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The venerable Charlie Barnes is hosting an event for Presidential contender Rudy Giuliani in Ladue on Friday, June 8.

Barnes most recently served as St. Louis District Office Director for U.S. Sen. Kit Bond.

This invitation will be distributed later today.

Giuliani exceeded expectations with his second place finish in a straw poll held at the St. Louis County Lincoln Day dinner on March 10. The largely conservative crowd gave the most votes to Sen. Sam Brownback — the night’s keynote speaker — with Giuliani outdoing Mitt Romney.

Fred Thompson has also received attention of late from Missouri conservatives.

Romney visited Missouri last month.

Unlike Romney’s filing, Giuliani’s latest federal campaign finance report shows no Missouri expenditures for finance consulting or other paid operations.

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House Speaker Pro Tem Carl Bearden is traveling to Tennessee this weekend. He’ll speak at the Draft Fred Thompson rally in Cookeville on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. For more information, visit thompsonrally.com.

Related links:

February 11: Blunt, Jetton show support for Romney

March 3: Hancock: Romney “appears to have Missouri locked down”

March 11: Brownback wins St. Louis County GOP straw poll

April 9: Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder’s endorsement of Fred Thompson

April 9: Kinder, Bearden proclamations emancipate Missouri conservatives

April 12: Missouri House members support Fred Thompson presidential bid

April 12: Mitt Romney visits St. Louis today

April 14: Mitt Romney’s Missouri expenditures

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From Romney for President Inc.’s FEC filing, posted yesterday at www.fec.gov, here are Mitt Romney’s expenditures in Missouri:

Capital Enhancement Inc. received $378.80 on 2/06/07 for “Printing”; then $5,000 on 2/12/07 and another $5,000 on 03/01/07 for “Finance Consulting.”

John Hancock & Associates was paid $6764.29 for “Finance Consulting” on 03/09/07.

Gabriel Group of Earth City received $6085.57 for printing on 3/06/07.

Thomson Printing of St. Charles received $669.77 on 2/06/07.

Jill A. Blunt, wife of Andy Blunt, has her expense listed as “In Kind - Travel” for $1411.80 on 3/29/07.

Jim Talent also had a travel expense, to the tune of $800.20 on 1/02/07.

The campaign spent $5736.83 on Adam’s Mark Hotel catering on 3/26/07, and $9798.00 for “Staging” to Sect Theater Supplies of Kansas City on the same date.

Wolfgang Puck Catering of St. Louis was paid $1273.60 on 2/15/07.

The campaign also listed one returned contribution, a $4200 refund to Huston E. Sherrill of Glencoe.

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Mitt Romney is in St. Louis today for a fundraiser, and you just know that dadgum liberal media is gonna be out to get him!

Sure, they were very fair and thorough the last time they wrote about him. The Post-Dispatch went to an independent source — longtime Republican consultant John Hancock — who pointed out that Romney “appears to have Missouri locked down.” Damn skippy!

But now that Mitt has proven he’s a lock to win the nomination — what with him raising a Shiite-load of money and all — I bet those liberal media types turn on him. They’ll ask why the Romney campaign doesn’t have more endorsements from Missouri elected officials. They’ll ask why Romney’s campaign has had zero presence — no literature, no signs, no surrogates — at Missouri’s county Lincoln Day events.

And you just know some reporter will get out of line and point out that Fred Thompson — he’s not even a candidate yet, dang it! — has been endorsed by two of the state’s best-known Reagan Republicans. Yeah, well, so what! Isn’t it about time Republicans be more “independent” and stop trying to bring back that stupid old Reagan era? Mitt says it best, at 2:15 in:

And how much do you want to bet some wisenheimer makes a crack about how Mitt is skipping town before the NRA Annual Convention starts tomorrow?