Another sign that there’s not much left of the Missouri republican party these days other than whining:

Attention Republicans

…Avoid Garden City at all costs. GOP turncoat Chris Benjamin is now a judge there…

…A partisan hack Democrat Judge with no credentials…

Uh, getting a law degree and passing the bar exam aren’t credentials? Partisan hack? Project much? By the way, it’s the Democratic Party. And yes, we did welcome him with open arms:

Chris Benjamin – another switch to the Democratic Party

It appears that republicans are still a might touchy about that. At the time they weren’t very happy campers:

Chris Benjamin’s switch to the Democratic Party – the republicans strike back, sort of

You would think that republicans would be paying attention to a few other pressing issues these days.

Chris Benjamin (D) and David Pearce (r – advocate of automotive deer hunting), the two candidates for the open seat in the 31st Senate District, have had groups sending a lot of mail.

A nice, positive, Democratic mail piece in support of a candidate with the right qualifications for tough times:

Working families paid for this positive piece.

Same day, same photo, nasty republican mail piece, just for contrast.:

Paid for by the Missouri republican state committee – the usual suspects.

Here’s the “B” side of the republican mailing:

Yeah, right. A shill for banking PACs and a rubber stamp for the republican leadership in the General Assembly is looking after the little guy. Give us a break. And you’d think he’d get a new tie at this stage of the campaign.

Meanwhile, in the 121st Legislative District race, we also received this positive piece on behalf of Jim Jackson (D) from Working Families. Hmmm. Another candidate with the right qualifications for tough times.

See, Denny Hoskins (r – “noun, verb, CPA”), how an independent mailer that’s positive can work for a candidate?

Previously, on Show Me Progress:

David Pearce (r) in the 31st Senate District: his GOP enablers have chutzpah!

Look who’s paying for this. Again:

Yep, repeat the stupidity enough and hope no one pays attention to reality. Well, we did [pay attention to the reality]. David Pearce (r – advocate of automotive deer hunting actually voted for the healthcare cuts – and the Missouri republican party celebrated it. Attacking your opponent for something you did, now that’s chutzpah!

Now this is republican arrogance. “Confidence in state government” is equated with the legal problems of the Missouri republican party? That’s rich.

Here’s the case cited in the mailing:

04CV130560 – THOMAS GREEN V MISSOURI REPUBLICAN STATE COM

GREEN , THOMAS , Plaintiff     represented by     CARMICHAEL , JAMES E , Attorney for Plaintiff

…SAINT CHARLES,MO…

MISSOURI REPUBLICAN STATE COMITTEE , Defendant    

ANN WAGNER, CHAIRMAN MO REPUBL

STATE COMMITTEE

204 EAST DUNKLIN

JEFFERSON CITY, MO 65101

Just to spell it out for you, the folks sending the mailing are the enablers of the folks who were sued (and then settled). Chutzpah!

This is a joke, right? “Anti-gun radicals” in the 31st Senate District? Who are these idiots trying to fool. It’s embarrassing. Really. The desperation just smells.

You all know what to do: Chris Benjamin (D)

The “B” side.

It’s her! Hillary! Where’s Obama?

There’s going to be a lot more like this. The republican way – throw crap against the wall and hope something, anything, sticks. The republican campaign mode is just like their governing mode – laughably stupid and incompetent, except that some good people suffer…

The graphics would make a good movie poster for a Sergio Leone western…

Who paid for this? The usual suspects:

Additional concrete proof that the Missouri republican party is completely irony impaired:

There’s an itty bitty tiny teeny footnote which refers to SB 539 in the 2005 session of the Missouri General Assembly. Let’s look at the Journal of the House [pdf] for April 7, 2005 (page 935):

…On motion of Representative Stefanick, SS SB 539 was truly agreed to and finally passed by the following vote:

AYES: 089

Avery Baker 123 Bearden Behnen Bivins

Brown 30 Bruns Byrd Chinn Cooper 120

Cooper 155 Cooper 158 Cunningham 145 Cunningham 86 Davis

Day Deeken Dempsey Denison Dethrow

Dixon Dusenberg Emery Ervin Faith

Fares Fisher Flook Franz Goodman

Guest Hobbs Hunter Icet Jackson

Johnson 47 Jones Kelly Kingery Lager

Lembke Lipke Loehner May McGhee

Moore Munzlinger Muschany Myers Nieves

Nolte Parson Pearce Phillips Pollock

Portwood Pratt Quinn Rector Richard

Roark Robb Ruestman Rupp Sander

Sater Schaaf Schad Schlottach Self

Smith 118 Smith 14 Stefanick St. Onge Sutherland

Threlkeld Tilley Viebrock Wallace Wasson

Wells Weter Wilson 119 Wilson 130 Wood

Wright 137 Wright 159 Yates Mr Speaker

[emphasis added]

