Previously:

Rick Stream: too far right for Kirkwood (June 2, 2010)

Deb Lavender is thinking about running again (November 19, 2008)

Making the rounds with Deb Lavender: Part Two (July 15, 2008)

Making the rounds with Deb Lavender (July 14, 2008)

The 2010 race in the 94th Legislative District is definitely going to be one to watch.

State Representative – District 94

Democrat

DEB LAVENDER ST LOUIS MO 958 2/23/2010

Republican

RICK STREAM ST LOUIS MO 903 2/23/2010

Yes, a rematch. From 2008:

Official Election Returns

State of Missouri General Election  – 2008 General Election

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

State Representative – District 94 – Summary

Precincts Reporting 24 of 24

Stream, Rick REP 11,623 54.2%

Lavender, Deb DEM 9,828 45.8

Total Votes   21,451

The Democratic Party candidate, Deb Lavender, filed her first quarter campaign finance report with the Missouri Ethics Commission on April 14th:

Detailed Summary of Committee Disclosure Report

Committe: LAVENDER FOR STATE REP

ReportDate:

1. TOTAL RECEIPTS FOR THIS ELECTION PREVIOUSLY REPORTED $20,618.21

2. ALL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED THIS PERIOD $8,945.20

9. TOTAL ALL RECEIPTS THIS ELECTION(SUM 1B + 7A – 8A) $29,563.41

15. TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS ELECTION (SUM 10B + 14A) $2,638.16

28. MONEY ON HAND AT THE CLOSE OF THIS REPORTING PERIOD (SUM 25 + 26 – 27) $24,858.04

[emphasis added]

An excellent fundraising quarter and a low burn rate. Let’s take a look at where the contributions came from:

Detailed Summary of Contributions And Loans Received

Committee: LAVENDER FOR STATE REP

Report Date: 4/14/2010

Jane Bogetto – PRIMARY Kirkwood MO Retired 03/25/2010 $100.00

Des Peres Physical Therapy – PRIMARY Dese Peres mo 03/28/2010 $1,000.00

13. TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS GIVING $100 OR LESS $2,749.20

[emphasis added]

That Jane Bogetto. And lot of small dollar contributions, many from retired individuals.

The expenditures:

Detailed Summary of Expenditures And Contributions Made

Committe: LAVENDER FOR STATE REP

ReportDate: 4/14/2010

A. EXPENDITURES OF $100 OR LESS BY CATEGORY

ActBlue Tech Services $3.95

ActBlue Tech Services $1.98

ActBlue Tech Services $5.93

ActBlue Tech Services $0.99

ActBlue Tech Services $1.98

ActBlue Tech Services $0.99

ActBlue Tech Services $3.17

ActBlue Tech Services $11.86

ActBlue Tech Services $5.93

ActBlue Tech Services $9.92

ActBlue Tech Services $2.97

ActBlue Tech Services $2.97

ActBlue Tech Services $0.99

ActBlue Tech Services $1.98

ActBlue Tech Services $0.99

ActBlue Tech Services $4.95

ActBlue Tech Services $11.27

B. ITEMIZED EXPENDITURES ALL OVER $100 AND ALL PAYMENTS TO CAMPAIGN WORKERS

City of Kirkwood Kirkwood, Mo 02/25/2010 Rental Down Payment $250.00

Fundraising!

The republican incumbent, Rick Stream, filed his first quarter campaign finance report with the Missouri Ethics Commission on April 15th:

Detailed Summary of Committee Disclosure Report

Committe: FRIENDS OF RICK STREAM

ReportDate:

1. TOTAL RECEIPTS FOR THIS ELECTION PREVIOUSLY REPORTED $49,426.42

2. ALL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED THIS PERIOD $3,000.00

9. TOTAL ALL RECEIPTS THIS ELECTION(SUM 1B + 7A – 8A) $52,426.42

15. TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS ELECTION (SUM 10B + 14A) $20,850.11

28. MONEY ON HAND AT THE CLOSE OF THIS REPORTING PERIOD (SUM 25 + 26 – 27) $38,596.62

[emphasis added]

That’s some serious spending. And where did the money come from this quarter?:

Detailed Summary of Contributions And Loans Received

Committee: FRIENDS OF RICK STREAM

Report Date: 4/15/2010

MO Podiatry PAC Jefferson City, MO 03/05/2010 $500.00

Patrick Busch St. Louis, MO 01/16/2010 $1,000.00

Comprehensive Health Systems Hannibal, MO 01/23/2010 $500.00

Steve Haag Kirkwood, MO 03/05/2010 $500.00

Union Pacific Railroad Co. 03/12/2010 $400.00

13. TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS GIVING $100 OR LESS $100.00

That’s all of it for this quarter. It doesn’t quite have that grassrootsie feel, does it?

