This kind of got lost in hotflash’s Friday night post about the pre-convention reception, but just as Jeff Harris told her then, he quickly replied to Blunt’s e-mail request, saying that he’s willing to immediately turn over the 75,000 documents Blunt requested at a cost of $10,000 to the taxpayer. One extra wrinkle – the House generally maintains that individual members of the House are not in of themselves public bodies and therefore not open to scrutiny under the Sunshine Law. Harris maintains that his willingness to comply has nothing to do with the validity of the House opinion.

I’m not sure why Blunt is going this route. Maybe he’s hoping that Harris can’t produce all of the documents, or that Harris might have some skeletons buried in those hard drives. But it’s egg on Blunt’s face if Harris can produce and nothing of consequence surfaces. Meanwhile, Harris gets extra press and an opportunity for a fundraising ask – Harris sent out an e-mail to his list calling Blunt’s attack a “Badge of Honor” and asked for a small contribution on behalf of the guy standing up to Blunt.  

I forget whether Friday evening was billed as a banquet. Whatever they called it, I wouldn’t call it a banquet. The food, which was strictly incidental, was a rubber chicken buffet–without the chicken. Cold roast beef, sandwiches three times the size of a postage stamp, dice made of cheese, and sliced veggies.

Also incidental were any speeches that were made. Somebody spoke to himself on the microphone for five minutes. I couldn’t decipher a word of it at the back of the “banquet” room. No one paid the least attention to him. They were there for the main attraction: each other. It was a chance to network, trade war stories, briefly make the acquaintance of like minded people you’ll never see again. Everybody nibbled fried mushrooms from their five inch plates and circulated.  In fact, I dropped a fried mushroom and the woman I was talking to–we’ll allow her to remain nameless–smiled, picked it up and popped it in her mouth. She was efficient and unembarrassed. I hadda love it.

Jay Nixon spoke for five minutes or so to rally the troops. Maybe three fourths of the people in the room quit talking for that. As soon as he stopped, a couple of hundred conversations resumed. So did the band. Hearing what was said was problematic.

I talked to Ken Jacob and Judy Baker, both vying for Hulshof’s seat in the Ninth. Ken likes to split wood. “Like Bush,” I said, but Ken explained that he himself chops wood. Bush saws it. OK. Judy’s excited about the year and her campaign. But she does moan that she’s got to find a way to be less … “boring.” Not that she is. All she means is that she’s no fun to gossip about.  She should start a rumor that she has ties to organized crime.  That’ll jazz up her image.

Steve Gaw was there, too, but I didn’t get a chance to meet him. Saturday, maybe.

Jeff Harris told me the latest on his nasty little e-mail skirmish with G. W. Blunt. Harris says he communicated to the guv today his preliminary estimate of how much material he’ll be turning over in answer to the administration’s sunshine request: about 75,000 pages of documents and 5,000 e-mails at a cost to the state of something in the neighborhood of $10,000.

Jeff figures they were mighty surprised at his swift compliance since he’s a lawyer. They probably expected him to do what they would do: use lawyerly tricks to stonewall. They’d assume he’d have lots of embarrassing shenanigans to hide, just like they do. Nope. He’s turning it all over to them.Take that, you weasels. Your snotty little game just fell flat.

Jake Zimmerman was in his element, schmoozing, wise cracking, and having a helluva good time. He’s delighted that House Republicans and Senate Republicans are so cheesed off at each other that they can’t even get passed what they both want to pass. He says they may be so busy hating each other that they might slip up and fail to get the Voter I.D. amendment ready for the ballot. Maybe. But probably not.

Tommy Roberts, the chair of the Democratic Committee in St. Charles County was telling me that he just won an aldermanic election in St. Peters: he’s the first ever Democrat to win an aldermanic election in that staunch Republican stronghold. More on that race in the next week or so.

Byron DeLear was there. Of course. I’ve been saying for several months now that I expect to start running into him at Schnucks. I see him everywhere else.

The party’s over now. Time to hit the sack.

Apparently piqued at Harris’ support for the Sunshine Law, Matt Blunt asked Attorney General candidate (and current State Rep.) Jeff Harris to turn over all correspondence sent to or from Harris’ office.