What’s that you say? David Pearce (r – advocate of automotive deer hunting) actually voted to “…cut healthcare funding for our most vulnerable citizens…”

Yep. You got it. The Missouri republican party paid for a mail piece attacking Chris Benjamin (D) for something the Missouri republican party advocates and for which David Pearce (r), their chosen candidate, accommodatingly voted.

That’s chutzpah.

The “B” side of the mail piece.

The best definition of chutzpah? Murdering your parents then asking for leniency from the court because you’re an orphan…

David Pearce (r – advocate of automotive deer hunting) has the benefit of the republican Majority Fund, Inc. to continue his whining for him in the open seat race with Chris Benjamin (D) in the 31st Senate District.

First, the Majority Fund’s republican benefactors, via the Missouri Ethics Commission [pdf]:

That $25,000.00 ain’t for pizza to feed the three volunteers at the local republican headquarters.

What, say you, Matt “baby” Blunt has his fingers and money in this stuff? Say it ain’t so. And, as Master Yoda once said, “There is another…” [pdf] That’s an additional $25,000.00 from the carcass of the Blunt campaign.

And what hath all that republican establishment money wrought? A nasty attack piece! It came in yesterday’s mail:

Paid for by:

Shall we untangle the little web they weave and play “Six Degrees of Jeff Roe”?:

Via the Missouri Ethics Commission:

Detailed Summary of Expenditures And Contributions Made

Committe[e]: MAJORITY FUND INC

Report[ ]Date: 10/13/2008

C. MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS MADE (REGARDLESS OF AMOUNT)

NAME AND ADDRESS OF CANDIDATE OR COMMITTEE Date Amount

Pearce 08 Warrensburg, MO 64093-7566 09/15/2008 $10,000.00 Monetary

[emphasis added]

And from the same section of the same filing:

Axiom Strategies LLC Kansas City, MO 09/30/2008 push cars [sic] $3,600.00 Paid

[emphasis added]

There’s a certain irony for the typo as it applies to David Pearce. Okay, so it’s “One Degree of Jeff Roe”.

Let us continue with the attack piece:

A volatile mix of the republican cult of victimization and excessive hyperbole, anyone?

Uh, David, how does leaving the republican party because of its bankrupt policies have anything to do with “the public trust”? The sense of outraged entitlement is touching. Is that like Mel Brooks in the History of the World, part 1 looking at the audience and saying, “It’s good to be the King”? The only people still remaining in the republican party are the right wing nut jobs and the opportunists hoping to grab up a few of the leftover scraps. Did I just write that out loud?

Further evidence of republican irony impairment.

Uh, is it me, or did they just accuse Chris Benjamin of doing in the past what they’re now doing in this mailing? Just asking.

David Pearce (r – advocate of automotive deer hunting) is going negative in his mail. We received the following piece today:

Apparently the Missouri GOP thinks David Pearce is not a politician. Though it’s very clear to me that he seriously sucks at math and economics. The current economic crises (under the watch of which administration?) is exacerbated by what? As if 516 trillion dollars in derivatives didn’t exist and have nothing to do with screwing the economy and us. Evidently David Pearce and the Missouri GOP is counting on everyone else being stoopid. Same planet, different world, eh David?

And there’s that damn ugly tie again.

David Pearce and his enablers spent upwards of a quarter million dollars on his primary and they can’t change ties in a photo shoot?

By the way, Chris Benjamin (D) is a much nicer guy than your mailer picture indicates, David. And he’s a much better politician and smarter public servant than you will ever be:

Chris Benjamin, Democratic candidate in the 31st Senate District, speaking with volunteers prior to the Chilhowee parade on August 30th.

The candidates running for the open senate seat in the 31st District – David Pearce (r – advocate of automotive deer hunting) and Chris Benjamin (D) –  filed their 30 day after the primary election campaign finance reports.

We’ve covered this race in previous posts:

31st Senate District – 8 day before primary election reports

31st Senate District – second quarter campaign finance reports

31st Senate District – first quarter campaign finance reports

We’ve also covered a few other things about this race. All you have to do is search for “31st” in the column on the right. That way —->. Everything we’ve previously done on the subject will show. I highly recommend the mail!

