed Rizzuti to keep his license, despite knowing that he had twice been accused of trying to arrange sexual encounters with underage girls.

Hints in Greitens’ far-flung funding National support for gubernatorial race could be precursor to broader goals OUT-OF-STATE SUPPORT Percentage of gubernatorial candidates’ contributions* that came from outside Missouri:

See OFFENDER • Page A12

Greitens • R

63.9%

Total: $5.29m National: $3.38m Lyle Bouck’s unit helped to foil a German incursion in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. He spent part of his service as a prisoner of war, and decades later was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Koster • D

24.5%

Total: $11.62m National: $2.85m Kinder • R

9.0%

Total: $1.46m National: $0.13m Brunner • R

6.8%

Total: $1.62m National: $0.11m Hanaway • R

5.7%

CARING

Total: $2.72m National: $0.15m *Includes itemized donations through March and donations larger than $5,000 since April 1.

for a

HERO

SOURCE: Post-Dispatch analysis of Missouri Ethics Commission data

BY KEVIN MCDERMOTT St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Why would scores of business tycoons from Manhattan to Silicon Valley lavish contributions of $50,000 or $100,000 or even $500,000 on a political novice running in a primary election for governor of a Midwestern state where none of them live?

One clue might rest in the Web address “EricGreitensForPresident.com.”

Eric Greitens reserved it himself. Seven years ago.

Greitens, a Rhodes scholar and former Navy SEAL, is known for bringing high ambition to everySee GREITENS • Page A15

Debt collection vexes patients SSM contracts out its ER service and sells its unpaid bills, raising tax questions BUSINESS • E1

Retelling ‘Pride and Prejudice’ — again • D1

CHRISTIAN GOODEN • cgooden@post-dispatch.com

Nick Miller lifts Lyle Bouck, 92, to his walker during the transfer to a chair in his TV room last month. Bouck cannot support his own weight for more than a few seconds. He likes to watch CNN in the mornings as he eats his breakfast.

“We are bound and determined that he is not going to end up in a nursing home.”

— Diane Bouck Simcik, 66, of Colorado, one of Bouck’s four surviving children

BY JESSE BOGAN • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

SUNSET HILLS • Lyle Bouck Jr. grew up tough in south St.

Louis County. So tough that he joined the National Guard at 14 and stayed on as an instructor at the famed Army infantry school in Fort Benning, Ga. He became one of the youngest commissioned officers to serve in World War II. Lots of close calls at the Battle of the Bulge and as a prisoner of war, it seemed nothing could stop him.

And nothing has.

“I am alive,” Bouck, the recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, said the other day from his home here.

See HERO • Page A4

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POLITICS

04.17.2016 • SUNDAY • M 2

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A15

First-time candidate may be looking past governor’s mansion GREITENS • FROM A1

thing he’s done in his varied career. His first-ever political campaign, for the Republican nomination for Missouri governor, is apparently no different.

Five months before the first votes will be cast in the state’s hotly contested four-way GOP gubernatorial primary, many of Greitens’ supporters — and apparently the candidate himself — already are looking beyond the governor’s mansion in Jefferson City.

“The Republican establishment along with their big donors believe he is presidential material, but first he has to win political office,” said St. Louis University political scientist Ken Warren. “They are not giving to him, they are investing in him.”

One political operative with knowledge of the Greitens campaign put it more bluntly.

“There’s been a concerted effort to brand him as the next GOP wunderkind,” said the operative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he still works in politics.

The reserved website isn’t the only hint. Greitens’ state campaign in some ways looks like a national one. It employs a national finance chairman who used to hold the same position for the Republican National Committee and who has no previous ties to Missouri.

Greitens’ top donors are a who’s-who of national GOP moneymen from all over America, people more commonly associated with presidential campaigns than with state primaries.

More than a dozen were major donors to Jeb Bush’s presidential super PAC this year, a Post-Dispatch analysis of records found.

Some of those backers have been quietly promoting Greitens as a future national contender.

“This was a cultivation. It was all big-money people,” said one source who attended a Greitens campaign reception for monied potential donors in the Connecticut home of professional wrestling magnates Vince and Linda McMahon in January, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“It’s not like they’re looking for a friend over there (in Missouri). They’re looking to make an investment in young, up-andcoming leaders.”

Greitens, 41, an ex-Democrat, St. Louis area native and a Parkway North graduate, never has run for elective office. Aside from his military career, he is an author of best-selling books about character and founder of the Mission Continues, a national philanthropic organization that helps veterans serve their communities.

Records show Greitens’ gubernatorial campaign has received more than $3.3 million in campaign cash from wealthy Republican donors in 37 states outside Missouri.

That’s almost twice as much money as he has raised from within the borders of the state he seeks to lead, which is an unusual dynamic in gubernatorial campaigns. All three of Greitens’ GOP primary opponents — businessman John Brunner, former Missouri House Speaker Catherine Hanaway and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder — have raised more than 90 percent of their money instate. Greitens’ in-state take is about 36 percent of his total.

Thanks largely to his out-ofstate donors, Greitens’ total in the past year is more than $5.2 million — almost as much as the totals of all three of his GOP primary opponents combined.

Greitens’ campaign points out he has raised more money from Missouri donors than any of his three GOP primary competitors.

But the fact that almost twothirds of his money has come

CHRISTIAN GOODEN • cgooden@post-dispatch.com

Eric Greitens, a Republican candidate for Missouri governor, talks with a woman Thursday after his speech at the Kiwanis of Chesterfield’s annual Civic Prayer Breakfast at the Double Tree Hotel in Chesterfield. Greitens was also signing copies of his book “The Warrior’s Heart.”

TOP 10 DONORS FOR ERIC GREITENS Name Employment Michael Goguen Former venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital McKinley Financial Partnership Junto Capital Management CEO James Parsons Sol Barer Former CEO of Celgene Corp. biotech company Managing director, Fort Ashford Funds LLC Frank Kavanaugh General manager, TSI Holding Co. John C. Hauck Market Street Bancshares Inc Steve Cohen Founder, S.A.C. Capital Advisers hedge fund Bernard Marcus Retired co-founder, Home Depot Michael Lukacs Former partner, Appaloosa Management L.P.

Residence Contributions Menlo, Calif. $1,000,000 Ann Arbor, Mich. $398,000 New York, N.Y. $200,000 Summit, N.J. $160,000 Aliso Viejo Calif. $125,000 St. Louis $100,000 Mount Vernon, Ill. $100,000 Greenwich, Conn. $100,000 Atlanta, Ga. $75,000 Garden City, N.J, $75,000

SOURCE: Missouri Ethics Commission

from out of state has raised continuing questions about what it is those distant donors believe they are buying.

“I just think it’s bizarre that somebody is writing six-figure checks to a candidate for governor of a state (when) they’ve never stepped in the state,” said U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., discussing Missouri’s lack of campaign finance limits during a recent meeting with the Post-Dispatch editorial board.

“Who are these people?”

FAR-FLUNG DONORS A Post-Dispatch review of Greitens’ campaign finances found that his biggest out-of-state donors are mostly CEOs, venture capitalists and other businesspeople with histories of national political activism.

Among them is Ronald Weiser, a former U.S. ambassador to Slovakia, former Michigan Republican Party chairman and former finance chairman for the Republican National Committee. Weiser — who has no ties to Missouri — serves as Greitens’ national finance chairman. He has personally donated $50,000 to Greitens and $398,000 more through the real estate management company he founded, McKinley Financial Partnership.

“Some of it has to do with who is doing the asking. Eric is an extraordinary candidate,” said Weiser, when asked why he and other national supporters are putting so much money on a state-level primary. “I don’t think people are supporting someone for governor of Missouri because he might be a presidential candidate some day.

That’s a long way to look over the hill.”

Those far-flung donors also include Steve Cohen of Greenwich, Conn., a hedge fund manager with a net worth of more than $12 billion. He contributed

$2 million to a super PAC supporting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s former presidential campaign. He has donated $100,000 to Greitens.

There is Bernard Marcus of Atlanta, co-founder of the Home Depot home improvement store chain. He gives millions of dollars to pro-Israeli causes and gave more than $1 million to the Right to Rise super PAC in support of Jeb Bush’s now-defunct presidential campaign. He has donated $75,000 to Greitens.

There is Marlene Ricketts of Omaha, Neb., whose family owns the Chicago Cubs — and who has spearheaded the Our Principles PAC, an anti-Donald Trump super PAC that has gotten under the controversial billionaire’s skin enough to prompt one of his trademark warnings that “they better be careful.” Ricketts donated $25,000 to Greitens in late March.

And there is Frank Kavanaugh, managing director of a California private equity firm, who has given Greitens $125,000 and also has donated to the Mission Continues. He’s part of what Greitens calls a “tremendous amount of overlap” between his philanthropic and political supporters.

“We’ve watched Eric, we’ve known him for a long time, and we just want to see more people like that involved,” said Kavanaugh. He dismissed the suggestion that his support has anything to do with a future Greitens presidential run.

Greitens’ deluge of big outof-state money was already raising eyebrows before the recent controversy surrounding one of those donors, Michael Goguen.

Goguen, a California-based venture capitalist, is Greitens’ single biggest contributor, at $1 million.

In a lawsuit filed in March, a longtime female acquaintance accuses Goguen of “sexual slavery,” which has prompted

demands from Greitens’ campaign opponents that he return Goguen’s donations. Greitens has declined, saying he’s waiting for resolution of the civil case.

Sources who have attended Greitens’ out-of-state political events say the campaign and its supporters send subtle but clear messages that he’s headed for bigger things.

One source who attended a New York dinner for Greitens last fall said the host joked to the small gathering about a Greitens presidential run. The source — who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was a private event — said the “Republican establishment” types in the room were openly vetting Greitens.

“They were poking and prodding him” over the fact that he used to be a Democrat, said the source. Part of the discussion, he said, included comparisons to 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. “With Romney, there was an authenticity problem. (They wanted to know), ‘Do we have that problem here?’”

The source who attended the McMahons’ Connecticut event said Greitens didn’t pitch himself as a future presidential candidate but that others repeatedly touted him as a future national star.

“Linda McMahon got up and said, ‘You keep an eye on this guy, he’s going places.’”

That source and others contacted for this story have no ties to Greitens’ Missouri primary opponents.

“war on coal” if he’s elected president.

