Kinder writes $100,000 check to Schweich, hopes House GOP doesn't mind

Lt. Governor Peter Kinder wrote state auditor candidate Thomas Schweich a $100,000 check on New Year's Eve -- a sizable donation, especially from a candidate who still showed more than $400,000 in his own campaign debts in his last campaign finance report.

As the Post-Dispatch's Tony Messenger notes in his post about the donation, Kinder's strong support for Schweich (a thank you for not pursuing the US Senate?) puts him at odds with most all of the House Republicans, who have backed House Budget Chair Allen Icet in the GOP primary for auditor.

Republican purists and conservative activists also seem to gravitating to Icet, who has been working the tea party circuit. When Schweich first announced his intention to join the auditor's race, folks like Ed Martin questioned his GOP credentials because of his previous support for Claire McCaskill. Since that time, of course, Schweich has promised us that he'll be a hyper-partisan auditor if elected -- provided that he's not tempted to abandon office to pursue a revenge campaign in 2012 (presumably, upon cashing his $100,000 check, against someone other than Peter Kinder). Last month, Rep. Cynthia Davis ripped Schweich as "someone who came out of the bureaucratic morass of Washington" and said he should be running as a Democratic candidate.