And now for something not related to the Presidential race.
In the scramble for the seat that will be open due to Kenny Hulshof's candidacy for Governor, we have a new strong contender for the Democratic nomination, former Speaker of the Missouri House Steve Gaw of Moberly.
The Columbia Tribune covers this story with lots of details. Let me point out some things I like from this story.
Gaw last year was the only commissioner to vote against a $43 million rate hike requested by Ameren. He and fellow PSC Commissioner Robert Clayton were sued by the federal government for seeking information about customer records that telephone companies might have given to the National Security Agency.
Yes, I'm very impressed that Gaw was sued by the feds for standing up and doing the right thing when it comes to the NSA and customer records.
The events of this last week seem to suggest that we could use some more people in DC who'll do the right thing. And it looks like Steve Gaw has done the right thing before.
(more under fold)
Steve Gaw was in the Missouri House from 1993 to 2001. After the resignation/retirement of Speaker Bob F. Griffin in 1996, Gaw was elected Missouri House Speaker, and he served in that position from 1996 to 2001. In 2000, he gave up his seat in order to run for Secretary of State, losing to then-St. Rep. Matt Blunt by a 51/45 margin.
Gaw's website (which is still in development) has some other "Nifty Steve Gaw facts". But from what i've noticed, Gaw is pro-choice (voted against so-called partial-birth abortion bans while in the state house) and I would imagine that he would support stem-cell research (unlike Kenny Hulshof).
But, last time I posted on MO-09 over on Show Me Progress, I did get a gentle reminder that State Rep. Judy Baker is running. So I will note that Judy is running.
Judy Baker has served in the State House representing Columbia since 2004. Her supporters will point out that she started running before Hulshof decided to run for Governor. As well, I believe that her supporters have noted that she could fare pretty well due to her hard work and her husband being a Baptist preacher.
The "She was running when it was tough" seems to be a variant on what I call the "Shotgun argument", which I saw quite a few times in 2006 when seats opened up and then contested primaries occured. I would imagine that "I was running before Hulshof left" is not really something that will be heard past March.
The third candidate in this race is Lyman Bode, the Presiding Commissioner of Marion County, which includes Hannibal. I don't know a lot about Bode.
And as someone who is not a voter in the district, I will try to stay as neutral as possible.
So here are some MO-09 electoral facts
2004 Presidential election: Bush 59, Kerry 41
2004 Gubernational election (partial*): Blunt 57, McCaskill 42
2006 Senate (partial*): Talent 51, McCaskill 45
2000 Presidential election: Bush 55, Gore 42
2000 Secretary of State (partial*): Blunt 49.9, Gaw 46.2
(Partial results omit the portion of the district in St. Charles County and the sliver in Camden County)
So this is not going to be a cakewalk for any Republican.
(And it might get even worse for Republicans if St. Sen. Wes Shoemyer or former Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell run. Although I have my doubts about either of them running with Gaw in)
So how about that.. things are heating up in Missouri.