The topic is conceal-carry on college campuses and our two nominees for the honor are Mike Thomson (R-Maryville) and Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood).

85 of 89 Republicans voted for the Munzlinger Amendment (Conceal-carry on campuses). 1 of the 4 who was ‘answering e-mails’ during the vote has been noted, and the other 3 were absent. But in the scheme of things, just being a Republican and voting for this is not newsworthy unless something else is out there. After all, they almost all voted for Conceal-Carry in 2003 despite any constituency feelings (some of the Democrats who voted for conceal-carry voted no on the Munzlinger Amendment).

The factors considered include local election trends for the Proposition that Republicans don’t acknowledge and even this Presidential election that was held last November that you may remember.

In the case of Mike Thomson, he obviously represents Northwest Missouri State. Nodaway County voted against Prop B by almost 800 votes (over 13%), the sixth highest percentage of No votes for that initiative. The 551 vote majority given to Prop B in Atchison and Holt counties isn’t enough get Prop B to pass in Thomson’s 4th district (unless there’s something we don’t know about the section of Worth County in the 4th). Mike Thomson is a member of the Budget Committee, and chairman of the Education Appropriations committee. He has won easily twice in 2006 and 2008. And that’ll make someone a bit more willing to walk the line, despite what the district itself may say.

As for the case of Rick Stream, he has won two close elections. He picked up the 94th from Jane Bogetto and retained it against Deb Lavender. But while narrowly losing statewide, Obama won the 94th by a 11600 to 10444 margin (53/47 head to head). Seeing as no Obama/Hulshof jurisdictions exist, one would reasonably guess that Jay Nixon rolled over Kenny Hulshof in Kirkwood. And due to changes in precincts in the last 9 years, there’s not a direct way to match up the 1999 results to a 2009 district. But when one looks at the results for Bonhomme and Missouri River precincts, you see a lot of big 3 digit numbers for No and smaller 3 digit numbers for Yes. There’s also a tragedy that could be brought up in regards to Kirkwood and guns which makes the rubber stamping of this amendment a bad idea on Rick Stream’s part.

So out of a field with potential, a field with Republican suburban representatives voting aye and not thinking twice. This squad of Extraordinary Republicans clearly has two champions for constituency non-representation and those champions are Mike Thomson and Rick Stream. Congrats to them, and if their constituents found out, well, that’ll make things more interesting.