The Governor’s Ham Breakfast at the Missouri State Fair – 2013

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Billy Long, Clint Zweifel, Dean Dohrman, Jason Kander, Jay Nixon, missouri, Roy Blunt, Russ Carnahan, State Fair, Timothy Jones, Vicky Hartzler

The Governor’s Ham Breakfast at the State Fair is the one annual event that is usually the largest gathering of politicians in Missouri, outside of when the General Assembly is in session. The attendance this year appeared down when compared to last year.

There was no forest of campaign signs (okay, I saw a couple of lonely Tom Schweich (r) yard signs) and no gauntlet of campaign t-shirted volunteers offering to plaster attendees with candidate campaign stickers.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D) and Attorney General Chris Koster (D) did not attend.

We spent some time talking with media people who don’t despise bloggers. Yes, there are a few. And we had the opportunity to talk with some state representatives and a state senator. We asked about the coming override vote on Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of HB 253. We got some interesting responses. It appears that the Democrats believe that if the override vote were held today the Governor’s veto would be sustained. The republicans are telling others in the media that “it’ll be close” but they believe they will have the upper hand.

The buzz is that some wavering republican representatives are receiving pressure from constituents to sustain the Governor’s veto and pressure from republican leadership, facing loss of committee chairmanships, if they do.

School districts and their constituencies have been doing a good job about communicating their displeasure with HB 253. Higher education not so much.

Nope, this wasn’t on the menu, but it was the grand champion cabbage at the Missouri State Fair.

Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander (D).

Senator Roy Blunt (r).

Speaker of the Missouri House, Timothy Jones (r).

State Auditor Tom Schweich (r).

In the parking lot, on a candidate’s vehicle:

Yeah, right, give the base a reason to sit on their hands in the general election.

The Governor’s Ham Breakfast is a convenient opportunity for getting file photographs of Missouri politicians. We take a lot of photographs. Some don’t turn out:

Facial expressions captured via still photography like this happen to everyone. That’s one reason why we take a lot of photographs.

Some do:

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r).

That’s better.

There was a sign posted at the entry this year stating that photography or video recording were forbidden, unless you had a media credential. Maybe someone thought the trackers were getting to be a bit much.

Former Representative Russ Carnahan (D).

Representative Billy Long (r).

State Senator Ron Richard (r).

State Representative Dean Dohrman (r), 51st District.

We spoke with several representatives about the upcoming override of Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of HB 253. We didn’t get to ask Representative Dean Dohrman (r). He voted for the bill in the regular session, thereby screwing school districts and the higher education institutions in or near his district.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) at the breakfast.

At the point during the breakfast that the auction of the champion hams and bacon started under the tent we exited to check out the fair. In the Home Economics Building they were checking in pies for judging.