NEW JUDGE NAMED IN GAS SPILL LAWSUIT

A new judge has been named to preside in a lawsuit brought by the state of Missouri against Republican strategist David Barklage over a 1998 gasoline spill at a Cape Girardeau service station he owned.

Barklage is chief of staff to state Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau.

The Missouri Supreme Court has appointed Carl D. Gum Jr., a retired circuit judge from Cass County who is serving as a senior judge, to handle the case.

He replaces Bollinger County Associate Circuit Judge Scott Thomsen, who had been scheduled to preside over a bench trial in the case on Thursday and Friday in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court in Jackson. The trial has been postponed, court officials said. No new trial date has been set.

The change of judge was made at the request of Barklage's attorney, David Taylor of Jefferson City, Mo.

Barklage and his Target Media political consulting firm owned Spanky's Texaco station at 2201 Broadway where gasoline leaked from underground storage tanks in December 1998 and flowed into the city sewers. The vapor fumes reached "explosive" levels, the lawsuit states.

If found liable, Barklage could be fined up to $10,000 a day for every day of non-compliance. Barklage said last year that the leak had been fixed. The service station remains in operation under new ownership.