Let’s take a look at the state of David Pearce’s (r) campaign coffers, via the Missouri Ethics Commission:

The report was filed on September 3rd.

Detailed Summary of Committee Disclosure Report

Committe[e]: PEARCE 08

1. TOTAL RECEIPTS FOR THIS ELECTION PREVIOUSLY REPORTED $229,692.00

2. ALL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED THIS PERIOD $33,420.00

15. TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS ELECTION (SUM 10B + 14A) $246,202.04

28. MONEY ON HAND AT THE CLOSE OF THIS REPORTING PERIOD (SUM 25 + 26 – 27) $66,712.89

35. TOTAL INDEBTEDNESS AT THE CLOSE OF THIS REPORTING PERIOD

(SUM 29 + 30 + 31 – 32 – 33 – 34) $94,239.76

[emphasis added]

Oh my. That was one expensive primary. Heh. He could have run for Governor of Alaska – it’s about the same amount of money. And he’s got the “right” ideology.

Contributions?:

Detailed Summary of Contributions And Loans Received

Committee: PEARCE 08

Report Date: 9/3/2008

23rd Senatorial District Republican Committee – PRIMARY St. Charles MO 08/13/2008 $5,000.00

4th Republican Senatorial District Committee – Washington MO 08/19/2008 $5,675.00

Johnson County Republican Central Committee – Warrensburg MO 08/21/2008 $1,000.00

Citizens for Shields – St. Joseph MO 08/29/2008 $1,000.00

[emphasis added]

No limits! on the last one.

Let’s look at the spending and the debts:

Detailed Summary of Expenditures And Contributions Made

Committe: PEARCE 08

ReportDate: 9/3/2008

Thompson Communications Marshfield MO 07/28/2008 Radio Advertisement $43,851.88

Thompson Communications Marshfield MO 08/01/2008 Radio Advertisement $9,287.77

That’s an awful lot of radio. Thank goodness this one isn’t in a television market.

Chris Benjamin (D) filed his campaign finance report with the Missouri Ethics Commission on September 4th:

Detailed Summary of Committee Disclosure Report

Committe[e]: BENJAMIN FOR SENATE

1. TOTAL RECEIPTS FOR THIS ELECTION PREVIOUSLY REPORTED $154,857.35

2. ALL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED THIS PERIOD $13,615.00

9. TOTAL ALL RECEIPTS THIS ELECTION(SUM 1B + 7A – 8A) $170,002.35

15. TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS ELECTION (SUM 10B + 14A) $38,785.06

28. MONEY ON HAND AT THE CLOSE OF THIS REPORTING PERIOD (SUM 25 + 26 – 27) $122,254.94

35. TOTAL INDEBTEDNESS AT THE CLOSE OF THIS REPORTING PERIOD

(SUM 29 + 30 + 31 – 32 – 33 – 34) $40,000.00

[emphasis added]

Don’t you just love republican primaries?

Detailed Summary of Contributions And Loans Received

Committee: BENJAMIN FOR SENATE

Report Date: 9/4/2008

VERNON CO DEM WOMEN NEVADA, MO 8/28/2008 $400.00

24TH SENATORIAL DEM CO STL MO 8/28/2008 $2,000.00

JOHNSON CO DEM CENTRAL CO WARRENSBURG, MO 8/28/2008 $750.00

…and contributions from individuals and organized labor (representing working familes).

Detailed Summary of Expenditures And Contributions Made

Committe[e]: BENJAMIN FOR SENATE

Report[ ]Date: 9/4/2008

DAMAR PRINTING KCMO 8/7/2008 CAMPAIGN MATERIAL $799.50

5. TOTAL: MONETARY EXPENDITURES THIS PERIOD (SUM 7 + 14) $2,523.71

[emphasis added]

What? No radio? Heh.

Low overhead. Not having a primary can put you in good stead for the general election.

You all know what to do:

Chris Benjamin

Chilhowee, Missouri hosted it’s annual parade at noon today, as part of their fall festival. The small town in the southwest corner of Johnson County has a population of 329 (2000 census). Entries for the parade started lining up around 10:30 a.m. The parade route is just a few blocks long. The number of individuals walking in the parade in support of political candidates approached the number of the total population of Chilhowee.

Chris Benjamin, Democratic candidate in the 31st Senate District, speaking with parade volunteers.

