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.

If I had only had a fork with me…

And they were judging rabbits in the poultry/rabbit shed:

Making a run for it on the judging table…

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) made the rounds on the fairgrounds after the breakfast, here greeting people in one of the agriculture buildings.

There are vendor booths all over the fairgrounds:

Is anyone surprised?

Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder (r) at the republican party tent on the fairgrounds after the breakfast.

And we check one off the list:

Yes, we got a photo of the butter sculpture, sort of.

At the Missouri State Fair last night (August 11, 2013)

Of state fair rodeo announcers and clowns: res ipsa loquitur (August 12, 2013)

You know you’ve struck a nerve… (August 12, 2013)

We don’t get a lot of mail (August 13, 2013)

Seriously? (August 14, 2013)

In the parking lot at the Missouri State Fair (August 15, 2013)

The Missouri AFL-CIO has announced that in the primary contest for the 1st Congressional District that is shaping up between Democratic Reps. Russ Carnahan and Lacy Clay Jr., they’re going with Clay – and it seems like a smart move as long as the Union wants to back a winner. As the St. Louis American noted earlier this year, Clay’s support in the district seems seriously solid.

For what it’s worth to the few readers of my posts, I’m going with Clay too. It doesn’t have anything to do with his chances, or his positions. As far as I’m concerned, Clay and Carnahan are six of one and half-dozen of the other. Both have taken positions I approve and both have occasionally disappointed me. I may have sometimes wished that Carnahan wasn’t quite so charisma-challenged, but that’s neither here nor there.  Both are Democrats and Missouri needs more of them in the U.S. House, not fewer. And Carnahan, by his decision to run in the 1st district rather than in the open 2nd, has really tipped the scales in favor of fewer Democrats. And I hold it against him; I don’t really endorse Clay over Carnahan, but I oppose Carnahan out of pure spite.

The same St. Louis American article repeated the story I’ve been hearing from other sources for a few months now. The Democratic party would have given Carnahan almost “unlimited financial support” if he had only agreed to take on Ann Wagner, who will undoubtedly prevail in the GOP primary for the 2nd District seat:

Meanwhile, next door in Missouri’s open 2nd CD, the primary has been held open for Carnahan, national Democratic leaders have offered him lavish money and unlimited support, and the district leans only slightly Republican, about 53 percent. So the math is clear and inescapable – the only congressional run that Carnahan can win in 2012 is in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District.

Does Carnahan really think that the race in the 1st is going to be easier to win?

I’ve lived out here in what has been (shudder) Todd Akin’s preserve for the past ten years. It’s conservative, sure – but not monolithic. I’ve seen Akin take the district in election after election not because he’s especially beloved (or even respected), but arguably because the challengers have been weak, or disengaged, and the party offered no, nil, nada support, preferring to cede the election to Akin in order to channel resources into more secure races – a strategy I understand when there’s only so much to go around and you don’t have really strong candidates. But it could’ve been different this time.

If Carnahan had been willing to think about the good of the Party rather than the good of Carnahan, he would have run against Wagner and, for once, we would have had, win or loose, a real race, a real chance to send a Democrat from the 2nd district to Washington. There would have been three seats in play as opposed to just two – and there’s no way that’s not better for the Party, the State and the Nation. On a personal level, thanks to Carnahan, while I will no longer be represented in Congress by theocratic Republican Akin, I’ll likely be writing futile constituent letters to the corporatist Republican Wagner. The sad part of the whole story is that it’s not even clear that Carnahan made the best decision for himself.  

Candidate filing commenced today in Jefferson City. In the 1st Congressional District, via the Missouri Secretary of State, a consequence of redistricting and the loss of one congressional seat in Missouri – two sitting members of Congress from the same party facing each other in a primary:

UNOFFICIAL Candidate Filing List

Ballot Placement: First day filers (2/28/2012) selected a number by random drawing to determine their placement on the primary ballot. After the first day, all candidates are placed on the ballot in order of their filing.

Candidates are not listed in ballot order.  Ballot order will be displayed after 5:00 p.m.

(Name, Mailing Address and Date/Time Filed as of 2/28/2012 11:39 a.m.)

