Vote NO, STL Prop B Child Care Sales Tax Grift

This is an update to School Privatizers Want Another STL Sales Tax for Child Care

Proposition B on the ballot in St. Louis City is a sketchy proposal. It most certainly would publicly fund some day care/pre-school services by charter schools, churches, and for profit companies.

Is your St. Louis City child guaranteed free or subsidized, quality early child education (ECE) by Prop B?

No.

That’s up to the private club, I mean the Mayor’s appointed Board, that will spend the money without Board of Aldermen oversight.

And most assuredly, Stephen Westbrooks, Mayor Cara Spencer director of St. Louis Development Corporation and a charter school supporter, will end up on that Board and some of the funds will become corporate welfare under the guise of workforce development.

Prop B proposes something similar to, but actually worse than, the Mayor’s appointed transparency fail Mental Health Board which manages the current ECE tax fund called Community Children’s Services Fund. It was sold as ECE but actually pays for ECE consultants, not ECE.

It also would certainly be a jobs creator for the nonprofit industrial complex. A lot of staffing positions with important titles will be created using the bloated bureaucracy role model of City’s Mental Health Board.

Like charter schools, private schools, nonprofit or for profit child care centers, there is no guarantee that your disabled child will be accepted for whatever type of funded ECE that the Prop B Board decides on.

It also appears that this St. Louis City tax money could go to child care outside St. Louis City.

The list of what’s wrong with this thing is very long. Very.

Joshua Lawrence provides more good insights Prop B.

Read the proposal here. Not just the ballot language, read what it really does beginning on page two. Read the whole thing.

Prop B’s campaign run by Best Start for Kids makes a lot of promises not backed up with the petition they circulated. “Increase wages and benefits for early educators” and “Improve quality of care” are just sales pitches. There is no guarantee that will happen. AND there is no sunset provision so that later down the road voters could decide to end the experiment and start over.

A better way would be public school-based ECE in every school across the City.

The campaign’s funding is my focus here. I only looked at the $1,000 and over donors. Plenty of other smaller donors related to child care centers, all tithing to the campaign in hopes of currying favor from the future Board that will make the rules and hand out money.

WePower Related Prop B Donors

WePower is the school privatization non profit and driving force behind the previous Proposition R for a St. Louis sales tax to fund early childhood education consultants. Also note, WePower Made Non-Committee Expenditures in 2023 for now Alders Daniela Velazquez, Shameem Clark Hubbard, Rasheen Aldridge but misspelled their names.
03/05/2026 $17,500 loan
03/12/2026 $30,000 loan
03/16/2026 $280 in kind
03/20/2026 $12,000 loan
03/28/2026 $1,500 in kind
04/02/2026 $2,015.35 in kind
04/06/2026 $460.88 in kind
05/21/2026 $31,712.02 in kind
06/02/2026 $6,440.50 in kind
07/01/2026 $19,189 in kind
09/01/2026 $1,458.84 in kind
09/14/2026 $720 in kind
09/18/2026 $4,451.37 in kind
09/21/2026 $526.80 in kind
09/22/2026 $335 in kind
10/01/2026 $21,052.74 in kind
10/02/2026 $6,102.81 in kind
10/20/2026 $11,027.06 in kind

Laura Horwitz, JF Roblee Foundation; Board member for WePower
12/02/2025 $5,000
03/30/2026 $5,000

Delmar Divine Related Donors

Robert Fox and Maxine Clark, founder of Build A Bear (a corporate welfare recipient) and queen mother of school privatization in St. Louis based at her Delmar Divine development.
10/14/2026 $25,000
11/10/2025 $10,000

Elizabeth Mannen Berges, Mannen Financial Group, and Jim Berges, former President of Emerson Electric. Berges Family Foundation (Delmar Divine tenant) supports the Opportunity Trust, St. Louis Police Foundation, Greater St. Louis, and charter schools.
02/03/2026 $25,000
09/17/2026 $25,000

Hank Webber, former Vice Chancellor for Washington University, charter school advocate (KIPP) and Board member of Maxine Clark’s Delmar Divine, and Dr. Christine Jacobs, Dean of St. Louis University Medical School
12/07/2025 $1,000
02/10/2026 $2,500

03/30/2026 $2,500: IFF (Delmar Divine tenant), previously known as Illinois Facilities Fund, ECE consultant

Other Dark Money Funders of Prop B
Nonprofits that should be PACs filing reports with Missouri Ethics Commission
Could not find where money comes from on their websites

