Dooley/Corrigan Battle Heating Up

The gloves are coming off in the battle for St. Louis County Executive. Yesterday incumbent Charlie Dooley released his tax returns for the past four years in an effort to prove he's an "open book" and challenged his Republican contender, Bill Corrigan to do the same.

Dooley's tax returns show he made $164,227 last year -- $140,000 from his job as county exec and another $24k from his pension with McDonnell Douglas. Corrigan, a partner with the downtown law firm Armstrong Teasdale, probably made a good deal more than that. How much? We won't know. Corrigan isn't saying -- nor is he required to under Missouri election law.

Meanwhile, yesterday, Corrigan's camp attacked Dooley demanding that he give back a campaign contribution from indicted developer John Steffen. Dooley's camp asserts that it has donated part of the $30,000 gift to charity.

Then there's the website bailoutbillcorrigan.com that the Dooley campaign released earlier last month to draw attention to Corrigan's job as a bank director. The site has all kinds of innuendos and questions about how Corrigan may have benefited from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Yep, get your goggles out. The mud is officially flying.