Missouri: Lookin' for folks that are standing still

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Tuesday October 07, 2008 · 5:07 PM PDT

2008/10/07 · 17:07

We won't know the final numbers on new voters registered in Missouri this year for awhile yet. But it's a flood, as people at the St. Louis County Board of Elections could wearily attest.

The calm at the St. Louis County Election Board's front counter, where people quietly waited in line to cast absentee votes Monday, belied the organized chaos throughout the rest of the board's sprawling complex.

Dozens of county employees from other departments have joined the board 's 70-person staff, plus 18 temporary workers, in tackling a backlog of thousands of new voter registrations .

A flood of additional registrations is flowing in at the rate of 5,000 a day, sizable even for St. Louis County, Missouri's largest voting jurisdiction.

Jo Etta

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Saturday August 02, 2008 · 9:34 AM PDT

2008/08/02 · 09:34

Crossposted from Show Me Progress:

On the occasion of Obama's Wednesday swing through Missouri (Rolla, Springfield, and a bbq in Union where he'll flip burgers for the first 200 people to claim the free tickets), Roy Blunt has words of praise for the presumptive Democratic nominee: "'There’s no question Senator Obama is an exciting candidate, with a great delivery.'" Now wait for the "but": BUT Obama "'is not ready to be president.'"

Let me translate that last part for you, in case you're not tuned in to the nuances of racist-speak: "we're not ready for a black president. Heavens to Betsy, Blunt would deny any such accusation, and perhaps I'm oversensitive. After all, Obama has much less experience than John McCain. Much less. So much less that Blunt opines that Barack is "'all style and no substance.'"

Jo Etta

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Wednesday July 09, 2008 · 11:10 AM PDT

2008/07/09 · 11:10

Cross posted from Show Me Progress:

Laugh if you will, but someday, when my films are as famous as John Huston's, you'll eat crow. When or if.

I attended the AME Conference in St. Louis Saturday afternoon to hear Barack Obama speak--with my new camcorder that I had not yet learned to use. I figured, oh well, what the hell, might as well give it a whirl. Oh, 'scuse my language. It was a religious gathering.

And Obama spoke--as you will hear--about giving his life to Christ. In fact everything he had to say was couched in terms of what Christians owe it to their God and their country to do.

Jo Etta

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Tuesday June 03, 2008 · 12:26 PM PDT

2008/06/03 · 12:26

Cross-posted from Show Me Progress:

Yeah, I know, superdelegate Maria Chappelle-Nadal, by waiting till today to announce for Obama, has assured that she will just be lost in the stampede of everybody else who waited till the end. Reportedly 35 Congressmen will announce their decisions today. That's fine with Maria because the decision isn't about her. She waited partly because she was torn about which candidate to support but also because she wanted every voter to have a say in the matter--even in Puerto Rico.

State Representative Chappelle-Nadal is half Puerto Rican. Well aware as she is of what a poverty stricken territory that is, she wanted the people there, for once, to have their say and be noticed.

Jo Etta

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Wednesday May 28, 2008 · 12:51 PM PDT

2008/05/28 · 12:51

Cross-posted from Show Me Progress:

There are endorsements and then there are ENDORSEMENTS. If a state rep endorses Mike Garman (running for the Democratic nomination in Todd Akin's district), that's nice. If the Missouri AFL-CIO endorses Garman--in May!--that's huge. For several reasons.

First, an endorsement during a primary race is unprecedented. One St. Charles Democratic official with ties to labor told me that he can't remember the AFL-CIO endorsing in a primary contest. But it happened. The Missouri AFL-CIO's Executive Council and its president, Hugh McVey, have announced their endorsements in Missouri's federal races: Russ Carnahan, Lacy Clay, Emanuel Cleaver, Ike Skelton (no surprises so far), Kay Barnes (also not a surprise) and ... Mike Garman.

Jo Etta

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Friday February 01, 2008 · 11:20 AM PST

2008/02/01 · 11:20

Crossposted from Show Me Progress:

It's Hulshof (pictured at left with Bush), Kinder, and Steelman on the GOP side of the governor's race, and my guess is that Hulshof will be the one to beat.

It's true that he's never run for statewide office and has no statewide organization in place, as Kinder and Steelman do. He doesn't have any name ID around the state either, for the same reason. The lack of an organization could be important, but the name ID? Tell the truth. How many of the Republican voters know who Kinder and Steelman are either? One in 10? In 25?

Jo Etta

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Thursday January 24, 2008 · 6:01 AM PST

2008/01/24 · 06:01

Crossposted from Show Me Progress:

The GOP is worried about the Fann race in house district 16, St. Charles County. Or at least Kit Bond is, since Fann's Republican opponent, Mark Parkinson, is Bond's protege, and Bond figures the Republican mayor of St. Peters has been ... too kind ... to Tom Fann. Parkinson is barely thirty and has only one job on his resume: as an aide to Kit Bond.

