As of thirty days after the primary, Republican state senator LuAnn Ridgeway had $374,000 in her re-election war chest. Her opponent, Sandra Aust, as of the same date, had $130,000. Ouch. Same old, same old. Our gal has the goods, but their gal has the goodies.

Not to worry, says Aust. For someone who’s 144,000 bucks short of parity, she exudes confidence. She believes she’s going to boot that voucher-loving minion of Rex Sinquefield out of Jeff City. She jumps to point that out about Ridgeway, that LuAnn took $100,000 from Sinquefield. Hey, no wonder the Republican is ahead in the money game.

But Sinqufield lucre doesn’t play well in SD 17. Its history is Democratic.

Clay County contains a large chunk of Kansas City, and this particular chunk is a little bit of heaven. The schools are AAA+, and the area, ten minutes from downtown K.C., is one of the fastest growing counties in the country, the fastest growing county in Missouri. Forty percent of its residents didn’t even live here in 2000.

These people love their schools … and Ridgeway sponsored–not voted for, sponsored–voucher legislation. What the … ?! How did she even sneak into office? Aust says Ridgeway’s election in 2004 was a fluke, just one of those weird Republican years when a district that usually goes Democratic voted for Matt Blunt and George Bush. Ridgeway got past Philip Willoughby 52.8 percent to 47.2 percent.

But the folks in SD 17 are usually moderate to progressive. They voted for Claire over Talent, for stem cell research, for the tobacco tax, and–by 76 percent–for the minimum wage increase. They went for Democratic governors in three out of the last four contests. So Aust is looking at the history of the district and saying that these voters are ready to come to their senses.  

Aust is part of a team of campaigners who are coaxing voters to return to the Democratic fold. The coordinated campaign, with a cadre of volunteers, works for Obama, Nixon, Barnes, Aust, and state rep candidates Josh Reed and Terry Stone. Aust says that Jay Nixon has commented more than once that Clay County has the best Democratic committee and organization of any county in the state.

Sandra gets wound up about the Democratic message. She’s a nurse, one of five running for the legislature this year, and she has ideas about how to save money in our health care system. She cites a health care company that did a two-year study in the late nineties on caring for pneumonia patients in their homes instead of for 11-14 days in the hospital. Every patient who was treated at home was healed and had no recurrence of the disease. Not only did that save thousands of dollars per patient, but patients weren’t at risk for the secondary infections people commonly pick up in hospitals. A program like that, which could serve as a model for treating other diseases, saved tens of thousands of dollars. As a senator, she would encourage such programs, thus saving many Medicaid dollars as well as saving money when people’s hospital benefits run out and the rest of us end up taking up the slack.

Aust wants more nurse based clinics and nurse practitioners in under served areas, and figures that if all five candidates who are nurses win and if Sam Page, a physician, can snag the Lt. Gov.’s seat, those kinds of solutions will stand a chance.

When you listen to her sounding off, you know you’re hearing a practiced campaigner. Except she’s not. She’s never run for office before. You read that right. She has served on the Parks Board in Kansas City under Mayor Barnes, where she gained experience in governance, learning about balancing a budget and contracting for new roads. She was treasurer and outreach coordinator for the MO Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, fundraising and traveling to nooks and crannies of the state most of us haven’t heard of, preaching the facts about stem cell research.

So Aust isn’t light on experience, just new to being a candidate. But she takes to it like an old hand.

If gaining another senate seat appeals to you, go drop some change in the kitty for Sandra Aust.