This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Sept. 16, 2011 - President Barack Obama is slated to visit St. Louis on Oct. 4 to raise campaign money and perhaps make an official appearance promoting his jobs plan.
Various government and political sources confirmed the date of the visit, but the White House declined to discuss details.
One source said that the specifics -- such as time and place -- have yet to be decided. The president was last in St. Louis in March 2010, when he coordinated an appearance promoting education with a fundraiser to help Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.
The Oct. 4 stop in St. Louis would fit in with a stop that Obama also is expected to make in Dallas on the same day. Reports in Texas say the president is expected to attend a fundraising luncheon there and possibly make an appearance related to his jobs plan.
A spokesman for the Republican National Committee issued a statement jabbing at the president's travel plans. "Instead of being laser-focused on campaigning to save his own job, perhaps it's time for our campaigner-in-chief to get serious about getting our economy back on track, especially since zero jobs were created last month," said spokesman Ryan Tronovitch.
For much of this month, Obama has been traveling around the country to drum up support for his American Jobs Act. It's a $447 billion proposal that aims to create jobs and stimulate the economy through payroll tax cuts, infrastructure spending and aid to states and schools.
The day after his Sept. 8 speech to Congress announcing the jobs plan, Obama took his case to the home district in Richmond, Va., of one of his major House Republican critics, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. He also made a similar jobs pitch in Ohio, the home of Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
The trip to Dallas would send Obama into the home turf of a leading GOP presidential contender, Gov. Rick Perry, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, who co-chairs the congressional "super committee" working on a deficit-reduction plan.
The president's visit to St. Louis could indicate how energetic some of the state's top Democrats will be about his candidacy. McCaskill will be running for re-election in 2012, as will Gov. Jay Nixon. The governor has attracted some national attention lately because he hasn't commented publicly about the president's jobs plan.
The city's two members of Congress -- U.S. Reps. William Lacy Clay and Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis -- are both under strain because the state's new congressional boundary lines toss both Democrats into the same 1st District as of 2013. Carnahan is under pressure to consider running in the redrawn 2nd District, which takes in some of the St. Louis County territory in his current 3rd District (which is largely being moved outstate.)
Meanwhile, many Missouri Democrats have privately said they didn't expect to see much of Obama in 2012 because the state is not expected to be on his campaign's targeted list. Missouri was the only swing state that Obama lost in 2008, and even Democrats acknowledge that the political climate in the state is less friendly to the president heading into 2012.
In August, the president's bus trip to the Midwest bypassed Missouri but made stops in Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota.
