I can’t believe it’s almost Halloween, and in an even numbered year, that means we are going to the polls soon. There’s quite a bit at stake as Missouri seems to be drawing a lot of national attention due to the Senate race, as well as the stem cell debate. Interestingly, it looks like the two may be linked together. Well, that is what I would recommend to those political strategists on the other side of the aisle, but hey, they seem to have some trouble with winning. It’s like they don’t even show up to try.
I find it rather amazing that the McCaskill camp has her out and about touting her issues with the War in Iraq. Will they never learn? I cannot imagine a less popular issue with the voters in Missouri. Missourians are a rather patriotic bunch, and we always support the troops. Always. The Democratic strategy of separating the war from the soldiers is a fairly transparent political ploy cooked up by a bunch of draft dodgers who can’t comprehend service to one’s country, courage and sacrifice. We cannot in good conscience send our troops to war while we dicker among ourselves about the reasons. For this reason alone, the Democrats will be in trouble come November 7th, and I for one could not be any happier.
It would seem that the Democratic Party would do so much better to make this election about stem cell research. As I have said before, I fear that stem cell research will come to affect the Republican Party the way the same sex marriage fractured the Democratic Party two short years ago. Why o why must we always draw a line in the sand when it comes to such emotionally charged social issues? I was troubled last Sunday while I was leaving mass when there were folks distributing campaign signs, bumper stickers and information encouraging me to vote against Amendment 2. Now, I’m a pro-life, God-fearing, churchgoing soul, but I was troubled. It just didn’t seem appropriate. That being said, I think that it will be interesting to see how the entire drama unfolds within our own party. The grassroots base is stacked against Amendment 2 as some sort of gateway to abortion on demand. The money folks in our party want to turn Missouri into some kind of biotech corridor. Like many of my friends, I am personally conflicted. I have a good friend afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis. As most of you are aware, MS is a debilitating disease. When my friend looked me in the eye and asked me to help her pass out information supporting Amendment 2, which might lead to a cure for MS, I really didn’t know what to say.
Our own junior Senator has flip-flopped on the issue of stem cell research, and I’m not sure people are all that impressed when politicians refuse to take a principled stand, whatever that stand might be. All in all, I think Talent will be re-elected without too much trouble. I’m not sure how that plays into the national scene, but that will probably be decided in states that are east of the Mississippi.
A little bit closer to home and a little bit down ticket, the Rupp-Henke re-match is certainly becoming heated. It is worth noting that this is a “re-election” battle for Senator Rupp. Yet again, most of Rupp’s trouble is coming from within the party. You’ve still got RINO and sore loser Joe Brazil and his merry band of idiots complaining about the race. Some say they are playing footsies with Henke and the Dems in order teach the Republican establishment a lesson. Now, that is certainly not a surprise. It’s always the ones that claim to be good Republicans that are less than loyal to the cause. Malcontent MacNab and his wife may never recover from Brazil’s loss, it was their single shot at glory in the party. At this point, I’m pretty sure that if the party could toss them, they would. Problem is, even the Dems wouldn’t want them. Hey, at least we might all be spared one of MacNab’s boring and incorrect lectures on Middle Eastern politics if he stops showing up at Republican functions…bonus. All in all, Senator Rupp will probably retain his seat and continue his hard work. Go Rupp!
Then, we move on down to some fairly uninteresting races for State Representative. I’m not sure that any of the incumbents are in a whole lot of trouble, but there are a few races of note. The Sally Faith – Tom Green match will prove to be the most realistic pick-up for our Democratic brethren. Tom Green still cries foul about some last-minute mail pieces dropped into his district by none other than John Hancock and the Republican party machine in the waning days of the last campaign. You’d think they’d learn their lesson about interfering with the St. Charles County races. For goodness sake, Hancock lost a perfectly safe County Council seat to the Dems last year on the heels of his illustrious mail drop against Green. It should probably be okay and Sally Faith has done a nice job of keeping her constituents up on the happenings in Jeff City.
Joe Koester is mounting as much of a contest as possible against fundraising juggernaut Tom Dempsey. Even with his Chief of Staff in a bit of campaign finance hot water, Tom is still pretty tough to beat. It’s interesting to see that the Dems are coming up with viable candidates, though, and that may make things much more interesting in the future. Sure as I point out the viable candidacy of Joe Koester, I remember the Ed Applebaum signs I saw around St. Charles this weekend. Now, he’s a great example of why the Dems will never make any significant inroads in the County. Granted, the Republican incumbent, Carl Bearden would be awfully tough to beat, but you’d think the Democratic party elders could do better than St. Peters resident curmudgeon Ed Applebaum. Again, I’m pretty sure the State House won’t be welcoming any new Democratic members from St. Charles County.
I think I might think over some of these local races. Things are starting to get interesting. It remains to be seen how much trickle-down effect some of these issues will have on our County races. I think the Republicans will permanently lose the County Council seat currently held by Cheryl Hibbeler. Other than that, I guess we’ll find out soon enough. I suspect that it will be business as usual in beautiful St. Charles County.
Note to My Readers: Yes, by the time you read my column, Shawn Brown will have said good-bye to his career in politics. The crook will have been run out of town, and we may or may not know what the justice system chooses to do to him. Gotta say, this isn’t the best time to go down on public corruption charges. We go to press before Friday, so I’ll be sure to share my thoughts in my next column when I eulogize Shawn’s flash-in-the-pan political career. My, my, my…who’d have thunk it? Federal bribery charges. I guess the old saying is true…where there’s smoke, there must be a fire. Seems that our own County Prosecutor Jack Banas wanted to ignore the smoke, but the Feds found the fire. I guess it will be an interesting couple weeks in St. Peters, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you next time.