Children’s Funding Accelerator
04/15/2026 $75,000
04/17/2026 $28,500 in kind
04/22/2026 $25,000
09/23/2026 $30,000

Missouri Action for Kids, same Baldwin address as Kids Win Missouri (which receives public funding)
01/30/2026 $50,000
03/30/2026 $50,000
10/07/2026 $50,000

Child Care Aware of Missouri, a child care referral nonprofit and member of Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Missouri
02/10/2026 $10,000
10/20/2026 $10,000

10/13/2026 $10,000: Community Change, DC

More Private/Charter School Supporter Related Prop B Donors

Alison Ferring, Ferring Family Foundation (funds charter schools, ECE); St. Louis Library Board member
04/14/2026 $50,000
09/30/2026 $50,000

$8,000: Anne Miller, education consultant, a charter school founder (North Side Community School)

11/17/2025 $5,000: Tony Thompson, Kwame Building Group CEO, St. Louis County Board of Police Commissioner, and charter school supporter 01/21/2026

04/10/2026 $5,000: Timothy Burke, former IT professional, now groundskeeper at Westminster Christian Academy, Town & Country

03/30/2026 $1,000: Linda Hunter, Hunter Family Foundation (funds charter school, ECE)

10/23/2026 $1,000: Mary Stillman, founder, Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls, charter school 2014-2023; husband Tom Stillman is chair of NHL St. Louis Blues

ECE/Day Care Related Donors Currently Not Affiliated With A School

03/31/2026 $10,000: Youth in Need, St. Charles but supports ECE providers in six counties including St. Louis City

05/29/2026 $10,000: Urban Sprouts Child Development Center, University City

SouthSide Early Childhood Center, Fox Park
03/30/2026 $4,000
05/26/2026 $1,000
09/18/2026 $2,000

Rochelle Bea, Beginning Futures Learning Center, Walnut Park
03/24/2026 $1,000
04/26/2026 $1,000
05/21/2026 $500
05/23/2026 $1,000

06/02/2026 $2,500: Mark Daly, Mary Margaret Day Care Centers (Auntie Margaret’s Day Care), St. Louis City and County

03/12/2026 $1,000: Lisa Sharp, Baden Christian Child Care Center, Baden
05/21/2026 $1,000: Lisa Scheer, Baden Christian Child Care Center, Baden

Angela Malone, Raggedy Ann N Andy Learning Center, Greater Ville
02/25/2026 $1,000
09/29/2026 $500

06/05/2026 $1,500: My Mother’s Roots, Baden

03/17/2026 $1,000: Saleetha Barbee, Creative Development Academy, Penrose

03/20/2026 $1,000: Mary Crockett Smith, founder The Christian Academy, North City and Florissant

03/26/2026 $1,000: Jeremy Brown, Smart Kids Child Development Center, Spanish Lake

03/26/2026 $1,000: Francene Mitchell, Precious Days Learning Academy, Berkeley

Other Donors of Note

John McDonnell, former chair of McDonnell Douglas
05/03/2026 $25,000
10/05/2026 $25,000

02/09/2026 $5,000 David Roberts, former management consultant and chair emeritus of Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities’ Board of Governors, and Sue Fischlowitz, former chair of St. Louis Hillel Board at Washington University and Hillel at Brandeis University

Amy Wilson, given that she makes her donations from historic Walter Hecker house in Clayton, I’m not sure she’s the same Amy Wilson who works for Wilson School (private ECE)
01/25/2026 $1,000
03/23/2026 $500

01/15/2026 $1,000: John Kalishman, President of Harcourt Group (investment and management), owns homes in St. Louis County and St. Louis and Steamboat Springs, Colorado

01/30/2026 $1,000: Gibron Jones, urban farmer, founder of HOSCO SHIFT (food co-op)

03/09/2026 $1,000: STL Metropolitan Clergy Coalition, a Christian organization that opposes gay marriage

03/24/2026 $1,000: Michael Todorovic, insurance broker at Lockton

03/24/2026 $1,000: Natalie Clay, program manager at BioSTL (oddly, MEC report says social worker)

03/29/2026 $1,000: Mary Wheeler Jones, retired director of the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners; serves on Senior Citizens’ Service Fund Board (tax district); co-founder of Fairground Park for All

04/06/2026 $1,000: Saffiyah Poole, St. Louis Integrated Health Network (nonprofit consultant)

09/18/2026 $1,000: Joyce Aboussie, Aboussie & Associates, the woman who tried twice to make US Representative Dick Gephardt a US President

How Much Does A St. Louis City Alder Seat Cost?

