Democratic fundraising appeal: Is Spence using $2 million in bailout money to finance run for governor?

The Missouri Democratic Party is continuing to have fun at the expense of businsssman/banker Dave Spence, who became the party's leading candidate for governor after Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder decided to run for re-election. The following fundraising appeal was issued today:

For months, the Missouri Republican Party has been scrambling to find a credible candidate for Governor. And after all of that, they’re still coming up empty.

So without a strong candidate, some Republican insiders are turning to a random guy with deep pockets to seek the GOP nomination.

His name is Dave Spence and you’ve probably never heard of him (no worries, we hadn’t either). He’s a CEO, a banker and a multimillionaire who has never shown an ounce of interest in public policy. Spence has, however, shown a stunning disregard for taxpayer money, which has made other Republican insiders uneasy about his candidacy and resulted in a search for a more principled Republican candidate to take on Spence.

But who is this Spence guy, really?

Dave Spence helped run the single worst-performing bank in the St. Louis region, a bank that lost tens of millions of dollars over the past few years (and was the subject of a crackdown by federal regulators). After handing out crummy loans and making a series of poor investment decisions, Spence supported the bank’s decision to take a $40 million TARP bailout and then – to make matters much worse – the bank refused to pay the taxpayers their money back. Other banks paid the taxpayers back, but Spence’s bank did not. Then Spence quit, himself a wealthy man, leaving the taxpayers out nearly $40 million.

Spence defended the bailout because he said his bank needed an “extra cushion of capital.” Then he pleaded for a little sympathy: “being on a bank board was not a lot of fun in the last four years,” Spence said.

Note to Mr. Spence: You know what most Americans didn’t find fun these past four years? Watching their tax dollars and retirement savings accounts disappear, while big bankers took bailouts and got rich.

We’ve all seen this type before. Spence is one of these guys who says ‘get government out of private business,’ but then he turns around and takes millions of taxpayer dollars to bailout his private business. It’s clear this guy cares more about his own bottom line than your taxpayer dollars.

Given his disrespect for taxpayer dollars, it’s not surprising that many leading Republicans have been openly uneasy about Spence’s candidacy.

In an effort to scare off other Republicans, Spence gave his campaign a $2 million check – the largest single contribution to a political candidate in Missouri history. You almost have to wonder: is that your taxpayer-financed bank bailout money, now being spent to finance this guy’s political campaign?

If you didn’t get a huge bailout, and don’t have a $2 million check, we understand. But every little bit helps: please contribute $10, $25 or $50 to the Missouri Democratic Party today.