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Exactly one week before Election Day, a new CNN poll shows the race between Republican Jim Talent and Democrat Claire McCaskill tied.
Of 565 Likely Voters: Jim Talent - 49% Claire McCaskill - 49% (Sampling Error: +/- 4%)
Of the larger pool of 1,004 registered voters, McCaskill led with 51% to Talent's 43%. Click here to download the PDF of the 3-page report from CNN's polls of Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia voters.
A new television ad attacking Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill features photos of Hispanic men and women carrying Mexican flags with a female voice delivering the following message:
Between 10 and 12 million illegal immigrants reside in America costing taxpayers more than $45 billion a year. How did so many illegal immigrants get here? They walked right in.
Claire McCaskill does not favor restrictive measures to protect our security, like a border fence.
If Claire McCaskill's view prevails, America won't be America anymore.
The ad is paid for by a group called Americans for Honesty on Issues. The group's Web site does not give an address or phone number, nor does it list any of the officers or sponsors. It says only, "Americans for Honesty on Issues is organized to engage in political issue communications in compliance with federal and state laws."
According to Wikipedia, the group is a Houston, Texas based "527" that has spent over one million dollars on television advertisements, critical of Democratic candidates.
"527" groups are tax-exempt organizations that participate in political activities, typically via soft money contributions, which have no legal limit. By federal law, they are not allowed to coordinate their efforts with political campaigns. According to the New York Times, if past trends hold, the total raised and spent by such groups on this election will surpass $300 million, eclipsing the $258 million spent by such groups in the last midterm election, in 2002.
Again according to Wikipedia, Bob J. Perry, a Houston construction firm owner, appears to be the sole funder of AHI. Perry was the major funder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who ran a campaign against John Kerry in the 2004 election.
Sue Walden, a Houston business owner, is the president of AHI. Walden was a lobbyist for Enron and is considered a close ally of the former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who was forced to resign from Congress amid ethics scandals. Walden has been a Minor League Pioneer fundraiser for George W. Bush, raising $43,000, and was an adviser to Kenneth L. Lay, the former chief executive of Enron.
We'll try to post the video as soon as we can find a version on the Web.
After losing his latest campaign for the Republican nomination for Congress, Leslie Farr says he is now a Democrat.
"I came to a point where I had to ask myself if the Republican Party was right for me and obviously that answer was no," wrote Farr in an email to the media and supporters.
"For five years, I served the Republican Party and my reward was a Primary loss to a person that had only been in the Party for three months. There is obviously no loyalty to African-American people from certain people within the Republican Party," said Farr.
Maybe Farr should ask a few black elected Dems about their party's loyalty before he hops on the donkey.
You know, you don't have to register with a party to vote in Missouri, Leslie.
The Associated Press is reporting that President George W. Bush will be coming to Missouri on Friday to stump for Sen. Jim Talent. Details are still not available, but such a public event would mark a shift from a perceived distancing from the president by the Talent campaign.
We hope you enjoy our new "mini theater" on the left side of the page. Now you can play several of PUB DEF's most recent interviews and exclusive videos from any page on the site.
You can even create "remixes" on the fly by playing two videos at once. To enlarge the video, simply click on the YouTube logo. Enjoy.
UPDATE:ACORN representatives tell us today's press conference has been cancelled because of "new information" regarding a possible agreement between the group and the Board of Elections on the recent letters mailed to voters registered by ACORN workers.
Representatives from the embattled Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) will hold a press conference at noon today in front of the St. Louis Board of Elections to address recent allegations made by election officials in St. Louis City, County, and Kansas City.
Check back later for details...
And as we predicted over the weekend, a letter sent last week from the Board of Elections to thousands of people that were registered to vote by ACORN workers has indeed sparked criticism from civil rights groups.
Denise Lieberman, the former legal director for the ACLU of Eastern Missouri and the current voter protection coordinator for the Advancement Project, a DC-based civil rights organization, told KSDK yesterday, "The cards that were subject of this letter were based on a registration that was targeted to the African-American community."
She told Channel 5 reporter Rebecca Wu, "Our concern was the letter was suggestive to voters was that if they failed to place a phone call to the election board and to sign the bottom of that letter, in fact their application would not be processed."
The Board has drafted a second letter, with the help of the Advancement Project, that aims to clear up the confusion. It will be mailed out today.
I'll be a guest on "Collateral Damage" tonight discussing the various amendments and propositions on next week's ballot with Dave Drebes of the Arch City Chronicle and hosts D.J. Wilson and Fred Hessel. The show starts at 7:00 and can be heard on KDHX 88.1 FM or online at www.kdhx.org.
UPDATE: Oops, it seems Fred and I got our wires crossed. I'll be on next week. KWMU's Tom Weber joined Drebes tonight.
We observed back in January that the 20% increase in St. Louis' crime rate coincidently matched the proposed pay increase for Police Chief Joe Mokwa. Perhaps now that St. Louis has once again been crowned the most dangerous place to live in America, the Mayor and his fellow police board members will pay more attention to how and where Mokwa assigns St. Louis' finest.
St. Louis is more than just downtown. There are places in our city that have been completely left out of the revitalization occurring just a few miles away. And it is no coincidence at all that these are also the places where most of our young people are dying.
Also back in January, Mayor Francis Slay wrote on his blog, "as most of you know, many neighborhoods in the City are very safe places today. However, as the stats make too clear, a few neighborhoods are not."