Interesting how Blunt’s chief of staff Trish Vincent started the letter:

“In your campaign for attorney general,” the letter began, “you have announced your ardent support for Missouri’s Sunshine Act. I wanted to provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate that commitment by fulfilling the below open records request.” [emphasis mine]

So now Jeff Harris gets to prove his personal commitment to an issue he talks about quite a bit. In fact, on that first blogger conference call last fall, Harris talked at length about the possible interactions between an Attorney General Harris’ office and the Sunshine Law.

Harris didn’t waste any time in responding, either:

“I am a strong believer in the Sunshine Law, and that’s why I’ve sponsored legislation to make sure that records are open to the public and that Missouri’s public officials govern openly,” said Harris. “Whether they are on a town council or they are the governor of the state, public officials must understand that government records belong to the people, and not to them.”

Harris, a Democratic candidate for Attorney General, said he will comply with Blunt’s request, but he questioned obvious political motives behind the request. Blunt’s request came just one day after Harris, in a speech on the House floor, commended two state employees for standing up to the governor, whose office investigators allege made an illegal request to destroy public documents.

The full statement is below the flip.

Columbia – Today Governor Matt Blunt, in his latest shameless attempt to mask potential criminal wrongdoing in his own office, issued a Sunshine Law request for all documents from Representative Jeff Harris’ office dating back to 2003. The request is based on nothing but a blatant political effort to deflect attention away from the Governor’s own behavior.

“I have always been willing to stand up to this Governor when important principles are at stake,” said Harris. “I will continue to call for him to be held accountable for his alleged illegal actions in ordering the destruction of public records after a Sunshine law request had been filed with his office.”

Harris has been a strong champion of the Sunshine Law. He sponsored the Sunshine Law Electronic Upgrade Act, which made clear that electronic records like emails fell under the Sunshine Law. During this session, Harris has sponsored HB 2177 that would make it easier to prove Sunshine Law violations and would have expanded the scope of the law to include emails sent on wireless devices, campaign accounts, and other private accounts that directly pertained to public business. Harris has also pledged to create a Sunshine Law Enforcement Unit when he is elected Attorney General.

“I am a strong believer in the Sunshine Law, and that’s why I’ve sponsored legislation to make sure that records are open to the public and that Missouri’s public officials govern openly,” said Harris. “Whether they are on a town council or they are the governor of the state, public officials must understand that government records belong to the people, and not to them.”

Harris, a Democratic candidate for Attorney General, said he will comply with Blunt’s request, but he questioned obvious political motives behind the request. Blunt’s request came just one day after Harris, in a speech on the House floor, commended two state employees for standing up to the governor, whose office investigators allege made an illegal request to destroy public documents.

To bloggers, that is. The Harris campaign hosted another conference call last night with Missouri bloggers. I don’t think any bombshells came out of the call. As one could expect, Harris was upbeat about the campaign in general and listed off a number of impressive recent endorsements and fundraising figures. He was restrained and respectful when talking about his primary opponents, as well, only mentioning Koster and Donnelly briefly when talking about fundraising.

I asked Harris two questions. He semi-dodged the first one, and to the second he gave a surprising answer. The first question was about the use of “New Media” in his campaign. Given his greater emphasis on blogger outreach than any other statewide campaign in Missouri, what approach was he taking to other forms of “New Media”, like Facebook, Myspace, text messaging, etc.? He gave a generic answer that among other things, his team would continue to be creative. I would have loved to have gotten more specifics, but the answer didn’t disappoint all that much. I mean, candidates don’t always have every specific detail about campaign statistics and strategy at their fingertips, and frankly, if Jeff Harris can rattle off the ins and outs of Facebook and Myspace, it would probably creep me out a little bit.

The second question I asked dealt with Harris’ experience as a legislator and how it might affect him as an AG. Here I thought he might give us some pablum about being closer to the people by his constant campaigning or superior constituent services or whatever. But his answer was pretty thoughtful – knowing the legislative process thoroughly would make him a better AG, because the AG’s office works closely with the legislature to make its job easier, whether it’s closing loopholes in current law or increasing funding to his office for better enforcement. It’s a wonky answer, but Jeff strikes me as a wonky politician.

I’ll let others chime in with their takes on the conversation, rather than bore everybody with a blow-by-blow.

Last month I wrote:

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, even if you  know you aren’t going to succeed–or at least, not right away. Not this year.

Jeff Harris (Democratic representative from Columbia, running for the Attorney General nomination) takes umbrage that Tyson, Smithfield and MOArk are turning the Missouri countryside into their personal fiefdoms. He resents the damage done by CAFOs (contained animal feeding operations) in our state so much that he’s filing two bills this session to restrain CAFOs and big ag.

