Missouri Primary Certified Returns

This link will take you to the Missouri Secretary of State web page, where all of yesterdays races are officially certified as the winner of their parties primary.

Congratulations to Jolie Justus, a pro bono attorney who won the Democratic nominee to replace Dr. Wheeler in the tenth senate district, and Michael Talboy, who won the Democratic nomination for state representative in the 37th. Both will represent me ably, I am certain.

Dr. Wheeler didn't win the County Legislature seat he sought and I endorsed him for, but it isn't like Mike Sanders is a bad guy, and he will do a fine and able job as county executive, I have no doubt.

The Parks and Soils Tax Ammendment passed overwhelmingly, and Kansas Citians mads some changes to their city charter. By an almost 2:1 margin, we voted to allow the sale of 1.7 acres of parkland near 22nd and Gillam. We also voted overwhelmingly to overhaul the city charter, repealing 20 provisionsm, enacting 13 new ones, and changing the size from 325+ pages to about 80.

Unfortunately, raising the mandatory age for retirement of municipal judges from 65 to 70 failed. That's too bad, we need their seasoned experience and wisdom. These aren't the judges who sentence murderers you saw in the media to long stretches. These are the judges who settle disputes between neighbors. These are the judges that you and I are the most likely to find ourselves in front of. We needed the wisdom of service, and it was the closest race of all the ballot initiatives - it lost by less than 400 votes, and 41,000 voted on the issue.

In a "whoa nellie" to the raucous, take-no-prisoners style of Missouri politics, we pulled the reigns a bit. We ammended the city charter to require that a committee or petitioners seeking the recall of a political opponent be required to show reason the mayor or city council person should stand for recall.

Because question 5 failed, we might still face tie votes on the city legislature. Question 5 would have removed the Mayor as a voting member of the council and thereafter the mayor would vote only in the case of a tie. I guess it just made too much sense.

One thing for sure, Kansas City absolutely loves their term limits. Question 6, which would have allowed a legislator to serve three terms instead of the current two, lost twice and then some. Question 7, which would have removed term limits all together lost damn near three times.

And now it is on to the general in November. Let's study up, know the issues, press the candidates when they come around to press the flesh, and send a message. And remember this - I don't give a good God damn whether you vote Republican or Democrat - so long as you thought about it and made a conscious decision after carefully weighing all of the issues.

Don't just Vote - Vote Informed!