Missouri House Rep. Don Calloway lives next door to his parents in a red brick house with orange cheery walls and gentle mood-setting lamps. His wife, Sarah Jane, is a law professor at Washington University and his son, Cal, is one years old.
He was born and raised in Bel Nor. That’s part of Missouri’s District 14, the district that he is now running for state senate seat to replace Senator Rita Heard Days.
His life is charming, and many have described him as charismatic. Yet, as a community leader and lawyer, Calloway is known for being quick to act, and often times aggressively.
This February, Calloway, a Democrat, shocked many of his colleagues when he decided to run for District 14 State Senator against heavy-weight House Reps, Maria Chappelle-Nadal (coming in with two terms under her belt) and Ted Hoskins with four terms.
Calloway just started his second term and has not passed any bills in Jefferson City quite yet. Calloway is relying on his involvement with the Northeast Fire Protection district to show the community that he can get things done.
On Oct. 22, Calloway filed a temporary restraining order against the fire district to freeze all spending in the district. It was an attempt to prevent former board members and district attorney from making outlandish expenditures.
At the board meeting at which he presented the restraining order, Calloway heard that outgoing authorities would be receiving severance checks. Calloway saw a check book that he thought the checks would be written out of, and he grabbed it. That night, Calloway was led away in handcuffs with pending charges of burglary. He was later released without charges.
The story served as great comic relief during a speech Calloway made on June 25 at the Missouri Association of Fire Protection District conference in Osage Beach. The MAFPD members laughed as Calloway told them how the board secretary at the time scratched his face to get the checkbook, which was actually her own personal checkbook. He didn’t mention that in the speech.
At the conference, the fire district members considered him a hero.
In the community, some district employees and authorities began to question his leadership. With the restraining order, Presiding Judge John Ross had to approve all expenditures. Judge Ross appointed former Judge Booker Shaw of Thompson Coburn LLP as a Special Master in this case to make recommendations to Judge Ross on necessary expenditures.
As a result, the district’s spending was halted down to toilet paper and medical supplies, said board member Rhea Willis. Paychecks were not delivered on time for the weeks before Christmas. Several employees said that they couldn’t pay their mortgages and bills on time, but they kept on working because they believed in serving the community.
Willis said that she would have liked to have consulted with Calloway about what in the budget should be frozen before the sudden TRO. The act put the district in jeopardy of not providing adequate medical attention, said Fire Chief Angelia Elgin. The TRO came in her first month serving as fire chief, and she had to scramble to get supplies in place.
Yet in Calloway’s mind, the fire district was in such severe financial trouble, that quick action was necessary.
“The small, predominantly African-American municipalities are now faced with the imminence of their fire and emergency medical services being either cancelled, or farmed out to far reaching other departments, for whom these people will not be a responding priority,” he wrote in an email to The American.
Until recently, the local firefighters union, with 1,900 members, had considered endorsing Calloway, and Calloway was confident it would happen. This week, the union decided not to.
Kurt Becker, District Vice President IAFF Local 2665, said that though the union applauded Calloway for his willingness to jump into the heated Northeast situation and attempt to stabilize the district, Calloway’s recent press attention to his campaign finance was part of the union’s decision to “leave the race open.”
On June 28, political analyst Dave Drebes reported in a Missouri Scout article that Calloway amended his April quarterly campaign finance reports, which decreased his cash on-hand by about $10,000. The deleted checks came from his family and were reported in the first April report but never received.
“The difference between the two reports makes it appear that Calloway deliberately inflated his April bottom-line in order to appear more competitive,” Drebes writes.
In response to Drebes’ suggestion, Calloway said, “There was an error on the April quarterly report, and my campaign employed the proper Missouri Ethics Commission amendment process to fix it.”
Becker said that the amendment is probably no big deal, but as a large organization, the union cannot afford to get caught in the middle of any legal chaos. “Our comfort with Maria as a candidate was also a big factor in our decision,” Becker said.
Drebes reported that Calloway’s campaign manager Jake Laperruque left over the finance report incident. Calloway said that Laperruque stepped down because to prepare for his upcoming first year at Harvard Law School.
Laperruque had not responded to the American’s email at press time.
Calloway also received $30,000 from Progress for the St. Louis Region, a political action committee funded by contraversial Rex Sinquefield.
Calloway was an attorney for Thompson Coburn from 2005 to 2007, where he also interned. Thomas Minogue, chairman of Thompson Coburn, said that Calloway was a hardworking business liason for the firm. Yet Calloway seemed to want more than just being an attorney in a large law firm, Minogue said, and he supported Calloway’s aspiration for public office when he left.
House Rep. Tishuara Jones said she has known Calloway since her youth and considers him an energetic asset to the House that she would be sad to lose.
“I was a little confused,” Jones said. “He had so much to offer to the House. I wish him the best whatever he does.”
Calloway said that if he were not to win the seat, he would return to his law practice, and “be a full-time husband and father, both of which are far more important to me than any elected office.”
