History has proved that there are few things more precious (Yahoo IM [1] is probably one) to Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder and the staff who work for him than the Tour de Missouri French-style bicycle race.  In fact, it seems that even folks who leave his office have a hard time letting go of their connection to the Tour.  

Take Jerry Dowell.  According to reports [2], Dowell recently took an unpaid leave of absence from Lt. Gov. Kinder's office in order to run the Congressional campaign of Blaine Luetkemeyer (who was a key cog in the Tour de Missouri via his role as director of the state's division of tourism, natch).  But in some ways it's like Dowell never left.  In fact, Dowell is still listed as the Executive Director of the Tour de Missouri [3] on the tour's website contact page.

So is the Tour de Missouri just slow to update its website and excise Dowell's name, or is Dowell retaining the executive director title and all the inexplicable sway that apparently comes with it in MOGOP circles, even though he's on a "leave of absence" from the state? 

Have Kinder and Dowell adopted the Sarah Steelman/Doug Gaston policy [3] of allowing staff who leave to work on a campaign to retain certain official duties while they're gone?