Kinder Seeking Donations, Asking Public to Lobby Officials for Prospective 2010 Tour

Last night, as the House Budget Committee was debating drastic cuts to public education, Lt. Governor Peter Kinder made his first public request for support of the 2010 Tour of Missouri (TOM). 

Kinder and his spokesman directed folks to a new page on the TOM website, "Ten Ways To Support The Tour of Missouri." Beyond the standard requests to join an email list and sign on to a not-yet-functional petition, Tour organizers are also seeking donations, asking Missouri residents to "contact your local representatives" and calling for supporters to "write/call/email/or send smoke signals to the local media." 

Kinder and Tour staff have not yet specified how much public money they are seeking for the 2010 race.

Specific information about the economic benefits Missourians receive from the Tour is absent from the list, and the 2009 economic impact study still hasn't been published on the TOM or Lt. Governor websites. You can read the full study here on Fired Up! Missouri, but not on Kinder's own websites. Questions about the data in that report are outlined here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Notably, the Tour's 'Top 10' list does not request gift cards to J. Buck's, Applebee's or any other central Missouri dining establishments.  Throughout 2009, members of Team Kinder treated themselves to food and drink with money from taxpayer-supported accounts -- you can read about that here, here and here.  Hopefully, Kinder and his staff have chosen to refrain from such activity as they prepare for a prospective 2010 race. 

Image credit: The Pitch