Since Kenny Biermann lost his state rep seat last November, St. Charles County has been pure red as far as slots in the state legislature. But this November, there’s a special election in district 15 that could go to us. Sally Faith gave up the seat when she won the race for mayor of St. Charles, so now Democrat Paul Woody is running against Republican Chrissy Sommer. He’s got a good shot at it. That seat has been about equally divided between Democrats and Republicans for the last 12 years. And although Woody lost 65% to 35% to Sally Faith last year, we all know it was a deep red year. This go-round is different. This time, he doesn’t face an incumbent; and the mood of the voters, he tells me, is obviously different. Last fall they were telling him: Democrats have screwed up so badly that Republicans get the benefit of my doubt. Now, because of the debt ceiling fight, voters are about equally disgusted with both parties–and ready to talk to any candidate who is willing to listen.

Woody ran last year knowing his chance of success was slim but figuring that it was as good a time as any to start getting the voters acquainted with him. Lordy, how I love these dedicated Democrats. Can you imagine someone being willing to sacrifice hundreds of hours–on top of his day job, yet!–for the privilege of losing? All in pursuit of a seat, should he ever win it, that would take him away from his wife and baby, four days a week–and long days at that–four months of the year. All to earn him less than munificent pay. Democrats do that because they don’t want the state handed, lock, stock and barrel, to a wealthy few.

Woody does it because the Jesuit priests who taught him as he was growing up inculcated in him a belief that he owed his community. He’s prepared to live up to that expectation. And he’s prepared to deliver their message as well. With a couple of exceptions, I admire its message of social justice.

Woody argues that it used to be that if people worked hard, they expected to get decent paying jobs, stable home values, and a dependable retirement. Now the promise of that kind of life is not being upheld any longer.  One reason is that  unions are under attack, and Woody is irate those attacks. After admitting that he might lose some credibility on that issue because he goes to work every day, as a lawyer, in a suit and tie, he says he doesn’t merely believe unions are important because Democrats always do believe that. Instead, he offers reasons. Like: when organized labor is strong, all workers benefit. Like: the leaders in Jeff City are attacking the very movement that is in large part responsible for good paying jobs and well funded pensions. Like: unions set the standard for what’s fair, and they made a prosperous middle class in this country.

I don’t care if he wears two ties to work, he convinced me of his support for unions.

And he certainly doesn’t stray from the fold on the issue of global warming.  Woody is enthusiastic about support for green entrepreneurs. He knows that a green economy will be vitally necessary.

Woody sees one possibility of bipartisan cooperation in the legislature that would help ordinary citizens, specifically Seniors who are having trouble paying rising property taxes. He would back a plan like the successful one in Oregon that allows such elderly people to avoid paying the higher tax rates  until they move out of their homes. Many seniors have paid off their mortgages and have equity in their homes that would easily pay the property taxes once they sell. It’s a fine idea that I know other Democratic legislators like too.

But now we come to trickier ground, the part where his Catholicism runs up against our progressive values.

Since Woody went through Catholic schools the whole way, I asked him whether he supported public education. He was unequivocal about support for them, about disapproval of vouchers, and about his disdain for the attacks on teachers.

But. He is pro-life. He tries to take the sting out of that by pointing out that, unlike Republicans, he’s really pro-life. He’s pro-race equality, pro-treating convicted criminals humanely, pro-helping poor people survive and even prosper. That does set him apart from Republicans. However, at least as far as he understands what last year’s legislation on abortion restrictions said–and he hasn’t studied it–he would probably have voted for it. Just as he would vote for restrictions on stem cell research. He supports biomedical research, but only in areas “where no ethical concerns arise, where there is no destruction of embryos.”

For some of us, that’s a deal breaker as far as supporting him as a candidate. It certainly shouldn’t be as far as voting for him, if you happen to live in his district. His opponent, Sommers, visited the state legislature last spring for the final week of the session. Compare that legislative experience with the fact that Woody worked for Gov. Bob Holden, traveling to every corner of the state as Holden talked to constituents. When that stint ended, Woody became the director of communications and policy for House Democrats. He has seen close up how policy gets done in J.C., and having started out as a strongly partisan left winger, he gradually understood that cooperation can often happen. Lots of useful, bipartisan legislation occurs that most people, even those of us tuned in to politics, never hear about.