Updated 07/19/2026 to reflect $2,000 donation to St. Louis City Alder and Recorder of Deeds candidate Shane Cohn and contributions received from developers and others.

Updated 12/27/2025 to reflect additional December 2025 donations by Jerald Kent, Chairman and CEO of Tierpoint and Cequel 3 data centers.

I have no idea how much candidates for St. Louis City Alder and Board President raised and spent in 2023 or 2025. I could go thru campaign finance reports filed at Missouri Ethics Commission. But those figures would be highly problematic because of independent spending by political action committees (PACs), legal money laundries in Missouri.

What I can tell you about is the St. Louis City-based PAC, that now has an agenda before the Board of Alders and City economic development boards, that spent a lot of money electing the Board of Alders in recent years. A LOT.

Civic Progress Action Committee, the PAC for Civic Progress, and its successor 21st Century St. Louis PAC, the PAC for Greater St. Louis, have a 24 year history online at MEC. It’s a history showing dramatic changes in purpose and how they operate– two different eras, different goals.

Civic Progress Action Committee was run for many years by Walter L. Metcalfe, Jr. and Alfred E. Kerth, III. Civic Progress was a rich white man’s club, the captains of industry. Their PAC was noblesse oblige politics.

Civic Progress Action Committee paid for lunch meetings at private clubs including St. Louis Club and The Bogey Club. It paid for administrative services from FleishmanHillard, Bryan Cave, PricewaterhouseCoopers, RubinBrown, and Civic Progress Inc. It invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in Euro Dollar Bonds. Nothing like that shows up in 21st Century St. Louis PAC’s reports.

Civic Progress Action Committee hired lobbyists to monitor and testify at hearings: 35 checks, $5,000 each to Nexus Group from February 2018 to December 2020; 33 checks, $5,000 to $10,000 each to Dentons, previous employers of Nexus Group, from January 2015 to February 2018. Lobbyist Dick Wiles, a Jefferson City fixture for decades, once represented Civic Progress as well.

Greater St. Louis has 15 lobbyists, both at the State Capitol and at City Hall. They are not paid by 21st Century St. Louis PAC. At City Hall and at economic development board meetings (corporate welfare) the organization is served by attorney David Sweeney, former Clerk of the Board of Alders and considered a “friend” by most Alders and other elected officials at City Hall. Sweeney also lobbies for many developers. Generally, Alders rubberstamp projects that Sweeney represents.

One thing that Civic Progress Action Committee did not do was consort with City Alders, donate to candidates, or make Independent Expenditures to elect candidates. That all changed when Civic Progress merged with several organizations to become Greater St. Louis and Jason Hall, its CEO, took over Civic Progress Action on August 3, 2022. Good luck finding a news article on this merger that is objective, not mostly propaganda.

In 2023, 21st Century St. Louis PAC helped elect two Alders representing the City’s central corridor and lesser amounts on eight other successful candidates, 12 of 15 votes on the Board including Board President Megan Green. In 2025, the PAC helped elect 8 of 8 Alder seats on regular and special election ballots, a majority of votes on the Board.

In 2023, 21st Century St. Louis PAC’s $42,936.02 in direct expenditures and contributions were pivotable to helping nine-year Washington University employee Michael Browning defeat two incumbent Alders- Tina “Sweet-T” Pihl and Michael Gras- to become Alder of the City’s Central West End’s new 9th Ward, a product of consolidating wards from 28 to 14 and subsequent redistricting. Another $40,936.03 went to the re-election of 14th Ward Alder Rasheen Aldridge, one of two Downtown Alders.

In 2025, 21st Century St. Louis PAC spent $13,936.68 on Alder Browning, who had neither a primary nor general election opponent, and $26,379.91 electing banker Jami Cox Antwi as Downtown’s second Alder, the 8th Ward seat vacated by the election of Alder Cara Spencer to Mayor.

Another $16,183.60 went to the re-election of 1st Ward Alder Anne Schweitzer; $16,533.44 to help re-elect 7th Ward Alder Alisha Sonnier; and $13,978.68 to re-elect 11th Ward Alder Laura Keys; plus, smaller amounts for another four Alders.

