In June, 21st Century St. Louis PAC, Greater St. Louis’ legal money laundry, donated to five candidates including $2,000 to current St. Louis City 3rd Ward Alder and Recorder of Deeds candidate Shane Cohn.
Greater St. Louis (GSL) is the merger and rebranding of Downtown STL, Civic Progress, St. Louis Regional Commerce & Growth Association (chamber of commerce). Its main agenda at City Hall and Jefferson City has been Rams Settlement money for Downtown, support for data centers, corporate welfare in general, and the State takeover of St. Louis City Police.
GSL has a stable of 15 lobbyists, more than one lobbyist per Alder. Also see How Much Does A St. Louis City Alder Seat Cost?
Cohn received $2,600 in 2024 and $2,600 in 2023 from the PAC. Unlike some of his Alder colleagues, he did not benefit from Direct Expenditures (mailings) by the PAC in 2025. The Recorder of Deeds election is August 4th, plenty of time for mailings.
There are concerns about passage of data center regulations on Monday’s Board of Alders Agenda (scroll down to page 88 for red lined bill) because of GSL’s influence. Names most mentioned as questionable votes or sponsors of amendments to weaken the bill include US Bank Vice President and part time 2nd Ward Alder Tom Oldenburg and 8th Ward Alder Jamie Cox Antwi. Oldenburg has benefited from GSL Direct Expenditures (mailings), $38,336.02 total in 2023 and $13,836.68 in 2025. Cox Antwi benefited from $23,779.85 total in GSL mailings in 2025.
Other GSL donations to elected officials in the July Quarterly Campaign Finance Report include $2,400 to Saline County MAGA State Senator Kurtis Gregory; $2,000 each to St. Louis County MAGA State Rep. Brad Christ (sponsor of State control of St. Louis City Police) and Jefferson County MAGA State Rep. David Casteel; and $1,000 to St. Charles MAGA County Executive Steve Ehlmann.
June and July contributions to the legal money laundry include:
$12,000 total from Taylor Family members (owners of St. Louis City SC, Energizer Park)
$10,000 each from Jerome Schlichter (Schlichter Bogard, legal counsel for IBEW), John McDonnell (former McDonnell Douglas Chair, former executive at Boeing, Washington University Board), Schnucks Markets
$5,000 from Commerce Bancshares Inc. PAC
$2,500 from Steve Stone (developer, Globe Building data center)
$2,000 each from Holland Construction Services/Bruce Holland, Martin Lyons (Ameren Chair), Edward Dowd (former US Attorney, Dowd Bennett – Rams Settlement attorney, Robert Brinkmann (Brinkmann Construction- housing, data centers), Matthew Geeke (Graybar), Walter Galvin (Radial Equity Partners).
The Great State of St. Louis 