Let’s look at the expenditures:

Detailed Summary of Expenditures And Contributions Made

Committe: FRIENDS OF RICK STREAM

ReportDate: 4/15/2010

B. ITEMIZED EXPENDITURES ALL OVER $100 AND ALL PAYMENTS TO CAMPAIGN WORKERS

Missouri Republican Party Jefferson City, MO 02/17/2010 Lincoln/Reagan Days $345.00

C. MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS MADE (REGARDLESS OF AMOUNT)

St. Louis Victory PAC 01/28/2010 $400.00

Lincoln/Reagan Days? I think I’ll pass.

What did he report spending in 2008 (8 Day Before General Election report)?:

Detailed Summary of Committee Disclosure Report

Committe: FRIENDS OF RICK STREAM

ReportDate: 12/4/2008

15. TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS ELECTION (SUM 10B + 14A) $109,976.67

And Deb Lavender’s 2008 numbers (8 Day Before General Election report)?:

Detailed Summary of Committee Disclosure Report

Committe: DEB LAVENDER FOR STATE REP

ReportDate: 12/4/2008

15. TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS ELECTION (SUM 10B + 14A) $82,036.04

Not bad at all.

Yep, this one just might turn in 2010.

After his unsuccessful run against Todd Akin in the Second Congressional, Bill Haas announced at the last meeting of West County Dems that he and some other concerned citizens had met and talked about the need for campaigning for 2010 races to start next spring.

It couldn’t hurt.

Deb Lavender wasn’t part of that conversation, but I got an e-mail from her this week saying that she is looking into having another go at Rick Stream in HD 94 in Kirkwood.

Deb got almost 46 percent of the vote there on November 4th, so taking another run at him seems reasonable. It’s true that with one short exception, that seat has been in Republican hands for fifty years, but the exception was that Jane Bogetto captured that seat in a 2005 special election–only to lose it in 2006, as the victim of (if you can believe such a thing) Republican smears.

So it’s possible to do it. Jim Trout came achingly close to winning Gibbons’ senate seat, which covers Kirkwood and Webster. Next door in Webster Groves, Jeanne Kirkton got 51.4 percent of the vote.

It’s true that Kirkton had some advantages Deb didn’t. For one, Jeanne had run for the state senate against Gibbons in ’04 and had that name recognition going for her. Also contributing to her name recognition was that Jeanne’s been on the Webster City Council. Bogetto had a similar advantage from having served on the Kirkwood School Board. The final advantage Jeanne had, which Deb didn’t this year and won’t have if she runs in two years, is that the Webster rep was termed out. Deb will have to face an incumbent.

On the plus side for Deb is that she ran an impressive race for someone who has never tried it before. She can look back at the past year and a half of effort, take pride in it, maybe wince at a few mistakes and learn from them.

I say it’s worth another try–and kudos to Deb for picking herself back up so quickly. If she decides to do it–are you listening, Bill?–she can start next spring.

photo of Deb with state party chairman John Temporiti, courtesy of Deb’s website

Get to the point!

On the evening that I went out door knocking with Deb Lavender, she did that. She introduced herself and told each person that, as a physical therapist who owns a business in Kirkwood, she is passionate about health care. She is also passionate about having members of both parties sit down at the table together and work on solutions without all the bickering.

One man asked her what she could do as a state rep to ease the health care crisis in Missouri. Her answer was a solution I’d not heard of. She told him that she wanted Missourians to have the right to knock on Medicare’s door and ask for a premium. She  told him that Medicare’s rates are far lower than Anthem’s, the company where he gets his insurance, because Medicare operates with 5 percent overhead, whereas Anthem and other private insurers operate with 40 percent overhead. Anthem’s rates would fall if people had the option of going with Medicare.  

Deb wasn’t sure that such a plan could be enacted, but even if that didn’t work out, she’d at least aim to get vets on Medicare if they want that coverage.

None of the people we talked to that evening questioned her about her second passion, establishing bipartisan cooperation. But I did. As we drove back to the office, I played devil’s advocate and pointed out that bipartisan cooperation isn’t feasible when Republicans are so bent on having it: my way or the highway. Their motives are mainly greedy, I said, and finding consensus between legislators who want a level playing field for ordinary people and those who want to enrich the wealthy doesn’t work.

Deb didn’t dispute that. In fact, she added that they’ve punished Democrats for the sin of being Democrats by taking the parking assignments of Dem leaders and giving them to junior Republican legislators. Same with office space. Deb told me that one Democratic legislator spent an entire summer attending workshops to learn more about the topic of a subcommittee she was to sit on. Then the Republicans, for no good reason, removed her from that subcommittee.