Sanders picks up more Colorado delegates • Bernie Sanders is netting a few extra delegates at Colorado’s Democratic state convention — though it’s not having a real impact on his chances to win the presidential nomination.

Colorado has a multistep process of allocating delegates. Based on the March 1 caucus, Sanders initially picked up 38 delegates to Hillary Clinton’s 28. Since then, Sanders has won additional support at congressional district conventions and Saturday’s state convention, resulting in a few more delegates.

The final delegate allocation for Colorado: 41 for Sanders, 25 for Clinton.

‘ERICGREITENSFOR PRESIDENT.COM’ Greitens last week shrugged off the suggestion that the campaign or its supporters are touting him as presidential timber, attributing his national funding to other factors. “For a lot of them, they believe that the states are the laboratories of democracy,” Gre-

itens said.

So why, in 2009, did he reserve the website “EricGreitensForPresident.com” — and then renew the reservation last year, just as his Missouri gubernatorial primary campaign was taking shape?

“I had advice from a Navy SEAL friend of mine who’d run for office that cyber-squatting happens,” said Greitens, referring to the practice of reserving a website in someone’s name and then forcing them to pay to get it back. Greitens said his friend told him: “‘If you’re ever going to be in public service, just do this so that you don’t have people who abuse you.’ ... Unfortunately, there are some nasty people out there.”

But if he wasn’t contemplating running for president of the United States, then why would it matter if someone else owed EricGreitensForPresident.com?

“You can serve in lots of different ways,” Greitens said. “There are presidents of universities ... presidents of city councils.”

People who know Greitens, including friend and former Democratic Missouri Gov. Bob Holden, say ambition is a major component of his personality. “If he wasn’t ambitious, he wouldn’t have done all the things he’s done,” said Holden.

As for a future presidential run, “If his supporters are suggesting that,” said Holden, “I’m sure he isn’t trying to dissuade them.”

Walker Moskop of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

Kevin McDermott • 314-340-8268 @kevinmcdermott on Twitter kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com

POLITICAL DIGEST Pope merely being polite to Sanders, pontiff says Pope Francis said his brief encounter Saturday with U.S. Republican presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was a sign of good manners, “nothing more,” and hardly evidence of interfering in American politics.

Sanders called it a “real honor” to meet “one of the extraordinary figures” in the world, a kindred spirit on economic inequality, which is a main theme of Sanders’ campaign.

Francis was on his way to Greece to highlight the plight of refugees and Sanders was wrapping up his trip to Rome when they met in the lobby of the pope’s residence, the Domus Santa Marta hotel in the Vatican gardens. The senator from Vermont had attended a Vatican conference Friday on economic inequality and climate change, and

flew back to New York for campaign events on Saturday.

“This morning when I left, Sen. Sanders was there. ... He knew I was leaving at that time and I had the kindness to greet him and his wife and another couple who were with them,” the pope told reporters traveling back with him to the Vatican.

Cruz takes Wyoming • Republican Ted Cruz has nailed down all 14 Wyoming Republican delegates up for grabs at the state party convention Saturday, leaving Donald Trump facing yet another loss in a string of defeats in Western states. Saturday’s sweep follows Cruz’s caucus victory last month in Wyoming, when he scored 9 of 12 available delegates at county conventions.

In a speech at the convention, Cruz promised to roll back what he calls President Barack Obama’s

Clinton touts minimum wage increase • Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton detoured Saturday from a weekend of bigdollar fundraising in California to pitch her plans to raise the federal minimum wage and refresh her criticism of rival Bernie Sanders in advance of Tuesday’s New York primary. The former senator and former first lady told a cheering crowd at a rally in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon that if elected, she would push Congress to raise the $7.25-an-hour federal base wage.

Clinton’s remarks echoed her statements at Thursday’s Democratic debate in Brooklyn, N.Y. Clinton, who previously endorsed a $12-per-hour federal minimum wage, said she would also sign legislation raising that level to $15.

Sanders releases tax return • Bernie Sanders released his full 2014 federal tax return Friday, revealing that he mostly lives off a six-figure government salary and donated about 4 percent of

his family’s income to charitable causes.

Sanders and his wife, Jane, donated $8,350 to charity while reporting an adjusted gross income of about $205,000 that year, according to the couple’s joint tax return. The share of his family’s income that went to charity was about one-third the percentage of income that his primary opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, gave to charitable groups.

The Sanders campaign released the return a day after a heated Democratic presidential debate in New York in which Sanders pledged to release the single return but hesitated to say when he would release additional years of his taxes.

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GOP CROWNS TRUMP Fiery ally • Christie revs up crowd against Clinton Party unity • Ryan makes push; dissent is minimal Boos for ‘elite’ • McConnell gets surly reception Full coverage of the GOP convention • A10-11

BY JULIE PACE Associated Press

CLEVELAND • United for a

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s children (from left) Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump celebrate Tuesday on the convention floor in Cleveland.

night, Republicans nominated Donald Trump on Tuesday as their presidential standardbearer, capping the billionaire businessman’s stunning takeover of the GOP and propelling him into a November faceoff with Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“This is a movement, but we have to go all the way,” Trump said in videotaped remarks beamed into the convention hall.

For Trump, the celebrations were a much-needed opportunity to regroup after a chaotic convention kickoff that included

‘This is my legs now’

a plagiarism charge involving his wife Melania Trump’s address on opening night. There were no big missteps Tuesday, but the event was void of the glitzy, Hollywood touch Trump promised, with a series of Republican officials parading on stage to level sharp but repetitive criticisms of Clinton.

New Jersey Gov. Chris ChrisSee TRUMP • Page A11

$2 million donation to Greitens campaign is shrouded in mystery Lax laws hide donors

BY KEVIN McDERMOTT St. Louis Post-Dispatch

glibly tell her friends: “You never know when I might need it.”

On May 1, 5½ years after Max’s death, Starkloff was thrown from her horse, breaking her left leg near the hip.

“My surgeon and internist both said: ‘Colleen, you have to stay home for two months. This is a bad fracture.’ Immediately my brain switched to: ‘How can I do what they want and keep my life moving forward?’”

Navy SEALs are supposed to be stealthy. But maybe not this stealthy.

A federally registered campaign committee called “SEALs for Truth” this week donated $1.975 million to Missouri gubernatorial candidate Eric Greitens, a former SEAL. It is, by far, the single largest political contribution in Missouri history to an individual candidate.

And we have absolutely no idea who it came from.

T h a t ’s b e c a u s e “ S E A L s Greitens for Truth,” which was registered as a federal “super PAC” in mid-June, reported having no money on hand as of June 30. That’s the cutoff date for committees to make their second-quarter finances public.

Any money the committee receives after June 30 doesn’t have to be reported until the thirdquarter report, due Oct. 15.

In other words, the group received the $1.975 million during the roughly two weeks between July 1 and Monday, when it donated the cash to Greitens. But the group does not have to publicly reveal where that money

See ADVOCATE • Page A8

See DONATION • Page A8

ROBERT COHEN • rcohen@Post-Dispatch.com

Colleen Starkloff navigates her wheelchair as she arrives home in the Central West End after using MetroLink to travel from her downtown office. Starkloff, who suffered a broken leg in May, co-founded the Starkloff Disability Institute with her late husband Max, a quadriplegic.

Disability advocate uses late husband’s wheelchair

BY DOUG MOORE St. Louis Post-Dispatch

When Colleen Kelly Starkloff’s husband, Max, died in 2010, she stowed his powered wheelchair in the basement.

She also kept the van with a lift, and stayed put in the large Central West End house with an elevator that the couple had labored over to make fully accessible for him.

With Max’s death, Starkloff’s friends suggested she sell the house and van, and

give away the wheelchair. But they were all reminders of her husband of 35 years and the work they had done to make St. Louis and the rest of the country more accessible to the disabled.

“They were part of Max’s life,” she would say. Besides, the van was paid for, and if any of her disabled friends needed transportation, she wanted to be able to provide it.

As for the wheelchair in the basement, it was an extension of Max. A liberator for a man who became a quadriplegic after an auto accident. And, as Starkloff would

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The 81-page suit, filed in U.S. District Court, also claims that investigators See FARIA • Page A7

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Woman learns how late husband navigated city ADVOCATE • FROM A1

She had a relative retrieve the wheelchair from the basement and called a friend to get new batteries for it. She had the van lift serviced, and even hired the driver that had worked with Max for years. But after a sevenweek stay at her daughter’s house in Wildwood, she moved back home and began taking MetroLink from the Central West End to her downtown office.

For four decades, she stood next to Max as they fought to create an independent world for the disabled. From bus lifts to curb cuts to crafting of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Starkloffs were in the thick of the fightfor-rights movement. But only now is she seeing the improvements and remaining challenges from the vantage point of her late husband and others who rely on a wheelchair.

“This experience brought me even closer and central to the issue I’ve fought my whole life,” said Starkloff, 66.

THE LIVED EXPERIENCE In the wheelchair, she encounters cracked, uneven sidewalks and curb cuts that are not flush with the pavement. One such rough patch disabled the tilt function on her wheelchair.

She now gets why some wheelchair users favor taking to the streets, something she has rallied against, especially after a disabled woman was struck and killed by a motorist on Delmar Boulevard near Jefferson Avenue 11 years ago. The woman’s family won a $250,000 judgment from the city for not maintaining the sidewalk.

“It makes me less frustrated but not less worried,” Starkloff said of seeing wheelchair users on the street.

Long before there was an Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law in 1990, Starkloff and her husband, Max, were on the front lines in the fight for disability rights.

Together, the Starkloffs built Paraquad, one of the first 10 federally funded independent living centers in the nation, into a St. Louis-based agency that now serves more than 3,000 people a year.

PHOTOS BY ROBERT COHEN • rcohen@post-dispatch.com

“What is this?,” asks Colleen Starkloff as a woman apologizes, realizing she was blocking Starkloff’s path across Forest Park at Taylor avenues on Friday. Starkloff, who co-founded the Starkloff Disability Institute with her late husband Max, a quadriplegic, shattered her leg in May after being thrown from her horse.

stepping into the shoes of those with mobility issues to better understand day-to-day challenges.

Starkloff is able to move between the wheelchair and a walker. By next week, she hopes a cane is her primary assistant.

‘NOT AN ODDITY ANYMORE’

When Max Starkloff died in 2010, his wife Colleen moved into his office at the Starkloff Disability Institute, where she read emails on Friday.

As Colleen Starkloff likes to say of founding Paraquad in 1970: “It was about emancipation.”