Browning and Aldridge have sponsored millions and millions of dollars in corporate welfare for developers in the City’s central corridor (Central West End to Downtown)- property tax abatements (which reduce revenue to public schools), sales tax exemotions, developer-controlled special taxes, and more. Antwi is the Board’s newest member but will predictably follow in the footsteps of Spencer and, before that, Alder Phyllis Young, in sponsoring millions in corporate welfar for Downtown developers. That’s why Greater St. Louis invests money in Alder elections. And the sky’s the limit on how much.

Most of the money spent by 21st Century St. Louis PAC was by Direct Expenditure. In Missouri, these are funds to support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure without giving directly to a candidate or committee, money for mailings, robo calls, digital advertising, etc.

Direct Expenditures are a way around campaign finance contribution limits. A PAC can donate the legal limit, for Alders that’s $2,600, then spend as much as it wants in Direct Expenditures. 21st Century St. Louis PAC did exactly that.

Direct Expenditures are also only reported by the PAC making them. They do not show up on beneficiary candidate or ballot committee reports. You have to know who the players are in an election and track their reports available online at Missouri Ethics Commission. The spending may attract news media attention for statewide candidates and ballot issues but rarely local elections.

January 2023 to October 2025
21st Century St. Louis PAC
Direct Expenditures Benefiting St. Louis City Candidates
06/30/2025 $11,627.82 Alder Jami Cox Antwi
06/13/2025 $12,152.03 Alder Jami Cox Antwi
03/24/2025 $14,183.60 Alder Anne Schweitzer
03/24/2025 $13,933.44 Alder Alisha Sonnier
03/24/2025 $13,836.68 Alder Michael Browning
03/24/2025 $13,718.68 Alder Laura Keys
03/29/2023 $6,686.28 former Alder Joe Vollmer
03/29/2023 $6,686.27 former Alder Joe Vaccaro
03/27/2023 $11,140.06 Alder Michael Browning
03/27/2023 $11,140.07 Alder Rasheen Aldridge
03/22/2023 $11,235.48 Alder Michael Browning
03/22/2023 $11,235.48 Alder Rasheen Aldridge
03/20/2023 $15,960.48 Alder Michael Browning
03/20/2023 $15,960.48 Alder Rasheen Aldridge

January 2023 to June 2026
21st Century St. Louis PAC
Contributions to St. Louis City Electeds and Failed Candidates
06/30/2026 $2,000 Alder & Recorder of Deeds candidate Shane Cohn
05/28/2025 $2,600 Alder Jami Cox Antwi
03/26/2025 $2,600 Alder Laura Keys
02/13/2025 $2,600 Alder Anne Schweitzer
02/13/2025 $2,600 Alder Matt DeVoti
02/13/2025 $2,600 Alder Alisha Sonnier
12/17/2024 $2,600 Alder Pam Boyd
12/17/2024 $2,600 Alder Shane Cohn
12/17/2024 $2,600 Alder Laura Keys
10/09/2024 $2,600 Alder Michael Browning
12/14/2023 $2,600 Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore
03/10/2023 $2,600 failed Alder candidate J.P. Mitchom
03/10/2023 $2,600 Alder Rasheen Aldridge
03/10/2023 $2,600 Alder Michael Browning
03/10/2023 $2,600 Alder Tom Oldenburg
03/10/2023 $2,600 Board President Megan Green
03/10/2023 $2,600 Alder Shane Cohn
03/10/2023 $2,600 Alder Daniela Velazquez
03/10/2023 $2,600 Alder Pam Boyd
03/10/2023 $2,600 former Alder Joe Vollmer
03/10/2023 $2,600 Alder Laura Keys
03/10/2023 $2,600 former Alder, now Mayor Cara Spencer
02/21/2023 $2,600 Alder Shane Cohn
02/21/2023 $2,600 Alder Daniela Velazquez
02/21/2023 $2,600 former Alder, now Mayor Cara Spencer
02/21/2023 $2,600 former Alder Joe Vollmer
02/21/2023 $2,600 Alder Michael Browning
02/21/2023 $2,600 former Alder Mike Gras
02/21/2023 $2,600 Alder Laura Keys
02/21/2023 $2,600 Alder Pam Boyd
02/21/2023 $2,600 former Mayor Tishaura Jones
02/21/2023 $2,600 former Comptroller Darlene Green
02/21/2023 $2,600 Board President Megan Green
02/21/2023 $2,600 Alder Tom Oldenburg
02/21/2023 $2,600 former Alder James Page
02/21/2023 $2,600 Alder Rasheen Aldridge

Who funded the 21st Century St. Louis PAC’s efforts in St. Louis City Alder and other campaigns in 2023 and 2026?

