Mike Burke, a Kansas City mayoral candidate and former city councilman from the Northland, said the first few months of his campaign met his expectations.

I just got off the phone with the Northlander, who stayed on the offensive whenever Mayor Mark Funkhouser was brought up during the interview. For example, Burke said if he was elected in 2011 he would "take all the drama out of the mayor's office" and that the "constant bickering" on the 29th floor of City Hall wasn't good for the city.

Financially speaking, Burke had a good quarter. We chatted at length about his early fundraising success.

With only one planned fundraiser in the books in the final quarter of 2009, Burke raised $30,865 in monetary contributions. After an additional $3,313 in in-kind contributions and a $23,000 loan to his campaign from his own wallet, Burke had $49,235.33 on hand at the close of the quarter (after a few expenses thrown in).

That's compared to Funkhouser, who raised exactly $300 last quarter. I asked Burke if he thought it was a big deal that the mayor had only raised $300 and had $1,364 on hand at the end of 2009, according to figures from the Missouri Ethics Commission. After all, Funkhouser is probably fairly busy being mayor. Funkhouser might not be totally focused on fundraising right now.

Burke didn't buy my reasoning.

"It is unheard of for an incumbent elected official of that level not to have a war chest at this stage," he said.

I'm writing a full story for the Thursday, Feb. 11 edition of the Sun Tribune, so stay tuned.