Kinder sets up new committee, converts old one toward covering $600,000debt

The filings have not been scanned in by the folks at the Missouri Ethics Commission yet, but it appears Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder has taken the first steps toward challenging Jay Nixon for governor in three years.

Kinder's former campaign committee, Friend of Peter Kinder, is now Friends of Peter Kinder Debt Committee, while he formed a new Friends of Peter Kinder today, according to the Ethics Commission filing. The filing indicates he will run for statewide office in 2012.

The Turner Report was the first to note, in an April 14 post, that Kinder's campaign committee was more than $600,000 in debt:

If anyone should identify with the mounting debt facing many U. S. business, it would be Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.
Documents filed today with the Missouri Ethics Commission indicate Kinder's campaign committee, Friends of Peter Kinder, owes $606,771.