Apparently CAFO opponents are making inroads against the Farm Bureau’s stranglehold on rural opinion. Witness this headline in the Boonville Daily News:

Lawmaker continues effort to give communities local control over CAFOs – Local voters would have final say on proposed corporate livestock factories

Notice how the CAFOs are described: not as hog farms but as “corporate livestock factories“.

 

The article describes how one of Harris’ bills would give communities the right to put the licensing of CAFOs in their area to a vote and quotes Harris at length. The first page of the article (and the rest is only available in the dead tree version) doesn’t even give the bill’s opponents any response time.

Wonder if the Farm Bureau is going to start characterizing the Boonville Daily News as the liberal media.

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, even if you  know you aren’t going to succeed–or at least, not right away. Not this year.

Jeff Harris (Democratic representative from Columbia, running for the Attorney General nomination) takes umbrage that Tyson, Smithfield and MOArk are turning the Missouri countryside into their personal fiefdoms. He resents the damage done by CAFOs (contained animal feeding operations) in our state so much that he’s filing two bills this session to restrain CAFOs and big ag.

The first bill is a repeat performance, forbidding the construction of a CAFO within five miles of a state park or a national historic landmark (such as the village of Arrow Rock, which is about to be drenched in the stench of a hog CAFO). Better luck with it this year than last, Jeff.

The second bill, more important as far as reining in these nosesores and water table polluters, would grant local governments control over whether they could be built. Right now, the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) grants a license to any prospective CAFO owner who so much as winks in its direction.  

So Harris is introducing a bill that would allow local governments to make the licensing of nearby CAFOs a ballot issue. Only if a local ballot initiative failed to stop a new CAFO would the DNR have a say in whether to license one. Harris says:

“This legislation will give the people forced to live with the smell, pollution and waste caused by a nearby CAFO a powerful voice in the licensing process.”

Rural landowners have been organizing and fighting the proliferation of CAFOs, but the powerful Farm Bureau tells the Republican leadership to ignore them and to wrest the last vestige of local control away if possible. Last year, Senator Chris Koster (then a Republican) introduced legislation that would have negated the only local control that now exists, which is the power of county health boards to regulate CAFOs for health reasons.

Organizers put so much pressure on their Republican senators that, knowing the bill would be defeated, the Republican leadership decided not to bring it up for a vote. But just because irate rural citizens stopped the Koster bill, that doesn’t mean they can get their Republican legislators to pass Jeff Harris’s bill.

There’s a big difference between bending to grass roots pressure to prevent corporations from taking even more power and outright telling the Farm Bureau and Premium Standard Farms to take a flying leap. Republicans are caught between big time funding and some constituent pressure here. Believe it: they’re not going to cut off that funding unless their very chances of remaining in office are threatened by their support of CAFOs.

Nevertheless, even with the chances being what they are–slim to none–Jeff is introducing his bill to grant local control on this issue. He knows it won’t succeed this year, but that’s no reason not to start the ball rolling. Hey, if the Dems, in November, get those eleven seats they’ll need for control of the House and if they pick up maybe three Senate seats so that the margin is narrower in that chamber, who knows where a bill like this could go next year? If it passed in the House, every rural Republican senator who voted against it would face a storm of controversy.

Sounds good to me.

Photo of hog CAFO courtesy of Gone Mild

Or tickets to the game, to be more precise. It’s a clever way to drive traffic to his website.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thurday, November 20, 2007

Contact:  Christian Badger
(573)442-7980

Harris Campaign to Give Away Two MU-KU Tickets
Devoted Mizzou Fan, Jeff Harris Will Award Tickets to Winner
  at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Saturday

Columbia – Jeff Harris’ campaign for Attorney General is excited to announce a special giveaway of two tickets to Saturday’s football game between the Missouri Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks. Harris will personally award a pair of tickets what’s being called the “Game of the Century” to the lucky winner outside Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium.

To enter, Missouri Democrats should go to Harris’ website, http://www.ElectJeffHarris.com, and complete the entry form. Entries will close at noon on Friday, November 23, with the winner being selected at random at 3 pm that day.

“Mizzou fans across the state are counting down the minutes until this game kicks off,” Harris said. “I’m excited to have the opportunity to make the game even more special for two lucky Missouri Democrats by giving them a chance to cheer on the Tigers in person.”

The winner of the MU-KU game has a good shot at going to the National Championship game in New Orleans in January.

