Tom Schweich played nice on a campaign stop in St. Joseph Wednesday, but he made it known that he wants a local woman's job.

Mr. Schweich, a St. Louis resident, is an Ivy League-educated law enforcement official/prosecutor/former U.S. ambassador/lawyer, vying for the job of state auditor, a position currently held by St. Joseph's Susan Montee. About a dozen people, including staff and family, attended his announcement at the East Hills Library.

The differences, as he sees fit to point out now, are just the obvious - he's a Republican, she's a Democrat.

"Sometimes it's good to have balance in government," he said, adding that as the campaign progresses, it's only natural to point out more differences, but he's "saving that for another day."

It's an important time to have a fiscal conservative in the position of auditor for a couple of reasons, he said - tax dollars are fewer and must be well-spent, and the stimulus money coming to the state (which he would have voted against if he were a member of Congress) are "borrowed dollars" and also must be well-spent.

"I think it is important to have a state auditor who is a fiscal conservative that is really going to be a watchdog over taxpayer money," he said.

Further, Mr. Schweich, who has never run for a political office, said he can enter into government owing no favors and without the weight of political "cronies" on his back.

"I will be exactly what the statute says the auditor is supposed to be - an independent watchdog," he said.

Mr. Schweich, a fifth-generation Missourian, earned an undergraduate degree from Yale and his law degree from Harvard. He has written a book about fiscal conservatism call "Cashproof Your Life: A Comprehensive Three-Part Plan for Avoiding Financial Disasters."

He was called upon by former Sen. Jack Danforth to serve as his chief of staff in the investigation of the David Koresh/Waco compound fiasco. He served as chief of staff to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and in 2005, worked as a law enforcement official at the State Department in Washington.

In 2007, he was appointed by President Bush as coordinator of counter-narcotics and justice reform in Afghanistan and as ambassador.

Mr. Schweich is employed with the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, where he teaches courses on Afghanistan and the United Nations.

Jimmy Myers can be reached

at jimmym@npgco.com.