A Look at Some of Tuesday’s Primary Results

From Missouri’s primary held Tuesday August 2, 2016:

U.S. Senator

• (D) In this 4-way race the city & state both picked Jason Kander by a wide margin, with Cori Bush a distant 2nd though better in the city than statewide. Chief Wanna Dubie came in 3rd in the city and statewide.
• (R) Incumbent Roy Blunt easily defeated three challengers from his own party.
•  A total of 985,759 Missourians voted in this race, with 67% in the GOP (662,842),  32% in the Democratic (318,742), and the rest in Libertarian & Constitution primary.
• In the city the total votes are as follows: Democrat (40,596), Republican (6,254), Libertarian (126), Constitution (10)
• The 46,986 total votes from the city represents just 4,8% of the statewide vote.

Governor

• (D) Current Attorney General Chris Koster, as expected, easily defeated three primary challengers.
• (R) One of the most watched races. City & statewide voters picked Eric Greitens, but the order of the other three was different: City: 2) Hanaway 3) Kinder 4) Brunner; State: 2) Brunner 3) Kinder 4) Hanaway
• This race received the most votes statewide: 1,011,386 — 67.6% in the GOP primary.

Lt Governor

• (D) Russ Carnahan easily defeated two challengers.
• (R) Mike Parson received 51.5% of the vote in the 3-way race, Bev Randles was a close 2nd with 43.4%
• Unlike statewide voters, City voters in the republican primary picked Randles by a slim margin

Secretary of State

• (D) Robin Smith easily defeated two challengers in both the City and statewide votes
• (R) Similarly, John Ashcroft easily defeated two challengers in both the City and statewide votes

State Treasurer

• (D) Statewide & City voters narrowly picked Pat Contreras over challenger Judy Baker.
• (D) Statewide voters picked  Judy Baker over challenger Pat Contreras, though city voters picked the latter.

Attorney General

• (D) Statewide & City voters picked Teresa Hensley over Jake Zimmerman
• (R) Josh Hawley easily defeated Kurt Schaefer in a hotly contested race, statewide & City

State Representative — District 78

• (D) Incumbent Penny Hubbard received 2,190 votes to Bruce Franks’ 2,106; 50.98% vs 49.02%. Franks hasn’t conceded the race to Hubbard.

State Representative — District 81

• (D) Former Alderman Alfred Wessels defeated two others for the nomination.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney

• (D) Kimberly Gardner received 48.58% of the vote in a 4-way race, 2nd place was Mary Carl with 23.6% — Carl was endorsed by outgoing Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce. Since the city is a one-party town, no other party has a candidate in the general election  — Gardner will become the city’s first African-American Circuit Attorney (prosecutor).

St. Louis Sheriff

• (D) Vernon Betts won the 5-way race with 43.21% of the vote. Joseph Vaccaro was 2nd with 31,38%. Betts will face minimal opposition in the November general election, will become the new sheriff. However, he will not be the first African-American elected to serve as St. Louis’ sheriff. Benjamin Goins was elected sheriff in 1977 (Source).

Final thoughts

Since Missouri voters aren’t registered to a political party, as is the case in so many states, we can vote in whichever primary we decide. Thus, it’s hard to predict if the overwhelming number of voters in the statewide primary means statewide Democratic candidates don’t stand chance. Ballot issues like medical marijuana will also drive voters to the polls.

We can see that highly contested races at the top of the ballot draw more voters than nominally contested and low ballot races.

Though Missouri has voted Republican in presidential races since 2000, the Trump/Pence ticket might not continue that streak. Will the Green Party collect enough signatures to be on the ballot? Will it get enough votes to guarantee ballot access in 2020?

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Presidential Debates Need To Be Opened Up

A comment on the recent Sunday Poll sums up the current problem with American 2-party politics:

I see zero point in giving a stage to those who have absolutely no mathematical chance of winning the election. In addition to that, over two sides isn’t a debate it’s a series of “gotcha” statements with no real meaningful discourse.

And why don’t they have any chance of winning? Because 3rd/4th parties are largely unknown to voters.

But the Democrats & Republicans like the current system, because it keeps  out new ideas:

The presidential debates — the single most important election events — should provide voters with multiple opportunities to see popular candidates discussing important issues in an unscripted manner. Unfortunately, the presidential debates often fail to do so, largely because the major party candidates exert excessive control over them.

Presidential debates were run by the civic-minded League of Women Voters until 1988, when the national Republican and Democratic parties seized control of the debates by establishing the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Posing as a nonpartisan institution, the CPD has often run the debates in the interests of the national Republican and Democratic parties, not the American people.

Since 1988, negotiators for the Republican and Democratic nominees have secretly drafted debate contracts that dictate how the presidential debates will be structured. The CPD, which is co-chaired by leading figures in the Republican and Democratic parties, has consistently implemented and concealed those contracts.

CPD control of the presidential debates has harmed us. Fewer debates are held than necessary to educate voters. Candidates that voters want to see are often excluded. Restrictive formats allow participants to recite memorized soundbites and avoid actual debate. Walter Cronkite even called CPD-sponsored debates an “unconscionable fraud.” (OpenDebates2016)

The League of Women Voters withdrew in 1988, here’s their October 3, 1988 press release in full:

LEAGUE REFUSES TO “HELP PERPETRATE A FRAUD” 

WITHDRAWS SUPPORT FROM FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

WASHINGTON, DC —”The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debate scheduled for mid-October because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter,” League President Nancy M. Neuman said today.

