Brown

This from a post this afternoon by Post-Dispatch reporter Tim Bryant:

Former St. Peters Mayor Shawn Brown says he wants his old job back.

No, he isn’t talking about the chores he did while an inmate at the federal prison camp in Duluth, Minn.

Brown said today he plans to run again for St. Peters mayor - in 2012. Five years ago he upset the longtime incumbent, Tom Brown, to win the job. But Shawn Brown, no relation to his predecessor, resigned in 2006 after pleading guilty of charges in a federal indictment that said he solicited and accepted a $2,750 bribe from the company that installed red-light cameras in St. Peters.

A federal judge gave Brown an 18-month sentence. He reported to prison two years ago and was released last summer from a halfway house in St. Louis. Brown, 37, works at a commercial cleaning and asbestos removal firm owned by a friend.

He said today he’s been talking with supporters about running for mayor–again–and is getting some financial backing for a campaign. Brown said he considers Mayor Len Pagano, elected last year to a four-year term, a friend but is unsure if Pagano plans to seek re-election.

“I’m going to run,” Brown said. “I love the city.”

Nanci Gonder, a spokeswoman for the Missouri attorney general’s office, confirmed that state law allows felons to run for office after they complete their sentence and probation.