With the only “regularly scheduled” elections on the books, I wanted to venture out west this week to peruse the political landscape. My wife wanted to check out the new drive-thru St. Louis Bread Company in Wentzville, so we headed westward to Wentzville.
Wow. There is a lot to see in Wentzville. I am ashamed to admit that I rarely make it “out west” – an affliction shared by many of us in St. Chuck. Wentzville is a city that has embraced growth and all of its exciting consequences, not least of which is sales tax income.
The Wentzville Mayoral contest is a re-run of sorts reminiscent of some of the old St. Charles City grudge matches. Immediate Past Mayor Vickie Boedeker wants a rematch against the current Mayor, Paul Lambi, who defeated her by the slimmest of margins (17 votes to be exact) in 2004. This should prove to be a fairly spirited contest among two pro-growth candidates and may go either way. Although, it is worth noting that Mayor Lambi’s (he prefers to be called Mr. Mayor as opposed to Paul) shameless self-promoting (the radio show, the press releases, traveling with the Governor, etc.) have likely raised his name i.d. dramatically, and he is a much more formidable opponent for Vickie than he was two years ago. In addition, the people will also be electing three aldermen. The “musical chairs” among the Board of Aldermen and Darrel Lackey leaving his seat to run for County Council may prove interesting as well. The only real question that remains is whether Adolphus and gang will decide that that they want to add some Wentzville politicians to their ever-growing “flock” of duck politicians.
Writer’s note: In an effort to stave off the corrections on their way in from crossword puzzle aficionados, I know that it’s actually a “brace” of ducks, but “flock” is the correct term when the ducks are in flight, which is when they usually get shot down by the Great White Duck Hunters, so that seemed more appropriate.
As we migrate back toward St. Charles, we enter O’Fallon. My goodness, what can you say about O’Fallon? What a mess. The puppet regime installed by the Great White Duck Hunters is on the verge of collapse. Just last week, an Alderman was caught taping meetings with a hidden tape recorder because he felt the need to protect himself. Ironically, Alderman Hudson is (or maybe was?) part of the ruling “brace” of anti-growth ducks in O’Fallon. After the debacle in St. Peters (and thousands of dollars in legal fees to get Shawn Brown back on the ballot because he neglected to pay his property taxes), Adolphus and his band of merry idiots realized that in order to control a city, what they really needed was a Board of Aldermen for their flock. Oh, a mayor would be nice too, but as the duckboys learned with Shawn Brown, an idiot mayor is not all that useful. So, they started pouring their money into the O’Fallon aldermanic races and emerged from the 2005 race with a majority of the Board of Aldermen, and an idiot mayor for good measure. Chaos, craziness and conspiracy theories followed and that brings us to where we are today…the O’Fallon Board President, Alderman Lynn Schipper, is engaged in quite a power struggle with Mayor Donna Morrow and her hand-picked City Administrator (the infamous Robert Lowery). The city staff is completely demoralized and considerably leaner as Morrow and the ducks have littered the landscape with city employees terminated for reasons ranging from petty to stupid. The people are treated to the Board’s crazy antics and seem to regret their electoral decision, and O’Fallon has been effectively “closed for business” since last Spring.
The 2006 election landscape in O’Fallon changes daily. Apparently there is dissention among the ducks, and this could spell trouble for Adolphus and his cronies who have pledged to stop growth at all costs. Kuehn withdrew from the race, and the duckboys will have to defend Patek and Schipper in head-to-head races against a single candidate, Mark Powell (Donna Morrow’s ex who seems to know where some of the skeletons are buried) is mounting a viable write-in campaign, and the wealthy home builders have had enough of the wild and unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing which have become a hallmark of the Morrow administration. Adolphus can’t be all that happy with how things are going in O’Fallon. Maybe he should send Glenn Jamboretz out there to see what can be salvaged for the Great White Duck Hunters.
There are also two special elections on the April ballot that impact our neighbors out west. Wentzville Alderman Darrel Lackey (the Republican candidate) is running for the open District 1 County Council seat. He is being challenged by former O’Fallon Alderman Cheryl Hibbeler (the Democratic candidate) and St. Paul “pain-in-the-you know where” Joe Cronin (the duckboy-sponsored anti-growth candidate). Cronin claims to be a Republican and vied for the Republican nomination, but he did not receive even a single vote and filed a thoroughly stupid lawsuit (at the urging of the Democrats’ best friend in St. Charles County – Brandy Pedersen) against Rich Chrismer to try and change the outcome. The more likely reason for his legal action was good old-fashioned politics. He keeps getting press attention and increasing his name i.d. I fear I am guilty of increasing his name i.d. as well, oops. Depending on how much money Adolphus and the Great White Duck Hunters want to sink into the race, Cronin may be a spoiler and the end result may be that the Democrats win a second County Council seat. I certainly hope not, but since Adolphus prefers to give his money to Democrats anyway, I don’t think he’ll be all that broken up.
Last but not least, State Representative Scott Rupp (the Republican candidate) is running for former State Senator Jon Dolan’s vacant seat. His partisan opposition is in the form of State Representative Wayne Henke (the Democratic candidate from Troy). So far (as of my deadline), this will be a heads-up race, but we will not know for sure until filing closes. Duckboy favorite son, Councilman Joe Brazil, has already declared his intention to run against Scott Rupp in the August Republican primary. It remains to be seen what Adolphus and gang will want to do with the State Senate race. Apparently, they desperately need an advocate in Jefferson City to push their anti-development agenda. Adolphus and his cronies
were recently handed a crushing blow in Cole County Circuit Court when Judge Tom Brown (now that’s karma) ruled in favor of the City of St. Peters on ten of eleven counts (the eleventh was dismissed as moot) in the “hail mary” attempt by the duckboys to stop the 370 project.
As the April elections grow closer, one thing is for certain: Adolphus and his cronies will be looking to purchase additional politicians for their “flock.” It remains to be seen how many they will find out west.
