How do you know when you’ve got an incumbent on the run? When she goes negative on you the last week of the race. Oh sure, sure, her campaign people are all bravado, talking about how Kenny Biermann only came so close in HD17 in St. Charles (295 votes) in ’06 because she wasn’t expecting such a strong challenge. This year–make no mistake about it!–Vicki’s ready!!!!

Mmm-hmmm.

‘T’s not what I hear–from a little birdie named Tommy Roberts, the St. Charles Democratic Central Committee Chairman. Tommy says her ground game is “zero”. She’s got her husband delivering doorknockers this week. All one of him. Kenny, on the other hand, according to Tommy, has been knocking doors like a madman. He has people phonebanking for him every morning and two evenings a week. He’s had upwards of seventy volunteers at a time in the field on a weekend.

They’re getting the word out, not just about Biermann’s concerns regarding jobs, education, and health care, but also, lately, about Vicki charging expensive vacations to San Francisco, New Orleans, and Puerto Rico–$300 a night hotel rooms–to the taxpayers’ dime.

The HDCC even put together a snarky little video about her scammy ways. Biermann can’t afford to put info like that up on the tube, but he’s putting out mailers that explain it all.

So what’s a partyin’ girl to do? Go negative, of course. She’s sending out mailers claiming that Kenny voted, as a school board member, to raise property taxes by twenty percent.

Uh, Vicki? School board members don’t get to impose property tax raises without consulting the voters. That property tax hike was approved by 60 percent of the voters.

She’s also claiming that Kenny advocates raising Missouri taxes by $2.8 billion. She has not a shred of support for that one, just pulled it out of her hip pocket. And finally, Schneider says Biermann is endorsed by “radical left wing groups” because he’s pro-choice. Wrong again. Actually, Biermann is pro-life–though he does believe in protecting the life and health of the mother. What a dirty Commie.

So how does Kenny Biermann plan to fight these last minute lies? He doesn’t. When Tommy showed him the latest Schneider pile of crap, Kenny just giggled and said, “Boy, I really got her backed into a corner now.” And he left to go knock on doors. See, Biermann shares Tommy’s philosophy. Last spring, when Tommy saw his opponent in the aldermanic race in front of his house on the Saturday before the election, ready to canvass in Roberts’ own neighborhood with state rep Mark Parkinson, he knew he had the race won. Only desperate people show up to challenge an opponent that way.

Same with Vicki. She smells desperate.