C071320 02/28/2016 SCHMITT FOR MISSOURI Orville J Middendorf #29 Zinzer Ct St Louis MO 63123 Retired 2/26/2016 $5,001.00
C071320 02/28/2016 SCHMITT FOR MISSOURI Lodging Hospitality Management 111 Westport Plaza St Louis MO 63146 2/26/2016 $15,000.00
[emphasis added]
Well, they are from Missouri.
It’s not like it’s going to make that much of a difference (via the Missouri Ethics Commission):
C071320: Schmitt For Missouri
Committee Type: Candidate
Po Box 220722 Party Affiliation: Republican
Kirkwood Mo 63122 Established Date: 10/12/2007
[….]
Information Reported On: 2016 – January Quarterly Report
Beginning Money on Hand $1,957,679.18
Monetary Receipts + $185,067.68
Monetary Expenditures – $33,945.22
Contributions Made – $5,045.26
Other Disbursements – $0.00
Subtotal $146,077.20
Ending Money On Hand $2,103,756.38
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
From the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. That little black dot at the lower left in the image is a “stinger” allegedly deployed for crowd control outside the perimeter by the LAPD on the first night of the convention.
The stakes are the same. The environment may be a little different.
Sixteen years ago I was elected at the congressional district level as a national delegate pledged to vote to nominate Al Gore at the Democratic National Convention. I had been active in the party for years and, like everyone else who wanted to be a delegate, ran a campaign on my behalf to convince other county level delegates (over 100, if I recall correctly) to elect me. I was successful, but it wasn’t easy nor was the outcome assured.
I spent a lot of time on the floor of the convention (the Missouri delegation had center front seats, right behind the Tennessee delegation) and had plenty of opportunity to watch and interact with old media – broadcast and print.
On one of the evenings before Al Gore’s acceptance speech a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Dennis Farney, was interviewing Missouri delegates, asking, as I recall, what Al Gore had to say in his speech to convince us that he could convince others and anyone who was listening to support his candidacy [my interpretation of the questions]. I remember thinking, “What the @&%#? We’re all Gore delegates, he doesn’t have to convince us of anything.” So, I edged over and started talking at the reporter. I told him that I thought most people weren’t paying attention yet and that when they did they’d get it. I told him that I grew up in Arizona and that we had a saying about people like George W. Bush, “He’s all hat, and no cattle.” This is what ran in the paper on Friday morning:
Wall Street Journal, August 17, 2000, A24, “Missouri Delegation has One Hope for Gore: Show the Real Man”, Dennis Farney.
…Delegates from Missouri, the Show-Me State have a direct but difficult expectation of Al Gore when he speaks tonight…
[….]
‘All Hat and No Cattle’
…”Then people will realize that Bush is all hat and no cattle,” predicts Michael Bersin…
[….]
“Difficult?” Yeah, he wrote that.
After the 2000 and 2004 elections the media landscape changed dramatically. Sure, The Faux News Channel still has a sizeable and steady (though demographically challenging) viewership, but in comparison to 2000 and 2004 there is now a wider variety and greater number of new media resources providing information to counter what was then part of the dominant conventional wisdom.
That’s why we exist.
Does anyone believe that Hillary Clinton’s or Bernie Sander’s candidacies would have survived the 2000 or 2004 media environment? It does remain to be seen about 2016. But the world has changed – just a bit. It’s more difficult now for the right to sling bullshit and for old media stenographers to uncritically repeat it.
And that’s why we’ll continue to do what we do. The stakes are high. They always are.
Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission, from another familiar big dollar contributor and for a now familiar political action committee:
C151174 02/25/2016 COMMITTEE FOR ACCOUNTABLE GOVERNMENT IN MISSOURI Sarah Atkins 4713 Rock Springs Rd Arlington VA 22207 TAMKO Building Products Consultant 2/25/2016 $250,000.00
[emphasis added]
The PAC has taken in $500,000.00 in the last two days. The questions are if and how it’ll use the money to punish supposed republican heretics.
![Catherine Hanaway (r) [2014 file photo].](https://i0.wp.com/showmeprogress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/img_6147x1a1b2c3d4i9h8.jpg?ssl=1)
