I spoke this morning with Representative Rachel Storch (D-64) in her office before the start of the day's activities on the House floor. Our discussion touched on the legislative session, term limits, health care and economic development. And a final question about the Secretary of State's office.
Representative Rachel Storch in her office in the state capitol building.
Show Me Progress: ...Is it just more insane now?
Representative Rachel Storch: Well, it's not so much that it's crazier. It's just that with the term limits we have of these people that don't understand the issues and they don't understand the process, and what's worse, they don't care.
SMP: I've heard this before, people talk about institutional memory. And, is there much institutional memory? Or where does the institutional memory come from if there is any?
Representative Storch: Well, we have one legislator who was here for twelve years before he ran this time, that's Chris Kelly. But, he's the only who's here that has, you know, that extent of knowledge of the process. And, you know, I'll tell you even though people like to make fun of the legislature, make fun of the legislative process, something like the budget is really complicated. And it simply takes time to get your arms around it to understand how that process, to understand what the issues are, to understand the needs of the different state agencies and the different programs around the state. So, you know, I think at the end of the day, the people of Missouri really suffer because the quality of the policy making is not as good...
Some might say that African-American politicians are counting their chickens before they're hatched. Ju-u-st in case Robin Carnahan is the next Senator from Missouri--and isn't that where (all) the smart money is?--a group of black leaders under the leadership of the Rev. Earl Nance, Jr., and state senator Robin Wright-Jones, are looking to get an African-American appointed to the remainder of Carnahan's term as Secretary of State. They're not so much counting unhatched chickens as planting seeds in expectation of a harvest.
It's time and past time for us to have an African-American in statewide office, and this situation would give that person the incumbency advantage in 2012.
Andria Simckes, who ran unsuccessfully against Clint Zweifel for State Treasurer last year, would be my pick. She's smart and savvy. She lost that one, but I knew we hadn't heard the last of her.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - President-elect Barack Obama is planning to nominate at least three key members of his national security team at an event in Chicago, Illinois, on Monday, including Sen. Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, according to two Democratic officials...
Hillary Clinton at the Harkin Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa on September 16, 2007
...The New York Times reports on the lengthy negotiations between Team Obama and Bill Clinton and the 9 preconditions the former President had to meet...
Bill Clinton at Truman High School in Independence, Missouri on January 26, 2008
It's a small price to pay for competence and instant credibility in the eyes of the rest of the world. There's the extra added bonus of right wingnut heads exploding in apoplexy in pockets of America and on AM talk radio.
Andrea Mitchell reported on tonight's NBC evening news broadcast that two individuals close to the transition have stated that Hillary Clinton is under consideration for Secretary of State.
Hillary Clinton at the Harkin Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa in September 2007 and Senator Tom Harkin (D) (right, background).
Since the lege is bringing back the zombie Voter ID bill, I thought I would repost in full a diary I did last summer. Seems relevant and all. -Clark
We dodged a bullet at the end of the last legislative session when Republicans failed to move a new voter ID bill through the Missouri Legislature before the session came to an end. So why bother with another post on the topic? Because we can't sit on our laurels, especially when the "victory" was just running out the clock. Whether it's voter caging, voter purging, or voter ID laws, Republican voter suppression methods are like zombies - they keep coming back until decapitated. So let's revisit what the voter ID bill means for Missouri, before Republicans resurrect it in the special session, or next regular session, or via ballot initiative.
Secretary of State Robin Carnahan and her office did an excellent job of assembling illustrative anecdotes from real people who would be affected if voters were required to present a government-issued ID (we are already required to present some sort of identification), but as they say, the plural of anecdote is not data. They also released an estimate of how many Missouri voters would be disenfranchised by the government ID requirement, which was about 240,000. But I was curious about where in Missouri these voters might live, so I requested a county-by-county breakdown of how many voters would be disenfranchised.
I was curious to see whether most of those affected lived in the big cities, since the elderly, the poor and minorities would be most affected, and the stereotype is that all poverty and people of color are collected in urban areas. Sure enough, in absolute numbers, Kansas City, St. Louis, and St. Louis County rank at the top of the list.
But added together, the outstate counties actually contain more of the potentially disenfranchised voters. Out of 241,682 disenfranchised, only 40,900 live in the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City, and 57,200 live in the suburban counties of Saint Louis and Jackson. The rest live around the state. Greene County alone (where Springfield sits) has 11,787 potentially disenfranchised voters to Jackson County's 10,365 (suburban KC - a population nearly triple that of Springfield.)
It gets a lot worse (illustrated with a map and tables!) below the flip.