U.S. Representative – District 1

Democrat

Candice Britton 6614 CLAYTON ROAD, #148

ST LOUIS MO 63117 2/28/2012

8:36 a.m.

Russ Carnahan 3150 ALLEN AVENUE

ST LOUIS MO 63104 2/28/2012

8:46 a.m.

Lacy Clay 6023 WATERMAN, APT 1W

ST LOUIS MO 63112 2/28/2012

9:44 a.m.

Republican

Martin D Baker PO BOX 8712

ST LOUIS MO 63101 2/28/2012

8:53 a.m.

Robyn Hamlin 21 NOB HILL DR

ST LOUIS MO 63138 2/28/2012

10:28 a.m.

Not particularly a surprise, but, nevertheless, oh my.

Remember Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the infamous Koch founded and funded organization that, among other achievements, got the Tea Party organized and on track? Want to know just which legislators in Missouri are most in tune with AFP goals? Well, you need wait no longer. The AFP has just issued a scorecard for the 112th Congress.  The grades received by Missouri legislators, listed below (name, party and grade), is about what one would expect:

Roy Blunt (R): B

Claire McCaskill (D): D

Todd Akin (R): A+          

Russ Carnahan (D): F                          

Wm. Lacy Clay (D): F

Emanuel Cleaver (D): D-  

Jo Ann Emerson (R) B      

Sam Graves (R): B        

Vicky Hartzler (R): B  

Billy Long (R): B  

Blaine Leutkemeyer (R): B

If you want a vote breakdown, check out AmericansforProsperity.org/Scorcard. According to the DailyKos’ Meteor Blades:

AFP chose to grade congressmembers based on their votes on repealing President Obama’s new healthcare law, blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases, supporting the demolition document known as the Paul Ryan budget, ending ethanol subsidies and several Congressional Review Act resolutions as well as the fiscal year 2012 appropriations bills.

This rationale explains just why Republicans get high marks and Democrats get low marks – as a progressive, I’d be very disturbed if any Democrats scored higher than they did. That said, I do have to admit that I was surprised that most of Missouri’s GOP legislators can’t get better than B grades – only uber-winger Akin qualifies for an A grade (A+ actually). They sure talk a good game and one would have expected that they would reap a bigger reward. Perhaps ethanol subsides plays a role in their scores? Also of interest is the fact that no matter how far right she tries to list, poor Claire McCaskill can’t do better than a D. I would have pegged her at C- (for centrist wannabe) myself – if only because of her efforts on behalf of Big Coal.

Missourians have been busy signing letters today – and at least some of Missouri’s Democratic pols are doing so in a good cause – protesting the new, reconfigured, better-than-ever, poll tax proxies that constitute the latest salvos in the newly energized GOP war on voting:

House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) and Ranking Member of the House Administration Committee Robert Brady (PA-01) led a letter sent to Secretaries of State today urging them to oppose new state measures adopted over the last year that would make it harder for eligible voters to register or vote. The letter was signed by 196 House Democrats, including Hoyer and Brady.

Adding their names to the letter were all three of Missouri’s Democratic House members, Emanuel Cleaver (05), Russ Carnahan (03), and Lacy Clay (01).  Republicans signing the letter: zero, zip, nada. I guess they were just too scared by the ghost of Acorn or some other fictional agent of non-existent voter fraud. Or maybe they’re just afraid of their own constituents?  

Over at the DailyKos they had this to say about a leaked poll that shows Russ Carnahan very slightly ahead of both Ed Martin and Ann Wagner in a potential run for the 2nd district congressional seat:

A Russ Carnahan internal poll made its way to Dave Catanese’s hands, showing the de-districted Democrat with tiny leads over possible Republican opponents in the new 2nd CD. Carnahan leads teabagger extraordinaire Ed Martin 42-40 and former state party chair Ann Wagner 40-39 in the survey from Lake Research. I’m not so sanguine about these results, though, as MO-02 is very red territory and Carnahan would have to contend with Barack Obama at the top of the ticket.

