The battle between Rodney Hubbard and Robin Wright-Jones ranks among the nastiest in memory. And I’m not talking about the sign wars hotflash posted about previously. Nor am I talking about the hard-hitting mailers from each campaign and their allies.

First off, a racist flier was circulated without attribution in South Saint Louis. The flier described Rodney Hubbard as a thug, Republican, deadbeat dad, Muslim, and so on. You can see it for yourself here. Undoubtedly, this swung votes to Wright-Jones and depressed turnout for Hubbard, and it was delivered to an area where it would have the most impact. For their part, both Robin Wright-Jones and her campaign manager Glenn Burleigh denied that their campaign had anything to do with the creation, design, production, or dissemination of the flier. Burleigh himself said that the fliers “smacked of racism”. Burleigh told me the Wright-Jones campaign was concerned that the flier would hurt them, rather than Hubbard, by causing a backlash. Some of their supporters voiced their suspicion that the Hubbard campaign might have come up with the flier in order to do just that. That doesn’t really make sense, though, because in order to gain sympathy in a backlash, you’d actually have to spread the attacks pretty far, and it would take time, money, and effort to stoke outrage over the fliers and produce a backlash. The fliers were distributed too close to the election for that to happen.

I’ve asked a couple of people in the Hubbard campaign exactly how they came by these fliers, and to produce evidence that Wright-Jones’ campaign had something to do with them, and so far, no response. Still, whoever produced the flier, there’s a good chance Wright-Jones won because of them, as the margin of victory was only 111 votes, and more than one thousand fliers were produced.

More, including Hubbard’s alleged transgressions, below the flip.

As bad as that nasty flier is, it’s nothing compared to what Robin Wright-Jones’ campaign manager Glenn Burleigh alleges about the Hubbard campaign’s activities in the hours leading up to the primary.

According to Burleigh, Hubbard’s campaign took a page out of the New Hampshire Republicans. The Hubbard campaign allegedly jammed Robin’s GOTV program by repeatedly calling the phone number publicly listed for getting rides to the polls, tying up the line so that legitimate callers couldn’t get through. They also supposedly repeatedly called the cell phones of Robin and her senior staff so that they could not communicate effectively on Election Day. And finally, during their final GOTV push, Robin supporters told volunteers that they had been informed by the Hubbard campaign that the polls had been moved to Wednesday because of the heat advisory on Election Day.

I want to note that I haven’t seen substantiation of any of the above charges. But I’m bringing them up even after the conclusion of the primary because this type of crap does not belong in Democratic politics, and I hope that, if true, those responsible never work in politics again. Let’s leave dirty tricks to the GOP.

Democrats in the city of St. Louis and in the fifth senatorial district in particular are fighting each other. Rodney Hubbard and Robin Wright-Jones are duking it out for the senatorial nomination, which is to say, for the whole ball of wax in the fifth, because no Republican has filed. (Why would one bother in the city?)

Robin is progressive right down the line. Rodney is … not. I’ll skip all the gossip about parking space and office space and who hangs with whom in the capitol, in favor of focusing on money, issues, and accomplishments.  

From 2007 to the present, Rodney accepted $38,000 from Republican billionaire Rex Sinquefield. And what did Mr. Sinquefield get for his money? He got Rodney’s vote in favor of vouchers and another in favor of lifting campaign contribution limits. Rodney will tell you that he’d have voted that way in any case, that those were votes of conscience.

That may be. But they’re not votes we expect from a Democrat. Nor are they the only votes that should concern progressives. Starting with Rodney’s vote to sell off MOHELA assets in 2007, ProVote lists several troubling stands in his record.    

In fact, his record is so troubling that ALEC named Hubbard one of four legislators of the year in 2007. And why would an award for being a good legislator be troubling? Click over to the ALEC site and see for yourself, from Bush’s grinning mug all over the front page through photos of Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich. When you reach page nine, you’ll see a picture of Rodney with the other three award winners for that year and you can read why ALEC chose him:

Rep. Hubbard voted for Tort Reform, Workers’ Compensation reform, and a Quality Jobs Act. He also helped develop and co-sponsor the Milton Friedman Put Parents in Charge Act.

Whaddaya know, those are some of the very votes Pro-Vote rated negatively.

Despite Perhaps because of his unprogressive attitudes, Hubbard has been raking in the campaign contributions–not just from Sinquefield but also from developer Paul McKee (more on his eminent domain grabs within the week) and from supporters of Mayor Slay. So far, Rodney’s taken in $291,000 for this election and spent $141,000 (versus Robin’s $62,000 taken in and $33,000 spent). To give him his due, he is also a hard worker and a smart campaigner.