Today, there are nearly 500 independent living centers.

The Starkloffs, who helped St. Louis become the first city in the country to have lift-equipped public buses, parted ways with Paraquad in 2002 and began the Starkloff Disability Institute, an

agency she still heads. The focus of the new endeavor: creating more employment opportunities for the disabled.

In her office on South 11th Street last week, Starkloff moved about with ease in Max’s wheelchair.

“This is my legs now,” she said.

Disability rights advocates call it “the lived experience” — briefly

For the past two months, Starkloff has been getting the glances her husband used to get. The looks of pity. Curiosity. Discomfort.

They remind her of when she and Max began dating in 1973.

She was a physical therapist working in the nursing home where Max lived for 12 years.

It was the Christmas season.

They were at the old FamousBarr in Clayton and agreed to part ways for a bit to buy gifts for one another. Colleen bent down to kiss him. A woman walked by, her eyes locked on the couple.

She fell into a display case.

“Get used to it,” Max said of the stares. Two years later, they were married, and the prolonged looks still came. At that time, it

originally came from until later in the year — well after Missouri’s Aug. 2 primaries are over.

How could a committee operating under federal limits have raised that much money so quickly?

As a super PAC, it’s allowed to accept unlimited donations, on the condition that it uses that money only for “independent expenditures” — issue-oriented television commercials, for example. It cannot legally donate the money directly to any federal candidate.

And that’s where the loophole comes in: Greitens isn’t a federal candidate.

A Federal Elections Commission spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that, as a super PAC, “SEALs for Truth” would be barred from giving any money directly to a congressional or presidential campaign — but that the FEC has no jurisdiction if it sends that money to a Missouri state-level candidate.

Missouri election officials have said previously that they have no way to restrict money donated from federal PACs to state candidates, as long as it’s disclosed publicly.

“It’s a shell game” designed to move political money with as little limitation or disclosure as possible, said Missouri reform advocate John Messmer, a political science professor at St. Louis Community College at Meramec. “Missouri is a prime target because the rules (here) are so loose.”

Federal records list the name of a treasurer, Nicholas Britt, for “SEALs for Truth,” with a Washington, D.C., post-office box but a Creve Coeur phone number.

In response to a PostDispatch inquiry about the source of the fund-

ing, the group sent an unsigned statement supporting Greitens and saying that former Navy SEALs “make up the largest number of donors to our organization.”

A second email seeking more information went unanswered. No one responded to two voice messages left at the number listed in the federal documents.

Greitens campaign manager Austin Chambers, when asked if he knew who was behind the group, responded with a written statement: “Eric is proud to stand with his fellow Navy SEALs, and he is grateful to have their support in this campaign.”

Missouri is one of the few states that allows unlimited political contributions. But it also requires that donations of $5,000 or more have to be publicly reported immediately. There is no such immediate-reporting requirement at the federal level, allowing the committee’s donors to remain secret until after the primary election.

Greitens knows firsthand how troublesome such disclosures can be.

His single biggest contributor before now was California venture-capitalist Michael Goguen, who is accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a female acquaintance for years. Greitens has rejected calls to return Goguen’s money, saying he doesn’t want to prejudge the outcome of the lawsuit.

This isn’t the first time that political money has conveniently fallen through the cracks between the federal and Missouri election systems, making it impossible to track.

The Post-Dispatch reported earlier this year on the federal “LG PAC,” which has launched cam-

paign attacks against another Missouri Republican gubernatorial candidate, businessman John Brunner.

Under its federal designation, “LG PAC” is supposed to be unaffiliated with any candidate. But a PAC official was sighted chatting with Greitens at a political event, spurring speculation (denied all around) that Greitens’ campaign is behind it.

Greitens also has been on the receiving end of attacks via anonymous money through a federal PAC. This one, called “Patriots for America,” also claims to be unaffiliated with any candidate — though its documented ties to two former Brunner staffers has called that claim into question as well.

The $1.975 million donation to Greitens is almost double the previous record of $1 million in a single donation to a single candidate, which has happened twice in Missouri: in 2014, from St. Louis-based investor Rex Sinquefield to Bev Randles, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor; and in early July, from David Humpreys, president of Joplin-based TAMKO Building Products, to Josh Hawley, Republican candidate for Missouri attorney general.

The winner of the Aug. 2 GOP primary between Greitens, Brunner, former Missouri House Speaker Catherine Hanaway and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder will go on to the Nov. 8 general election. The nominee will probably face Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, the likely Democratic nominee.

Kevin McDermott • 314-340-8268 @kevinmcdermott on Twitter kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com

Doug Moore • 314-340-8125 @dougwmoore on Twitter dmoore@post-dispatch.com

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Missouri’s lax campaign finance laws allow contribution DONATION • FROM A1

was still unusual to see in public a person in a wheelchair. But with the strides made in independence for the disabled, “it’s not an oddity anymore,” Starkloff said.

Still, she has noted a difference in the way people look at her and treat her when she is using a wheelchair. And the way she has responded.

“The first couple of days when I was getting on the train, I was apologizing because I had this feeling of being in the way,” Starkloff said. “And some people go out of their way to talk to me. What is interesting is they are not doing the same to anyone else. I don’t know what to do with that.”

On the flip side, she has had people ignore her. When she struggled with a heavy door at a shop, the guy at the front desk inside ignored her. But someone on the street volunteered to assist. There, Starkloff found herself in a situation that brings familiar complaints from those who are disabled.

“Sometimes people help without asking, and end up getting in the way, but if someone asks: ‘Would you like help?’ or ‘Can I help you with that?’, that sends a different message,” she said.

Starkloff, the longtime advocate, would certainly have preferred that her Missouri Fox Trotter, Woody, not “catapulted” her onto the asphalt during a trail ride in Innsbrook. But that incident is providing her insight she never had.

And as she sits in Max’s wheelchair, the one she refused to give up after her husband’s death, the stories he shared with her over and again resonate more than ever. Navigating curb cuts and public transportation, she thinks of the work she and Max did together. And how the chair has helped her continue that work.

“He still takes care of me,” Starkloff said. “He’s gone. But he’s not.”

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A L E E E N T E R P R I S E S N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D BY J O S E P H P U L I T Z E R D E C . 1 2 , 1 8 7 8

Thursday • 07.21.2016 • A14

Stealth operators Our view • Ex-Navy SEALs should have the courage not to hide political money.

It finally happened. The worst aspect of federal campaign finance law — anonymity — has mated with the worst aspect of Missouri campaign finance law — unlimited donations. The hideous spawn is a $1,975,000 check from a mysterious group called “SEALs for Truth” to the gubernatorial campaign of Eric Greitens.

Missourians planning to vote in the Aug. 2 Republican governor’s primary are left to wonder who’s trying to buy nearly $2 million worth of influence with Greitens. He himself (as you may have heard) is a former Navy SEAL, not that SEALs for Truth is necessarily a bunch of his former battle buddies.

SEALs for Truth is a federal super PAC of the sort made possible in 2010 by the infamous Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC and the subsequent Speech Now decision by the D.C. Court of Appeals. The effect: Corporate donations to federal candidates are OK, and if made to committees that operate independently of official candidate committees, could be in unlimited amounts.

But there’s no limit on how much you can give directly to candidates for state office in Missouri, though donations of $5,000 or more must be reported within 48 hours. Thus the SEALs for Truth donation was reported, but who gave the money to SEALs for Truth? That won’t be known until at least Oct. 15, when third quarter federal donations must be reported. Even then the source of funds could be obfuscated by layers of front

names.

It’s likely that most of the money from SEALs for Truth didn’t come from SEAL alumni. An unsigned statement from the group claims former SEALs “make up the largest number of donors” to the organization, which was founded last month.

“Largest number” doesn’t mean “largest donors.” Our guess is that SEALs, a group of men known for their courage, would have no problem going public. Special interest millionaires, however, usually don’t have that kind of courage.

Even Rex Sinquefield, who once made a point of donating his millions to Missouri political races boldly and openly, has lately been funneling his money through various organizations and committees he controls. At $3.9 million, he has contributed well over half of what Republican Catherine Hanaway has raised for her governor’s bid. At $1.5 million, the Humphreys family of Joplin has done the same for Peter Kinder’s campaign.

And John Brunner, the fourth candidate in the GOP field? He’s raised about $7 million and donated $5.7 million of it himself.

The entire campaign finance system is sleazy. But at least in Missouri you usually can find out who’s buying whom.

Not so with Greitens and SEALs for Truth. A man who boasts of facing down terrorists should have the courage to tell people who’s paying the bills.

YOUR VIEWS • LETTERS FROM OUR READERS Army Corps of Engineers is right choice to clean up landfill Regarding “Plan to shift West Lake cleanup to Corps hits roadblock” (July 14): Last week, I traveled to Washington to observe Reps. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, and Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, testify about the Environmental Protection Agency’s inaction on the West Lake Landfill, which is only about 10 minutes from my home. I personally saw their passion and frustration about the EPA’s sluggish work on the landfill.

I strongly support the bill they introduced in Congress (HR 4100) with Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, to put the Army Corps of Engineers in charge of the landfill cleanup. Unfortunately, several members of Congress and agency bureaucrats have argued that this bill would delay the cleanup and that we should just let the EPA do its job.

Try telling that to those of us who have waited 26 years for the EPA to do something about the landfill. We want the government to clean up the landfill and protect us.

For this community, it is not about a quick solution; it’s about doing it right. The Army Corps of Engineers successfully remediated many sites in our region and is the best choice to keep us safe.

Karen Nickel • Maryland Heights

Medal of Honor is awarded not ‘won’ ROBERT COHEN • P-D

Hazelwood School District parents greet visitors to a Knights of Columbus swap meet in Florissant on July 16 as they work to have voters sign a petition to order a state audit of the district.

Under new micromanagement Our view • Hazelwood parents need to let school officials do their jobs.

There’s a fine line between citizen involvement and micromanagement when it comes to oversight of an elected body, such as the Hazelwood School Board. Concerned citizens and parents in Hazelwood have a right to ask the board to open the district’s books and to scrutinize the budget to ensure that every dollar is being spent wisely. But it’s not clear that a petition drive to request a state audit is going to accomplish what activists are hoping.

It could be more of a distraction than a help as the school district works through its financial problems.

School board members listened to complaints from citizens when members proposed cutting music and physical education classes to pare the district budget in February. In response, the board restored the classes, offered jobs to 13 teachers they had eliminated, and cut $900,000 from administrative expenses such as travel and food.