January 2023 to June 2026
21st Century St. Louis PAC Funders
09/14/2026 $10,000 Hunter Engineering (automotive service equipment)
07/14/2026 $10,000 Jerome Schlichter (Schlichter Bogard, legal counsel for IBEW)
07/10/2026 $10,000 John McDonnell (former McDonnell Douglas Chair, former executive at Boeing, Washington University Board)
06/30/2026 $1,000 Holland Construction Services
06/30/2026 $1,000 Bruce Holland (Holland Construction Services)
06/30/2026 $2,000 Martin Lyons (Ameren Chair)
06/30/2026 $2,000 Edward Dowd (former US Attorney, Dowd Bennett – Rams Settlement attorney)
06/23/2026 $10,000 Schnucks Markets
06/26/2026 $2,000 Robert Brinkmann (Brinkmann Construction- housing, data centers)
06/23/2026 $2,000 Matthew Geeke (Graybar)
06/23/2026 $2,000 Walter Galvin (Radial Equity Partners)
06/23/2026 $2,500 Steve Stone (developer, Globe Building data center)
06/18/2026 $5,000 Commerce Bancshares Inc. PAC
06/12/2026 $10,000 Andy Taylor (Enterprise Mobility Chair, owner of St. Louis City SC, Energizer Park)
06/09/2026 $2,000 Carolyn Kindle (owner of St. Louis City SC, Energizer Park)
12/16/2025 $20,000 Jerald Kent (Tierpoint and Cequel 3, data center)
08/11/2025 $20,000 Jerald Kent (Tierpoint and Cequel 3, data center)
07/29/2025 $7,372.44 STL Regional Chamber PAC*
02/27/2025 $5,000 Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (law firm)
02/23/2025 $5,000 David Peacock (Advantage Solutions)
02/03/2025 $5,000 David Peacock (Advantage Solutions)
12/02/2024 $10,000 John Tracy (Dot Family Holdings)
11/12/2024 $25,000 Andy Taylor (Enterprise Mobility Chair, owner of St. Louis City SC, Energizer Park)
10/23/2024 $5,000 Commerce Bancshares
10/10/2024 $10,000 Ameren (utility, strong interest in data centers)
10/07/2024 $20,000 Lodging Hospitality Management (developer, hotelier)
08/23/2024 $4,500 Jerome Schlichter (Schlichter Bogard, legal counsel for IBEW)
08/23/2024 $4,500 Susan Schlichter (retired)
08/20/2024 $5,000 Michael Konzen (PGAV)
08/14/2024 $10,000 John Tracy (Dot Family Holdings)
08/13/2024 $10,000 Thompson Coburn (law firm)
08/12/2024 $20,000 Jerald Kent (Tierpoint and Cequel 3, data center)
08/16/2024 $5,000 Schnuck Markets
09/05/2023 $10,000 John Tracy (Dot Family Holdings)
03/29/2023 $4,000 Lodging Hospitality Management (developer, hotelier)
03/29/2023 $4,000 Susan Schlichter (retired)
03/27/2023 $10,000 Thompson Coburn (law firm)
03/27/2023 $5,000 Spire PAC (utility)
03/24/2023 $2,500 Commerce Bancshares
03/21/2023 $5,000 900 N Tucker LLC (developer, Old Post-Dispatch Bldg, data center, Interco Plaza)
03/20/2023 $10,000 Jerald Kent (Tierpoint and Cequel 3, data center)
03/20/2023 $3,000 Edward L. Dowd Jr. Living Trust (former US Attorney, Dowd Bennett – Rams Settlement attorney)
03/17/2023 $20,000 First Bank
03/16/2023 $10,000 Post Holdings (consumer packaged foods)
03/14/2023 $5,000 Bryan Cave Missouri PAC (law firm)
02/24/2023 $5,000 900 N Tucker LLC (developer, Old Post-Dispatch Bldg, data center, Interco Plaza)
02/17/2023 $5,000 Schnuck Markets
02/14/2023 $5,000 Commerce Bancshares PAC
02/09/2023 $5,000 Jerome Schlichter (Schlichter Bogard, legtal counsel for IBEW)
02/07/2023 $25,000 Andy Taylor (Enterprise Holdings Chair, owner of St. Louis City SC, Energizer Park)
02/08/2023 $10,000 Jerald Kent (Tierpoint, data center)
02/06/2023 $5,000 Lodging Hospitality Management (developer, hotelier)
02/02/2023 $5,000 Robert Hermann Jr (Busch Family, Hermann Companies)
02/01/2023 $5,000 Thompson Coburn (law firm)

Notice how much the source of funds changed after the merger.