So it isn’t as if Deb is naive about Republicans. But she does believe that when Democrats retake the power, they will be tempted to exact some payback for all that gratuitous meanness. Bad idea. And Deb would push for as much comity as possible.

So, let’s see, the mostly socially moderate voters of Kirkwood have a choice between pro-voucher, pro-death penalty, pro-abstinence-only sex ed, anti-choice, anti-cure Republican Rick Stream or a concerned, compassionate, sensible Democrat in the person of Deb Lavender. That should be a no-brainer. All she has to do is knock on 12,000 doors before November 4th and show them the difference. That’s all.

That would require hitting 500 doors a week, and–hint, hint–she could sure use more help achieving that.

Last Tuesday evening, I tagged along as Dev Lavender, running for state rep in Kirkwood, H.D. 94, knocked on doors. We started at 5:00 on a hot, muggy evening–but with a breeze, thank goodness. As we drove to the spot where we met two other volunteers, Deb explained her concerns about finding spots on main thoroughfares for her yard signs. And she talked about the challenge of being a first time candidate and not knowing things that would be obvious to old pros. For example, she thought ordering yard signs a week and a half in advance would be plenty. No-o-o. She should have ordered them at least three weeks before she needed them.

We set off with the VAN list, skipping the houses that had been identified as strong Republicans. Most people didn’t greet us like company they’d been expecting, but more like we might turn out to be Jehovah’s Witnesses–and we were guilty until proven innocent of that charge. Most of them eased up a little once they realized we weren’t proselytizing (well, not proselytizing for Jesus anyway), but we still weren’t the company they’d been expecting.

Their coolness is so understandable, and it’s no predictor of what will happen in the conversation. One man stood on the sidewalk, holding his cig till it died but not inhaling–considerate of him, I thought. He was a yellow dog Democrat and liked to talk about his experiences. He talked for ten minutes or so, then he told us to be sure to visit with Julia, two doors up. “Now she might not answer, cause she’s blind, and if Bill ain’t home, she might not feel comfortable. But he usually gets home around this time. He’s still workin’ at 72. Me, I got outta Chrysler when I couldn’t take them bosses no more.”

Two doors up, Bill answered, came outside, listened to Deb’s pitch without much expression one way or another. Then Deb mentioned that his neighbor had told us about his wife’s vision problems and asked if she was home. Bill invited us in. We weren’t expecting that.

I made over their two Maine Coon cats–what beauties!–while Deb and Julia got acquainted. Turns out that Julia was the first woman in Kirkwood to run for the City Council. This was back in the seventies. She lost that race, but Marge Schramm, who ran for mayor in the eighties and won, said that Julia had broken ground for female candidates in Kirkwood. Before Julia retired, she ran non-profits, and in fact at one time headed an organization with 6,000 volunteers to oversee.

Deb invited her to help with her campaign, but Julia said, “I can’t see anything.” Deb’s response was that her experience would be very valuable, and I chimed in that Julia would have told her to order those yard signs earlier than she had.

Julia wasn’t interested in working on the campaign, though. On the other hand, she did offer to put up a yard sign for Deb. Julia and Bill are on Geyer Road, a major thoroughfare in Kirkwood–AND right across from a polling place. A plum location.

That, as it turned out, was the house of the night. We soldiered on.

One young mother opened her apartment door with a sweet smile. Deb gave her the opening patter: “Hi, I’m Deb Lavender, and I’m running for state rep. I’m getting out and meeting the neighbors. Do you vote Democratic, Republican … or it depends?” The young woman’s smile broadened: “I work for the Republican Party.” Anyone who’s ever used a VAN list knows they’re not perfect. Deb returned her smile and said that the lady probably wouldn’t be voting for her, then. She shrugged. “They pay my bills, and I don’t bite the hand that feeds me.”

Another man listened to Deb’s intro, took the literature, told her that he was a Democrat and that he’d vote for her. And stopped short of saying, “Now that’s all I want to hear. You can go away.” But we got the idea and left him to his life.

Deb is running against an incumbent, Rick Stream , who is more conservative than most Kirkwood voters. He is pro-voucher in a school district that places high value on its schools, anti-stem cell research, anti-choice, pro-death penalty, and pro-abstinence only sex education.

Deb mentioned none of that at the doors, however, unless someone asked, preferring to focus on her passion, as a physical therapist and a small business owner, for health care reform. I’ll have more to say tomorrow about her conversations with constituents about health care, as well as about her belief that legislators should quit bickering and start looking for common ground.