If his stand on abortion is a deal breaker for you, you can stop reading now. If it isn’t, then know that Paul Woody wouldn’t have taken this much time away from his family if he didn’t believe he could win this one. But he’s going to need help. He needs money to counter the TV ads that Sommers will throw at him and he needs more volunteers.

You know what we bloggers always say: Show him some love. Money is a very useful kind of love, but volunteering is even more important.

HD 15 is one of only two races for legislative seats on the ballot in the St. Louis metro area this fall. Sure would be nice to pick up a seat.

24th State is making fun of the film I put up of Jake Zimmerman speaking Monday afternoon at the union rally at the CWA hall. And what Naevius contends is, well, it’s so contradictory and juvenile that it’s almost cute.

In a last minute effort to get the unions to pour money and effort into his election bid, Jake Zimmerman goes nuts screaming about Scott Walker and the Wisconsin unions.

He makes Jake sound pretty desperate, doesn’t he?–right before admitting that Jake’s going to win the race.

Zimmerman, with the help of hundreds of thousands of dollars, is a heavy favorite to win today.  In this clip, he exposes himself as the far left paid for union lawyer he always was.

Aside from the fact that the writer can’t decide whether Jake is a desperate beggar or a shoo in, he also assumes Jake is crooked. His rationale for that accusation is that Jake associates with, gasp, unions. Wait now. The right wingers on SCOTUS made it possible with the Citizens United decision for corporations to inundate elections with their money. But if and when any left wing guy actually gets ahead in the money race, rare though that may be, that makes him bought-and-paid-for. Because union money stinks.

Blink.

I rarely read right wingers. They’re too fact-challenged and juvenile. And this posting at 24th State is one more reminder of that truth.

“What would you do with a brain if you had one?”

If you haven’t heard it already go listen to the audio of the phone conversation between anti-worker Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (r) and who he thinks to be a right wingnut billionaire supporter.

Athenae at First Draft:

….It’s not that what he said was all that new, given what anyone with a pair of eyes can see, it’s that at no point during this call, during all these monstrous things, did Walker even THINK this might be a prank. At no point did he say, wait a minute, this person is rather a douche, and excuse me but who are you? No, he giggled along with casual discussions of smashing the entire state’s underpinnings like he talks to people like this a thousand times a day.

A lot of his defenders spent the day pointing out that most of Walker’s comments aren’t anything new, and that the blogger actually comes off far worse for saying all those horrible things, and that’s the entire goddamn point. Walker is someone who is totally used to being around people who say shit like that, so used to it he didn’t even question whether the call was real. That’s the real news here: That this guy is even more of an asshole than everybody who already hates him thought he was.

Bingo.

Oh, hell, we’ll save you the click through. Here are the audio recordings of the phone call:

Stoopid is as stoopid does.

Update:

Dennis G. at Balloon Juice:

….The call was funny and useful in the way it exposed Walker, but the fact that the call even got through says even more. The prankster got a hearing by claiming to be David Koch, but he proved himself to be the real deal through his racism, his meanness and just being a dick. That got him connected to Walker without any further review. In some way it is a bit comforting to know that Team Walker is staffed by idiots. But only a bit comforting as George W. Bush has recently proven that a team of idiots can do real and lasting damage as they play out their fantasies in the real world….

OBAMA ANNOUNCES 15 RECESS APPOINTMENTS, SCOLDS GOP

…..union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board. Republicans had blocked his nomination on grounds he would bring a radical pro-union agenda to the job, and they called on Obama not to appoint Becker over the recess.

On Becker, Republicans have held up his confirmation for months, saying they fear he would circumvent Congress to make labor laws more union-friendly.

Labor unions were especially keen on getting Becker installed on the board that is responsible for certifying union elections and addressing unfair labor practices. Under a Democratic majority, the labor board could decide cases or make new rules that would make it easier for unions to organize workers. The board could allow speeded-up union elections that give employers less time to counter organizing drives

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201…

Representative Jeff Roorda (D-102) introduced a bill to bring Missouri statutes in line with a previous landmark Missouri Supreme Court ruling:

HB 1006 Allows all employees of any public body to form and join labor organizations and present proposals to any public body relative to salaries and other conditions of employment

Sponsor: Roorda, Jeff (102) Proposed Effective Date: 08/28/2009

CoSponsor: Meadows, Tim (101) LR Number: 2385L.01I

Last Action: 03/11/2009 – Introduced and Read First Time (H)

HB1006

Next Hearing: Hearing not scheduled

Calendar: Bill currently not on a calendar

The Missouri Supreme Court decision in 2007:

SC87980: Independence-National Education Association, Independence-Transportation Employees Association, Independence-Educational Support Personnel, Randi Louise Mallett, and Ron Cochran, Appellants, v. Independence School District, Respondent.

