With a little more than a month left until the April 8 election, campaigning for Springfield's mayor and city council seats has been relatively laid-back. But initial campaign finance reports reveal a large amount of money in the mix that could fund a surge in ads and other election materials. Mayoral candidate Jeff Schrag has raised more than $140,000, according to filing to the Missouri Ethics Commission. This is the largest amount a mayoral campaign has raised since Mayor Ken McClure's initial run in 2017. Schrag told the News-Leader he is extremely humbled by the support and never expected to fundraise so much, giving thanks to his wife, Mary, and CEO of SRC Holdings Jack Stack, who's the campaign treasurer, for the success. Schrag's report includes contributions dating back to Oct. 1 and through Feb. 22. Nearly $141,000 were solely monetary contributions. Schrag also reported loaning his campaign $3,000 from his private funds and receiving $3,000 in in-kind contributions. Contributions that stand out include $5,000 each from Missouri AG PAC and Missouri Growth PAC. Both PACs are connected to lobbyist and former Republican speaker of the Missouri House Steve Tilley and backed several Republican candidates in the fall elections, including Springfield Reps. Alex Riley and Melanie Stinnett. Governor Mike Kehoe was also among those backed by the PACs. Kehoe himself made a personal $1,250 contribution to Schrag's campaign in October, prior to his own election. Both PACs have also been heavily supported by contributions from Torch Electronics, one of the largest video lottery terminal owners in the state. According to the PACs' MEC filings, most recently in July Torch contributed more than $160,000 to each PAC. Torch Electronics had filed two separate lawsuits against the city of Springfield regarding its VLT ban passed a year ago ; one of these lawsuits is still pending. Schrag said he has not personally met anyone at Torch and has not "dug in" one way or the other on whether convenience stores should be allowed to have VLTs. He noted he does agree with the shutting down of gambling parlors that occurred soon after the ban was enacted. "In general, I don't think we should be necessarily regulating morality," he said. "I'm a person that's always going to be looking out for the interests of our local small businesses." The local Greater Springfield Realtor Party PAC contributed $2,500 to Schrag's and Central Bank of the Ozarks PAC contributed $1,000. Beyond these, Schrag has a plethora of other contributions. Multiple local business leaders and Missouri State University representatives have contributed to the campaign to elect the Mother's Brewing Company founder, who has served as a member of MSU's Board of Governors. Contributors include several representatives of the real estate, construction and development sectors including Riley Shantz, partner with DHTC Development; Bryan Magers of Bryan Properties; Jare Davis, Land Development Division Leader at OWN, Inc.; Mike Seitz, owner of Triple S Properties; Steve Prang, consultant engineer at Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Inc.; and Jeff Childs, a commercial Realtor who is the registered agent for JCRS Development, the applicant behind the recent controversial subdivision in Galloway . Prange, meanwhile, was the project manager on the Lake Springfield Plan completed for the city to reimagine the area. Schrag said he believes that his unapologetic advocacy for small businesses is a driving factor for a lot of the support. "How I feel is that those people see that small business advocacy in me, which I'm very proud of, and say 'that's somebody I want to deal with as mayor of Springfield,'" he said. Other contributors of note include Matt Morrow, president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce; former councilwoman Jan Fisk; Mary Lilly Smith, the city's former planning and economic development director; and school board candidate Sarah Hough, who also received a contribution from Schrag for her election campaign . According to the report, Schrag has only spent about $18,000 so far. With most people paying attention to local campaigns right before the election, he said he plans to rev up active campaign efforts as April 8 approaches.
CONTINUE READING