January 2015 to December 2020
Civic Progress Action Committee Funders
12/21/2020 $12,000 SSM Health St. Louis
11/17/2020 $4,500 Caleres Inc
10/13/2020 $7,500 Nestle Purina PetCare
10/13/2020 $7,500 BJC Healthcare
09/30/2020 $4,500 Stifel Financial
09/26/2020 $7,500 Edward Jones
09/23/2020 $4,500 Maritz
08/27/2020 $7,500 Ameren Missouri
06/25/2020 $4,500 Coin Acceptors Inc
06/22/2020 $4,500 Schnucks Markets
06/10/2020 $4,500 Harbour Group Industries
06/05/2020 $13,000 RGA Reinsurance
05/29/2020 $4,500 Cequel III
05/18/2020 $4,500 Graybar Electric
05/11/2020 $4,500 Spire Missouri
03/31/2020 $13,000 Anheuser-Busch
02/11/2020 $13,000 Centene Management
02/10/2020 $4,500 Commerce Bancshares
02/06/2020 $13,000 Emerson Electric
01/31/2020 $4,500 Hunter Engineering
01/29/2020 $13,000 Enterprise Holdings Inc PAC
12/13/2019 $75,000 Civic Progress Inc
03/20/2019 $4,500 Caleres
02/26/2019 $4,500 Maritz
02/08/2019 $7,500 Mercy
01/25/2019 $13,000 Centene Management
01/25/2019 $13,000 Enterprise Holdings Inc PAC
01/16/2019 $4,500 Schnucks Markets
01/02/2019 $7,500 Ameren Missouri
12/14/2018 $4,500 Hunter Engineering
11/05/2018 $25,000 Civic Progress
11/02/2018 $4,500 Cequel III
10/23/2018 $4,500 Maritz
05/31/2018 $4,500 Graybar Electric
05/21/2018 $4,500 BJC HealthCare
05/16/2018 $4,500 Harbour Group Industries
05/07/2018 $13,000 Anheuser-Busch
05/03/2018 $4,500 Coin Acceptors
05/03/2018 Southwestern Bell Telephone dba AT&T
05/01/2018 $7,500 RGA Reinsurance
05/01/2018 $13,000 Express Scripts
03/29/2018 $4,500 Caleres Inc
02/08/2028 $7,500 Edward Jones
01/26/2018 $4,500 Mercy St. Louis
01/24/2018 $4,500 Harbour Group Industries
01/24/2018 $13,000 Enterprise Holdings Inc. PAC
01/24/2018 $7,500 Centene Management
01/09/2018 $13,000 Emerson Electric
01/17/2018 $4,500 Spire Missouri
01/05/2018 $4,500 Commerce Bancshares
09/13/2017 $4,500 Southwestern Bell Telephone dba AT&T
07/01/2017 $4,500 Commerce Bank
06/20/2017 $13,000 Monsanto
06/12/2017 $13,000 Anheuser-Busch
05/22/2017 $13,000 Enterprise Holdings Inc. PAC
05/17/2017 $7,500 RGA Reinsurance
05/02/2017 $4,500 Mercy
04/28/2017 $4,500 Maritz
04/11/2017 $4,500 Caleres Inc
04/06/2017 $4,500 Coin Acceptors Inc
03/30/2017 $4,500 Stifel Financial
02/02/2017 $7,500 World Wide Technology Holding Co
01/30/2017 $4,500 Schnuck Markets
01/25/2017 $7,500 Centene Management
01/25/2017 $7,500 Edward Jones
12/22/2016 $13,000 Emerson Electric
12/22/2016 $4,500 Hunter Engineering
12/20/2016 $4,500 BJC Healthcare
12/20/2016 $175,000 Civic Progress
12/19/2016 $4,500 The Laclede Group
11/07/2016 $2,000 Committee for Bond Initiatives
09/07/2016 $13,000 Anheuser-Busch
08/16/2016 $4,500 Harbour Group Industries
06/30/2016 $4,500 Graybar Electric
06/20/2016 $4,500 BJC Healthcare
06/20/2016 $4,500 Mercy
06/10/2016 $7,500 RGA Reinsurance
05/31/2016 $13,000 Express Scripts
05/31/2016 $4,500 Commerce Bancshares
05/31/2016 $4,500 Coin Acceptors
04/27/2016 $4,500 Cequel III
03/31/2016 $4,500 Stifel Financial
03/14/2016 $13,000 Enterprise Holdings PAC
02/29/2016 $4,500 The Laclede Group
02/09/2016 $4,500 Caleres
02/09/2016 $4,500 Schnuck Markets
02/02/2016 $7,500 Centenne Management
02/02/2016 $7,500 US Bank
02/02/2016 $13,000 Monsanto
01/26/2016 $4,500 Civic Progress
01/22/2016 $13,000 Emerson Electric
01/20/2916 $7,500 Ameren
01/12/2016 $4,500 Hunter Engineering
01/11/2016 $7,500 Edward Jones
12/22/2016 $13,000 Anheuser-Busch
05/28/2015 $4,500 Harbour Group Industries
05/28/2015 $4,500 Coin Acceptors
05/28/2015 $4,500 Maritz
05/15/2015 $4,500 Commerce Bancshares
05/15/2015 $4,500 Mercy
05/08/2015 $7,500 Nestle Purina PetCare
04/02/2015 $7,500 Energizer Holdings
03/12/2015 $7,500 Edward Jones
03/12/2015 $4,500 TKG Management
03/02/2015 $7,500 Peabody Investments
02/25/2015 $4,500 Schnuck Markets
02/25/2015 $4,500 Southwestern Bell Telephone dba AT&T Missouri
02/06/2015 $4,500 Brown Shoe
01/23/2015 $4,500 Graybar Electric
01/23/2015 $4,500 World Wide Technology Holding Co
01/23/2015 $7,500 Centene Management
01/19/2015 $4,500 UniGroup
01/15/2015 $7,500 US Bank
01/08/2015 $4,500 PF Services, Inc., 670 Mason Ridge Center
01/08/2015 $4,500 Hunter Engineering
01/08/2015 $13,000 Emerson Electric
01/08/2015 $7,500 Ameren