Primary contests can be an approach/avoidance situation.  They’re useful as far as giving the Democratic base a choice, but they take a toll on the finances of the eventual winner.

Here’s the upside of contested primaries:  I could take a vacation if I had a ten dollar bill for every time I’ve wished some DINO would get a progressive challenger in the primary.  And sometimes the results are wonderful.  Look at Senator John Tester’s primary win in Montana last year.  He decimated the DLC selected Democrat and went on to win.

But it can work the other way, too.  In the Missouri attorney general’s race, we have two fine progressives, Margaret Donnelly and Jeff Harris, opposed by a recent convert from the Republican party, Chris Koster. 

As a state senator, Koster has name recognition and a much larger chunk of change than his opponents.  He raised over $440,000 in the third quarter alone and has a million on hand.  $100,000 of that $440,000 came from Rex Sinquefield PACs–and, by the way, Koster isn’t saying whether he would oppose state tax credits for families that send their children to private schools.

Koster would like Democrats to overlook his record, but Margaret Donnelly called him on his recent flip flop over the Medicaid cuts:

In a press release today, Donnelly said Koster suggested he would have liked a “do-over” of his vote at a Missouri Democratic Party State Committee meeting last Saturday.

“What’s most curious about Koster’s most recent statements appealing for a do-over is that in September of 2007 Koster told KY3 in Springfield that he stood behind his decision to cut Medicaid eligibility. So which is it Chris? Do you want a do-over or do you stand behind cutting thousands of Missourians off needed healthcare?,” an e-mail from the Donnelly campaign for Attorney General asks today.

Jeff Harris is getting his blows in too by challenging Koster to give back his over-limit donations.

Put that information about the Donnelly/Harris/Koster arguments on hold for a minute, while you consider this: the Missouri Democratic Party chairman, John Temporiti, doesn’t seem to buy into that approach/avoidance attitude toward primaries.  He knows what he wants: fewer primary contests.  He believes that eliminating many of them would give the Dems a chance to take more seats in the legislature.  To that end, he’s been having conferences with candidates involved in primary contests, trying to talk those less likely to win the general election into dropping out.

Temporiti says he talks to the candidates about “campaign assets, resources and winnability.”  That doesn’t sound as if he focuses on policy, does it?  Of course, he would probably argue that any Democrat who gets elected is one more vote to put the skids on the right wingers.  A few more votes, for example, might have prevented the wingnuts from passing that abstinence only sex education bill last spring.  We’re dealing with people who are fond of crowing that the bill defeated Planned Promiscuity, that they ran a truck over Planned Terrorist in the Womb (parenthood-not).  Clever, eh?  And much in need of being stopped.

Temporiti claims success at getting two state legislators to drop out and give Rep. Joan Barry, a better known candidate, a clear field in the race for the soon-to-be-vacant First District state Senate seat.  He also talked to the two men running for Lieutenant Governor, Sam Page and Mike Evans.  The rumor mill has it that Evans, far less well funded, will drop out in a couple of weeks.  If Sam Page is the last one standing, he’ll need everything he’s got to beat Peter kinder.

And now, back to the AG race. 

Temporiti acknowledges less success in trimming the current three-Democrat field running for Missouri attorney general. He admits being envious of the state Republican Party, which already has winnowed its attorney general contenders down to state Sen. Michael Gibbons of Kirkwood.

Temporiti says he’s met with the three declared Democrats: state Sen. Chris Koster of Harrisonville and state Reps. Jeff Harris of Columbia and Margaret Donnelly of Richmond Heights.

Temporiti said he discussed with each their “financial resources, grasp of the issues, and winnability in a statewide race.” The upshot: “All three of them have made very persuasive arguments of why they should stay in this race.”

Koster’s arguments would be name recognition and MONEY, while Harris and Donnelly are less well known but dependably progressive.  I just hope the two of them don’t cancel each other out and leave the top spot to Koster.  Not that I don’t appreciate him leaving the dark side, but he doesn’t deserve that nomination until he builds some street cred as a Democrat.

Temporiti plans to continue discussing the race in hopes of getting one or two of them to drop out.  If Koster refuses to go, Donnelly and Harris would do the progressive side of the party a favor if they could agree that one of them should drop out.  They’re both so good that I hate to say that, but their competition could throw the race to a candidate who is untested as a Democrat and who has several legislative votes that make me cringe. 

