Jake Zimmerman gave up his safe Democratic seat (65 DPI) in the House when he got elected St. Louis County Assessor last spring. Now a little war has broken out among Democrats about which of two candidates should claim the seat. The problem is that perhaps neither of them will if the battle persists.
The Democratic committeemen in that district voted to give the nomination to Jeff O’Connell. He’s got plenty of Democratic street cred–he’s been on the City Council, been a committeeman, and served as a business agent for Laborers Local 42. There’s been some sniggering, though, over some ethics problems having to do with unpaid fines. Seems that at one time, when O’Connell ran for another office, the Missouri Ethics Committee disagreed with an item on one of his reports and fined him. O’Connell disagreed with their decision and refused to pay the fine. The MEC doesn’t have any power to make people pay fines unless the person decides to run for something else. When O’Connell was selected by the Dems in his district to be the candidate for the Dem Party for the seat in HD 83, he had to pay off the fine which was ten times more because he hadn’t paid it when he was supposed to. The original fine was $300. What O’Connell paid then, out of his own pocket, was $3,000. End of story.
But Tracy McCreery, who narrowly missed getting the nod for the Democratic spot on the ticket, plans to run against O’Connell as an Independent. McCreery is well respected by local progressives for her stint in Gov. Holden’s administration and as an administrative aide to Sen. Joan Bray. Quite a few of them vow they will work for her.
The question of whether her candidacy flirts with handing the election to the Republican arose vividly at the Saturday MOPAG meeting.
The speaker for the day was the head of the House Progressive caucus, Stacy Newman, and she defended McCreery’s candidacy. First, she said that the same Republican ran against Zimmerman in 2010, spent little money and didn’t bother knocking on doors. He got 35 percent. How, in a year when few voters will even know that there is an election for the seat in that district, will the Republican turn out 35 percent of the voters? That was Newman’s question. It’s unlikely, she asserted, that the party would invest any money in informing Republican voters about him in a district that always goes to the Democrat.
Furthermore, said Newman, McCreery, as a lawyer, is articulate and would be invaluable in the House. With only 57 Democrats in a 163 member chamber, the Ds have virtually no real power. But they can stand at the mics on the floor and argue their case–and sometimes win converts. Some of the Democrats never do that. They’re not really fighting the fight. McCreery would. She’d be persistent and persuasive. As a lawyer, she is used to arguing her point of view and not likely to be intimidated by any legal arguments from the other side of the aisle.
After Newman had her say on the contest, Jon Boesch, who runs campaigns for Democrats–most recently for Charlie Dooley in his successful reelection bid for St. Louis County Executive–rose to warn the audience that the situation is dangerous. Boesch isn’t working for O’Connell, but that doesn’t keep him from having a strong opinion: to wit, that McCreery’s candidacy stands too good a chance of handing the election to the Republican. True, it would only be for a year. Next year, the Democrat would win it back. But in the meantime, this Republican isn’t just a Republican. He’s Tea Party. And our veto proof margin is razor thin. Suppose the Republican party sees the opportunity. Just consider the math. If O’Connell and McCreery divide the Dem votes evenly, they each get 32 1/2 percent. But if the Rs dump some money for mailing to turn out Republican voters, their guy might get 35 percent and take the prize. That could make the difference in upholding an important veto next session.
Jeff O’Connell spoke next. He challenged the audience to find anyone more progressive than he is, and he described the danger of McCreery’s candidacy:
So here’s the question: is it worth the risk of losing our veto proof majority to have someone in that seat who would be an effective spokesperson for our causes on the House floor? That’s what it boils down to.
read Gloria Bilchik at Occasional Planet. She takes a definite stand for McCreery and plans to canvass for her. Bilchik feels so strongly that the committee process which chose O’Connell was unfair that she doesn’t even bother to name him in her posting, focusing only on the woman she wants elected.
address the abstract question of where one should throw one’s support, I believe that there was a selection process. And Mcreery lost – no matter how great a progressive she is, no matter what was in play with “weighted votes” etc., she lost a contest in a situation in which nobody hid the rules (to my knowledge), and now she’s set to be a spoiler. And she knows just what’s at risk. Tells me all I need to know about her.
On the other hand, O’Connell may not be a ball of fire, but he won out in the selection process and his positions on must issues that matter to me seem at least OK. That is (or will be) all I would need to know about him.
