The Springfield News-Leader said “Norr and at least eight other Democrats were the target of the calls. Norr received a call and recorded it.”

One of those other 8 Democrats was Keri Cottrell, the Democratic candidate for House District #1 in Northeast Missouri. Cottrell works as a fourth grade teacher in Canton, Missouri and has taught elementary age children for 19 years. Here’s the statement from her posted on the “Elect Keri Cottrell” Facebook group:

Yesterday your homes and thousands of others in the first district were invaded by a robo call that ties my campaign to pornography and even gay pornogrpahy. How absurd!! The number to the Adair County Ambulance District was highjacked and appeared on those phones with caller ID and caused their personnel to spend time and energy addressing a problem that they were not involved in. The House Republican Campaign Committee Inc. paid for the robo calls. My opponent Craig Redmon called yesterday to acknowledge these calls and to say he was not behind them. But his party is paying for lies to be spread across the first district.

I hope this motivates us to point out that I have worked extremely hard and will work to win at all costs except jeopardizing someone’s integrity. Remember that I am ready to go to Jeff City to work for you and realize that the first district deserves better than having this type of invasion into their homes. November 2 is days away and I ask all of you to roll up your sleeves and talk to people about how absurd the republican party is in making these accusations and in doing so cause undeserved stress to the Adair County Ambulance District.

Invasion is an excellent way to describe what those robocalls did. As well, the matter of “masking” the phone number with the number of an Ambulance District should get people in trouble. When it comes down to it, some people will do anything to help their favorites win, even to the point of lying about an elementary school teacher and trying to ruin her reputation.

But hopefully enough voters see through the Invasion of the Robocalls to see that the only way to get things back on the right track is to toss out people whose #1 ally would sanction these sorts of calls.

I suppose we should have started with this district. Representative Brian Munzlinger (r) is term limited out and there are two individuals who have started raising money for the 2010 open seat race. The district is in the northeast part of the state – east of Kirksville and north of Hannibal. First, let’s take a look at a little electoral history.

Official Election Returns

State of Missouri General Election  – 2008 General Election

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

State Representative – District 1 – Summary

Precincts Reporting 48 of 48

Munzlinger, Brian REP 9,439 61.0%

Cottrell, Keri DEM 6,046 39.0%

Total Votes   15,485

Official Election Returns

State of Missouri General Election  – November 2006 – General Election

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

State Representative – District 1 – Summary

Precincts Reporting 46 of 46

Munzlinger, Brian REP 6,959 54.3%

Hicks, Beau J. DEM 5,847 45.7%

Total Votes   12,806

Another significant difference in the results from a presidential year to an off year election. And in 2010 there’s no incumbent.

Keri Cottrell (D) filed her fourth quarter campaign finance report with the Missouri Ethics Commission on January 14th:

Detailed Summary of Committee Disclosure Report

Committe: KERI COTTRELL FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVE 2010

1. TOTAL RECEIPTS FOR THIS ELECTION PREVIOUSLY REPORTED $4,606.81

2. ALL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED THIS PERIOD $6,571.35

9. TOTAL ALL RECEIPTS THIS ELECTION(SUM 1B + 7A – 8A) $11,178.16

25. MONEY ON HAND AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS REPORTING PERIOD (INCLUDING FUNDS IN DEPOSITORY, CASH, SAVINGS ACCOUNTS AND ALL OTHER INVESTMENTS) $3,375.63

28. MONEY ON HAND AT THE CLOSE OF THIS REPORTING PERIOD (SUM 25 + 26 – 27) $9,807.31

35. TOTAL INDEBTEDNESS AT THE CLOSE OF THIS REPORTING PERIOD (SUM 29 + 30 + 31 – 32 – 33 – 34) $250.00

[emphasis added]

That’s a good fundraising quarter. Let’s take a look at where the money came from:

Detailed Summary of Contributions And Loans Received

Committee: KERI COTTRELL FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVE 2010

Report Date: 1/13/2010

Woman’s Political Caucus EMPAC Ballwin, Missouri 10/03/2009 $300.00

MSTA Legislative Impact Committee Columbia, Missouri 65205 12/11/2009 $5,000.00

Okay, that MSTA (Missouri State Teachers Association) contribution has a big impact. You think the current republican majority in the General Assembly has finally gotten their attention? There are also a number of individual small dollar contributions listed.