“It has become clear to us that the candidates’ organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and honest answers to tough questions,” Neuman said. “The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.”

Neuman said that the campaigns presented the League with their debate agreement on
September 28, two weeks before the scheduled debate. The campaigns’ agreement was negotiated “behind closed doors” and vas presented to the League as “a done deal,” she said, its 16 pages of conditions not subject to negotiation.

Most objectionable to the League, Neuman said, were conditions in the agreement that gave the campaigns unprecedented control over the proceedings. Neuman called “outrageous” the campaigns’ demands that they control the selection of questioners, the composition of the audience, hall access for the press and other issues.

“The campaigns’ agreement is a closed-door masterpiece,” Neuman said. “Never in the history of the League of Women Voters have two candidates’ organizations come to us with such stringent, unyielding and self-serving demands.”

Neuman said she and the League regretted that the American people have had no real opportunities to judge the presidential nominees outside of campaign-controlled environments.

“On the threshold of a new millenium, this country remains the brightest hope for all who cherish free speech and open debate,” Neuman said. “Americans deserve to see and hear the men who would be president face each other in a debate on the hard and complex issues critical to our progress into the next century.” 

Neuman issued a final challenge to both Vice President Bush and Governor Dukakis to “rise above your handlers and agree to join us in presenting the fair and full discussion the American public expects of a League of Women Voters debate.”

The charade continues, with the DNC & RNC acting as gate keepers.

More than half who responded the non-scientific poll feel it should be easier for more than the two major parties to be part of the conversation every four years.

Q: The polling threshold for participation in presidential debates should be…

• Lowered to 5% 10 [38.46%]
• Lowered to 10% 4 [15.38%]
• Kept at 15% 7 [26.92%]
• Raised to 20% 3 [11.54%]
• Raised to 25% 0 [0%]
• Unsure/No Answer 2 [7.69%]

I’m now thinking the debates should be taken back from the major party-controlled Commission on Presidential Debates. Washington University in St. Louis will host a presidential debate on Sunday October 9, 2016 — see details here.

— Steve Patterson

Please Vote Today!

Today is primary election day in the Show-Me state, with lots of hotly contested races.

Prior posts:

• June 21st: Absentee Voting Begins Today for August 2nd Primary
• July 26th: Missouri Primary One Week Away

If you haven’t done so already, please go vote.

— Steve Patterson

Remembering Peter Fischer, Improving Citygarden

Peter Fischer, the reserved head of the Gateway Foundation, died a year ago Saturday 7/23. His best known work is Citygarden, which opened June 30, 2009:

Citygarden started with his Gateway Foundation, a group dedicated to promoting art and urban design. His affinity for unpretentious art is reflected throughout the park. Park patrons can climb on the sculptures, dart around the water plumes and swim in the fountains.

A frequent visitor to the park, Mr. Fischer especially loved watching kids splash in the water features. When safety concerns arose, he proposed to continue to allow swimming but hired lifeguards to keep watch.

The world soon took note of the park. A New York Times piece praised the park, and numerous awards were given. In 2011, Citygarden won its biggest award, the ULI Amanda Burden Urban Open Space award. (Post-Dispatch)

I was there for the ribbon cutting , I think he was too. But he wasn’t on the stage giving a speech, he always proffered to remain in the background.

One of the few times he and I talked was shortly after Citygarden opened, I saw him sitting and observing people. I rolled over and chatted briefly. I got an email from him once — just before a public Gateway Mall Advisory Board meeting — he didn’t want me taking/posting pictures of the model we’d be shown for Kiener Plaza.

I love Citygarden, visiting often. However, it’s not perfect.

As I’ve stated before, I’d like to see the block to the West joined via the Hallway walkway with a public restroom.

I chose not too pursue the opening of 9th Street while Peter Fischer was still alive — I knew better. But now, more than a year after his death, I think the subject deserves attention. But it’s not as simple as just moving the barricades out of the way. There’s no way to communicate to pedestrians that Northbound vehicles on 9th Street have a green light.

One way streets function only in pairs — one each direction. Eighth and 10th streets are both one-way Southbound.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Should The Polling Threshold For Presidential Debates Be Changed?

The two major parties have now nominated their candidates for the general election. Another election between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. But some think the rules governing the presidential debates should be revised so candidates beyond the Republican & Democratic nominees could participate:

In a forum at the University of Minnesota Monday, Stanford professor Larry Diamond and Republican heavyweight Vin Weber made a strong, interesting case for changes to the rules for presidential debates that would make it easier, and perhaps automatic, to expand the cast to at least three candidates in the fall debates.

The current Republican-Democratic duopoly is “embarrassingly undemocratic,” Diamond said, and the fact that the commission that runs the debates is dominated by representatives of the two parties, who have no real interest in expanding the choices presented to the public, “doesn’t pass the smell test” and is “not defensible.”

More voters now identify themselves as independents than as Democrats or Republicans, Weber said. If the two current frontrunners, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, are the major-party nominees, the debate between them would feature two candidates who have higher unfavorable than favorable ratings, he noted. If the only two candidates on the debate stage are Clinton and Trump, a lot of Americans will be wondering why they can’t have other choices, he said. (Minnesota Post: Why we need more than two candidates at presidential debates)

As of 2000, the rules require a 15% polling threshold to participate.

This poll will close at 8pm,

— Steve Patterson