The board isn’t perfect. Its most serious misstep was holding a budget workshop without publicizing it on the district’s website — a violation of Missouri’s Sunshine Law. An apology doesn’t cut it with parents and residents.

Nor should it.

Parents also remain angry that the board has not answered questions they submitted months ago, and has not explained why. Tensions grow when an embattled school board fails to address legitimate concerns from well-intentioned parents in a timely manner.

At the same time, board members are responding to parents on the big issues,

so maybe they deserve a break. For instance, district officials made available a copy of the $231 million budget for the upcoming school year and provided a link to a 2015 audit by a firm the board hired.

Parents still want a state audit, which the board says could cost up to $120,000.

Parents worry that money is being misspent and say a state audit would shed light on spending decisions and program quality.

Their concerns are understandable: Parents want the best education possible for their children. But some Hazelwood parents seem to be intentionally micromanaging the district. School board members are elected specifically for such oversight.

After scrutinizing the budget, parents highlighted potential savings areas and questioned some expenses, such as the frequency of watering soccer fields and the ratio of clerical staff to other employees. It’s hard to see how this dramatically advances their cause.

Hazelwood’s budget is in keeping with other districts its size, and the $235,000 salary for an incoming superintendent is comparable to what other districts pay.

The district has struggled with too much change at the top — four permanent and interim superintendents in the last four years — which is unsettling to parents and students. Parents who are dissatisfied with the way the district is managed should run for the board.

That’s the best way to keep tabs on the operation.

RAY FARRIS PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER

THE PLATFORM TM STLtoday.com/ThePlatform Find us at facebook/PDPlatform Follow us on twitter @PDEditorial

The article concerning the presentation of the Medal Of Honor to Lt. Col. Charles Kettles stated that he “won” it (Nation briefs, July 19).

The Medal of Honor is not a prize that can be won by scoring a certain number of points or beating out other contestants. It is awarded for actions that are so far above and beyond expectations that they deserve special recognition. Saying it is “won” is not only inaccurate, it is belittling to the medal itself and to those to whom it is awarded.

I say this as one who served for 20 years in the Navy as both an enlisted man and as an officer, and one who has the greatest respect for those awarded the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, Silver Star, etc.

Raymond J. Kehoe • Warrenton Lieutenant, U.S. Navy (retired)

Amendment is opportunity to invest in Missouri’s children We are missing a critical opportunity to educate our kids and grow our economy by failing to invest in early childhood education and health (“Missouri tobacco tax faces uncertainty after court ruling,” online July 11).

Exhaustive research shows real benefits of quality early childhood education: It reduces crime, improves graduation rates, attracts new employers, grows the economy and saves taxpayer money. Unfortunately, Missouri still lags behind other states in funding early childhood education and health, preventing our state from reaching its full economic potential.

“The Early Childhood Health and Education Amendment” gives Missouri citizens a way to guarantee $300 million annually to improve children’s access to health and developmental screenings and quality early childhood programs. The amendment safeguards funding generated through tobacco taxes and ensures funds are not misappropriated or diverted to pet projects that do nothing to help children.

Along with 330,000 Missourians, I added my signature to the petition to get this amendment on the November ballot.

However, cheap cigarette manufacturers’ special interests are trying to deny us the right to even vote on this measure by using legal challenges as delay tactics. Their

GILBERT BAILON EDITOR

difference in its cardinal principles, that it will always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty • JOSEPH PULITZER • APRIL 10, 1907

Letters should be 250 words or fewer. Please include your name, address and phone number.

All letters are subject to editing. Writers usually will not be published more than once every 60 days. Additional letters are posted online at STLtoday.com/letters.

MAIL Letters to the editor St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 900 N. Tucker Blvd.

St. Louis, MO 63101

Misleading ballot measure has many flaws The Missouri Court of Appeals found that the early childhood education initiative’s ballot summary is insufficient and unfair (“Missouri tobacco tax faces uncertainty after court ruling,” online July 11). Big Tobacco, which is the biggest funder and benefactor of this campaign, could have cleared up the ballot title issues before it circulated petitions for signatures. These companies chose instead to cut corners and forge ahead. They knowingly tried to shortcircuit the process, and their legal risk did not pay off. They should do the right thing and refile the measure the correct way.

The misleading ballot title is only one of its many flaws. This measure has drawn opposition from a number of groups — including education, medical research and public health advocates — and each has its own concerns.

Judy Ballard • St. Louis

How can we spend more while saving more?

The article “Three big mistakes Americans keep making with their money” (July 17) faults consumers because we are spending too much and not saving enough. I seem to recall in a previous article that the economy looks good because people are willing to spend.

The only way that we can do both is for our wages to go up. But then, if our wages went up, it would mean less return for investors. So the best our capitalistic system would recommend is that we spend more, and save more, on the same income. Let us see how that works out.

Robert Schutzius • Florissant

Takes exception to Hawley ad using Chinese faces It was with great discomfort that I viewed a political advertisement for Republican attorney general candidate Josh Hawley during the morning news. My daughter, adopted from China, was in the room, which added to my upset.

The ad features two Chinese men, speaking Chinese while walking through a farm.

The men are portrayed as sneaky and dangerous as they attempt to buy up Missouri farms. While this may be an issue important to Missouri farmers, I take exception to using Chinese faces and Chinese language to scare the voting public into voting for Hawley.

In Missouri, we are fortunate to have people of Chinese descent who are our children, friends, neighbors, co-workers, business owners and more. To portray an entire race of people as the enemy is just plain wrong.

Amy Hengen Hauser • Olivette

Read more letters online at STLtoday.com/letters

TOD ROBBERSON EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

PLATFORM • I know that my retirement will make no

WE WELCOME YOUR LETTERS AND E-MAIL

tactics speak more to their own bottom line than Missouri’s children and our shared economic future.

This is the best chance we’ve had in years to fund early childhood education and health for children and the only proposal on the table today.

We shouldn’t wait to address this crisis.

We shouldn’t ask children to wait for the screenings and services that will help them grow up healthy. Working parents should not have to choose between their job and their child’s education.

Show support for this amendment along with the 330,000 voters who have already signed on to put Missouri’s children first.

Pam Mitchell • St. Louis

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TOD ROBBERSON trobberson@post-dispatch.com Editorial Page Editor • 314-340-8382 KEVIN HORRIGAN khorrigan@post-dispatch.com Deputy Editorial Page Editor • 314-340-8135 FRANK REUST freust@post-dispatch.com Letters Editor • 314-340-8356 DEBORAH PETERSON dpeterson@post-dispatch.com Editorial writer • 314-340-8276

S E RV I N G T H E P U B L I C S I N C E 1 878 • W I N N E R O F 1 8 P U L I TZ E R P R I Z E S

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SUNDAY • 10.23.2016 • $3.00 • FINAL EDITION

RACE TO THE TOP JOB

Credentials to beliefs, candidates for governor have little in common

ROBERT COHEN • rcohen@post-dispatch.com

Chris Koster (left) and Eric Greitens shake hands following a debate last month. Democrat Koster was once in the GOP; Republican Greitens was an active Democrat until at least 2013.

Political veteran on familiar career trajectory shores up his base CHRIS KOSTER Age: 52 Party: Democrat Current job: Missouri attorney general Family: Single Home: St. Louis

Scholar and SEAL wants to add ‘governor’ to his expansive résumé

BY KURT ERICKSON • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BY KEVIN MCDERMOTT • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

JEFFERSON CITY • Standing on a debate stage

ST. LOUIS • Missouri’s GOP nominee for gov-

in Branson in late September, Chris Koster appeared unruffled as Republican Eric Greitens unleashed a verbal assault on his record.

After mostly ignoring Greitens for the first 45 minutes of the event, Koster directly addressed the political newcomer, saying Missouri’s next governor shouldn’t need “training wheels” when he takes office.

“If you don’t know enough about operating the state of Missouri, then you shouldn’t be

ernor is one of the most difficult-to-categorize politicians in modern memory.

Eric Greitens is a Democrat turned Republican, a Rhodes scholar turned Navy SEAL, a political novice with national political connections. He’s the author of four densely philosophical books, and the star of campaign commercials in which he shoots guns and blows stuff up. He has made ethics reform a centerpiece of his campaign while collecting the single biggest

See KOSTER • Page A4

See GREITENS • Page A4

ERIC GREITENS Age: 42 Party: Republican Current job: Author Family: Wife, Sheena; two young sons Home: St. Louis

VOTERS GUIDE • Prepare for the Nov. 8 elections with our Missouri Voters Guide, produced in partnership with the League of Women Voters of Metro St. Louis.

Online now at: stltoday.com/votersguide • Print edition: Coming in Friday’s Post-Dispatch

SLU wants to extend development reach into central corridor NEW HOSPITAL SPURS PLAN University envisions academic and medical buildings, private investment on nearly 400 nearby acres ZONING, TAX CONTROL Chapter 353 status would give school more authority, but officials deny they will use eminent domain

IT’S HAPPENING CUBS HEAD TO WORLD SERIES SPORTS • C1

BY JACOB BARKER • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

There’s close to $1 billion — and probably more — ready to pour into development in midtown and neighborhoods to the south.

With a new $550 million St. Louis University Hospital planned by SSM Health in the Tiffany neighborhood and major developments proposed on the edges of St. Louis University’s campus, SLU is moving to get ahead of the development that appears likely to transform another portion of the region’s central corridor.

The university is asking the city of St. Louis to give it more control over the zoning and tax incentives that will determine what is built on 395 acres near its medical center and north campus.

Just to the west, the city granted similar powers to the Cortex technology district and Washington University. Investors are now looking farther east, to the area surrounding another one of St. Louis’ anchor institutions.

“We now have another major institution lending their name to the redevelopment of See SLU • Page A14

Messenger: Hackers here to take on homelessness • A2 Small investors catch a break as brokers get squeezed • E1 65 high school bands from 13 states compete here • B1

Toy time travel History Museum exhibit revisits childhood favorites A&E • D1

The final push

TODAY

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Democrat Chris Koster speaks during the gubernatorial debate last month in Branson, Mo. In 1994, Koster, then a Republican, became Cass County prosecutor.

Republican Eric Greitens speaks at the debate for Missouri governor last month.

Greitens, who has never held office, is touting his status as an “outsider.