But, I ask, didn’t the redistricting changes to the 2nd do something to dilute its former makeup? Also, as a resident of the 2nd district, I’ve never found it to be as virulently red as the election of Todd Akin would suggest – lots of old-timey, “moderate” GOPers out here. Their votes for Todd, who for a long time kept his wilder tendencies pretty low key, were more a Pavlovian response to the GOP bell than an endorsement of Todd Akin’s extremism. And now that the Tea Party’s ringing that bell, lots of them are a little less enthusiastic than before about the GOP brand.  

That’s only my read, of course, and, I could be very wrong – poll respondents did rate the Tea Party five points higher than President Obama after all, and there is also  some evidence that the poll results could change as voters become more familiar with the candidates:

The August survey found Carnahan up two points on Martin, 42 percent to 40 percent and leading Wagner by a single point, 40 percent to 39 percent.

After being read positive messages about both candidates, Martin leads Carnahan by five points, 47 percent to 42 percent.  Under the same scenario with Wagner, it’s a closer race, with the Democrat besting the former ambassador 44 percent to 43 percent.

I’d like to know the content of those “positive messages.” When negative messages about Martin and Wagner were read, it’s also interesting that, overall, pointing out that they posed a threat to Medicare was pretty effective in lowering their approval rates – but emphasizing Ed Martin’s past record of corruption also got lots of negative traction.  

Today Rep. Athony Wiener (D-NY) sent a letter to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas asking that he recuse himself from hearing challenges to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). According to Wiener and the letter’s 73 cosigners, the fact that Thomas’ lobbyist wife, Virginia (Gini), has worked in a professional capacity to defeat the legislation constitutes a conflict of interest. Wiener also noted Gini Thomas’ involvement with clients that had benefited from the Court’s Citizen United ruling.

Among the cosigners were Missouri’s Lacy Clay (D-1) and Russ Carnahan (D-3). Notably absent were signatures from any of the Republican members of the Missouri delegation. While their abstinence may be understandable from a political point of view, it is certainly questionable given that, as Think Progress‘ Ian Milhiser notes apropos the federal recusal statute:

… conservatives have already interpreted this ethics law in a way that requires Justice Thomas to recuse himself from the health care litigation. After progressive Judge Stephen Reinhardt was assigned to the appellate panel that was to hear a challenge to anti-gay Proposition 8, supporters of the anti-gay law called for Reinhardt to recuse because his wife’s organization advocates against Prop 8.

Certainly, in light of Gini Thomas’ activities – and the added fillip that her husband has for many years failed to report her income as he is required to do – it would seem that there is more substance to Weiner’s claims than in the efforts of conservative Orin Hatch to trump up objections to Elena Kagan prior to the court’s inevitable review of the ACA. Hatch recently questioned Kagan’s impartiality to hear cases related to the ACA on the basis that she served as Obama’s Solicitor General while it was taking shape, although Kagan had previously stated that “she had not been involved in legal strategy sessions about how to defend the health-care plan against charges that it is unconstitutional.”

It will be interesting to see how the Missouri GOPers react as this little conflict of interest contest rolls out. Meanwhile, kudos to Clay and Carnahan. Somebody needs to call Thomas out about what seems to be a pattern of abuse related to his judical activism.

If I were to try to find a descriptive label for the political atmosphere in 2009, I would call it the year of the tantrum because of all the displays of thwarted fury that took place in the wake of the election of the first African-American president. Who can forget the right-wing tantrums that took place wherever Tea Party mobs hijacked congressional town halls or congregated to inflate the weight of their essentially minority demands. While the rage continued unabated in 2010, one might better characterize last year in terms of the bait used to snare those same angry Tea Partiers – any one of the numerous iterations of the big lie that has become the currency of the modern GOP.  

That fringewingers have been boiling over isn’t really anything new as those of us know who can remember the McCarthyist “better dead than red” protests and the original John Birchers. What was worth remarking, though, was the degree to which the Teople were worked up over things that just weren’t true – nonexistent death panels, fictional FEMA detention camps, or the imaginary threat of the great Obama gun confiscation for example.

This year, as GOP pols and their corporate supporters doubled down in their efforts to retake the congress, they also doubled down in their willingness to exploit what has been revealed as the almost limitless gullibility of those over-Foxified and Limbaughed individuals who inhabit the fact-free zone of GOP propaganda. GOP politicians have been liberated; they are free to deny obvious facts at will and make any outlandish claim, secure in the knowledge that they will never be held accountable by their base.

