The filing deadline to run for Congress passed on Tuesday, and as expected first-term Congresswoman Cori Bush saw a series of men lined up to challenge her. Although Rep. Bush is well-liked by her constituents and has represented St. Louis phenomenally in Congress, her campaign is most seriously challenged by state Sen. Steven Roberts, Jr. Roberts, who waited until late Monday afternoon to file, and his family are sometimes allies of former Rep. Lacy Clay, the 20-year incumbent that Bush ousted in 2020. Since her election to Congress, Bush has stood strong for St. Louis in a way that Clay could never seem to do, including sleeping on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to demand an extension of the federal eviction moratorium, showing up in the community in protest of the execution of Ernest Johnson, and co-sponsoring the Green New Deal legislation, which seeks to improve air quality in cities like St. Louis and would allocate additional resources for remediation of toxic waste sites like the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton. Notably, Clay was heavily criticized for his failure to help North County residents take on Republic Services, the company that runs the landfill.
Dueker, a lawyer, most recently worked as a lobbyist for the St. Louis Police Officers Association – the white police union – and finds herself among the list of donors to Steve Roberts Jr.’s campaign
But Roberts represents more than just a Clay surrogate in this race, and his quest seemingly extends beyond getting revenge for the defeated congressman. Sure, Roberts can count on Clay’s supporters, like controversial developer Paul McKee, conservative billionaire Rex Sinquefield, and a host of dark money donors. His congressional candidacy has some heavy lifting to achieve as far as protecting his family’s legacy, which in the last few years has included funneling tens of thousands of dollars to Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed through shell corporations, creating the “St. Louis Progress” PAC that has moved large sums of money between campaigns.
Roberts also has his own reputation clean-up to do, as he twice has been credibly accused by women of sexual assault and recently got caughtby national media trying to scrub those stories from his Wikipedia page. The first accusation against Roberts was in 2015, when a then-law student reported to police that Roberts tried to forcibly put his hand inside her pants and underwear and was consequently arrested for second-degree sodomy. Roberts worked as an assistant prosecuting attorney under then-Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, but was fired a few months after the allegations became public.
Even the date Roberts filed would seem to indicate that his team is making all efforts to conceal his campaign-related activities: by filing on March 29, Roberts may be trying to evade quarterly filing requirements, which would include activities through March 31. The next filing deadline isn’t until July 15, which is less than a month before the August primary. Roberts’ timing raises several issues, mainly how much of his Missouri campaign treasure he has expended in preparation for his federal challenge to Rep. Bush.
Roberts’ timing raises several issues, mainly how much of his Missouri campaign treasure he has expended in preparation for his federal challenge to Rep. Bush.
Specifically, a review of Roberts’ most recent campaign finance report filed in January shows that he had a little less than $79,000 cash-on-hand, but he spent $45,000 for the final quarter in 2021. While Roberts is not up for re-election to his senate seat until 2024, his state (or MEC) expenditures in the last six months raise red flags. For example, the web address, RobertsForCongress.com, was purchased in October 2021, but that domain purchase has not been logged with the MEC or FEC. Roberts’ reports across 2021 also show “media relations” expenditures paid out to Clay’s political machine, Media Magic, exceeding a total of $22,000 – for just the one year. The argument that Roberts has been planning to launch his congressional run can easily be made by just looking at open records, but if he is so confident for his run for MO-01, why the secrecy and misrepresentations to the public?
Speaking of candidates that no one asked for: Jane Dueker, the scandal-mongering political consultant and strategist for disgraced former County Executive Steve Stenger, filed her paperwork to run as a Democrat for the seat that Stenger once held. Dueker, a lawyer, most recently worked as a lobbyist for the St. Louis Police Officers Association – the white police union – and finds herself among the list of donors to Steve Roberts Jr.’s campaign. Although Dueker claims to be an advocate for domestic violence victims, her MEC reports show a much different story, including a $500 donation to Roberts in 2020, a series of campaign contributions to Jeff Roorda’s 2018 campaign, and, of course, the unknown sums of money that she received from Mike Kelley’s Show Me Victories group as a consultant for Steve Stenger’s 2014 and 2018 campaigns.
“It’s a surprise, but a good one,” said Richard Callow, campaign spokesperson for current (and not indicted) County Executive Sam Page. “I didn’t have ‘Steve Stenger’s campaign manager runs for county executive’ on my bingo card this year.” Other responses to Dueker’s candidacy have been less light-hearted, instead pointing out how hard Dueker recently has campaigned for County Republican candidates and her relentless support for abusive police officers, alongside an infamous photo that saw Dueker sitting with Stenger, former mayor Lyda Krewson, and Kelley’s staff members as they watched for election results.
Before running for the office held by her former boss, Dueker helped Stenger respond to inquiries about the Northwest Plaza deal, which included a cast of characters who also got indicted and/or pleaded guilty to federal white collar felonies related to that deal. Dueker is reliably transactional and has a history of working for the highest paycheck, including working for Stenger’s former rival, Mark Mantovani, in 2020. Given how involved Dueker was with his campaign and messaging, the Eye isn’t quite clear on how her candidacy will differ from the mess that Stenger left behind.