Few people were interested in the poll last week, boring policy stuff, I suppose. Still we must be engaged in mundane policy issues, not everything is a hot-button issue. A bill before the Board of Aldermen would ask voters if the Recorder of Deeds office should be appointed, rather than elected. Here are the poll results:
The Recorder of Deeds office should…
…change to an appointed position 30 [54.55%]
…continue as citywide elected position 14 [25.45%]
Unsure/no opinion 11 [20%]
I think this is reactionary given the scandals uncovered this summer in the office of Sharon Carpenter, herself originally appointed decades ago. It does appear throughout the country the Register/Recorder is an elected position. Changing the position to be appointed ny the mayor also potentially invites corruption. I like the legal recording of property deeds being removed from the mayor’s office — not this mayor, any mayor.
Limiting service to 3-4 terms is another way to deal with corruption that comes from 3 decades in office.
The television commercials before the August primaries were constant; especially Steve Stenger vs Charlie Dooley and Bruce Rauner attacking Pat Quinn, rather than his primary opponents. I’d hoped for a little relief between the primary and the general election, three weeks from today. It seems like right after the primary ended the election commercials continued, except for St. Louis County Executive, those only picked up again recently.
Illinois
Both the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of Enyart and Bost. And one of the worst-kept secrets in national politics is that when those committees get involved in a contest, the messaging becomes largely indistinguishable from other hotly contested races throughout the country. (St. Louis Public Radio)
It’s clear from both sides that Bost is a Tea Party conservative, the type that shut down the federal government a year ago:
In a truly misguided display of chutzpah, some members of the Tea Party are congratulating themselves over a supposed “historic victory” in the government shutdown debacle. Yet the shutdown gang led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas extracted no concessions and instead hurt the GOP’s nationwide reputation and shaved GDP growth. (Forbes)
Bost wouldn’t change Congress at all, he’d have no impact on spending other than adding to it by refusing to extend the debt limit. Vote Enyart!
Republican Bruce Rauner falsely claims in a TV ad that Illinois leads the Midwest in “job losses” under Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. In fact, Illinois has experienced job growth — albeit small — since Quinn took office. (FactCheck.org)
Rauner’s big push is taxes — cuts for billionaires like himself. You think Illinois has fiscal problems now, it’d be far worse if Rauner got his way:
Once again we are testing the question: Can tax cuts pay for themselves? The answer– yet again– is a resounding no.
We’ve tried this experiment time and again. And tax cut proponents such as economist Art Laffer continue to insist they can turn fiscal dross to gold: Cut taxes deeply enough and the resultant boom in economic activity will boost revenues. Magic. Painless. Everything a politician would ever want.
Except this is fiscal snake oil. Over the past few years, Brownback and the Kansas legislature have gone all-in on this theory. The good news: They have left little room for ambiguity (though Brownback and his defenders are scrambling to find some, given the dismal results of their ambitious experiment). (Forbes)
Kansas suffered by far the largest decline in overall year-over-year receipts — a fall of 21.9 percent. The U.S. average drop was only 1.7 percent.
The institute said Kansas’ decline was “mostly attributable to legislated tax changes.” The state had a stunning 42.9 percent reduction in individual income tax revenue in the April-June period compared with a year earlier. The national decline was just 7.1 percent. (Kansas City Star)
Please don’t vote for Rauner!
St. Louis County
The August 9th shooting of Michael Brown, just four days after the primary, is affecting the general election for St. Louis County Executive:
The schism among St. Louis County Democrats split wide open Wednesday with the endorsement of the Republican nominee for county executive — Rick Stream — by a coalition of black officials angered over what they characterized as “years and years of disrespect” by party leaders. (Post-Dispatch)
For those unfamiliar, Democratic nominee Steve Stenger is close with Prosecutor Robert McCullough, whom many think should’ve recused himself in the Michael Brown/Darren Wilson case.
I personally don’t care for Stenger or Stream. The race includes Libertarian Theo (Ted) Brown, Sr and Constitution party candidate Joe Passanise.
Missouri voters also have to decide on some constitutional amendments, I’ll post on those before the election.
The unofficial results from Tuesday’s special election in the 15th ward are interesting to me. First, the turnout was a decent 17.5%. By contrast, the December 2011 special election in my ward, the 5th, just 10.37% of voters participated.
Here are some recent participation rates for the 15th ward:
August 2014 primary: 23.95%
March 2013 primary: 22.72%.
November 2012 general: 73.71%
Huge difference between big national elections, state elections, and a special local race. Here are the unofficial results from Tuesday:
MELISSA MCDANIEL (D) 123 [10.82%]
JOSHUA SIMPSON (R) 63 [5.54%]
MEGAN GREEN (I) 521 [45.82%]
RHONDA SMYTHE (I) 427 [37.55%]
Write-in Votes 3 [0.26%]
I made the following visual:
The two independent candidates received 83% of the votes cast
There was a time that being the democratic nominee meant easy victory, that may still hold true in many wards. Not in the 15th this year, Melissa McDaniel only managed to get 11% of the total. Ouch!
None of the four candidates received a plurality, but we don’t have runoffs or instant runoff voting. Megan Green will be sworn in as the next 15th ward alderman. In early 2015 she’ll have to defend the office, in March if she switches to the Democratic party, or April if she remains an independent. I still want to see all local offices become nonpartisan.
Join the Chancellor’s Graduate Fellows as we welcome Carl Hart, Ph.D., professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, Columbia University and 2014 winner of the PEN/E O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.
On Friday Board Bill 151 was introduced at the Board of Aldermen:
A new bill, set to be introduced by Aldermen Phyllis Young and Marlene Davis today, would put the office under the umbrella of the mayor’s office and make it an appointed position — not an elected one. The change would require passage by the Board of Aldermen and ultimately a citywide vote. (stltoday)
The poll question this week seeks to find out if readers favor keeping the office a citywide elected office or if they favor the proposed change to an appointed position. The poll is in the right sidebar.
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