Democrat skated through primary, won series of key endorsements

Republican is praised for ability to unite and motivate others

KOSTER • FROM A1

the state of Missouri, then you shouldn’t be applying for the job,” Koster said.

It was a rare act of aggression from the political veteran, who skated largely unchallenged through the Democratic primary, won a series of key endorsements and has been acting like a poised frontrunner for much of the election season.

That positioning has allowed him to largely focus on raising money and shoring up his base before the Nov. 8 election.

Koster’s demeanor has been honed over more than 20 years as an elected official. Called curious and conservative by friends and calculating and corrupt by Greitens, the 52-year-old St. Louis native is following a career trajectory that mirrors that of Missouri’s current governor, Democrat Jay Nixon.

Like Koster, Nixon is a former state senator.

Nixon was attorney general. Koster is attorney general.

And, now, with Nixon leaving in January after two terms, Koster is trying to follow him up the political ladder.

EAGERNESS TO RISE Koster began his climb in 1994 when he became Cass County prosecutor just three years after graduating from University of Missouri law school.

Koster says it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he launched his political career as a Republican.

His father, Rich, was a sportswriter at the now-defunct St. Louis Globe Democrat and a conservative commentator on “Donnybrook,” a political round table on public television.

At the paper, his father would run with conservative Pat Buchanan, who, at the time, was an editorial writer and later a candidate for president.

One of Koster’s three brothers is named Patrick. Although the family worshipped in a Catholic church, his brother is not named after the Irish saint.

“He’s named,” Koster said, “after Patrick Buchanan.”

Inklings of Koster’s eagerness to rise in politics began emerging early.

In 1995, just one year into his new job as prosecutor, he announced he was looking at running for attorney general.

He didn’t make that run. Four years later he explored a bid for governor before deciding to wait. In 2001, his name surfaced as a potential candidate for state auditor, another race he passed on.

John Lozano, a criminal defense attorney in Harrisonville for the past three decades, recalls Koster as ambitious during his tenure as county prosecutor.

“It takes an aggressive, ambitious person to reach the levels he has,” Lozano said. “I think Koster is basically a natural in many respects.”

After a decade as prosecutor, Koster finally was ready to move. He launched a bid for a seat in the state Senate, representing four counties south of Kansas City. He began a quick rise into leadership in the GOP-controlled chamber. He was elected caucus chair in 2005 and became known as a politically pragmatic legislator with a prosecutor’s flair for debate.

“He was always prepared. He was always thoroughly vetted. He’s a very competent person,” said Rep. Kevin Engler, a Farmington Republican who served with Koster in the Senate.

But there were strong indications Koster didn’t fit the Republican mold.

He had already butted heads with conservative colleagues such as former state Sen. Matt Bartle of Kansas City over embryonic stem cell research, which Koster supported. Koster also made it clear he was on the side of labor, which ran counter to many of his GOP colleagues.

Nonetheless, he stayed in the party and went so far as to hire Axiom Strategies, the Kansas City firm of wellknown, combative Republican political consultant Jeff Roe, who would go on to consult for Sen. Ted Cruz’s unsuccessful presidential run. Koster wanted the firm to help him plot a course to the attorney general’s office.

“I like Jeff. I consider him a friend. I hope he considers me a friend. It’s bad if Jeff doesn’t consider you a friend,” Koster quipped.

He says his decision to switch parties was sealed during a Senate floor debate on an abortion measure in 2007. He had been unsuccessful in persuading Republicans to soften the proposal. “At that

moment, I knew that I would probably have to leave the party,” Koster said.

In announcing his decision, he attacked the party’s “extremist agenda” on abortion as “toxic.”

“Their far-right crusade has infected everything,” he said at the time.

Opponents said Koster’s switch was merely because he saw a clearer path to statewide office as a Democrat. Koster dismisses those accusations.

“I was financially in the lead. It wasn’t like I was in third place. People are sometimes cynical about why I made the decision,” Koster said.

The 2008 race was full of intrigue.

Koster was married from 1996 to 2003, when he and Rebecca Bowman Nassikas were divorced. During the campaign, Nassikas contributed $200,000 to a campaign committee that opposed Koster’s candidacy.

Today, Koster remains single.

In the primary, then-Rep. Margaret Donnelly came within 786 votes of winning. Donnelly also alleged Koster had put Kansas City schoolteacher Molly Williams on the ballot as a “stalking horse” candidate designed to draw votes away from her. He denied that claim.

BASELESS ATTACKS? Greitens, a former Navy SEAL and political newcomer, has made a 2012 remodeling job of Koster’s attorney general’s office a key plank in his attacks on Koster.

Koster and his allies say the claims are baseless attacks because the office was in desperate need of renovation.

“When it rained, water would pour down the walls into law books,” said Joan Gummels, who serves as Koster’s general counsel in the attorney general’s office.

Greitens also has used a 2014 New York Times article as fodder to call Koster “the most corrupt attorney general in the country.”

The paper connected Koster’s decision not to investigate 5-Hour Energy for deceptive advertising with his acceptance of campaign contributions from a lobbyist for the energy drink maker.

A legislative investigation into the matter later found Koster had made correct legal moves, but it questioned how he had arrived at those decisions.

“Like grade school math, it’s not always enough to reach the right result.

Process matters. In this case, there was a deeply flawed process,” wrote Republican Rep. Jay Barnes, an attorney who chaired the legislative inquiry.

In response, Koster initiated new policies barring contributions from individuals or companies that are the subject of an ongoing investigation by his office. He also said he would no longer accept contributions or gifts from lobbyists, lawyers or law firms who represent them.

If elected, Koster said he would approach the GOP majorities differently than Nixon, who has had an arm’s length relationship with the Legislature.

“I think the temperature of the executive branch needs to be lowered,” Koster said.

Plus, he said he shares many of the same positions with GOP leaders, ranging from a 2014 tax cut measure to gun control.

“I remain in kinship with them on Second Amendment issues,” Koster said.

Jefferson City attorney Chuck Hatfield, a former aide to Nixon and longtime friend of Koster’s, said the current attorney general likely would have a different style in dealing with the Legislature.

“He’s going to be more inclined to pick up the phone and call legislators. I think he’s going to be a ton more accessible to them,” Hatfield said.

Gummels, who has worked for Koster and Nixon, said the fact that Koster was once a Republican can only help.

“He has very good relationships on both sides of the aisle,” she said.

Koster has used those relationships and his longevity in politics to cultivate a series of endorsements that could translate into GOP support on Election Day. He won the backing of the Missouri Farm Bureau and other top agriculture groups as well as the National Rifle Association, each of which could help a Democrat gain a foothold in traditionally Republican rural areas.

If elected, Koster has four main goals: Block an anti-union right-to-work law, boost spending on schools, increase the state’s investment in road construction and leverage $2 billion in federal money to expand Medicaid.

He said the Republican-led Legislature is not going to increase taxes in order to improve school funding. That means other areas of government will have to be squeezed.

He has not said what would be cut.

“We’ll get in there and figure it out. It will not be easy,” Koster said. ​Kurt Erickson • 573-556-6181 @KurtEricksonPD on Twitter kerickson@post-dispatch.com

GREITENS • FROM A1

his campaign while collecting the single biggest dark-money donation in Missouri history.

In his campaign speeches, he sounds like the social studies teacher that everyone wishes they’d had; in a secretly recorded argument with a Republican primary rival last year, he sounded almost unhinged.

In the Nov. 8 election, Greitens will face Democratic Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, with whom he has almost nothing in common other than the ironic fact that they’ve both switched parties (Koster used to be a Republican). Koster has focused on Greitens’ inexperience in government; Greitens has touted that same factor as proof of his “outsider” cred.

“People in Missouri ... want somebody who has a history of getting results,” Greitens told reporters during a recent campaign stop in Overland.

“And when they look at what I’ve done ... running my own business, serving as a Navy SEAL, doing humanitarian work overseas, what they see is a leader, as compared to a career politician who spent his life serving himself.”

Greitens, 42, grew up in Maryland Heights. His mother, Becky, was an early-childhood special education teacher. His father, Rob, worked for the Missouri Department of Agriculture. If elected, Greitens would be Missouri’s first Jewish governor.

After graduating Parkway North High School in 1992, Greitens embarked on building what is by any standard an almost surreal résumé: Duke University graduate; Rhodes scholar; humanitarian volunteer in Rwanda, Cambodia and with Mother Teresa in India; Navy officer with deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia; recipient of the Bronze Star and Purple Heart; White House Fellow; best-selling author; founder of The Mission Continues, which arranges for returned veterans to serve at home; listed on TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” and Fortune Magazine’s “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.”

Greitens is one of the stars of last year’s best-selling book “Charlie Mike: A True Story of Heroes Who Brought Their Mission Home.” In it, the author, TIME magazine scribe Joe Klein, describes Greitens’ résumé as “stratospheric.”

For all that, Greitens had never run for public office before entering the Republican primary for governor, which he won Aug. 2. Victory came after a brutal yearlong campaign against three opponents, two of them seasoned politicians.

His decision to run in the governor’s race began forming in the wake of the 2014 unrest in Ferguson, according to his wife, Sheena Greitens, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri specializing in East Asian politics. It was a period that also saw the birth of the first of their two sons.

“Eric will see a problem, jump right in and go to the center of it,” she said. “As we watched this, and became parents, we needed to ask hard questions about what kind of state we wanted our children to grow up in.”

Greitens’ campaign platform checks the usual Republican boxes, calling for right-to-work legislation, holding down taxes and supporting law enforcement. He also pushes his political-outsider theme with calls for lobbying gift bans and other ethics reforms — though Greitens, one of the biggest recipients of six- and seven-figure donations in Missouri history, opposes campaign contribution limits.

People who know Greitens tend to use the same few adjectives: smart and compassionate, but also competitive and ambitious.

“He’s probably the most driven person I’ve ever met,” said Ryan Manion of Philadelphia, whose brother, Travis Manion, fought alongside Greitens in Iraq and was killed in action there.

“When he sets his sights on something, he really goes after it ... My family and I always knew there were bigger things ahead for him.”

Greitens’ ambition was illustrated when the Post-Dispatch revealed this year that, in 2009, he reserved a series of website names for potential future

campaigns, including “EricGreitensForPresident.com” As it turns out, his thinking in that direction started even earlier.

“When I would read the little kindergarten books, ‘What I want to be when I grow up,’ and at the end, I would go around the circle and ask the children what they wanted to be, I remember this: He wanted to be president,” recalled Anne Richardson, who was Greitens’ kindergarten teacher at McKelvey Elementary. “He was the only kid I ever remember saying that.”