So we had our very first blograiser last night. It was much like our original idea, which was a blogger meetup (like last fall) + candidate + contributions to said candidate. 15 people showed up, not counting myself, Deb, and hotflash. Deb Lavender got checks totalling $190 at the event, plus whatever was donated on ActBlue (which is still an option, whether you’ve contributed already or not.) A couple of people promised more contributions at the event, so we’ll update with a total if they follow through. As an added bonus, Deb got to hand off cards and donor envelopes to a few Kirkwood residents who happened to be playing washers near us.

It was good to see Archpundit, Maryb2004, hotflash, duckhunter, ashriver and Rea Kleeman from this blog, and American Phoenix from Daily Kos. It was also nice to meet some of you lurkers. And Joan Landmann stopped by later on to chat, which was highly entertaining. We talked politics, sports, movies, and God knows what else till 11:00 over beers, burgers, pita bread and hummus. (I highly recommend the hummus next time you’re at the Royale – yum!)

We’ll be doing this again in the next few months, but we always hope to make things bigger and better. Suggestions are welcome. If you’re interested in doing a blograiser in another part of the state, I’ll be happy to do whatever I can to help out.

Just a reminder – our blograiser for Deb Lavender is tonight! Please join us in helping a great candidate take back another seat in the Missouri House. Every person who contributes tonight means less time for her on the phones to donors and more time knocking doors and attending town hall meetings.

Date: Wednesday, May 21st

Place: The Royale at 3132 S. Kingshighway in St. Louis

Time: 7:00pm until ???

We’ll be at the Royale from 7pm to whenever, and some goodies will be provided. If you know someone who can’t make it in person, please ask them to consider a $10.01 contribution at Deb’s ActBlue page: http://www.actblue.com/page/de…

Reminder – we’ll be meeting at The Royale next Wednesday to support Deb Lavender.

Date: Wednesday, May 21st

Place: The Royale at 3132 S. Kingshighway in St. Louis

Time: 7:00pm until ???

If you’re on Facebook, you can RSVP here.

In the announcement diary, I described Deb pretty generically – a Democrat who cares about education and health care and the environment running against an awful Republican. All of which is true, but there’s more to it. Deb is not a career politician. She’s a concerned citizen, just like the rest of us, who decided to put herself on the line and make a run for office. What’s more, Deb’s surprisingly good at the nitty-gritty of the campaign; she’s persistent, shows up at every Democratic event in the area, knocks doors all over her district, and works extremely hard at raising money. When a qualified candidate puts forth the effort like that, she needs like-minded folks like us to step forward and help her out.

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday night. Please bring a suggested contribution of at least $10. Questions and suggestions welcome in comments.

I know you’re probably looking for someplace to put your activist energy as a long presidential primary winds down, and better yet, get behind one Democrat fighting an extremist Republican.

If you’re in the St. Louis area, you’re in luck. We are pleased to announce the first official blograiser in Missouri, on behalf of Deb Lavender, Democratic candidate for the 94th District of the Missouri House. Deb is a fantastic candidate running against an awful opponent, so picking her ahead of so many other good local candidates wasn’t as hard a choice as we thought it might be. Deb is a Kirkwood physical therapist and small business owner who is running for health care and education reform and to protect our environment. She’s also dogged campaigner who’s not afraid to make a speech in a crowded bar, put in call time, and knock door after door in her district. Her opponent, Rick Stream, is a far-right Republican who voted for such measures as abstinence-only education in schools and to hurt MOHELA’s ability to provide low-interest loans to college students. Best of all, he’s beatable. Deb whipped him in fundraising last quarter and is nearly even in cash on hand. And recently as 2006, Democrats held the seat. It’s going to take some effort, but it’s within reach.

So, here’s how a blograiser works. It’s essentially a combination meetup, fundraiser, and liveblog. We will meet at the Royale at 7:00pm on May 21st, just like about 30 of us did last fall. This time, we’ll pitch in some cash on behalf of Deb, and some of us will give online updates on our respective blogs. You can either bring your checkbook to the Royale, or you can contribute online at Deb’s ActBlue page. The suggested minimum contribution is $10, and if you contribute online ahead of time, please print out your confirmation page and bring it to the blograiser.

Date: Wednesday, May 21st

Place: The Royale at 3132 S. Kingshighway in St. Louis

Time: 7:00pm until ???

And in case you’re on Facebook, here’s the Facebook event page.

Remember, the action in Jefferson City is arguably a lot more important to us in Missouri than what goes on in Washington, D.C. Winning this seat back for the Democrats is a necessary step to bringing responsible governance back to the statehouse. So let’s support Deb!