Steve Shippy (D) (left center, wearing a yellow shirt), candidate for Johnson County Treasurer, with his large entourage of volunteers – all wearing campaign t-shirts, truck, and trailer. This is a typical parade setup in our area.

Volunteers line up at the start of the parade. Everyone has (and develops) their own technique for carrying and distributing candidate stickers and other campaign chum. Candy for the local kids lining the parade route is an expectation placed on all candidates. A volunteer is sent ahead on the parade route to distribute paper bags emblazoned with the candidate’s sticker to distribute to children so they can conveniently carry all the candy they manage to pick up.

Chris Benjamin working the crowd. He takes time to shake hands, introduce himself by name, and have a short conversation. An energetic campaigner, he managed to shake almost every adult hand along the parade route.

Kristi Kenney’s volunteers toss a particularly popular piece of campaign chum (at least with children) – soft foam balls with her camapaign logo on them. Kristi Kenny is the Democratic candidate in the 120th Legislative District.

David Pearce (r – advocate of automotive deer hunting) and his republican enablers spent so much money on mail  against Rex Rector (r – right wingnut) in the August 5th primary that we have to cover the material in multiple posts. Spending close to $150,000.00 in the primary will do that. Previous posts on Pearce’s primary “mail plan”:

David Pearce (r) in the 31st Senate District – the republican money floods in

David Pearce (r) in the 31st Senate District – we’ve got mail!

And Chris Benjamin, the Democrat in the race:

An Interview with Chris Benjamin (D), the candidate in the 31st Senate District

On to all that mail:

That family photo looks so familiar. And the interior fold:

Paid for by:

And his campaign themes are governed by the usual republican wedge issues (after all, he was catering to the right wingnut base in this primary):

Uh, isn’t that a federal issue? David must be confused. That photo with the barbed wire on the interior fold looks like it’s from Arizona, California, New Mexico, or Texas. If there had been snow in the photo we might assume it was Canada! Isn’t David running for office in Missouri? Or is he? I wonder why he picked this issue. Could it be…? No, he couldn’t be pandering, could he?

Uh, David, we keep pointing out that cloning is illegal in Missouri. It’s the height of cynicism, or just plain stupidity, to make this an election issue. I wonder how many people in Johnson County are going to be unpleasantly surprised about your interesting public stand on stem cells? What do you think?

If the United States Supreme Court has decided the issue (see stare decisis), no matter how many people want it to change, it just isn’t going to change. So, this is just flogging an old issue to whip up that base. I don’t know about you, but if I was treated with this kind of condescension and contempt for my intelligence by my state representative I’d be really upset. Oh, wait a minute…

What? Nothing on gays? They must have run out of room on the mail piece.

And to sum it all up:

Uh, “pro life”, doesn’t that mean he’s against the death penalty and war? That’s so un-republican. Oh, wait I get it. It’s not really a typo, he’s only “anti-choice”, but doesn’t want to say so.

That was a slick mailer. He paid a lot of money for those. The republican powers that be also paid a lot of money for slick mailers. The themes are ever so familiar. The look is so uniform. As if there was a unity of purpose bordering on coordination. All produced by Jeff Roe and his friends at Axiom Strategies. Slick. Pricey. And so appropriate for propping up a republican legislative empty suit.

Let’s take a look at more of those “independent” mailers that were sent on David Pearce’s behalf:

I don’t know about you, but that giant hand reminds me of the federal government under dubya these last seven or so years. Uh, you know, republicans. Speaking of the photo of a giant ominous hand hovering over and threatening charming typical single family house, this appears to be quite similar to the photo of the giant ominous hand hovering over and threatening charming typical single family house in the interior fold of Pearce’s paid for mail piece (the first one in this post) above “Stop ‘Eminent Domain’ Abuse”. Coordinate much?

“Eminent domain abuse”? Is that like running a meth lab? Eminent domain. Eminent domain. Didn’t we recently see something about eminent domain. Yeah, right. Coordinate much? Who paid for this?:

Hmmm. Not “David Pearce”. And there’s that tie again:

Ooh, look, here’s another:

Uh, David, in the six years you’ve spent in the Missouri General Assembly, what have you really done about energy policy? Did you create any innovative legislation and work to get it passed? Just asking. And the same people paid for this:

And here’s that tie yet again:

The “independent” mail keeps coming. Yet another piece:

Immigration. Where have we seen that before? Look who paid for it:

Bogus wedge issue that you’ve never lead on while in the General Assembly? Check. Artificial republican organization endorsement, complete with required pseudo-patriotic elephant logo? Check. Tie? For the love humanity and, and any semblance of “independent” expenditure, lose the tie already.

