“We’re allowing our electoral system to be completely taken over by those with the deepest pockets. And there isn’t anyone with deeper pockets than Mr. Sinquefield,” said John Messmer, political science professor at St. Louis Community College at Meramec and head of the reform group Missourians for Government Reform.

“At least when it comes to national politics, there are some restrictions,” said Messmer. “There is nothing more outrageous than what we’re seeing here in Missouri.”

The massive influx of Sinquefield-related cash in the past month is doubly notable because the candidates receiving it aren’t even their party nominees for office yet. Missouri’s state-level primaries are Aug. 2, and all the recipients are fighting in contested Republican contests that day.

The month’s big recipients are familiar names on the Sinquefield roster:

• Former Missouri House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, seeking the Republican nomination for governor, received more than $2.3 million from Sinquefield-affiliated campaign committees during the one-month period examined by the newspaper — almost $850,000 of it on Friday alone.