Missouri, of course, saw its share of political lies during the past year, but to my mind, there are two GOP pols who excelled in the rarefied art of bilking the suckers. Ed Martin who lost his race against Russ Carnahan for the 3rd district House seat, and Roy Blunt who beat Robin Carnahan for retiring Senator Kit Bond’s Senate seat. (You, of course, may have other candidates, and I would welcome your arguments for them in the comments if you are so inclined.)

It’s hard to know where to start when describing the excesses of Ed Martin, who seems to have mislaid whatever capacity he possessed to tell the truth as soon as he started his campaign. He started out by pretending that Carnahan had defaulted on debates that, contrary to Martin’s claims, he never agreed to, and finished by fabricating absurd claims of election fraud. In between, his campaign featured a multitude of spurious claims about his rival, among the most creative of which was his contention that Carnahan, along with his pal, the Obama boogyman, would come between Missourians and their religious “salvation.” The trouble with Martin, though, is that so little that he said had any relationship to truth that, after awhile, most of us found his fantasy life a little boring.

As truth challenged as Martin proved to be, probably the most overwhelming triumph of big-lie politics in Missouri was the election of Roy Blunt to the Senate. In part, this is because Blunt, a scandal-tinged insider who, during the Bush years, presided over a a GOP dominated House that helped drive the deficit to astronomical heights while simultaneously trashing the economy, managed to coast to election with promises to “fight to restore accountability” to Washington.

A plaid-shirted Blunt, who in his long-time Washington incarnation plays the role of a glossy socialite, tooled around the state in a rented pick-up, kissing up to any and every rural prejudice. After disrespecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security like a good GOP pol really wants to do, he not only denied his own words, but ran ads falsely implying that Carnahan’s support for the Affordable Care Act, would translate into cuts in Medicare benefits. He lied about his votes against the minimum wage. He even sunk so low that in the course of bragging about his GOP boiler-plate “jobs plan” he lied about its length, adding a good 80 pages.

This partial list of Blunt’s transgressions against the truth, which offers just a few of our new Senator’s self-misrepresentations, is in itself a strong argument for giving Blunt the title of Missouri Liar of the Year. Martin seemed, most of the time at least, to lie about his opponent – and so outrageously as to be simply amusing – but Blunt created an entire false persona which he used to promote himself to the Senate. Besides, Martin lost and Blunt won,  and by winning on the basis of so many lies, he debased our political discourse just a little bit more. He has contributed one more cog in the devaluation of truth that we have seen taking place in our political world over the past decade, each inch taken, leading to another mile of democracy lost.  

On Saturday, a group of us met in Clayton to discuss ways to get the attention of state Democratic Party leaders in order to make them fix the problems in the party infrastructure.  We concluded that we need a paid, dedicated state party director, a talented communications director who will proactively get the message out that we are the better choice if voters want to keep America from sinking to third world status, and someone who actually makes the township and county central committee members work to build the local networks critical for winning elections.

If we don’t see some improvement in the way the state party functions, we’re withholding our campaign contributions and volunteer time.  The word is already out that we’re doing this and many Dems are calling saying they want to join us.

Claire McCaskill is already sending out donation requests to be part of “Claire’s Crew.”  No thanks.  Not until we see some backbone on the part of our elected Dems.  It’s not enough to say the alternative is worse.  We have to have a reason to shout from the rooftops why we love our candidates.

This is the letter going to Gov. Nixon this week:

November 21, 2010

The Honorable Governor Jay Nixon

Missouri Capitol Building

Room 216

Jefferson, City,Mo.65101

Dear Governor Nixon:

I am sure you are aware that progressive Democrats around the country are regrouping in response to the disappointing results of the recent midterm elections.

Today a core group of active Democrats in St. Louis County met to discuss how to we can make the Missouri Democratic Party more effective.

We concluded that we Democrats have much to be proud of and our values clearly reflect the best interest of the majority of citizens. The Republicans have purposely degraded a lot of what progressives hold dear.