The heart of his campaign is his claim that he brings home the bacon for his district. This year the legislature appropriated $2 million for a re-entry program to help ex-convicts find jobs. Rodney issued a press release claiming the credit for getting that passed. Of course, Jamilah Nasheed, who was on the Budget Committee that it went through, also issued a press release claiming credit.

Considering the competing press releases, it’s not easy to say who deserves the credit. (And by the way, Margaret Donnelly, a member of the Budget Committee, also begged for the funds.) But Rodney’s claim is bolstered by Allen Icet, the Republican Chair of the Budget Committee, who asserted that the funds were in because Rodney had asked for them–and, by the way, that Democrats shouldn’t ask for anything else.

Sounds like that settles it. Icet ought to know whose entreaty swayed him. Except … I wonder why Icet did Rodney such a favor. Was it Hubbard’s winning personality? Or was it that Icet wanted to boost Rodney’s chances in this election so that the Republicans would have an ally in the Senate for the next four years?

Whatever the case, other than the re-entry bill, Rodney’s legislative accomplishments are slim. This year for example, only one bill that he co-sponsored passed. That bill, HB2058, was an economic stimulus package with … wait for it … 102 bi-partisan co-sponsors. Along with the sponsor, then, Hubbard gets 1/103rd of the credit.

He can rightly claim some power in the legislature, however.  Of the 63 House committees, only three are headed by Democrats: T.D. El-Amin is Vice Chair of the Special Committee on Urban Issues, Ted Hoskins (another African-American beneficiary of Sinquefield money and proponent of the voucher system) chairs the Special Committee on Urban Education Reforms, and Rodney Hubbard chairs the Special Committee on Urban Issues.

Rodney Hubbard, then, has obtained some power in the Republican-controlled House even though he’s a member of the minority party, but one is hard pressed to see how he has used it to benefit his community. The re-entry program might be mostly his doing. Beyond that … he gets a shrug. And a rap on the knuckles for voting to lift campaign finance limits and voting for vouchers.

But don’t let my emphasis on those votes and on his ALEC award mislead you, because even when you take that downside into consideration, Rodney still got an 87 percent positive rating from Pro-Vote (to Robin’s 100 percent rating). He is a Democrat. Mostly.    

Following up on last week’s news of 5th Senate district candidate (and current House Democratic Whip) Connie Johnson’s possible residency problems, the St. Louis American’s Political Eye has some backstory that connects the story to Johnson’s frosty relationship with Firefighters Local 73.

If you haven’t been following this story, documents have just surfaced that cast doubt on Connie Johnson maintaining a legal residence within her current House district, let alone the Senate seat she aspires to. And by “just surfaced”, I mean right after Johnson filed at the last minute for a run at the 5th District seat, somebody sent a packet of documents pertaining to her residence to several local media outlets. The campaigns of Connie Johnson’s opponents in the race, Rodney Hubbard and Robin Wright-Jones, have both denied involvement.

More below the flip.

Photo of Connie Johnson speaking at 2007 Take Back America Conference courtesy of Progressive Majority Flickr page.

In the American’s version of the story, Johnson rented out some portion of her house to a firefighter named William Keys (one of the few African American members of Firefighters Local 73), a housing arrangement that went sour when Keys allegedly did not pay $3000 in overdue rent. Keys apparently shopped the residence information to Local 73 in advance of Johnson’s candidate sit-down with the local. An interesting tangent to the story is that Local 73 supported Keys when then-Chief Sherman George tried to have Keys fired for not having a valid driver’s license, (it’s a job requirement for all firemen), and the sit-down with Local 73 resulted in Johnson’s refusal to accept an endorsement, should one even be offered, because of Sherman George’s ouster.

This new story just adds some more dimensions to an already murky situation. Did the local get bad info from a member and confront Johnson with it, erupting into a spat at the sit-down? Or did she broach the Sherman George situation at the meeting, and the local thought they had an ace up their sleeve with the residency card? Or was somebody else responsible for the oppo research?

As far as the effect of Johnson’s residency on the race, I don’t see why she would lose purely on the basis of this story, as long as she’s not disqualified. How many people remembered on the day of the 2006 primary in the 4th that Jeff Smith had just moved back from New Hampshire the year before to establish residence in the district? Even with his rivals reminding voters, Jeff Smith lapped the field. So as an accomplished politician and lawyer, it’s certainly not inconceivable that Johnson could overcome this. More problematic for her is the fact that her rivals have a huge headstart in endorsements and cash on hand, especially Rodney Hubbard.