Civic Progress Action Committee paid for ballot issue campaigns affecting City of St. Louis- school bonds, Charter reform, Metropolitan Sewer District, sales tax for police, as well as statewide ballot issues. In 2012, as example, $68,600 was spent on Citizens for a Healthy Missouri’s ballot issue for a cigarette tax increase, defeated 51% to 49%. It will be interesting to see if Greater St. Louis continues that legacy.

January 2015 to December 2022
Civic Progress Action Committee & Civic Progress Inc
Contributions & Direct Expenditures to Ballot Issues
03/14/2022 $25,000 Local Jobs for STL
08/13/2021 $20,000 Invest in St. Louis Community College
03/19/2021 $25,000 Yes on Prop E – Earnings Tax STL
10/06/2017 $125,000 Citizens For A Safer St. Louis
03/29/2017 $10,000 Reduce & Reform STL
04/05/2017 $10,000 direct expenditure for Proposition S
02/24/2016 $100,000 Friends of St. Louis Public Schools
04/05/2016 $100,000 direct expenditure for Proposition 1
11/23/2015 $20,000 Campaign for Clean Water STL

In 2024, 21st Century St. Louis PAC endorsed MAGA candidate Mike Kehoe for Missouri Governor. In June 2025, the PAC donated $5,000 to the Missouri House Republican Campaign Committee. In May, 2025 Governor Kehoe and Missouri General Assembly took away local control of St. Louis City’s Police Department, overturned the will of Missouri voters who had approved local control.

*STL Regional Chamber PAC was part of the merger that created 21st Century St. Louis PAC. It was short lived on its own. Other than ordering checks, it spent no funds. The money transferred came from $7,500 in contributions in 2021 from Missouri American Water Employees PAC and Anheuser Busch, the only contributions the PAC had received.

Nasheed has a consultant business

Vintage postcard of Missouri State Capitol

On October 28, 2020, Jamilah Nasheed and LaTanya Reeves organized a business, a Limited Liability Corporation, with the Missouri Secretary of State. At the time, Nasheed was a Missouri State Senator, and would be so for another two months, and Reeves worked in Mayor Lyda Krewson’s office.

Many state legislators own businesses and work at jobs other than their elected positions. In 2018, however, 62% of Missourians approved Constitutional Amendment 1 (Clean Missouri), which included an increase from six months to two years for the waiting period for legislators to become lobbyists.

