Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report,” was the featured speaker at last night’s annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Here is video from Colbert’s roast of the Bush Administration and the press corps. The third video is a “What If” of Colbert as the new White House press secretary.

State law places limits on how much an individual can give to a candidate’s committee. It is also a crime to attempt to hide the source of a contribution by funneling it through a middle man. But a story published yesterday in the Southeast Missourian highlights the creative ways political campaigns use to raise cash — expecially when it comes to local party committees like the ward organizations which exist in every St. Louis City ward.

Prior to 1994, local party committees were a backwater of Missouri politics, established by law but with few duties except to pick new candidates when a ballot vacancy occurred as a result of death or withdrawal. But when a law limiting campaign donations took effect, the importance of local party committees was magnified by a provision allowing them to become a source of large contributions.

In fact, ward organizations and party committees can donate up to 20 times the amount that any other kind of entity can.

Rudi Keller, who wrote the Missourian story, pointed out how this loophole in the law was exploited in the 2004 Governor’s race.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Claire McCaskill received more than 130 donations from local party committees in the days after her primary victory over incumbent Gov. Bob Holden. The money, most of which was donated in $12,000 amounts, replenished her depleted treasury for the fall campaign.

And Republican Matt Blunt, who won the 2004 race, received 65 large local party committee donations — many for approximately $12,000 — during the last week of the campaign, a rush of money that helped pay for the crucial final push.

In St. Louis, we’ve also seen this stategy play out in the pages of candidate’s campaign finance reports.

The 58th Democratic Legislative Distric Committee, a committee associated with State Rep. Rodney Hubbard (D-58th District), raised $11,000 last quarter. The committee then donated $6,000 to the state senate campaign of Yaphett El-Amin (five times the limit on contributions from individuals), $650 to the state rep campaign of Jamilah Nasheed (twice the limit for individuals), and $1,500 to the candidate committee of Hubbard himself (nearly five times the limit for individuals).

According to campaign finance reports for Mike McMillan’s license collector committee, the 58th DLDC also contributed $1,275 to his campaign. But that contribution is not noted on the PAC’s expenditures report.

Also on McMillan’s report is a series of $1,275 contributions from entities known as “PIC I,” “PIC II,” “PIC V,”"PIC VI,” “PIC VII,” and “PIC VIII.” All share the same physical address: 906 Olive Street, Suite 600. That matches the address two other McMillan contributors, Steller Properties and Pyramid Contruction. The eight entities contributed almost $9,000 to McMillan’s campaign on the final day of the last reporting period.

Developer John Steffen’s Pyramid Construction, Pyramid Commercial Contracting LLC, and PIC, Inc. also donated a total of $3,825 to the campaign of Mayor Francis Slay on March 9, according to campaign finance reports.

Urbanist and blogger Steve Patterson recently wrote an article examining Steffen and Pyramid’s influence on decisions made by Ald. Jennifer Florida (15th Ward) relating to a controversial McDonald’s development on South Grand Ave. Patterson noted that contributions from Pyramid’s companies and employees totaled nearly seven times the limit for individuals.

Click here to read Keller’s insightful story in the Southeast Missourian.

Related stories:

VIDEO: Protest of 15th Ward McDonald’s development
Mike McMillan: Cash Collector
4th District Finances
60th District Finances

First radio host DJ Wilson mentioned seeing one on his way to host “Collateral Damage” on KDHX 88.1 FM last week. Then we received these images in our email inbox.

Has Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan become the Che Guevara of south St. Louis liberalism?

Don’t ask us. Ask “Bill McClellan motherfuckers!”

Scratch one thing off our list of 3 things Metro should do to improve public transportation in St. Louis. Behold the new www.metrostlouis.org

St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Creg Williams recently announced, as part of his greater plan to turn around the struggling district, plans to require some 8th graders to attend classes through the summer. But weeks after the announcement, parents are still struggling to understand if their kids are part of that requirement.

Williams has said that the summer school plan is meant to help 8th graders who are struggling academically. He and district representatives have said that only those students who are performing poorly will be required to attend summer school. But at other times, the district has said summer classes are mandatory for all 8th graders.

An undated press release on the district’s website says, “ALL EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS REQUIRED TO ATTEND SUMMER SCHOOL.” But a call to the district’s headquarters has a receptionist telling callers this is not the case.

“We couldn’t put ‘all poor performing students required to attend summer school,’” she said. “Someone might sue us.”