So we know why Bond wants Parkinson to win. Let me tell you why I believe Bond is worried about his guy: he bothered to show up in St. Charles within the last few days to ream out Mayor Len Pagano for apparently endorsing Tom Fann.

Jo Etta

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Thursday December 20, 2007 · 1:45 PM PST

2007/12/20 · 13:45

Crossposted from Show Me Progress:

When Jake Zimmerman spoke at the last West County Dems meeting, he made a point of the fact that last year, for the first time since 1976, Democrats picked up some seats in the Missouri House. A realignment is underway here and nationwide, and it was a great year for the Ds. You'd expect another one in 2008. After all, Jake said that this time around we have:

"potentially the same dynamic, potentially people just as angry at Republicans, just as angry at the terrible governance that this country and this state have, just as furious with George Bush. Last time I checked, George Bush was just as bad a president today as he was two years ago. And last I checked, Matt Blunt was just as bad a governor today as he was two years ago, if not worse."

So you would think it's going to be a great year for us, but even supposing there isn't the same harmonic convergence of voter anger over Republican misrule, Zimmerman is optimistic about the picture for Dems in Missouri.

Jo Etta

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Wednesday December 19, 2007 · 2:39 PM PST

2007/12/19 · 14:39

Crossposted from Show Me Progress:

When Jake Zimmerman spoke at the last West County Dems meeting, he painted himself as a one time St. Louis County Council candidate and then "party-unifying state rep candidate". The crowd laughed, knowing that Temporiti had talked him out of running against Barbara Fraser in the primary for the Council seat and into running for her just vacated state rep seat. Jake joked, "I’m sorry, did I just pat myself on the back?" But joking aside, his point was that Democrats have to find ways to work together to get as many Dems elected as possible.

Jo Etta

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Monday December 17, 2007 · 9:35 AM PST

2007/12/17 · 09:35

Crossposted from Show Me Progress

Last Monday, Jake Zimmerman, the Democratic rep from Olivette in St. Louis County, spoke at the West County Dems meeting. But he had nothing of substance to say. He announced that to begin with.

He and Rachel Storch are heading the House DCCC, and, on the assumption that he was speaking to people who already understood the importance of getting Ds elected in this state, he spoke not about policy issues but about his new responsibility to be "a cynic", to calculate coldly what moves will get the most Democrats elected to the Missouri House in 2008.

What follows is close to being a transcript of the first ten minutes of his talk, but his words and mine are so intermingled that I gave up on putting in quotation marks.

The last election showcased a grand strategic debate within the Democratic Party at the national level, and that debate is important to understand, not only for its national implications but also because the same debate is currently playing out at the state level.

Jo Etta

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Saturday November 03, 2007 · 2:59 PM PDT

2007/11/03 · 14:59

Crossposted from Show Me Progress:Senator Matt Bartle (R-Lee's Summit) hates, hates, hates the sex industry. In 2004 he got legislation enacted to prevent strip clubs and businesses that sell adult sex merchandise from advertising on billboards. Two years and many legal briefs later, the courts ruled it unconstitutional. The businesses are legal in Missouri, the court said, so it would be illegal to discriminate against them in the billboard industry. The state wasted mucho dollars defending that law and yet Bartle plans to rewrite the legislation in hopes of getting it by those "activist judges." Bartle has also tried to pass legislation banning lap dances and full nudity in gentlemen's clubs, as well as legislation adding an extra tax on stores that sell adult toys.

Jo Etta

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Friday October 05, 2007 · 8:22 AM PDT

2007/10/05 · 08:22

Crossposted from Show Me Progress

The statewide Dem candidates have said they're prepared to return over-the-limit campaign contributions, but Republicans? Their grab-all-you-can legislation created the mess, and now, clutching the boodle to their breasts, they whine about giving it back like a five year old who wants to keep the neighbor kid's toys.

Rep. Jane Cunningham, a St. Louis County Republican who is running for the Senate, said refunds would be unfair because that would help slow-starting campaigns instead of those who hustled to raise funds early. She could be forced to return $35,800. "It's not the American way to advantage people who have sat on their thumbs," she said.

If Republicans "hustled", to use her word, the definition that applies would be this one: to earn one's living by illicit or unethical means.

Case in point:

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Missouri: Lookin' for folks that are standing still

MO: Obama and McCain: Style and Substance

MO: Obama at the AME Conference (with video)

MO: Chappelle-Nada comes out for Obama

MO-02: A Powerful Endorsement for Mike Garman

Mo Gov: Three GOP Candidates In

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) Puts the Hit on Republican Mayor

Missouri: Figuring Out How to Take Back the House

In Missouri: Jake Zimmerman: Tasked with Becoming a Cynic

Missouri: Fighting for Resources in an Election Year

Memo to Missouri Crotch Legislators: Make Yourselves Useful

Doing the Hustle--in Missouri