Three of the four candidates for state treasurer–Andria Simckes, Charles Wheeler, and Clint Zweifel–spoke at the candidates forum at West County Dems on Monday. (The fourth candidate, Mark Powell, did not attend.) You’ll get the most accurate idea of them if I just let them introduce themselves, as they each did in a three minute speech.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is twelve minutes of video worth? I think it will tell you a great deal about who you want to vote for. … But it will still leave you with a tough choice.

Clint Zweifel, currently running for State Treasurer, just got Missouri Pro-Vote’s Outstanding Legislator Award. It should be noted that Pro-Vote doesn’t generally endorse in a primary, and none of Zweifel’s opponents are legislators and thus weren’t eligible for the award. Still, Pro-Vote is a solid progressive organization and any nod from them has to be taken seriously.

Primary opponent Andria Simckes released a number of endorsements earlier this week. Former KC mayor Charlie Wheeler and former Arnold mayor (and 2004 Democratic nominee for treasurer) Mark Powell are also running for the nomination.

The Pro-Vote press release is below the fold.

Pro-Vote Honors Zweifel

Representative Named Outstanding Legislator

ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition announced that Representative Clint Zweifel will receive the Outstanding Legislator Award at Pro-Vote’s 13th Annual Progressive Awards Dinner this fall.  Representative Zweifel represents the 78th District which includes parts of Hazelwood, Florissant and Bridgeton in St. Louis County.  

Clint was first elected in 2002 by a 67-vote margin.  He chaired the Missouri House Democratic Campaign Committee in 2006 overseeing the largest Democratic net gain in the House since 1978.  After three terms as a State Representative, Clint is running for Missouri State Treasurer this election cycle.  Clint was the Research and Education Director for Teamsters Local 688 and a former Pro-Vote Board Member.

Clint has helped lead Democratic policy strategy in Jefferson City on important issues like early childhood education, privacy rights and helping seniors cope with property taxes.  During his three terms in Jefferson City, Clint has emerged as a leader on state finances where he serves as the ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee and the Special Committee on Tax Reform.  Since being elected, Clint has received a 100% on Pro-Vote’s annual Legislative Scorecard every year.

“Clint has been a true champion for hard-working Missouri families on the issues that matter to all of us,” said Greg Shufeldt, Political Director for Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition.  “We are proud to recognize the great work and accomplishments of Representative Zweifel.”

The Pro-Vote Annual Awards Dinner is an impressive gathering of the progressive community to honor outstanding organizations and individuals.  More than 400 legislators, labor union and community leaders, and activists will attend the dinner and enjoy good friends and Pro-Vote’s inspriring vision.  This year’s event will be on Saturday, September 27th at the America’s Convention Center in St. Louis.

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Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition (Pro-Vote) is a statewide coalition of more than forty labor unions and community groups founded in 1992 to give grassroots organizations the tools to engage their membership in the public policy process.  Pro-Vote works to advocate for sound progressive public policies and to help elect progressive candidates.

Via a Clint Zweifel press release, Andria Simckes apparently supports the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative, which is actually a ballot initiative to ban affirmative action programs designed to improve opportunities for women and minorities. Historically, women have been the biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action programs, and everyone in society benefits from greater access to education and employment in traditionally disadvantaged groups. So it’s baffling that Simckes, an African American woman running in the Democratic primary for state treasurer, would support something like the MCRI.

I’m not sure if Simckes truly supports the ballot initiative, if she misspoke, or if she got fooled by the deceptive title. I’m hoping that the most generous scenario is the correct one.

UPDATE: That’s what I thought. Dave Drebes has the following statement from Simckes:

I support the right to equal opportunity for all Americans.  I am living proof of that opportunity.  My acceptances in the NASA-Lewis MARS Internship Program and Brown University are just two examples of how the right to equal opportunity has benefited me personally.  Affirmative Action is one of the most effective tools in beginning to level the playing field for women and minorities.  I have always and will continue to support everyone’s right to equal opportunity.

That’s good, but it’s unfortunate that a quote from a leading Democratic candidate can lend credence to an initiative she opposes.

Andria Simckes is different from any previous candidate for Missouri Treasurer. I can say that confidently, without a glance at the records, and I defy anyone to find me another African-American Jewish woman who has run for that office or any other statewide office. Andria thinks it’s time for that to change. Time for an African-American to run statewide, that is.

Simckes is hardly running on race alone, though–or on being Jewish, or being a woman, for that matter. She has financial bona fides: she was comptroller for a $1.6 million budget for the Missouri Coordinated Campaign in 1996 and served as Executive Director of Greater St. Louis Regional Empowerment Zone, where she was responsible for $18.9 million in available funds and $130 million in bonding authority.

Simckes, who comes from a working class family, parlayed hard work and academic achievement into a spot at the top of her class at Brown University and a law degree from Washington University. The bio on her website shows that she’s always been involved in community service and remained so even when she withdrew from full time employment to have three children (now ages 6,4 and 2).

Andria says it’s time to get back into harness now, and those three little ones of hers are excited. When her husband took them to breakfast recently, they told him he should stand up and announce to everyone in the restaurant that their mom was running for state treasurer. And her six year old, Liam, knows that his mom has followed her political consultant’s advice (“Love your phone”) and spends three to six hours a day raising funds. So he recently lugged a water jug full of coins that they started for him when he was a baby (his piggy bank) into her bedroom and told her it was his contribution to her campaign.

Now that she has all her financial backing settled, Simckes can focus on policy. She has specific ideas about what she can accomplish as Treasurer. They range from the relatively wonkish to ideas that even postmen and retired English teachers can comprehend.

The wonkish idea is that she can return the Missouri MOST program to its former glory. MOST is a program where parents can invest money from the day a child is born for his future education. It’s supposed to provide better returns on investments than your local savings and loan could. And it used to. But Sarah Steelman rebid the process and awarded it to new providers. These new providers, who are in charge of investing the money, have tacked on various administrative fees, thus diverting money from the core savings program. Longtime investors in MOST have been noticing a difference, therefore, in the return on their investments these last four years.

Simckes’ proposal to eliminate that problem will only interest a small fraction of Missourians. But here’s another proposal that might interest you. The state holds 220 million dollar’s worth of unclaimed property (things like tax refunds you didn’t get because, say, you moved and the state didn’t have your new address). Andria says her husband had six different pots of unclaimed property and had no idea about it until someone called him and tipped him off.

There are companies (called heir finders) that will help you locate such property, but they can charge up to 30 percent of what you recover. Now supposedly, the state offers a free service that helps citizens find any such unclaimed property. But that service could be more accessible for people. In fact, it could be advertised. The state has done little, though, to help citizens claim this property, preferring to sit on the $220 million and watch it collect interest. Simckes wants that service improved.

And finally, she proposes to work with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to improve financial literacy among high school and middle school students. Andria believes they need more information on how to balance checkbooks, how to save, when to save, and how to use credit cards wisely.

She has other plans as well, but I’ll stop at this point so that you can go check for your pot of gold in the unclaimed property room.