In the order received, the answers to this week’s question: “What will you do as Attorney General to defend workers’ rights?”

If you like any single answer, or if you like more than one, please show some support to the candidate(s) with some cash. Representative Margaret Donnelly’s ActBlue page is here, and Representative Jeff Harris’ Actblue page is here. Senator Chris Koster doesn’t have an Actblue page (yet – I hope), but we’ll add the link if he obtains one. 

Representative Margaret Donnelly’s answer:

I have been a part of – and worked with – the labor movement all of my life. I am a former member of the Illinois CWA and the Wisconsin NEA. I have a 100% AFL-CIO voting record as a state representative.

It is a basic right of workers in our country not to be exploited: to be paid a fair wage and to have safe and decent working conditions. State attorneys general have not always done enough to protect this right, but as workers see their wages, pensions and safety constantly threatened, attorneys general must proactively defend workers’ rights. As attorney general, I will enforce wage and hour laws, workplace safety, workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance.

In Missouri, we especially need to be vigilant enforcing new state and federal minimum wage laws. Missouri voters last year increased the state minimum wage and required annual increases based on cost-of-living growth, and Congress this year raised the federal minimum wage. This will be confusing for employers and employees, as they try to keep up with which law requires the higher minimum wage. I will initiate an aggressive education and enforcement campaign to ensure that all workers are paid the required wage.

Recent events also call for attorneys general to keep a close watch on pension plans. A pension is a promise made to workers by their employer and must be respected as such. I will defend Missouri’s public pensions and make certain Missouri companies are complying with the 2006 Pension Protection Act.

Representative Harris’ answer:

Thank you again for your great work on behalf of Missouri’s progressive
community. As the House Democratic leader, I led the fight to stop the
Blunt agenda, which has been so devastating to Missouri’s working
families.

Having served as an assistant attorney general, I know what must be done
to protect the rights of Missourians who work hard and play by the rules.
As attorney general, my labor division will enforce minimum wage laws and
will aggressively prosecute prevailing wage cases and employers that
violate labor laws.  Worker protection will be a top priority in my
administration.

Since taking office, Matt Blunt has privatized countless state services at
the expense of hard working state workers, enabling him to reward his
friends with new state contracts.

As your attorney general, I will immediately examine the costs associated
with privatization and systematically review the status of worker
protections currently placed in contracts entered into by the state. I
will also initiate legislation that requires state contracts to have
strict penalty provisions for businesses that violate our labor laws.

Finally, I want to reiterate my support for public sector collective
bargaining.  When the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Peter Kinder sued
the state to get Governor Holden’s collective bargaining executive
order rescinded, Jay Nixon turned to me as assistant attorney general to
handle that case.  I successfully defended that executive order in court
and would do so again as attorney general.

Please visit my website at http://www.electjeffharris.com to learn more about my
campaign.

Senator Koster’s answer:

Throughout my 13 years in public service, I have been proud to stand with Missouri’s working families. As the elected Prosecuting Attorney for Cass County, I was recognized as one Missouri’s toughest prosecutors of prevailing wage violations. One of the proudest accomplishments of my career was fighting successfully to have the Cass County Justice center built with a Project Labor Agreement. Today, that Justice Center is the envy of counties across Missouri.

In the Missouri Senate, I have been a staunch opponent of efforts to outlaw collective bargaining and make Missouri a right-to-work state. I have also sponsored legislation to crack down on employers who exploit illegal immigrants for cheap labor.

My record on workers’ rights has been recognized with endorsements of my candidacy for Attorney General by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Missouri State Council of Firefighters, SEIU Local #2000, the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO, the Greater Kansas City Building & Construction Trades, the Carpenters’ District Council of Kansas City and Vicinity, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local #1287.

As Missouri’s next Attorney General, I will make the vigorous defense of workers’ rights a cornerstone of the office. I will crack down on employers who undermine our work force by exploiting cheap, illegal labor and show how an Attorney General who is focused on a single problem can end prevailing wage violations in the state of Missouri. And I will continue my unfailing support for the working family agenda by standing by my permanent and undying opposition to right-to-work in our state.

[poll id=”

19

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It looks like the Democratic field is now set for the Attorney General’s race. That must mean it’s time for another round of Show Me Progress’ Q & A Series. This week’s question: “What will you do as Attorney General to defend workers’ rights?”

The rules are simple:

1) Answers must be 250 words or less.

2) Answers must be received by noon on Wednesday.

Check back for the answers!