Gene McNary’s son, 43 year old Cole McNary filed today to run for Jane Cunningham’s seat in RD86 (she’s termed out and running for the Senate). Democrat Marty Ott ran for that seat in 2006, and is one of two Dems trying for it this year. Looks like her job just got harder.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is in the run for Maida Coleman’s seat, SD5. (She’s termed out.) Everybody’s been speculating about whether Tom Villa, who’s white, would file against black reps Rodney Hubbard and Robin Wright Jones. He didn’t. But Connie Johnson, who is also African American, did. All three Dems running are termed out of the House.
Thanks to moscout for a tip that Democrat Jill Schupp might pick up a second Republican rival in RD82. Frank Plescia, of Monsanto, filed this afternoon. Terry Frank filed on the first day, but his campaign has been low key, and Republicans apparently want to raise their chances of taking back Sam Page’s seat for the Rs.
What I can tell from Googling Plescia is that he’s an RCGA type whose name makes it into the paper occasionally in connection with Republican fundraisers and such. Those of you who’ve been following state politics longer than I have may be able to tell us more.
Curt Dougherty was joined in the field for HD53 (Eastern Jackson County) today by his wife Susan Dougherty.
The whole thing is confusing to me, but i’m thinkin that Curt Dougherty is stepping aside. Although you would think he would do it today. Dougherty is getting some competition that seems stiffer than the usual competition.
Jim Avery withdrew from his re-election race today and the HD95 race is now Mike Leara (R) v. Alice Geary (D).
Jim Noland didn’t file in CD04, meaning that someone new will face Ike Skelton this November. It’s either Parnell (who lost primaries in 04 and 06), Plough, or Ron Paul supporter Terrazas. And then the nominee will lose to Skelton by at least 35 points.
Daniel Carroll (D-Shelbina) is the other person who will be losing to Jay Nixon in August. Should be fun to see how he does in Shelby County.
I’ll go into this more in a day or so, but 48 Dem seats are uncontested by Republicans, along with 27 Rep seats.
Only two STL county seats were uncontested. Icet’s seat and St. Onge’s open seat.
———-
The only uncontested state Senate Republican: Jack Goodman.
As for Sadeghi/Stouffer.. that’s not entirely a confidence inducing matchup, but it’s a lot better than the Columbia blog noting that Sadeghi won 2% in the 2004 primary. After all, he was running against Tom Marshall, who shared the same home county as him. I think Sadeghi is a professor at MVC too, so maybe that’ll help him out here.
Gaining a majority in the State Senate is a tough task, but i’m not entirely thrilled with Jeff Smith so far on the recruiting front.
Jeff will look a lot better if we hold our seats (SD31/SD19*) and win a seat or two (making it around 18-16 or 19-15). But having strong candidates in SD21 and SD3 would have been nifty.
(* – Seriously, a primary challenge based on the issue of midwifery is unusual. Odds are that money goes into this race in the general, and Graham wins it big anyways.)
Seems hard to believe that we’ve went from 23-11, to being 3 seats and 1 Sam Page away from a majority in about 2 years.
————–
Noel Torpey is back to face Paul LeVota. So expect excessive hype from Torpey, and then LeVota rolls over him by like 20 points. It’s not 2004 anymore and Paul LeVota has gotten the hang of this election thing after losing two state house races and a city council race before winning in 2002.
….told me over the phone:
In the House 136 Democrats and 114 republicans have filed.
18 incumbent Democrats have republican opponents. 48 incumbent republicans have Democratic opponents.
39 incumbent Democrats are without republican opponents. 25 incumbent republicans are without Democratic opponents.
I don’t think Rodney Hubbard is termed out of his present seat.
Joseph D. Gambino is the other democratic canidate of the 86th district and is a native of Northwoods, Missouri, in North St. Louis County. He attended and graduated from Christian Brothers College High School with the class of 1957. While in high school, Gambino entered the U. S. Army Signal Corps as a Field Wire Communications Crewman and in 1961 was re-called for duty during the Berlin crisis as a Cryptographic Operator with Top Secret clearance. He received an Honorable discharge in 1963.
After serving in the military he attended several local colleges here in Missouri, such as Harris Stowe Teacher College, Missouri University – Columbia and Webster University were he majored in Business. He is an active member with the fraternity of Lambda Beta Lambda from Harris Stowe Teacher College.
Gambino has been a resident of Chesterfield for over 30 years. He was a licensed communication contractor for 12 years and was the owner of PAR Telecommunications, Inc. for 15 years. In addition, Gambino holds an active Missouri Real-Estate license as a Broker/Salesman. He worked in Sales and Sales Management with companies such as: Addressograph Multigraph Corp., Xerox Corp. – Midwest, Special Dispatch, Inc., ITT Business Communications Corp. & U. S. Telephone Communications of the Midwest, Inc.
He is an active member of Ascension Church of Chesterfield where he served as an usher for over 20 years was a youth soccer coach with Ascension CYC League. Gambino is a (charter) member with the Knights of Columbus 11139 Council and a 4th Degree Knight.
Gambino is currently working through the IBEW Local #1 union in communications. He lives in Chesterfield with his wife Helen and son Thomas, who is a fraternal member of the Local 1 IBEW Communication Installer with Guarantee Electric. Gambino also has a daughter, Michele Gambino-Coombs, wife of Steven Coombs of Chesterfield and he enjoys his two grandchildren.
Gambino has a strong belief in “FAMILY” values that stem from his mother Iola Murphy- Gambino who enthusiastically followed Democratic Politics, (Normandy Township) and who had a relative that served in the State Capital many years ago.