The time for talking about which of these people should be the preferred candidate is past – although it may come again next year. Although if Democrats loose this seat thanks to McCreery’s candidacy, and if it were up to me in way, I’d hold that against her then too.
“How, in a year when few voters will even know that there is an election for the seat in that district, will the Republicans turn out 35 percent of the voters”? That was Newman’s question.
The fact that 2 Democrats are running and will split the vote is eactly why the Republicans could get 35% of the vote and win the seat. True we should win it back in 2012 but it will cost precious resources and we would lose the vote for the coming session. Stacey Newman should understand this. Either she does not or she does and is insulting our inteligence by assuming that we don’t. Either way it’s unforgiveable.
By the way, to those (including Stacey) who think it’s unfair that O’Connell was selected by a committee I pose a question. Do you remember how Stacey Newman was first selected to run for MO House? That’s right, she was chosen by a handful of people to fill a vacancy. Funny none of her buddies had a problem with it then.
By the way, why was Tracy not speaking for herself?
I knew Tracy McCreery from when she was an aide to Sen. Joan Bray, and supported her later financially, as I recall, when she ran for election as a candidate herself, so I’m sympathetic to her wanting to run.
At the same time, I agree with Jo Etta’s assessment that her running as an Independent and possibly letting the Republican candidate win the seat is just insupportable and would just damage Tracy’s credibility.
I think she would be better advised to drop the idea, however hard that might be for her to do.
I do not know O’Connell or McCreery, but I don’t need to know them to understand that we are facing a war of an election EVERYWHERE in 2012. As much as our two party system is flawed, too much is at stake for us to assume that any district is solid blue or red. IMO, we support third party challenges at the state (or national) level at our peril.
I am advised that I made two factual errors in the posting. First, McCreery is not an attorney. Indeed, Stacy Newman didn’t say that she was. Newman described how effective Rep. Jean Peters Baker had been–because she was at the mic more than she was in her seat and because, as an attorney, she was not easily intimidated. I assumed wrongly that Newman hoped for the same kind of behavior if McCreery is elected because she is, like Baker, an attorney.
Second, the Missouri Ethics Commission fined O’Connell $3,000. If he had paid immediately, he would only have had to pay $300. Since he didn’t, he was liable for the full fine.
O’Connell did serve on the Overland City Council, but he lost his most recent bid for that seat.
We may not like the system by which central committee members chose a candidate to run in a special election, but it is what it is. Tracy knew that. Yes, there may be hard feelings among some of the committee members and maybe Tracy and Jeff were both caught in that personal rancor.
I originally sent a donation to Tracy, but then learned about the demographics of the 83rd and am supporting Jeff. Tracy has waited this long to run, and she could have taken the high road and waited until next year’s primary.
Of course I’ll be glad when either Jeff or Tracy wins. I just hope it’s one of them and not the Repug.
Let’s clarify who is the Democratic spoiler in the 83rd district race: Tracy McCreery filed her campaign organization on January 9th, and publicly began working very hard to retain this seat for the Democrats. At that time she contacted all the committee people and shared her intent to run. She has built an inclusive campaign and raised the money to hold this seat. She has the support of many, many elected Democrats, past & present, and many progressive organizations.
Flash forward many months, to August, and Jeff O’Connell decides to throw his hat into the ring. Of course Jeff votes for himself, as does his co-committee person from Midland, as is their right. With those 2 heavily-weighted votes, 3 out of 10 votes were enough to give O’Connell the dem spot on the ballot. Tracy didn’t jump in after that — SHE’S BEEN RUNNING ALL YEAR!
The real question is — does the committee selection process truly pick the person who best represents the district?
I am new to this site, but I came here looking for a place to post my distress about Tracy McCreery splitting the progressive vote. I posted a diary about it, but am not familiar with the site enough to know how to get it seen.
Basically a woman came to my house handing out McCreery literature a few weeks ago and never mentioned that she was running against the Democratic candidate. She just said McCreery was a pro-choice Democrat running to fill Jake Zimmerman’s seat. Which sounded good to me, until I learned more about it.
I’m pro-choice and a support of Planned Parenthood and NARAL, but I cannot for the life of me understand why they’re choosing this tactic which is so destructive and damaging to this borderline state.