417 candidates filed today for state and federal offices. 224 Republicans, 170 Democrats, 17 Constitution Party Members, and 6 Libertarians filed. A surprisingly high turnout of Constitution Party candidates (gotta find a way to describe those party members without being too long-worded or vague) and another low turnout for Libertarians on day one. Although 2 Libertarians did file for Lacy Clay’s seat.
14 candidates filed for the US Senate. 3 candidates filed for Auditor. 37 candidates filed for the US House. 39 candidates filed for 17 State Senate seats. 308 candidates filed for 163 State House seats. And 16 candidates filed for Circuit Court spots.
Roy Blunt and Chuck Purgason were joined by 7 other Republicans. These Republicans include Businessman R. L. Proprotnik (who won the first spot on the ballot), unknown James Schmidt, Hector Maldonado (who is in the Army until the end of this month), Kristi Nichols (who poses in front of a flag with some text I can’t read on it), unsuccessful school board candidate Deborah Solomon, small business owner Davis Conway, and Tea Partier Mike Vontz.
Robin Carnahan is being opposed by Francis Vangeli, who is an unknown and has voiced opposition to the Obama/Democratic HCR efforts with a variety of complaints.
Two Constitution Party candidates are dueling for their nomination. Jerry Beck (who ran as a Democrat in previous elections) and contemporary furniture maker Joe Martellaro are filed for that nomination.
Lacy Clay, Todd Akin, Ike Skelton, Jo Ann Emerson, and Blaine Luetkemeyer did not file. And four of those five have primary opponents. Ike Skelton doesn’t have a primary opponent but he has six Republicans running for an their nomination for the 4th.
I have no idea where a random Democrat will emerge first between the 6th District and 9th District. Only a $100 filing fee.
Also worth randomly noting that former Constitution Party candidate Don Griffin is running as a Republican against Sue Allen.
More will be added later on the State House and Senate. Feel free to mention the things that are under the statewide radar.
5 candidates have filed, and I’m hearing a sixth will surface by the last day of filing.
Given right wingnuttia’s vapors over what is considered orthodoxy when it comes to patriotism and patriotic displays, the irony of Kristi Nichols (r) photograph is probably completely missing in her perception. From the Congressional Research Service [pdf]:
Yeah, okay, they also point this out:
Text on the flag from a photograph on Kristi Nichols (r) U.S. Senate campaign web site.
As for a definition of right wingnuttia?:
I believe RBH has finally found a republican U.S. Senate primary candidate worthy of a crossover vote.
* it’s okay if you’re a republican
State Senate
Dem-Held: SD4 (Keaveny), SD10 (Justus), SD16 (Barnitz v. freshman Rep. Dan Brown), SD18 (Shoemyer v. termed-out Rep. Munzlinger), SD22 (McKenna)
Rep-Held: SD2 (Rupp v. Cynthia Davis), SD12 (Lager),
Open: SD6 (4 Repubs), SD8 (3 Repubs), SD14 (4 Dems), SD20 (Repub Jay Wesson and Dem Terry Traw), SD24 (3 Dems and Repub John Lamping), SD26 (3 Repubs and George Weber), SD28 (3 Repubs and a Constitution Party dude), SD30 (Michael Hoeman (D) and Bob Dixon (R)), SD32 (Ron Richard) and SD34 (Martin Rucker (D) and Rob Schaaf (R))
That’s 10 open seats. So it’d take one sad effort to lose even more seats in the Senate in this election.
As for the State House… by my count, 52 of 163 seats are open due to Term Limits. No word on if my count is 100% accurate. But I am not counting a few seats opened by resigning Reps as termed out seats.
Clint Tracy (R-158th) is running for presiding commissioner of Cape Girardeau County after 1 term in the state House.
Kenny Jones is running for the Senate (and his son is running for the House against Constitution Party candidate Jacob Luetkemeyer). The Constitution Party has candidates in the 116th (Ray Herron), 117th (Luetkemeyer), 118th (Curtis Shipman), 119th (Raymond Kish) and 120th (Richard Hoxsey). Hopefully one of the Warrensburg resident Ron Paul supporters will run with one of the two third parties.
And my district has a Constitution Party dude running too. Lucky me.
88 Reps, 74 Dems, 1 open seat
113 seats have a Rep candidate, 110 seats have a Dem candidate (the 2008 totals were 136 seats with a Dem candidate and 115 seats with a Rep candidate)
63 open seats (40 Rep, 23 Dem)
21 of 40 Rep open seats not yet contested by Dems (most in SW MO)
20 seats have 2 or more Dem candidates
37 seats have 2 or more Rep candidates
Districts without a Dem filing on 2/23 which had a Dem in 2008: 3rd (Guernsey), 4th (Thomson), 7th (Lair), 16th (Parkinson), 20th (Riddle), 22nd (open), 34th (Flook), 47th (Grisamore), 62nd (had a candidate in 08, no candidate in 2010 special election), 86th (McNary), 87th (Diehl), 89th (Jones), 92nd (Allen) 93rd (Scharnhorst), 95th (Leara), 99th (open), 109th (Dieckhaus), 113th (open), 114th (open), 125th (Fisher), 126th (open), 132nd (Ruzicka), 135th (Denison), 139th (Schoeller), 141st (open), 143rd (open), 144th (Dugger), 149th (open), 150th (Smith), 156th (Keeney)
It’d be easier to list the districts with no Dem in 2008 and no Dem filing on 2/23/2010
68th (Sater), 84th (open), 88th (Koenig), 106th (Air Tilley), 115th through 117th (Schad, open, open), 127th through 131 (Flanigan, open, open, open, open), 133rd & 134th (open and open), 142nd (Weter), 145th through 148th (open, Pollock, Wells, Day), 151th (open), 157th (open), 158th (open), and 160th (Brandom). Which is 23 seats by my count.
The 4 seats uncontested by Dems in 2008 and already contested are the 119th (open), 140th (open), 153th (open), and 154th (open). Seems to have a common thread. Which should be encouraging for getting close to the 136 seats contested that occurred in 2008.
The current makeup of the House
52 Seniors (termed out members)
34 Juniors (3 terms, will be termed out after 2012)
28 Sophomores (2 terms, termed out after 2014)
48 Freshmen (termed out after 2016)
1 open chair
7 Juniors are dropping out to pursue various things, 3 Freshmen are also opening their seats up (Calloway and Brown running for the Senate, Tracy running for CapeCo Presiding Commissioner). So the number of legislators termed out after 2018 will be huge.
Over/under for 2/24 filings. I think 15 is a good number. There’s just not a lot of activity outside of Congressmen who didn’t file and assorted random people. There’s still a month left here.