John Lamping, the Republican candidate for state senator from the 24th District, had no opposition in the Aug. 3 primary. His campaign finance report shows the advantage of no competition that he brings to the Nov. 2 election campaign.
St. Louis County Chairwoman Barbara Fraser of University City, the Democratic candidate, won her party's nomination after an expensive primary campaign against former State Rep. Sam Page, D-Creve Coeur. Helen Steele Burton of Overland, a little known candidate, was in the race.
Lamping has $315,167 available for the general election campaign, nearly seven times as large as Fraser's $45,313 campaign chest. Fraser, however, is quickly restocking her coffers, having raised $58,715 in the reporting period of July 23 to Aug. 28.
The information was in reports to the Missouri Ethics Commission to meet a state law that requires candidates in the Aug. 3 primary file campaign finance reports 30 days after the election.
Lamping has raised $557,931 and spent $103,810 thus far. He obtained $42,450 and spent $32,688 in the reporting period.
Among contributors are the Burns & McDonnell engineering company, RightChoice Managed Care Inc., Schnuck Markets Inc. and UniGroup. Local 2665 of the firefighters union made a contribution. Lamping paid Capitol Consulting LLC of Jefferson City for fundraising services.
Fraser raised $382,441 and spent $327,061 thus far. She received donations from the political action committee of area homebuilders and several skilled trades unions. The campaign committees of State Sens. Victor Callahan, D-Independence, and Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, also made donations.
Fraser spent $103,935 in the reporting period. Much of her spending was for mailings, advertisements and campaign staff.
Page raised $746,588 and spent $744,332 in his losing effort -- $145.21 a vote he received. He raised $22,679 and spent $164,625 in the reporting period. Page, a doctor specializing in pain medicine, continued to receive donations from anesthesiologists or their representatives. Much of his spending was for mailings and campaign staff.