PERSONAL PRAISE AND PARTY STRIFE Richardson, like numerous people in Greitens’ life interviewed recently, is effusive about her former pupil. “I can’t tell you how proud I am.”

She’s part of a fan base that stretches through military and philanthropic circles, to national publishing and media culture. What comes up repeatedly among acquaintances is his ability to gather and motivate people.

“I finished the book (‘The Heart and the Fist’) and thought, ‘I’ve got to find out what this guy is up to,’” said St. Louis Fire Dept. Capt. Gregg Favre. He tracked down Greitens, and ended up taking two years off his firefighting duties to serve as his chief of staff at The Mission Continues. “There is a level of depth and authenticity in Eric that I haven’t seen in many people.”

“Eric has this unique ability to get more out of people,” said Chuck Bryant, a friend and fellow veteran who works out with Greitens. “At the same time, he’s a very competitive person. If we’re doing wind sprints or running stairs, he wants to win, but he does it in a positive way. That’s a pretty good combination in a leader.”

But Greitens hasn’t exactly been a team player among Republicans this year — perhaps because he hasn’t been one for very long. He was an active Democrat until at least 2013, and had even been wooed by the party (unsuccessfully) to run for Congress. He attended the Democratic National Convention in 2008 as a guest of former Missouri Gov. Bob Holden.

During this year’s gubernatorial primary, Greitens’ outsider-themed attacks on “the system” hit Democrats and fellow Republicans alike.

It also irked critics that his sometimes-sanctimonious vows to “clean up” the ethics mess in Jefferson City were funded mostly by massive contributions from wealthy out-of-state donors, including $1 million from a California billionaire who was accused in a high-profile lawsuit of sexual abuse.

Greitens also received $1.9 million — the largest individual donation in Missouri’s history — from a shadowy federal PAC that appears to been set up specifically to hide the source of the money.

“Who are these billionaires giving money to a guy who was a Democrat 18 months ago?” demanded one of his primary opponents, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, during a debate early this year.

A GAME CHANGER? Then there was the revelation, late last year, of Greitens’ phone confrontation with primary opponent John Brunner.

Brunner, a businessman and former Marine, secretly recorded the conversation. In it, the warm, optimistic, motivational-speaker style of oration that Greitens uses in public was replaced with a seething anger that at times sounded threatening.

“Oh, John Brunner, oh, my God, you are such a weasel! Are you going to meet tomorrow or not?” Greitens demands in the conversation, which was prompted by an attack website that Greitens believed Brunner was behind. “I can’t wait to see you in person, John. I want to look in your eyes.”

Greitens won with less than 36 percent of the vote, leaving a deeply divided party.

A planned GOP unity rally the next day had to be canceled because Brunner refused to attend. Some Republicans in the Legislature have since been slow to come together behind the nominee. Gun-rights and agriculture organizations, traditionally key Republican backers, passed over Greitens to endorse Koster.

In a recent conversation, Greitens wore the in-party friction like a war medal. “There’s a reason why my opponent is supported by a lot of people who are members of my party, the Republican Party,” he said, “who have been around a long time, who don’t want this game to change.”

Kevin McDermott • 314-340-8268 @kevinmcdermott on Twitter kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com

M 1 MONDAY • 10.24.2016 • A2

WHAT’S ON STLTODAY.COM

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GAIL PENNINGTON: 7 SHOWS FOR THE WEEK

ST. LOUIS CRIME TRACKER

PODCASTS

Matt LeBlanc returns to series TV with the sitcom “Man With a Plan.” Is it the new “Friends”?

See where crimes were reported in St. Louis neighborhoods, and whether crimes in specific neighborhoods are up (or down) from previous months.

Check iTunes or Google Play for our newest podcasts.

Search “Post-Dispatch” to find “The Best Podcast in Baseball” and the “Inside the Post-Dispatch” podcasts.

An open letter to Greitens on ethics and cynicism TONY MESSENGER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Dear Mr. Greitens, One of your big donors sent me a note the other day that made me think of you.

His name is David Humphreys and he’s the founder and owner of TAMKO Building Products in Joplin. In the past couple of months, Mr. Humphreys or his family members have given $2 million to a political action committee called Committee for Accountability in Missouri Government. It’s an ironic name, since the committee’s main purpose is to launder money from big donors and thus make accountability that much more difficult.

Mr. Humphreys’ note was in response to a column in which I suggested his interest in the Republican candidate for attorney general might have a direct relationship to a class-action lawsuit his company is facing. It had three sentences.

“Speaking truth to power first requires speaking truth,” Mr. Humphreys wrote.

“Apparently you have lost your way in the pursuit of headlines and glory. Pity.”

Here’s why the note made me think of you. To the extent you’ve raised any specific issues in your otherwise vapid campaign for governor, one of them resonated to me in the context of speaking truth to power. You have said you want to clean up the ethics problems in Jefferson City. But you are loathe to discuss many specifics.

This confounds me.

When I first heard of you, people I have known in politics for a long time sang your praises. There was former Gov. Bob Holden, a Democrat, who told me you were a serious, intelligent person who’d bring a breath of fresh air to Missouri politics. There was state Sen. John Lamping, a Republican, who told me you were intent on taking over the mantle of ethics reformer. Both said I’d really like you

once I met you.

But, then a weird thing happened. You wouldn’t meet me.

I asked for an interview. Through your campaign. Through Mr. Lamping. Nothing.

I said I wanted to talk about your plans for ethics reform. Soon, they said. Eventually. Maybe. Never.

Finally, you came in to talk to the PostDispatch editorial board and I sat in so I could ask you a couple of questions.

“I’m going to take dead aim at corruption,” you said.

Dead aim implies a certain specificity.

So I asked you to explain what, specifically, were the ethics problems you saw in Missouri, and how would you fix them.

You talked about former speakers of the House such as Steve Tilley and Tim Jones having ongoing campaign accounts even though they aren’t running for office. It’s a real problem I’ve written about extensively. The Legislature actually passed a law to try to solve that problem last session.

“They launder the money through other campaigns,” you said.

Yes, they do.

But so do you, I said.

Indeed, Mr. Greitens, you may be the king of Missouri money laundering when it comes to taking impossible-to-trace donations. During the primary, you received what at the time was the largest single donation to a candidate in Missouri history, $1.975 million. It came from a political action committee called “SEALs for Truth,” but the real source of the money was, and is, unknown. All the SEALs for Truth money was “laundered” — to use your word — through a nonprofit called the American Policy Coalition Inc., which was established by an Ohio attorney known for coordinating “dark money” donations to obscure the original source of the funds.

This, Mr. Greitens, is at the core of the ethics problems in Missouri. It’s about wealthy individuals controlling the flow of legislation with little transparency.

When voters don’t know who is pulling

the strings of the politicians they fund, judging the results becomes impossible.

But you refuse to acknowledge that in your case it’s a problem.

You’ve taken other secret money, too, including from several limited liability companies, such as “White Impala LLC.” That company has donated $10,000 to you twice. Other LLCs have donated similar amounts. It is impossible for voters to know where that money came from and who may be trying to buy your influence.

As you know, this could have been an issue where you had the upper hand over your opponent, Democrat Chris Koster.

He has had issues with not-so-transparent donations being tied by critics to actions he’s taken — or not taken — as the attorney general. But Mr. Koster has come out in favor this year of campaign finance limits. He believes the Citizens United decision needs to be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court to add transparency to the political system. After years of opposing campaign finance reform, he’s seen the light, and is willing to talk specifically about what he’d do to try to limit the pernicious influence of money on campaigns.

I think we have you to thank for that.

In part because of your campaign, Mr. Koster has seen how insidious the influence of secret money can be.

I really wanted to think you would be serious about ethics reform, Mr. Greitens. As long as Missouri is the only state in the nation with no campaign finance limits and no limit on lobbyists’ gifts, the culture in Jefferson City will be ripe for corruption. You were right when you said in the primary that somebody needs to blow it up. I just don’t think you’re serious enough to fix what is broken.

To borrow a word from one of your biggest donors: Pity.

Sincerely, Tony Messenger

MISSOURI SCHOOLS > Demand for scholarships rises • A merit-based state scholarship is strapped for cash looking toward the spring semester.

It’s good news disguised as bad news.

More students qualified for the Bright Flight

SERVICE HELD A small group holds the first EpiscopalAnglican service in St. Louis; on Nov. 1, the participants formed a parish. That parish, in 1867, built the Christ Church Cathedral.

HEADS UP CHILDREN’S DENTAL CARE Registration is open for the Give Kids A Smile free dental health care clinic set for Friday and Saturday at St. Louis University’s Center for Advanced Dental Education. In this twoday period, the organization can provide care for up to 600 toddlers and school-age children, through eighth grade, who are in need.

Medicaid-eligible children, as well as those who qualify for a school lunch program or need dental assistance due to other circumstances, can be registered by calling Give Kids A Smile at 636-397-6453.

Each child registered to attend will receive X-rays, professional cleanings, fluoride treatments and sealants, as well as fillings, root canals and oral surgery, as needed.

To submit items, email them to headsup@post-dispatch. com or fax them to 314-340-3050.

EVENTS STRING QUARTET When • 8 p.m. Nov. 1 Where • Schmidt Art Center on the Southwestern Illinois College Belleville Campus How much • Free More info • perseidstringquartet.com Spend an evening with German composers Robert and Clara Schumann with music performed by the Perseid Quartet and Southwestern Illinois College Music Professor Diana Umali, who will accompany the quartet of string instruments on piano.

The program will last approximately one hour with a reception afterward. Open to the public.

Formed in 2013, the Perseid Quartet regularly presents concerts in both traditional and nontraditional venues.

To list a community event or meeting, submit it online at events.stltoday.com.

LOTTERY POWERBALL Saturday: 01-28-33-55-56 Powerball: 22 Power play: 02 Wednesday’s estimated jackpot: $164 million MEGA MILLIONS Tuesday’s estimated jackpot: $30 million

Tony Messenger • 314-340-8518 @tonymess on Twitter tmessenger@post-dispatch.com

MISSOURI LOTTERIES scholarship than ever, causing what could be a slight drop in the scholarship amount come January.

