Marshall Griffin

Robin Carnahan’s decision to not seek a third term as Missouri Secretary of State has opened the door for seven hopefuls from four different political parties.  The contest had been relatively quiet until about two weeks ago, when the three Republican contenders began airing TV ads and stepping up their campaign appearances.  St. Louis Public Radio’s Marshall Griffin takes a look at the three GOP candidates who want to become Missouri’s next Secretary of State:

Voter turnout in Missouri is expected to be around 25 percent for next Tuesday’s party primaries, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

A turnout of 25 percent would be slightly higher than the 23 percent of Missouri voters who cast ballots in the 2010 primaries.  Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D) says voter turnout is notoriously hard to predict.

“In fact, our office doesn’t even do it," Carnahan said.  "We ask the local election officials, the 116 of them around the state, to give us their predictions, based on what is on those local ballots.”

Governor Jay Nixon (D) says his administration is keeping tabs on river levels along the Missouri and Mississippi as drought conditions persist across the state.  He indicates that the Missouri River may be in worse shape.

“I think that the challenges on the Missouri are a little more significant than the Mississippi," Nixon said at a gathering Wednesday in Jefferson City.  "Minnesota has had a fair amount of rain in that part of the country, but we’re watching those issues very carefully.”

The Missouri Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the authority of the state auditor to write financial summaries for ballot initiatives.

More money is being put into an emergency program to aid farmers and ranchers battling water shortages in Missouri.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) has added $5 million to the $2 million set aside for crop and livestock producers who want to drill new wells or deepen existing ones during the ongoing drought.  More than 600 applications have been sent in since the program’s announcement on Tuesday.

The latest scam designed to separate Missouri residents from their money involves phony letters from the State Attorney General’s office, the IRS and other government agencies.

Updated with comments from McCaskill conference call.

The entire state of Missouri is now a federal agriculture disaster area.

Seventeen of the state's counties, mostly in the Bootheel, had already received that declaration. Today's announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture extends that declaration to the other 97 counties and the city of St. Louis.

St. Louis-based Ameren Missouri presented details of its energy efficiency plan to the Missouri Public Service Commission on Monday.  The proposal would cost around $145 million, which would result in the average home electric bill going up about $3 per month.  Ameren officials say, though, the plan would result in long-term savings of nearly half a billion dollars.  Kevin Gunn chairs the Public Service Commission, which heard the utility’s presentation in Jefferson City.

Gov. Jay Nixon is building a big bank account for his re-election campaign.Finance figures released Monday show Nixon raised $2.1 million from April through June and had $7.6 million in his account at the start of July. 

Nixon's campaign said it was his strongest fundraising quarter this election cycle and that his bank account is twice as large as it was at a similar point in July 2008. 

Missouri’s elk population appears to be settling into their new home state, according to state conservation officials.

Dr. Joseph Millspaugh updated the Missouri Conservation Commission Friday on the state’s elk herd, which he said seems to be doing well.

“Evidence of survival rates [and] reproductive rates that are average to high, we see diet quality certainly within the range of what we would expect…the stress response:  nothing there that is indicative of a problem,” said Millspaugh.