My local state representative received his reward from Governor Grietens in the form of a high dollar state job, leaving a vacancy and a special election. As expected, the Republican House Committee is filling our mailboxes with expensive glossy mail pieces in support of their candidate. The candidate they are running is inexperienced and flawed at best.
The Democrats, on the other hand, are running a solid local elected official, a well-known businessman who has spent years serving his community on school boards and other boards. Even though the Democrat is clearly more experienced and talented, he faces an up-hill battle. The district boundary has been drawn so that the heavily Democratic county in which he lives has been thrown in with enough heavily Republican areas to tip the balance to the GOP.
But the data that the jerrymandering legislature used to draw the boundaries has one big flaw, in Missouri, you do not register to vote as a Republican or a Democrat. Voters are free to change their mind based on performance and change comes regularly in the Show-me state. Democrats lost every race when Jay Nixon ran for the US Senate, then came back and filled every office. Remember Claire lost to Blunt, then two years later we sent her to the Senate. What worries me is the dark money and alternative facts.
Millionaires spending enormous amounts of cash to mislead the public with no regard for the damage to society that their policies cause. Convincing the legislature to refuse the money to cover sick people, and cutting home health services for the elderly is morally bankrupt. At some point, the people will say enough of this corporate welfare, and take it back. Lining the pockets of the rich at the expense of our roads, our schools and our health is simply wrong. As I read the pretty shiny fliers that they have sent me, one thing stands out, they are running out of issues.
They can’t talk about healthcare, hospitals are closed, they can’t talk about schools, they are in trouble. There is no money for roads, unions are beat down, and people are starting to see through the pro-life issue. They talk about safety, and supporting law enforcement, even though they aren’t paying their jail bills at rural jails. They talk about growing the economy, but we are falling behind states like Minnesota, and California. Their policies have failed. The real question is, will the voters be motivated to change, or disgusted to the point of non-participation?