Well, that was quite an election night, wasn’t it? Turnout was low, which is not surprising. St. Charles County survived the introduction of optical scan voting equipment, again not surprising. The whole process went relatively smooth, yet again not surprising. But some of the results were definitely surprising.
Let’s take a look at what happened. First the bad news: In a mildly surprising upset, former O’Fallon Alderman Cheryl Hibbeler won the special election to fill the vacancy on the County Council. I say mildly surprising for a couple reasons. It’s certainly no secret and no surprise that the Republican Party in St. Charles County is broken. The green wing whackos led by Cowboy Ray, Cowboy Carl and crazy Brandy Pedersen are tearing apart the GOP. The dispute over Darrel Lackey’s nomination was not helpful, and their amateur mouthpiece, Malcontent MacNab, has been doing his best to undermine Lackey’s candidacy. In fact, he’s still at it. This is unfortunate and the result is entirely predictable. The Democrats exerted very little effort, exploited the schism in the party and paved the way for Hibbeler’s victory. Second, the spoiler candidate from St. Paul manufactured enough headlines to earn himself a few votes that probably would have gone to Lackey. Now, the formerly 100% Republican St. Charles County Council is 2/7 Democrat. Wow. Let that sink in for a moment. It’s a frightening harbinger of things to come. I sincerely hope the Republican State Party folks are paying attention. It’s time to remind everyone that Republicans are pro-business and generally pro-growth. It’s time to send a message to crazy Brandy Pedersen and Malcontent MacNab that we don’t need or want them in the Republican party anymore. Go join the Democrats. Problem is they certainly won’t want you either. Maybe you can start your own independent party for the insane. Now, that’s an entertaining thought.
Now, the good news: Things went well for Scott Rupp. I was very pleased to see him become State Senator Rupp, and I believe he will do a fine job. Of course, the right thing for Councilman Joe Brazil to do would be to bow out of the contested primary situation he has created, but that seems unlikely. He would have to obtain a special dispensation from his sugar daddy – A.B. (that’s duckboy-in-chief Adolphus Busch to my less informed readers), to withdraw from the race and with AB’s pathetically long string of losses in court battles to stop the Lakeside 370 project in St. Peters, he really needs a State Senator of his very own to introduce crazy legislation to stop growth. Things bode well for Senator Rupp and the benefit of incumbency may be enough to help him past Brazil for the rematch with Henke. It will also be interesting to see how low Brazil will stoop to try and steal the Republican nomination. Cowboy Ray and Cowboy Carl are certainly talented when it comes to slinging mud and other assorted kinds of slime at opponents. I hope that Rupp does his research and seriously questions how Brazil can possibly call himself a Republican. Turnout will be much higher in November, but so will the level of effort by both parties as they attempt to win a U. S. Senate seat. It remains to be seen whether Senator Rupp will in fact remain Senator Rupp, but things look good.
The best news of all…a very special congratulations to Darling Dottie. She will happily remain on the St. Charles City Council, as she should. Perhaps, the various committees (all orchestrated, organized and funded by Glenn Jamboretz and Tom Hughes) and the Mayor will finally understand that the people are starting to get it. It’s not so easy to pull the wool over our eyes anymore and Cowboy Ray and Cowboy Carl are starting to lose their touch (which happens to arrogant political operatives when they try to win that one race too many). Memo to Cowboy Ray and Cowboy Carl: your ridiculously large signs blocked traffic at my polling place, get a clue. Memo to Jamboretz and Hughes: sometimes you can’t buy elections, bummer for you boys. Memo to Linda Meyer: get a life and a real job - your days of milking the recall efforts for lunch money are numbered. Memo to Patti York: no such luck this time - you are going to have to wait until election time to stack the council with sycophants and groupies – hey maybe John Sonderegger is interested, you might look into that.
Now for News of the Weird: O’Fallon Musical Chairs. Two more incumbents bit the dust (involuntarily) when Bob Patek and Jimmy Mitchell lost their seats on the Board of Aldermen. With the vacancies created by the resignations of Schipper, Hudson and Busken and the assorted Mayoral appointments that will be needed, the end result is 6 brand spanking new aldermen. My goodness. That’s a lot of new aldermen. Apparently the people of O’Fallon decided that they made a mistake and they managed to correct it without recalling any elected officials or seeking a do-over in court. Unfortunately, the City of O’Fallon did place a measure on the ballot turning them into a third class city, primarily so that citizens will now have the right to recall elected officials. This is an unfortunate legacy left by the cowards who resigned their aldermanic seats in some kind of kindergarten-style protest. It remains to be seen whether the good people of O’Fallon will allow themselves to be used in some sort of political witchhunt again or if its time for the City of O’Fallon to go back to being a decent place to live. I suspect that will depend in large part on whether Mayor Morrow got the message.
As a recap, Fort Zumwalt got its bond issue courtesy of an excellent campaign by Dr. DuBray. Voters said no to tax increases for the St. Charles School District and St. Charles Community College but yes to transferring funds. Francis Howell School District ends up with two new teacher’s union-approved board members. Apparently, the voters were not happy with Rhonda Brown’s inability to pick a side and stick with it or else they aren’t happy with her husband Skippy’s leadership in St. Peters. Either way, there is only one Brown holding political office now. It remains to see if Mark Lafata holds on as School Board President in the new landscape.
Another election day has come and gone. No telling yet what the final consequences of this particular election will show us, but it is certainly interesting. The fallout from this election will shape the political landscape as we move forward. Some folks woke up on Wednesday to start campaigning for the August primary election. Others are planning for their first go-around in municipal government. I guess there is always an election somewhere. It’s a wonder anyone has time to govern.
