When it comes to campaign donations, September has been a good month for the two Missouri candidates for governor who have raised the most: Republican Eric Greitens and Democrat Chris Koster.
Greitens, a former Navy Seal and author who has never run for office before, is expected to officially launch his campaign Saturday.
So far this month, he’s collected more than $800,000. That’s in addition to the $1.1 million he reported in the bank in mid-July.
Greitens’ spokesman Danny Laub said the September windfall signals “momentum.” But the bulk of this month’s donations came from two people: $500,000 from the trust of Michael L. Goguen, a California-based venture capitalist; and $200,000 from the McKinley Financial Partnership, a Michigan investment firm founded by Ronald Weiser, a former U.S. ambassador and finance chairman for the Republican National Committee.
Greitens will join a crowd of other Republican candidates: Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, former House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, state Sen. Bob Dixon of Springfield and former state Rep. Randy Asbury. St. Louis area businessman John Brunner is expected to declare his candidacy within months.
Koster, currently Missouri attorney general, is the only Democrat running for governor. He has just begun campaigning in earnest, peppering Twitter in recent days with official campaign missives.
Koster has the most money of any candidate for governor of either party. As of July 15, he had roughly $4 million in the bank.
September has been a good month for Koster as well. As of this weekend, he had collected close to $350,000 in donations this month.
