State Auditor Susan Montee will be downtown this morning, offering a Democratic response to today’s visit by GOP presidential nominee John McCain.

McCain will stop by the St. Louis County estate of Stephen Brauer, former ambassador to Belgium, for a pricey fundraiser where supporters have been asked to raise or contribute as much as $57,000 a couple.

Montee, an early supporter of McCain’s Democratic rival Barack Obama, will be at the Old Courthouse at 11 a.m., contrasting the high-dollar event with austere news from the state’s economic climate: the decision of Bombardier Aerospace not to build in Missouri, the closing of Chrysler operations in Fenton and, of course, the foreign takeover of brewer Anheuser-Busch .