Nasheed’s may have violated that constitutional provision by organizing Ignite Strategic Consulting, purpose: “Governmental and political consulting and all other purposes allowable by law.”

At the very least, Nasheed violated the intent of the law- to stop the revolving door of state legislators cashing in on their elected office cachet- and she did so in a deceitful manner.

Reeves was the agent of record until August 2, 2022, when Nasheed replaced her, per filing with Secretary of State. Nasheed’s name would not show up on a records check prior to the August change. Was the business interest disclosed to Governor Mike Parson before he appointed her to the Board of Probation and Parole?

In addition to her work on the Board, Nasheed is a well known advocate and activist for privatization of public schools. But, as of today, she is not a registered lobbyist nor has ever been, per a search at Missouri Ethics Commission.

The St. Louis City address of the business should also be a concern. It’s the same address as State Representative Rasheen Aldridge.

Disclosure: I endorsed Jamilah Nasheed for Board President in 2019. We have since parted ways.

Ward Consolidation Wars

The Bosley Family’s matriarch has laid political claim to St. Louis City’s new 14th Ward, the combined 3rd Ward and 5th Ward under ward reduction and redistricting. This month, 3rd Ward Committeewoman Lucinda Frazier and three others incorporated 14th Ward Regular Democratic Organization as a nonprofit.

The club has not yet filed as a political action committee (all ward committees are pacs not party committees under Missouri law). No one residing in the current 5th Ward is an incorporator. It does not look like 5th Ward Committeeman and State Representative Rasheen Aldridge and 5th Ward Committeewoman and former State Representative Penny Hubbard are involved.

Frazier is the wife of former 3rd Ward Alder Freeman Bosley, mother to current 3rd Ward Alder Brandon Bosley and State Representative LaKeysha Bosley, and Chief of Staff for part-time Recorder of Deeds, bar owner, and Missouri State Party Chair Michael Butler.

Registered agent for the new 14th Ward registration is Limda Primer, who is also Treasurer for MEC registered 3rd Ward Regular Democratic Organization and Civil PAC, and Deputy Treasurer for Citizens for Brandon Bosley (3rd Ward Alder) and Citizens for LaKeysha Bosley (State Representative and sometimes employee of the Recorder of Deed’s bar).

Then there’s the new 4th Ward, the combined 23rd and 24th Wards.

In March of this year, Kate Lovelady filed a Fictitious Name Registration for 24WPD to own 4th Ward Democrats. Lovelady is Treasurer for 4th Ward Democrats registered (previously known as 24th Ward Progressive Democrats) with MEC.

In September, Greg Meyer incorporated 4th Ward Regular Democratic Organization as a non profit with the help of attorney Ted Dearing. Meyer is also Treasurer for MEC registered 23rd Ward Regular Democratic Organization (aligned with 23rd Ward Alder Joe Vaccaro) and St. Louis Labor Legislature Club. The October 2022 Report for 23rd Ward Regular Democratic Organization shows the club paid Ted Dearing $300 in August for legal services.

In St. Louis County, you can visit the St. Louis County Democratic Central Committee website to find your township political club.

There are two online sources for anyone (a lot of us do not have book of faces) to look for St. Louis City ward organization information and neither are the St. Louis Democratic City Central Committee website. Instead, you have to search Missouri Ethics Commission and/or Missouri Secretary of State’s Business Entity database for ward committees.

St. Louis City political clubs often incorporate as nonprofits or file fictious name registrations (d.b.a.). It was thought that by incorporating, the name was owned and could not be used by a rival. They’ve been doing it for over a century. Some of the earliest ones were recorded in the Corporation Books of the City’s Recorder of Deeds. Campaign finance records began in St. Louis City in the late 20th Century via Missouri’s Corrupt Practices Act and were also recorded with the Recorder of Deeds. I did a lot of research and preservation work with these records when I worked as an archivist under the two previous Recorder of Deeds.

It’s been a long tradition for status quo ward clubs to use “Regular Democratic” or “Original” in the name to distinguish themselves from rump organizations who use “Independent.” The Independent organizations were often started by a noncommitteeperson, election competitor, or a committeeperson who did not see eye to eye with their ward colleague. Unfortunately, I was overruled by ward members when I was a committeewoman and had to file 7th Ward Independent Democrats instead of 7th Ward Irregular Democrats with MEC.