Missouri Politics

Kenny Hulshof, the Republican candidate for Missouri governor, seems to be taking a cue from Gov. Matt Blunt’s playbook:

When the going gets tough, go after the judges.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Joe Biden accurately notes Iran and Pakistan are both destabilizing nations. And Biden attacks John McCain for putting so much attention on Iraq.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Heading into the weekend, Barack Obama surged ahead of John McCain in Friday's Gallup Poll, 49-44 percent.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

The Democratic National Convention is a time for Hillary Clinton's supporters to get a grip on reality, grit their teeth and wholly support Barack Obama.

With the primary election behind them, candidates for Missouri governor Kenny Hulshof and Jay Nixon must focus now on giving voters specifics on critical issues.

Chief among those is affordable health care. That issue also dominates many races for the General Assembly, a sign of intense voter interest.

Missouri governor
-- Party: Republican
-- Contenders: U. S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, state Treasurer Sarah Steelman and a couple of unknowns.
-- Twist: GOP Gov. Matt Blunt practically invited a GOP primary showdown when he announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election.

Missouri attorney general
-- Party: Democratic
-- Contenders: State Sen. Chris Koster, state Rep. Margaret Donnelly, state Rep. Jeff Harris, and political unknown Molly Williams

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

The latest turn in the Democratic primary for Missouri attorney general is definitely one for the "what-goes-around-comes-around" file.

Missouri voters have only one week before the Aug. 5 primaries to decide on their parties’ nominees for the November general election.
The Star offers the following recommendations in area races for the Missouri General Assembly.

The Democratic primary for attorney general is possibly the hottest race in Missouri. Three talented candidates are vying to face off in November against Sen. Mike Gibbons, a Republican with no primary opposition.

Missouri Democratic voters have four exceptional choices in the primary election Aug. 5 for state treasurer, one of the few instances where an abundance of talent seeks one job.

The Star’s choice is Clint Zweifel, a state representative from Florissant in St. Louis County. He’s got progressive ideas, and his record in the legislature shows he is not afraid to stand up against the status quo.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Chris Koster is visible in Missouri these days as a lavishly financed Democrat vying for the party’s nomination in the attorney general’s race.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Two weeks to go before the Missouri governor's primary and I am completely perplexed by the campaigns of both Republican candidates.

By Barbara Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page editor

Charles Wheeler held out an olive branch today to his three opponents in the state treasurer's race on the Democratic ticket.

The double whammy dealt to Missouri pride over the weekend is survivable.

Kansas City came up short in a two-way contest to be the site of a new aircraft construction plant. Bombardier Aerospace will build the $375 million plant near Montreal.

Missouri Sen. Chris Koster is certainly not alone in working the system that allows politicians to get around state limits on individual donations to political campaigns.

The Democratic candidate for attorney general appears to be one of the more ingenious, however, in funneling money through political committees, which aren’t subject to state limits, into his war chest.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Democrat Jay Nixon already has a huge poll lead in the Missouri governor's race.

Now, the two Republicans fighting for their party's nomination -- Kenny Hulshhof and Sarah Steelman -- are attacking each other. Nice job, GOP.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Hillary Clinton was the last person in America to realize she wasn't going to be president. Her exit from the Democratic race over the weekend left little to celebrate.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

There's been some good research in recent years that shows that politicians tend to be pulled toward the fringes on issues, while most Americans dwell closer to the center.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

I for one had hoped not to be lectured about "Missouri values" this campaign season.

Missouri is a diverse state, after all, and it seems pretty presumptuous for candidates to be running around telling us about what our values are.

By Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

The June edition of "Playboy" has a snippet called "Ask Some Hookers" where a few high-priced L.A. call girls were asked to rank the nation's governors on "doability."

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial board

Matt Blunt shrugged off the adults in the Missouri Republican Party and surrounded himself with people like himself--young, inexperienced and ideological.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Board

It's time to start using the "R" word with Missouri's immature governor, Matt Blunt. Yes, he may need to resign for the good of the state.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial board

Nice to see the cynically named "Civil Rights Initiative" fall short of the petition signature requirements in Missouri.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial board

Three cheers for Associate Circuit Judge Charles Curless of Barton County, Mo., for his gutsy e-mail blast about "activist legislators."

By Denise Tiller, Midwest Voices 2008

The Missouri General Assembly decided elderly Medicaid patients in nursing homes don't deserve dental and vision services.

Maybe they don't have elderly parents, but my husband and I do and we know what a horribly demoralizing process it is to put a loved one on Medicaid. For these people, Medicaid isn't a choice or a decision to "milk" the system, it's the only option left to them. Missouri's attitude seems callous at best.

By Denise Tiller, Midwest Voices 2008

The Missouri General Assembly has decided that single parents with two kids earning $293 should not receive Medicaid benefits.

I'd like to challenge each person who voted against this measure to try to survive on $293 a month. How do you put a roof over your head for that? Hopefully, they live close to a food pantry because they can't buy groceries. Have you seen the price of milk and bread?

Records of e-mail likely will reveal whether Gov. Matt Blunt’s aides used state time and property to conduct political business.

The messages are public documents under Missouri’s Sunshine Law, experts on the law say. The governor’s office claimed, however, that it routinely had deleted e-mail messages.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Star Editorial Board

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's fund-raising committee got caught violating Missouri's campaign-finance laws. It's had to pay a $15,000 fine.

Fortunately, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt is not running for re-election. But that doesn't mean he can act with impunity until he leaves office in 2009.

Blunt and his lawyers appear to be pulling the same tricks that eventually brought down President Richard Nixon in 1974: delay, deny and then attack the investigators.

It all smacks of a cover-up by the governor and his staff.

Blunt is not fully cooperating with a special counsel's investigation of allegations about e-mail messages involving the governor's office.

The messages are crucial to the probe, which started when the media learned Blunt's office was deleting e-mails, violating state policies on retaining records.