… Case Style: Independence-National Education Association, Independence-Transportation

Employees Association, Independence-Educational Support Personnel, Randi …

Handdown Date: 05/29/2007      Author: Michael A. Wolff, Chief Justice     Vote: REVERSED AND REMANDED. Stith, Teitelman, Russell and White, JJ., concur; Price, J., concurs in part and dissents in part in separate opinion filed; Limbaugh, J., concurs in opinion of Price, J.

…Court en banc holds: (1) Article I, section 29 of the state constitution – which guarantees that “employees shall have the right to organize and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing” – applies to the public employees who brought this case as well as to private-sector employees. To the extent that it holds otherwise, City of Springfield v. Clouse, 206 S.W.2d 539 (Mo. banc 1947), contradicts the plain language of the constitution and is overruled.

…

Let’s see what HB 1006 actually says:

[The bill will remove the text in bold and brackets]

FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 1006

95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES ROORDA (Sponsor) AND MEADOWS (Co-sponsor).

2385L.01I                                                                                                                                                  D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk

AN ACT

To repeal section 105.510, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to public employee labor organizations.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

           Section A. Section 105.510, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 105.510, to read as follows:

           105.510. Employees[, except police, deputy sheriffs, Missouri state highway patrolmen, Missouri national guard, all teachers of all Missouri schools, colleges and universities,] of any public body shall have the right to form and join labor organizations and to present proposals to any public body relative to salaries and other conditions of employment through the representative of their own choosing. No such employee shall be discharged or discriminated against because of his exercise of such right, nor shall any person or group of persons, directly or indirectly, by intimidation or coercion, compel or attempt to compel any such employee to join or refrain from joining a labor organization[, except that the above excepted employees have the right to form benevolent, social, or fraternal associations. Membership in such associations may not be restricted on the basis of race, creed, color, religion or ancestry].

[emphasis added]

That looks simple enough. Want to make any bets on if the republican controlled General Assembly does anything to pass the bill?

Sure, sure, I knew what “card check” was, and it sounded like a good idea to allow employees in a workplace to unionize if more than half of them signed cards saying they wanted a union. I’m in favor of that, sure. But it took David Bonior, speaking last week at the bloggers’ tent, to drill through my thick skull the significance of passing card check (see FreeChoiceAct.org) at the federal level.

Bonior, a former congressman who fought to expose Reagan’s secret wars and who helped shepherd through Congress the Boland Amendment, which made it illegal to fund a war without consulting Congress, now chairs American Rights at Work. He stressed the electoral wrack and ruin that results for Democrats when the labor movement totters. For example, of the 22 right to work (for slave wages) states, all voted for Bush in 2004 and all but Iowa in 2000. Conversely, even though union membership now languishes somewhere between 7 and 12 percent, 25 percent of the voters are union members. Those unions, man, they know how to educate their workers on the issues, get them out to the polls, and put them to work in campaigns.

The last thirty years have been the Dark ages, though, for the labor movement in this country. The labor laws have been a dismal joke. Somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 workers are illegally fired every year for trying to organize unions. And 75 percent of the time, when a union drive starts gathering steam, corporations hire union busters. The days of guys wielding baseball bats for that purpose are over. Now businessses hire law firms that specialize in slowing the process to a crawl.

Consequently, says Bruce Raynor, who spoke at the Thursday Missouri caucus breakfast, thirty million workers go to full time jobs every day and yet make less than poverty level wages. We are becoming what Warren Buffett calls “a sharecropper nation.” Missouri is part of the exploitation of non-union workers, of course. One prime example is that military uniforms must, by law, be made in the U.S. A Missouri corporation, Eagle Industries, makes some of those uniforms. It hires Puerto Rican workers at $6.00 an hour, with no health care benefits or pension plans.