If you look carefully and compare this with Pearce’s big fold out piece (the first one in this post) you’ll notice that there is second, different tie that reappears here. Auugggh! A tie twofer…

Chris Benjamin (left, he’s in there) working the crowd at another Democratic candidate’s event in Johnson County last night.

I’ve covered this open seat race in the 31st Senate District a lot, and I’ll continue to do so. The seat was previously held by Chris Koster (D). The republicans would dearly like to take it back and have tapped David Pearce (r – advocate of automotive deer hunting) to run for the seat.

I spoke with Chris Benjamin at the fairgrounds west of Warrensburg last night after a fundraiser which was held there for Steve Shippy, the Democratic Party candidate for Johnson County Treasurer:

SMP: …where does your campaign stand now?

Chris Benjamin: Things are looking very good right now because I was able to save a lot of the, most of my resources, through the primary, not having a primary opposition. I feel very good about where we stand right now. I got a lot, even though I was unopposed, I felt very good about the votes I did get in the four counties, Cass County particularly. It’s fifty four per cent of the district. I feel very good about my chances there and the other three counties as well.

Every place I go voters are very receptive to change. And that we need to change the leadership in Jefferson City and put working familes in charge once again in state government. And I’m very, a lot of people, most people are very excited about that. And I’m very, very, feel very good about the whole team going into this final two months. I think there’s going to be a lot of Democratic victories going in to November. I feel very good about my chances…

…SMP: …You’re not concentrating just on Cass County, you’re actually working all four counties in the district.

Chris Benjamin: I’m spending most of my time right now in, actually in the other three counties. I’m spending quite a bit of time in Cass County, that’s where I work and where I live, but I’m in Johnson County, in Vernon and Bates quite a bit. I spent all day Friday down in Vernon County. And I’m gonna to be here, back here in Johnson County again tomorrow. And I’m not takin’ any area for granted. I’m gonna be workin’ all four counties very hard.

SMP: …You talk about working families in the district. As you’ve gone and talked to people, or gone door to door, what are people concerned about?

Chris Benjamin: High gas prices. Problems with a lot of jobs leaving the states. Having a hard time getting health care insurance, small businesses not being able to provide health care insurance for their employees, People are really ready for change right now. And they just, they’re ready for new leadership to come in in Jefferson City. But it’s pretty much right down the line, even Republican areas that I go to, those folks are ready for change as well.

SMP: How has your reception been, generally, within the Democratic Party?

Chris Benjamin: Very good. Starting, starting from the point of not having a primary opposition, all the local Democratic county officials in the four counties have endorsed my candidacy…pretty much just about every Democratic official and anybody involved on the grassroots side with the Democratic Party locally, they’re very receptive, very supportive to my candidacy.

SMP: Your opponent is based in, is from Johnson County…and is a state representative in Johnson County. Has he been able to, how has he addressed, sort of, these voter concerns? What are you hearing from what he’s done?

Chris Benjamin: It’s really, it’s really hard to say. I noticed one thing leading in to the primary. he was running against a guy that was very, very conservative on a lot of issues. So he really ran to the right in the primary, really defending a lot of the Medicaid cuts that he voted for. Really going so far as to saying that, almost toeing the lines, almost to the point where he was saying that he was, had some opposition to things like stem cell research. He had to go very, very conservative in that primary. So it’s really hard to say going in to the general how he’s going to respond, or if he’s gonna try to move to the middle. But, it seems to me, outspending his opponent ten to one in the primary, and not being able to win Cass and Bates counties, he’s having a hard time really getting the message out over in those areas of the district.

SMP: …Campaigns are expensive…You’ve been obviously working to, to, to raise resources and get support. And obviously the Republicans always have enough money for, for their needs. How do you feel, do you feel you’re going to have any kind of parity in, in basically being able to keep up with the support that he’s going to get?

Chris Benjamin: I feel very confident that I’ll be able to match his, his resources going into the general election. He did, he won his primary after outspending his opponent, I believe somewhere between ten and fifteen to one. He was able to, to gain a victory, but he did see some loses within the district. And, by looking at that, by being able to keep up with parity with him, particularly what I believe is gonna be a strong Democratic year in which people are ready for change, I feel very good about my chances going into the general.

SMP: …Thank you very much.

Chris Benjamin: Thank you.