Bright Flight goes to Missouri students who opt to stay in state for college, and who fall in the top 3 percent of ACT or SAT test takers. Student recipients typically get $3,000 a year through the program — assuming they continue to meet the academic standards. Sometimes funds are slashed because of budget woes or administrative withholding. Not this time.

This school year, 300 more students qualified for the scholarship than last year, bringing the total number of students up to about 7,000.

Students can expect about $1,225 for the spring semester, down from the usual $1,500, according to Liz Coleman, Missouri Department of Higher Education spokeswoman. The state has sent out an email to students to give them a heads up.

Coleman said the state department filed a supplemental budget request for $1.5 million to make up the difference.

The state expects the number of Bright Flight recipients to keep rising. A new statewide initiative requires schools to

offer the ACT to all high school juniors at no cost. Coleman said Department of Higher Education leaders increased the scholarship’s budget request to meet the projected demand.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS > Paralympic medalist will be homecoming parade marshal • Paralympic medalist Tatyana McFadden will serve as grand marshal of the University of Illinois’ homecoming parade Friday.

The 2014 graduate has dominated wheelchair racing in recent years. She has won 17 Paralympic medals, including seven golds, since her first appearance at the Games in Athens in 2004 at the age of 15.

In 2013, she became the first athlete to win four major marathons in a single year — in Chicago, London, New York and Boston.

She has repeated the feat each year since.

The parade will be from 6 to 7 p.m. Friday.

McFadden graduated with a degree in human development and family studies.

She was born with spina bifida and lived in a Russian orphanage before being adopted and brought to the U.S. at age 6.

INSIDE Editorial .................A11 Horoscopes ...........EV2 Letters to editor ....A11 Obituaries ............. A12 People .................. A14

THIS DAY IN 1819

MULTISTATE GAMES

EDUCATION DIGEST ROCKWOOD SCHOOLS > Contract set for Marquette High expansion • The Rockwood Board of Education voted Thursday to award a more than $5 million contract to United Construction Enterprise Company of St. Louis for an addition and renovations at Marquette High School.

The two-story addition and renovation of five classrooms is part of the district-wide push to expand classrooms for science, technology, engineering and math. The classrooms will be turned into labs and a chemical storage area. The project is expected to be complete by August 2017.

The United Construction bid came in at $5,102,000. Other bids were from Hof Construction Inc. for $5,570,000, CB&E Constructors LLC for $5,388,000, ICS Construction Services Ltd. for $5,285,000, Wright Construction Services Inc. for $5,233,000 and Wachter Inc. for $5,135,049.

WHAT’S UP

LOTTO Saturday: 06-08-15-16-21-37 Wednesday’s estimated jackpot: $3 million SHOW ME CASH Sunday: 04-07-11-12-31 Monday’s estimated jackpot: $212,000 PICK-3 Sunday Midday: 321 Evening: 997 PICK-4 Sunday Midday: 9604 Evening: 4309

ILLINOIS LOTTERIES LUCKY DAY LOTTO Sunday Midday: 02-05-12-15-38 Evening: 05-06-09-26-35 LOTTO Saturday: 25-37-45-47-50-51 Extra shot: 07 Estimated jackpot: $10.5 million PICK-3 Sunday Midday: 661 FB: 0 Evening: 996 FB: 6 PICK-4 Sunday Midday: 8099 FB: 5 Evening: 7616 FB: 2

STLTODAY.COM/LOTTERY Current and past numbers, plus jackpots from state lotteries around the country.

CONTACT US Puzzles .................EV2 Review ..................A10 Sports calendar ......B2 TV listings .............EV3 Weather ................ A14

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S E RV I N G T H E P U B L I C S I N C E 1 878 • W I N N E R O F 1 8 P U L I TZ E R P R I Z E S

WEDNESDAY • 10.26.2016 • $1.50

County’s Municipal League may invite city to rejoin

BALLPARK VILLAGE PHASE II

CARDINALS REVEAL EXPANSION PLANS THE PLAN

THE TIMETABLE

Team envisions an office building, a retail center and a 29-story apartment tower across Clark Avenue from Busch Stadium’s center field

Construction of the $220 million next-phase project is expected to begin by next fall, with completion scheduled about 18 months later

BY MIKE FAULK St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Are St. Louis County municipalities ready to welcome St. Louis into the fold?

The Municipal League of Metro St. Louis could roll out the red carpet for the city’s re-entry to St. Louis County in a vote Thursday, an endorsement that would advance the long-simmering issue.

St. Louis separated from St. Louis County in 1876, a move critics say has created unnecessary rivalries over time and hurt economic development for the city and county, as well as the county’s 90 municipalities.

The league’s proposal would support St. Louis’ becoming the 91st municipality in the county. It does not promote consolidation of St. Louis city See LEAGUE • Page A4

Greitens’ ‘dark money’ source still undisclosed

BY KEVIN McDERMOTT St. Louis Post-Dispatch

An artist’s rendering of the view of Ballpark Village from behind home plate inside Busch Stadium shows the new 29-story apartment building just to the left of the Gateway Arch. Also planned are a new office building and a retail center.

When Missouri gubernatorial candidate Eric Greitens landed a recordsetting political donation of almost $2 million in July, it arrived via a federal superPAC that didn’t specify the source of the money. The campaign at the time said, vaguely, that the money was donated by Greitens’ fellow Navy SEALS. But a Post-Dispatch analysis has found that the funding actually originated with an Ohio political operative known nationally for “dark-money” intrigue — an operative with past connections to a top political consultant whose firm is working for Greitens.

On Friday, Greitens himself

BY TIM BRYANT St. Louis Post-Dispatch

And now, phase two.

Two years after opening a bar, restaurant and entertainment hub next to Busch Stadium, the St. Louis Cardinals are ready to resume building at Ballpark Village.

Bill DeWitt III, the Cardinals’ president, said Tuesday that the team and its development partner hoped to begin construction of the $220 million next-phase project by next fall. Completed about 18 months later would be an office building, a retail center and a 29-story apartment tower across Clark Avenue from Busch Stadium’s center field.

DeWitt said in an interview that the “confluence” of an improving economy and low borrowing costs were prompting the team and its development partner, Cordish Cos., of Baltimore, to do more at Ballpark Village. The development is on the site of the previous Busch Stadium that was demolished by the time the See CARDINALS • Page A6

See GREITENS • Page A4

Enterprise giving $60 million to food banks

This artist’s rendering of Phase II of Ballpark Village includes luxury apartments, retail and office space, restaurants and more.

BY LISA BROWN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Trump looks to Obamacare cost hikes for lifeline Republicans hope issue fires up voters; Clinton expresses concerns, too

BY STEVE PEOPLES AND JONATHAN LEMIRE Associated Press

DORAL, FLA. • Suddenly armed with fresh political ammunition, Donald Trump and anxious Republicans across the nation seized Tuesday on spiking health care costs in a final-days effort to spark election momentum.

TODAY

71°/51°

Back in the game

STORMS POSSIBLE

TOMORROW

65°/50° MOSTLY SUNNY

WEATHER A22 POST-DISPATCH WEATHERBIRD ®

The Republican presidential nominee, trekking across must-win Florida, insisted “Obamacare is just blowing up” after the government projected sharp cost increases for President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act. Democrat Hillary Clinton, fighting to block Trump in the same battleground state, has vowed to preserve insurance for the millions of Americans covered under the law, but her team described the cost surge as a “big concern.”

The renewed emphasis on health care gave battered Republican House and Senate candidates a brief respite from

months of painful questions about their presidential nominee, who has questioned the integrity of the U.S. election system while facing personal allegations of sexual misconduct. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

“My first day in office I’m going to ask Congress to put a bill on my desk getting rid of this disastrous law,” a fiery Trump told thousands of voters gathered at an airport along the Interstate 4 corridor.

Blessed with an unexpected political gift, however, it’s unclear whether Trump will be able to capitalize.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s foundation is donating $60 million to food banks where the world’s largest rental car company operates. The gift is the biggest dedicated to a single cause in the foundation’s 34-year history.

The Clayton-based company’s foundation plans to donate $10 million annually over the next six years. Checks to 365 local food banks in North America will begin arriving within the next week, Enterprise said Tuesday.

Of the $10 million annually, $2.5 million will go to Feeding America, the largest hunger relief and food rescue charity in the U.S.; $1.5 million will go to Food Banks Canada; $1 million will

See TRUMP • Page A10

See ENTERPRISE • Page A4

Indians club the Cubs in Game 1

Payday loan ethics takes a turn

• A2

Self-driving truck delivers beer

• A15

SPORTS

Delicious dishes using pears

Calgary pounds the Blues, 4-1

• B1

1 M • Let’s Eat

Vol. 138, No. 300 ©2016

OP 24 E /7 N

BommaritoBuickGMC.com

LOCAL

A4 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 2 • Wednesday • 10.26.2016

Kirkwood will dispatch for Des Peres‌ City will take over all emergency calls except for police

BY NASSIM BENCHAABANE St. Louis Post-Dispatch

KIRKWOOD • Kirkwood will

start providing emergency dispatching services to Des Peres next year.

Kirkwood will answer and dispatch all fire and emergency medical service calls for

its neighbor city starting Jan. 1.

These calls are projected to average nearly 1,400 per year, resulting in a 4.5 percent increase in the number of calls Kirkwood dispatches. Des Peres will continue to do its own police dispatching.

Des Peres will pay Kirkwood nearly $75,700 in 2017 for the first of five years of service.

The cost will increase annually, with Des Peres paying $86,851 for dispatch services in 2021, should it continue the service, according to the agreement.

Both city councils approved the five-year agreement in the last week. The service is part of a partnership the cities hope will “lay the groundwork for similar kinds of service-sharing agreements across the region,” a press release from Kirkwood said.

Kirkwood will upgrade its dispatch operation, based at the city police headquarters, as a part of the agreement. The city currently has two dispatchers on duty 24 hours a day but will hire three more full-time dispatchers, allowing for a third dispatcher on

duty during peak hours. One of the dispatchers will be dedicated to fire and emergency service calls.

The cities had been discussing a partnership over the last six months.

Central County Emergency 911 has provided fire and EMS dispatch services for Des Peres since 2012. The Ellisville-based agency provides dispatching services for western St. Louis County and portions of Franklin County.

The annual fee Des Peres pays Central County for the dispatch-

ing services would have more than quadrupled after a contract between the two expires at the end of the year, according to Des Peres city documents.

Central County charged Des Peres an annual fee of $36,968 for 2016. It would charge Des Peres nearly $148,822 for 2017.

