By Jake Wagman

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS — There should not be any doubt who St. Louis’ Republican establishment is supporting in the race for state auditor.

The Ladue branch at least.

On Sunday evening, GOP auditor candidate Tom Schweich was feted at a Ritz-Carlton fundraiser thrown by former U.S. Sen. Jack Danforth; Republican super donor and former ambassador to Belgium Sam Fox; and George H. “Bert” Walker, former ambassador to Hungary and kin to President Bush 41 and 43.

The event — with a price tag of up to $2,500 a couple — featured a special guest: yet another former ambassador, John Bolton, who represented the U.S. at the United Nations from 2005 to 2006.

All of the diplomatic ties makes sense.

Schweich worked for both the United Nations and the State Department in the second Bush administration. He was also chief of staff to Danforth’s special Waco investigation.

Now a law school “ambassador in residence” at Washington University — which features a campus named for the Danforths and a school named for Fox — Schweich will certainly have a tidy reserve of funds to take on his GOP primary opponent, Wildwood State Rep. Allen Icet.

But the question is whether Schweich’s venerable Republican supporters will be able to help where it counts — with voters.