Now. Suppose card check became law. First thing it would do is start restoring a middle class in this country. There’s no reason why auto workers were particularly entitled to middle class wages any more than, say, hotel maids. They got those wages because they fought for–and some of them died for–unions. Now it’s time for service workers to unionize. Raynor told the Missouri caucus that one hotel in Denver–the Hyatt Downtown where Obama stayed–has just unionized. Here’s the difference those maids wil experience: Instead of making $7.50 or $8.50 an hour, with no health care benefits or a pension plan, those women will get a living wage, with health care and a pension plan. Furthermore, in a job that requires lifting heavy mattresses and lots of physical exertion, their workload has been cut from cleaning thirty rooms a day to eighteen.

Be happy for workers who get the benefit of union jobs, but even if you’re not a union worker, you will benefit too.Remember that 12 perent of workers are union but 25 percent of voters are union members. Union workers vote at somewhere between two and three times the rate of the general population. And they vote strongly Democratic. Get the picture? Bonior said:

When we pass this act–and we will pass this law, we will unleash a torrent of organizing activity like my father saw. The labor movement will be not only in the ascendancy but on rockets, and that will get us health care and better wages. It will get us out of that rotten war in Iraq.

We’ve got a Democratic Congress. Now all we need is a few more Democratic senators so we can block filibusters and a president who won’t veto card check.

Rodney Hubbard is not only unapologetic about his pro-voucher stand for the St. Louis city schools, and not contrite about taking $30,000 from Rex Sinquefield, he is passionately ready to defend his ideas. 

I interviewed him by phone on Monday about his candidacy for Maida Coleman’s state senate seat.  As soon as I explained that I represented a progressive state news blog, where many of our readers would disagree with his stand on school choice, Rodney went on the offensive.  He was fortunate enough to be a deseg student, able to get a decent education, he said.  Today’s students in the city don’t have that option, what with superintendents in all the surrounding districts refusing to take city students at their schools.

So the city’s poor have no other option than to attend substandard schools.  Those who aren’t poor can move or send their kids to private schools.  As proof that people who aren’t poor flee the schools, he pointed out that 58 percent of the city population is African-American, but 90 percent of the students are.

He asked me how I and others could call ourselves progressives and not deal with the travesty going on in the city, where 70 percent of African-American males drop out before graduation.  Rodney would like to take such progressives on a tour of inner city schools and streets to show them what really goes on.

Hubbard is concerned about the high rate of incarceration in the African-American community and points out that 65 percent of those in prison have no high school diploma or GED.  Obviously the crime and the failure of education are linked, and we ALL–whether we’re Republicans, progressives or indifferent to politics–pay the price of neglecting this segment of society.

Because of the lack of educational options for city students, Hubbard is sponsoring a bill that will ask for tax credits–but credits that are narrow in their scope.  To qualify for the tax credit, a student’s family would have to live within the city limits of St. Louis or Kansas City–in those two locations only.  The student would have to qualify for free or reduced lunch and have a G.P.S. lower than 2.5.

I’m sure some of you will respond to what Rodney said.  I hope he will find the time to answer some of your comments.

I’ll write tomorrow about other topics we covered in the interview, but I didn’t want to bite off too big a chunk today.  This posting isn’t long, but there’s plenty of food for thought and comment in it.

(Next week, I’ll interview Robin Wright-Jones.)

A community is nothing without infrastructure. If the roads are shoddy, the electricity and/or telephone service is intermittent, and the water supply is polluted, the residents will have difficulty working, communicating, enjoying themselves, and staying healthy. Similarly, if all of the above are top-notch, but the roads lead to empty fields, or the water supply and the other utilities are only available to certain segments of the population, the same problems arise, save for the lucky few who happen to have access. And because the community needs infrastructure, people in the community work hard to provide a solid, well-planned roads (for example), not just for the sake of having good roads, but rather for the sake of the community that will be using them.

Political institutions are just the same. People don’t rush in to save a

Show Me Progress is not just a single progressive website starting up in a red state. We’re part of a much larger shift from the explosion of blogs on the national scene to a network of blogs focused on events at the local and state level. Even more than that, we’re part of a larger effort to build a sturdy progressive infrastructure that will leverage our numbers into greater political power, whether it’s fundraising for candidates, pushing politicians on the issues or highlighting candidates that deserve greater attention.

Why is this necessary, you might ask? In case you haven’t noticed, the right has been doing this for decades. They have a network of think tanks, talk radio hosts, and advocacy groups all across the nation. Look at Missouri