Craig Redmon (r) filed his fourth quarter campaign finance report with the Missouri Ethics Commission on January 23rd, after filing his Statement of Committee Organization [pdf] on December 23rd:

Detailed Summary of Committee Disclosure Report

Committe: REDMON FOR REPRESENTATIVE

1. TOTAL RECEIPTS FOR THIS ELECTION PREVIOUSLY REPORTED $0.00

2. ALL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED THIS PERIOD $0.00

4. MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS THIS PERIOD $600.00

25. MONEY ON HAND AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS REPORTING PERIOD (INCLUDING FUNDS IN DEPOSITORY, CASH, SAVINGS ACCOUNTS AND ALL OTHER INVESTMENTS) $0.00

28. MONEY ON HAND AT THE CLOSE OF THIS REPORTING PERIOD (SUM 25 + 26 – 27) $550.00

[emphasis added]

It was for only one week of fundraising in the quarter. Maybe it was a holiday gift? Let’s take a look at where that $600.00 came from:

Detailed Summary of Contributions And Loans Received

Committee: REDMON FOR REPRESENTATIVE

Report Date: 1/23/2010

B. NON-ITEMIZED CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED

13. TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS GIVING $100 OR LESS $600.00

That’s a nice round number. You think they passed around a hat? Shouldn’t that $600.00 have been reported on line 2 of the Summary? I mean it’s reported here as “monetary contributions”. Just asking.

Given the electoral history and the campaign finance disparities this just might be a race to watch. We’ll see what happens in the fundraising department next quarter.

Try handling a classroom of fourth graders for the day. Every day. And then, after the little darlin’s have gone home, try going out to campaign for state representative. Every day.

When I talked to Keri Cottrell last week, she said that she generally leaves school by 4:00, and if she’s not already scheduled to attend a meeting or the opening of a Dem headquarters, or a soup supper, fish fry, or ice cream social, then she’s knocking on doors. Since HD 1 covers five counties  and part of two others in the northwest corner of the state, none of those activities are close to home.

The day I talked to her, she said, she had driven a half hour after school to Quincy, IL, to record a radio spot. By the time she got back, it was too late to knock on any doors with the dark coming on as early as it does now–especially since, with five plus counties to cover, just getting to a town where she plans to canvass takes time–and gas.

That same evening, Cottrell almost surely had papers to grade or lessons to plan after getting off the phone with me–oh, and she had to look over the latest campaign finance report before sending it off to the Ethics Commission.

Not that she was complaining. Nor am I saying that she’s got a harder row to hoe than other candidates. But running for state rep and working full time is no cakewalk. I’m amazed that people do it.

Some of them even do it in hard core red districts where they’re building the party in hopes of a win in some future election cycle. That takes true grit. At least Keri has a shot at unseating three-term representative Brian Munzlinger.

HD 1 has a history of Democratic representatives in that seat going back, Cottrell says, to at least as far as when she was in elementary school. But there’s a strong streak of fundamentalism running through the district, and Munzlinger took advantage of anti-abortion sentiment when he gained the seat. Cottrell tries to neutralize that advantage by pointing out that Munzlinger voted with the Republican-controlled House and Senate and the Republican governor on the abortion issue, but that they accomplished “next to nothing to do away with abortion.”

Maybe it’s time, she tells voters, to be less perturbed about her pro-choice stand and more concerned about jobs, mortgages and health care. For example, 1,317 people were cut from the Medicaid rolls in District One in the great purge of 2005. If the person at the door wasn’t one of those thirteen hundred, Keri asks if he’s aware that his health care costs have gone up because of those Medicaid cuts.

Cottrell can also speak with authority about the school funding problems in HD 1. She maintains that the current school funding formula has hurt rural districts like hers. She resents seeing her school system forced to put up with older textbooks and not have access to the technology that would best prepare students for the job market.

Despite the way voters are gnashing their teeth over the economy, though–and northeastern corner of Missouri is really, really shy of good-paying jobs–and despite the long history of Democratic dominance there, robbing Brian Munzlinger of his fourth term in the House is an iffy proposition. Keri tells me HD 1 has a 47 Democratic Performance Index, but Munzlinger has won his three races by between 8.6 percent and 16.6 percent. The opponent who came closest was Beau Hicks, who’d been chairman of a county Republican Committee, gotten upset about some internal matter, and switched parties.

Furthermore, Munzlinger–can you imagine such a thing?–is better funded. He’s got $38,000 on hand to Cottrell’s $17,000. The NRA loves him, as do the Missouri Soybean Assn. and the Missouri Cattlemen. Oh, and Rex Sinquefield. Munzlinger raised $16,000 in September alone–$5,000 from Sinqufield’s Missourians Supporting Teaching Excellence and $3,000 from Ron Richard.

I’d like to think that that September infusion of cash is a sign that Republicans are worried about the seat. If they’re not worried exactly, they are at least playing it safe. In this strong Democratic year, it would make sense for them to bolster someone like Munzlinger.

It’s an interesting race, and I’ll be watching on election night for the results from HD 1.