It’s no secret that Missouri’s contentious U.S. Senate race drew millions of dollars in campaign spending. But more local elections for the state Legislature and local government offices drew their share of campaign dollars as well.

Candidates for the Missouri Senate and House of Representatives, as well as for the county commission, collectively spent almost $400,000 during the 2018 primary and general elections.

The Record examined campaign finance reports filed with the state, which include all fundraising and spending until a week before the Nov. 6 elections. Financial election reports, including information from that last week, won’t be available until early December, but there still are two big takeaways that can be found in the numbers.

The numbers generally show that races with more voters and larger territories draw more campaign fundraising. In terms of local races, the big fish was Missouri’s District 10 state Senate race, which included Warren County and five other counties. Almost $280,000 was spent on that race alone.

The other trend is that Republican candidates raised far more money than their Democratic counterparts. While most candidates had a healthy number of individual contributions, Republicans had a vast amount of support from dozens of political action committees (PACs). That type of organized support was largely missing from Democrats running in Warren County and the surrounding region.

The largest expenses for election candidates were for media advertisements, along with those cards and pamphlets that flood voters’ mailboxes just before Election Day. Candidates also collectively spent thousands of dollars on various named donations and sponsorships during campaign season, along with hundreds of dollars per candidate for supplies to make parade appearances.

Jeanie Riddle

Republican Sen. Jeanie Riddle, who successfully campaigned for re-election for the District 10 Senate seat, was a juggernaut in election fundraising. She came into 2018 with $240,000 already in her campaign coffers, and brought that number up to just over $400,000 by October.

Riddle raised a huge amount of money from scores of PACs, with many donations of $1,000 and some up to the maximum contribution of $2,600. Most donations from individual supporters were under $1,000.

The senator had spent at least $260,000 of that money a week before the November elections. That includes almost $97,000 on mailers and about $20,000 for radio and newspaper ads.

Ayanna Shivers

The Democratic challenger for the District 10 Senate seat, Ayanna Shivers, had almost no supports from PACs during the election. She raised around $31,000, and had spent about half of that leading up to the election.

Shivers spent over $5,000 on advertisements, mailers and other printed material. Another $2,000 in funding went to signs.

Jeff Porter

The incoming Republican representative-elect for Missouri House District 43, Jeff Porter, enjoyed significant support from PACs. He raised about $60,000 for the 2018 primary and general elections, during both of which he faced challengers.

House District 43 includes all of Montgomery County, the Warrenton and Marthasville areas, and a small part of St. Charles County.

Porter received at least $9,500 from the owners or employees of several local businesses, as well as $2,600 that he loaned to his own campaign.

He spent roughly equal amounts on media advertisements and campaign signs, for a total of over $23,000. His expenses also included $5,300 spent on donations or sponsorships at the Warren County and Montgomery County fairs.

In total, Porter had spent at least $40,000 a week before the November election.

Joseph Widner

Democrat Joseph Widner raised a total of about $12,000 leading up to his race for the Missouri House District 43 seat. Most of that came from individual contributions, although the small amount of organized support for Widner included donations from several union-affiliated political action committees.

Widner spent about $8,100, including $2,100 on advertisements and $1,900 on campaign signs.

Bryan Spencer

Bryan Spencer is the Republican incumbent who successfully ran for re-election to represent Missouri House District 63, which includes Wright City, Innsbrook and Wentzville.

Spencer raised more than $51,000 for this election, having brought in more than half of that by the beginning of 2018. Like his Republican counterparts, Spencer had the backing of PAC financing for his campaign.

Spencer had spent just under $28,000 a week before the general election, with the most significant expense being about $8,200 for mailers. He also spent $5,400 on donations or sponsorships at county fairs in St. Charles and Warren Counties, and at least $2,200 on campaign advertising.

Janet Kester

Democrat Janet Kester had the lowest campaign income for any state-level seat in the area. Kester was the challenger for the House District 63 seat. She took in $4,500, and had spent most of it by the time of the November elections.

Most of the donations to Kester’s campaign were $100 or less. The large majority of her spending, $3,200, was on printed campaign materials.

Joe Gildehaus

Joe Gildehaus, a Republican, is the incoming presiding commissioner of Warren County, the leading office of the county government. Gildehaus defeated incumbent Roger Mauzy in the August Republican primary. 

Gildehaus raised $20,000 for the 2018 elections, mostly from local sources. He had a number of contributions in the amount of $100 to $300 from local business owners, but Gildehaus’ largest supporter was himself. He loaned or donated almost $15,000 to his own campaign.

The incoming commissioner had spent nearly all the money he raised before the final week of election season. His campaign reported spending over $8,000 on local advertising, although that number might be significantly overstated because Gildehaus’ finance reports don’t distinguish things like shirts or sponsorships.

He also spent $7,300 on campaign signs and $3,300 on mailers.

David Hubbard

David Hubbard did little or no fundraising as the Democratic candidate for the presiding county commissioner’s office. His campaign finance reports state he never raised or spent more than $500 dollars during any reporting period.