Missouri gubernatorial race breaks records for money spent

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri Republican Gov.-elect Eric Greitens spent more on his campaign than what's been spent total on any other gubernatorial race in state history and continued to rake in six-figure checks after his election, campaign-finance records released Thursday show.

Greitens spent more than $28.7 million during the record-breaking race, according to the records.

Greitens' Democratic rival, Attorney General Chris Koster, spent roughly $25 million.

Combined with what Greitens' three Republican opponents spent during the GOP primary, this year's race for Missouri governor cost nearly $71 million.

In the state's second-priciest race for governor in 2004, three candidates combined spent about $27.6 million.

Greitens and the four other statewide candidates who will take office in January in Jefferson City outspent their Democratic opponents, most by millions of dollars.

Republican Attorney General-elect Josh Hawley spent close to $8.8 million to Democrat Teresa Hensley's $3.6 million.

GOP Treasurer-elect Eric Schmitt spent more than $3.6 million, while Democrat Judy Baker spent less than $800,000.

Republicans Lt. Gov.-elect Mike Parson and Secretary of State-elect Jay Ashcroft also outspent their competitors, but by smaller margins.

This could be the last year of such high spending by candidates.

Campaign-contribution limits kicked in Thursday that cap the amount donors can give directly to state office-seekers at $2,600 per election.

The limit is $25,000 for political parties.

Voters approved the limits Nov. 8, but since the constitutional amendment didn't take effect until Thursday, wealthy donors had a month to continue to pump unlimited amounts of cash directly to candidates, so Greitens and other candidates, mostly current officeholders and those who won last month, continued to collect six-figure checks in a last-minute blitz of giving before new caps took effect.

Thursday's campaign-finance records show donors pumped at least $5.2 million more to candidates between the day after the election and Wednesday, the final day of unlimited giving.

The figures could grow because candidates have more time to report donations that are less than $5,000.

Most of the contributions came from the wealthy Humphreys family, who gave at least $3 million to state candidates Wednesday.

David Humphreys, president and CEO of Joplin-based TAMKO Building Products, and his sister Sarah Atkins, a consultant at the company, each wrote the next governor checks for $500,000.

In total, Greitens raked in at least an additional $2.8 million during the last month.

The Humphreys family gave an additional $1 million combined to Hawley.

Other candidates and officeholders who received major donations in the past month include Schmitt, state Sen. Dan Brown's son Justin Brown and some current lawmakers.

All four of the top GOP legislative leaders -- House Speaker Todd Richardson, House Majority Leader Mike Cierpiot, Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard and Senate Majority Leader Mike Kehoe -- received at least five figures in donations.