Our Democratic priorities which include equal educational opportunities, a fair tax structure, civil rights, security, protection of the environment, basic health care and decent paying jobs need to be spelled out clearly and persuasively. We need someone to generate talking points that we can all use so our message will sink in and motivate voters to side with us.If false information is generated by the media we need it to be quickly addressed and the true facts given out.

Therefore we’re asking you, our Governor and head of the Missouri Democratic Party, to meet with us to discuss how to improve the effectiveness of the State Party.

We would like to talk to you about hiring a full-time paid Director, a publicist/message developer,and an outreach co-ordinator to reach all of our state’s townships with our democratic objectives.

There is so much that can be done with the internet, with direct mailers, and other media opportunities.

Today we pledged, as a group, that we will not get involved in campaigns for State and National candidates until we meet with you and we feel a more effective party is established. I will be sending a copy of this letter to Craig Hosmer,Clint Zweifel and Chris Koster.. Copies of a similar letter have been sent to Sen.Claire McCaskill, Representative Russ Carnahan and Representative Lacy Clay.

We hope you can find time in your busy schedule when you are in the St. Louis area to meet with us. If you have no trips planned in the near future, we will come to your office.

Thank you for your attention to our serious concerns. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Unofficial Election Returns

State of Missouri General Election – November 2, 2010 General Election

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

U.S. Representative – District 3

Precincts Reporting 311 of 311

Carnahan, Russ DEM 99,011 48.9%

Martin, Ed REP 94,593 46.7%

Hedrick, Steven R. LIB 5,757 2.8%

Ivanovich, Nicholas J. (Nick) CST 3,151 1.6%

Wallner, Brian WI 59 .0%

Total Votes 202,571

From the Ed Martin (r-email, what e-mail?) campaign:

Ed Martin for Congress

News and Information from the Ed Martin for Congress Campaign

Democracy is precious, and the very cornerstone of our representative republic is free and fair elections.  Losing by a handful of votes in a fair contest is tough, but our team could handle it.

In the case of this election, the facts are not adding up to a fair election.  The three glaring factors which stand out involve the Secretary of State’s office, the sole decision of a newly appointed Democratic chair at the City Elections Board, and an unprecedented number of votes coming in late from the city and county.

The Secretary of State first of all is Congressman Carnahan’s sister, Robin Carnahan.  She reported having irregularities and computer glitches early in the day. We have heard from countless voters who want those problems scrutinized. Many point out that the for three years the Department of Justice pursued a case against Missouri for failing to clean up the process. “When filed in 2005, one-third of Missouri counties had more registered voters than voting-age residents. What’s more, Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan,… contended that her office had no obligation to ensure individual counties were complying with the federal law mandating a cleanup of their voter rolls.” (Wall Street Journal, John Fund, July 8, 2010)

People also question the motive behind a newly appointed St. Louis City Board of Elections Democratic Chairwoman, Eileen McCann, hiring a security company with close ties to Congressman Carnahan. Special Services was called on by Congressman Carnahan to do security for him as recently as August 26th. Carnahan paid the company $1400 at that time which can be seen in a quick review of his FEC filing.

Then just before midnight seven precincts within the city and county delivered an astounshing late night dump of votes.   In such a hotly contested race and with so many voters concerned it only makes sense to make sure in fact every vote counts.

For this reason, we will continue to fight.  Our supporters who struggled and worked deserve our best efforts.  Further, the voters of the district deserve to have the cloud lifted from the election by either revealing a reasonable explanation for the amazing, last minute results or by identifying the misconduct and hopefully those responsible.  If you witnessed anything out of the ordinary, we invite you to use our online form to report details.  We will pass these on to the investigative authority.

Please help us continue this fight.  We budgeted our race to leave it all “on the field” – we did not plan on losing.   You contribution will help us over the next few weeks cover the expenses of reviewing records and investigating the procedures at work.  Any amount, $100, $50, or even $10 will help defray the costs.

Thank you for your continued support.  We’ll see where this all goes.

Thank you,

Ed Martin

“…Then just before midnight seven precincts within the city and county delivered an astounshing [sic] late night dump of votes…”

They must have gotten caught somewhere between astonishing and astounding near Conspiracyville in Persecution Complex County.

“…Any amount, $100, $50, or even $10 will help defray the costs….”

Like a grifter, pulling a long con.