Tagged: St. Louis Mayor 2013

Chart updated at 2:24 to reflect most recent 24 and 48 hour campaign filings.

A week out from the Democratic mayoral primary, incumbent Mayor Francis Slay is maintaining his large financial advantage over challenger and Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed.

According to campaign finance reports filed Monday evening, in a month long span from Jan. 20 to Feb. 21, Slay spent $479,291. During that same amount of time, Reed spent only a fraction of that at $88,470.

Updated 10:03 with the Kwame Building Group's response.

In a late afternoon press conference Thursday, Board of Alderman President and mayoral candidate Lewis Reed accused incumbent Mayor Francis Slay of engaging in a "pay-to-play" system where businesses seeking construction contracts have to first make a donation to the mayor's campaign. The mayor's staff insisted that there are too many safeguards for this to even be possible.

At Monday's forum, the three Democratic candidates made their case for why they should be St. Louis' next mayor. Incumbent mayor Francis Slay is seeking an unprecedented fourth four-year term, while the other two candidates argued it was time for someone else to take the reins.