The new pricing model is based on a 0.035 property tax rate.

Nassim Benchaabane • 314-340-8167 @NassimBnchabane on Twitter nbenchaabane@post-dispatch.com

Enterprise gives $60 million to food banks ENTERPRISE • FROM A1

go to the Global FoodBanking Network; and $5 million will be donated to local food banks directly.

The St. Louis Area Foodbank, which distributes food to hundreds of food pantries, homeless shelters and senior citizen organizations in 26 counties in Missouri and Illinois, is one of four local nonprofits that, combined, are receiving “tens of thousands of dollars” from Enterprise, the company said. Foodbank distributes canned goods and other items collected from food drives around the region but often lacks fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables, said president and CEO Frank Finnegan.

“The impact locally from Enterprise’s donation will be tremendous for us,” Finnegan said.

“The funds that we get through this program, we’ll use to bring in more fresh fruit and vegetables to the area.”

The $60 million figure marks Enterprise’s 60th anniversary.

On its 50th anniversary, Enterprise’s foundation pledged to plant 50 million trees over 50 years at a cost of $50 million.

Enterprise Holdings, the parent of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental, Alamo Rent a Car and other companies, is

LAURIE SKRIVAN • lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Save-A-Lot employees Paul Treece and Sarah Krantz volunteer at the St. Louis Area Foodbank’s mobile food bank in Jennings in 2012. The food bank is one of four local nonprofits that, combined, will receive “tens of thousands of dollars” from Enterprise over the next 10 years, enabling them to offer more fresh fruits and vegetables to the needy.

owned by the family of its late founder, Jack Taylor. Last year, the Taylor family gave $114.5 million to multiple recipients, including the St. Louis Pub-

St. Louis could become the 91st municipality in St. Louis County LEAGUE • FROM A1

and county governments, as other local groups have advocated.

Nor would the league’s vote seal the deal. Any plan to have the city join the county would require either a majority vote of county and city residents, or a petition to have the issue decided by statewide vote.

The league’s executive board has already voted unanimously in favor of the proposal, Executive Director Pat Kelly said. The league’s members, who will vote Thursday at Maplewood City Hall, include 86 municipalities plus St. Louis city and county.

“Being an organization of municipal leaders, we shouldn’t be afraid to have these conversations,” Kelly said. “Hopefully, we can formulate a plan that municipalities, the city of St. Louis and county voters can agree upon.”

Efforts to make such a proposal reality have languished for decades.

Kelly said he was hopeful that the league’s members would approve the recommendation at the league’s regular business meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

The three-page proposal says the process would need to address “taxes, County Council representation, court jurisdiction and recorder of deed services to mention a few.” Such a move would also probably bring an end to St. Louis offices that have functions similar to county offices but for city residents.

“We also believe this sends a message to people looking at St. Louis that we are one region as opposed to being the city and the county,” Kelly said.

The proposal also states that it “is not our intention or desire to provide a pathway or (entry) into a larger conversation of merger between the city and county, nor forced consolidation of municipalities within the county.”

The league has been the primary funder of CitiesStrong, a nonprofit that advocates for collaboration among the county, city and 90 county municipalities. CitiesStrong has tried to rebuff efforts to consolidate municipalities in the county, favoring a balance of “regional creative collaboration with local decision-making and pride in our hometowns.”

Nancy Rice, executive director of the proconsolidation group Better Together, which includes Mayor Francis Slay among its board of directors, said the organization wouldn’t have a statement on the Municipal League proposal until after Thursday’s vote.

Representatives for Slay did not immediately provide comment Tuesday afternoon.

County Executive Steve Stenger’s office released this statement: “The Municipal League has not yet communicated their proposal to us.”

Mike Faulk • 314-340-8656 @mike_faulk on Twitter mfaulk@post-dispatch.com

lic Schools Foundation and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis.

Since Taylor started the foundation in 1982, the foundation

and the Taylor family have contributed more than $1 billion to nonprofits. The foundation alone, which is funded by Enterprise’s operations, has donated

$267 million since its inception and receives 5,500 requests for funding annually.

Addressing hunger was one of the last wishes of Jack Taylor, who died in July, said his granddaughter, Carolyn Kindle Betz, executive director and vice president of Enterprise’s foundation.

In addition to Taylor’s influence, Enterprise employees, who volunteer at local food banks and pantries, steered the donation to the food initiative, Kindle Betz said.

“This is an unprecedented gift for us,” she said. “We really wanted to do something impactful.”

The monetary donation coincides with a hunger awareness campaign Enterprise is debuting on social media using the hashtag #FillYourTank, that will emphasize what people can achieve when they’re not suffering from hunger.

Enterprise Holdings is the region’s largest privately held company with $20.9 billion in fiscal 2016 revenue, an increase from $19.4 billion in 2015. The company this year grew its fleet to more than 1.9 million vehicles, up from 1.7 million in 2015.

Lisa Brown • 314-340-8127 @lisabrownstl on Twitter lbrown@post-dispatch.com

Greitens pal and ‘dark money’ pro involved in secretive donation GREITENS • FROM A1

confirmed that his campaign has a second, more direct tie to the superPAC: It is run by someone he knew from his military days.

Taken together, the new revelations indicate the campaign didn’t just passively receive the mysterious windfall, but appears to have arranged its arrival through a complex process designed to hide its origin.

“When drug dealers do this, it’s called money laundering,” said John Messmer, a professor of political science at St. Louis Community College at Meramec and founder of Missourians for Government Reform.

“These aren’t coincidences. These are very smart people who understand that Missouri is the wild west” in terms of campaign ethics restrictions, he said. “And they’ve taken advantage of an obvious loophole” in federal election law.

In mid-July, Greitens’ campaign received $1.975 million from a federal SuperPAC called SEALS for Truth, which had been established just a month earlier. At the time it was the biggest single donation ever made to a Missouri candidate.

For federal campaigns, there are limits on how much donors can give to candidates or to regular PACs. SuperPACs, however, can raise and spend unlimited amounts. In exchange for that freedom, superPACs are limited in how their money can be spent: They can fund things such as issue-oriented ads, but they can’t give money directly to candidates, or coordinate with them.

The donation from SEALS for Truth directly to Greitens normally would have violated that rule — except that it’s a federal rule, and so has no force over a state-level candidate such as Greitens.

Because of the way the SEALS for Truth donation was timed, the source of it wasn’t yet revealed in federal records by the time Greitens won the Republican gubernatorial nomination Aug. 2. Journalists and others had to wait until Oct. 15, when the regular federal election filing would reveal who actually provided the money that SEALS for Truth donated to Greitens’ campaign.

But when those records finally arrived, instead of solving that mystery, they created another one. They showed that another vaguely named entity — American Policy Coalition Inc. — had donated $2 million to SEALS for Truth on the same day that SEALS for Truth donated the $1.975 million to Greitens.

And where did American Policy Coalition get its money? That’s still unknown and probably always will be.

As a nonprofit corporation, American Policy Coalition is allowed to raise money anonymously and donate it in unlimited amounts to federal superPACs. So by running that money first through the nonprofit, then through the federal superPAC, before giving it to Greitens’ state-level campaign, the donors were able to make an unlimited donation directly to a candidate without ever revealing the original source of the money — a situation that both federal and state law would normally prohibit.

Brent Ferguson, counsel for The Brennan Center for Justice in New York, a political reform institute, said creative tactics in moving political money were common today. But he said it was especially troubling in a state such as Missouri, where there are no campaign contribution limits to at least gird the scope of it.

“Missouri is almost unique in the amount of spending we’re seeing,” he said. “It’s very problematic for that big a contribution to go directly to a candidate (and be) undisclosed.”

‘DARK MONEY PHANTOM’ The American Policy Coalition was set up as a nonprofit corporation late last year in Kentucky. After making its $2 million donation to SEALS for Truth in July, the corporation dissolved on Oct. 1, leaving behind nothing but a static website displaying its name.

Kentucky records provide little information about the corporation. But its listed secretary was David R. Langdon — which, in politics, speaks volumes.

Langdon is a lawyer based in suburban Cincinnati who has pioneered the use of superPACs to fund conservative causes after the controversial 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision that allowed for the proliferation of superPACs raising unlimited money.

Langdon is an expert at using those superPACs and the nonprofit entities that often fund them. Last year, The Center for Public Integrity called him “the ‘dark money’ phantom,” finding at least 11 groups connected to him that had spent more than $22 million in federal and state elections around the country.

Also popping up in campaigns around the country during that time was political wunderkind Nick Ayers, currently a partner at the Los Angelesbased consulting firm Target Enterprises.

Ayers and Langdon have worked with a tangle of inter-related organizations and campaigns, many of them outlined in a deep-dive report by the Center for Responsive Politics in 2014.

Most recently, both helped in the elections of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois and Republican Sen. David Purdue of Georgia. Ayers provided paid media work for the candidates, while Langdon-tied groups launched attack campaigns against their Democratic opponents.

Now Ayers’ firm is working for Greitens, racking up millions of dollars worth of media work, according to Missouri campaign records.

That indicates one connection between the campaign and Langdon’s American Policy Coalition, which provided the money for the $1.975 million superPAC donation. That’s important because it raises the possibility that Greitens could, in theory, simply ask the nonprofit to reveal who originally provided the money.

His campaign continued its silence on that issue when asked again this week, offering no further details on who donated the money.

Greitens campaign manager Austin Chambers issued a written statement: “You will have to direct questions about SEALs for Truth to that organization. There are only about half a dozen right-leaning political/nonprofit lawyers in the entire country and it is not surprising they regularly pop up.

Mr. Langdon does not have any relationship to the campaign — I don’t know him. We have no knowledge of the accounting of other organizations beyond what we see on public disclosure reports.”

It’s not the only indication that the Greitens campaign has ties to the sources of the money. At an event in Jefferson City last week, when Greitens was asked again about the superPAC, he told reporters: “You should reach out to Nick Britt, the (superPAC) treasurer, if you have any questions at all about the filing. Nick was a Navy SEAL, he went through Navy SEAL training with me, and I’m sure he’d be happy to talk with you.”

Britt has been unreachable for comment since the SEALS for Truth donation first became public in July, and still couldn’t be reached this week. Langdon, of the American Policy Coalition nonprofit, and Ayers, the Greitens’ political consultant, didn’t return messages seeking comment.

Kevin McDermott • 314-340-8268 @kevinmcdermott on Twitter kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com