The district is hoping to clear up some of the confusion at a meeting on Saturday, May 6. Parents of current 8th graders are being asked to attend a 5-hour “orientation” that day from 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. at Vashon High School, 3035 Cass Ave.

One of the things parents will be wanting to hear is what the consequences are for those that do not send their children to summer school. That part has still not been announced.

Johnnie Little, the district’s Public Information director, did not return PUB DEF’s phone call on this matter.

For some parents, the lack of public information has already led to confusion and anger.

In a letter being circulated around the district, one parent is calling the requirement “a complete contradiction to the most recent information.”

The letter says that parents were told that only kids whose grades fell below a certain point would be required to attend summer school. “Now it’s everyone, with the ’summer science academy’ the only option for the competent students. How nice to give families so much notice so they can make summer plans. But then families haven’t even been given the courtesy yet of being told the fall starting date.”

Mayor Francis Slay will be delivering his annual State of the City address to the St. Louis Board of Aldermen today.

Expect to hear mentions of the continued growth of downtown businesses and residences, the increased number of rehabs going on across the city, and a slight increase in the city’s population.

Do not expect to hear about the stark rise in crime over the past year, the mayor’s loss of control of St. Louis Public Schools, or his veto (and redesign) of the civilian review board, which has fostered rumors of a Black Caucus backlash.

The Board of Aldermen meeting begins at 10:00 a.m. The mayor’s speech is early on the agenda.

Related stories:

Percentage of rise in violent crime matches proposed pay increase for Mokwa

Slay: only a ‘few neighborhoods’ are unsafe (wink-wink)

UPDATE: We stand corrected. Jake Wagman is reporting that the mayor did address crime in his speech today. Wagman says the mayor announced plans to seek voter approval for a sales tax that would pay to hire 50 new officers and fund a “Career Criminal Unit” in the city prosecutor’s office.

Rumor has it that State Senate candidate Jeff Smith got the endorsement of the 16th Ward Democrats yesterday. The 16th Ward is not only the highest voting ward in the city but also the political base of Jim Shrewsbury, President of the Board of Aldermen.

Developing…

UPDATE: The St. Louis Oracle is reporting that, as expected, the 16th Ward also endorsed Claire McCaskill for U.S. Senate, License Collector Gregg Daly for Collector of Revenue, and Ald. Mike McMillan for License Collector.

A group of legislators joined today to announce the reintroduction of a bill to create two new Federal offices to investigate and prosecute unsolved murders from the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s.

Among the supporters of the “Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act” are Missouri Congressmen Lacy Clay (D-1) and Kenny Hulshof (R-9), and Senator Jim Talent (R-MO), who co-sponsored the bill last year.

State Auditor Claire McCaskill, a Democrat who is running against Talent for the U.S. Senate, said today that she also supports the bill.

“As a former prosecutor who has made a career of fighting to protect rights and enforce laws, I feel that providing the tools and resources to prosecute Civil Rights-era murders is long overdue,” McCaskill said in a statement.

Clay took the opportunity to take a jab at the record of McCaskill’s opponent. “The rest of the Missouri delegation needs to improve their NAACP scores, in particular our two Senators who both received an F,” he said.

Cases like those of Emmett Till; Roger and Dorothy Malcom; and George and Mae Murray Dorsey are likely to be among those investigated if the bill is approved.

A group of Washington University graduate social work students surveyed students from Vashon High School and the ninth grade center at Williams to establish whether or not they felt safe walking to and from school. The responses were alarming,

According to Tina Rutherford, Sarah Hyduke, Paige Kuske, and Heather Roll, writing for the St. Louis Schools Watch, 48 percent of 164 respondents said they did not feel safe walking to school. Thirty-seven percent said they did not feel safe in their school’s neighborhood.

The six main reasons those students did not feel safe were: stray dogs; “crackheads” and drug dealers; gangs; fighting, shootings, or violence; kidnappers and rapists; and that it was still dark out.

“The neighborhood I have to walk through doesn’t like my neighborhood, so I sometimes don’t even come to school,” one student said. “The walk from my school is long [and] I don’t have many people to walk home with,” said another.

Those who said they felt safe walking to school either said it was because they lived close to the school or they just didn’t fear trouble. Other comments included: “I have a lot of protection;” “I fear no one;” “I don’t have any static with anyone;” and “I got a gun called a 45.”

Read more at STLSchools.org

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