Wouldn't it make sense then in the 10 months since those words were written that those "unsafe areas" would have seen a surge of police patrols, a strong and permanent presence of officers to show both residents and criminals that crime would no longer be tolerated?
But ask anyone who lives in the 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th districts and they will tell you that has not happened.
Maybe it's as they say in national politics: We'd rather fight them over there than over here.
Could it be that the spirit of the Team Four Plan still exists in St. Louis? When faced with limited resources, protect downtown and the southern neighborhoods first?
True or not, when it comes to politics, crime, home-buying, home-building, and property values -- perception is reality. And the numbers don't lie.
What remains to be seen is who will accept responsibility and if the problem of "a few neighborhoods" will be seen as the problem of the entire city -- and indeed the entire region. Because it is.
UPDATE: Police Chief Mokwa was on the news Monday night responding to this "Most Dangerous" label. He said if you asked his officers, they would tell you St. Louis was a safe place to live.
Maybe he's forgotten those public meetings earlier this year on the issue of lifting the civilian residency requirement. Just behind the city's schools and affordable housing, "crime" was one of the most cited reasons Police Department employees gave for wanting to move out of the city.
We need a little help. A minor, but annoying, bug in our site has been eating away at us for way too long.
We use Macs mostly and if we have to use a PC, we use Firefox to surf the Web. So we rarely get to see the bug ourselves. But last week we were reminded of the less-that-perfect experience of PC owners who use Microsoft's incredibly unsafe Internet Explorer when our site was featured on Fox News.
There we were on TV in all our orange and black glory, but then as the reporter scrolled to the top of our page (gasp) we were shockingly incomplete.
The problem is that in most modern browsers (Safari and Firefox) we look like this. But in IE we look like this. Notice the difference? A piece of our background image doesn't show up, instead revealing a thick chuck of our orange background.
Any of you techies have a clue how we can fix that?
Sometimes elections come down to which flavor of hubris leaves less of a bad taste in your mouth: the hubris of political dynasty, where a candidate waltzes in with the pedigree of a last name; or the hubris of ego, where a candidate says hey, I'm trying really hard, that's enough for your money and your vote, right?
The title of Frank Popper's new documentary "Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?" is a play on the 1939 Frank Capra film "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." The new movie follows a young buck named Jeff Smith who, in 2004, ran for the House of Representatives to replace the outgoing Richard Gephardt. Smith was 29 at the time, and the film shows him barreling into his campaign despite the skepticism he faces even from his own mother, who thought the whole idea "just seemed like an off-the-wall notion."
Smith seems to be a decent guy -- he cofounded the Confluence Academy, a St. Louis charter school that serves primarily minority students -- even if he never is fazed by his complete lack of previous public service.
He looks and sounds like Al Franken doing his Stuart Smalley bit, and one of his own campaign staffers concedes that Smith is "short, looks like he's 12, and sounds like he's castrated." That makes it all the more entertaining to see Smith go from zero name recognition to serious contender in a primary field that includes Russ Carnahan, the Missouri equivalent of a Kennedy...
St. Louis Congressman Lacy Clay recently suggested Republican Sen. Jim Talent may be doing a better job than his Democratic challenger, Claire McCaskill, of addressing African-American campaign issues.
From a story in Sunday's U.S. News & World Report:
But some Democratic candidates are facing their own base motivation problems, with recent polls showing lower-than-normal black support for Democratic Senate candidates like Missouri's McCaskill, who wasn't cracking 50 percent black support in a poll earlier this month. Other polls show African-Americans more likely than whites to doubt that their votes will be counted because of voting controversies in recent years.
"I hear Talent really trying to address some issues near and dear to the African community," says St. Louis Rep. William Lacy Clay, a Democrat. "I don't hear the same drumbeat from the McCaskill camp."
While acknowledging McCaskill's ties to the black community, St. Louis NAACP Vice President Claude Brown says Talent "has done a tremendous job recruiting African-Americans." But, he adds, "people are really angry. If nothing else gets African-Americans to the polls, it's anger." If that's still not enough, perhaps a call from one of the two parties will do the trick.
In a room on the 18th floor of Bank of America Plaza on a rainy Friday afternoon, just hours before the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Championship, the team's owners, their developer, and Mayor Francis Slay held a press conference which was as void of details as the day was of sunshine.
Maybe it was all about timing. Just seven days after saying they were "not there yet", the three sides were all smiles Friday saying they had reached an agreement "in principle" on the nearly $400 million new Ballpark Village plan.
In their own words:
Mayor Francis Slay...
Dave Cordish of The Cordish Group...
Bill DeWitt, Jr., chairman of the Cardinals...
$271.2 million of the $387 million project will be coming from Cordish directly. The remaining $116 million will come from bonds which will be paid back through the following mechanisms from new tax money generated by the project:
$56 million from tax increment financing (a TIF) from the City of St. Louis
$29 million in tax money from the Missouri Downtown Economic Stimulus Act (MODESA)
$26 million from a special tax district created around the development (it'll add 1 percent to the existing sales tax for purchases made within the district and a extra $1 to the price of tickets to attractions within the district)
$5 million in public bonds to be bought by the Cardinals and Cordish
All of this must still be approved by several state and local boards, including the St. Louis Board of Aldermen and the three-member Board of Estimate and Apportionment (E&A).
Election Board Hires Perkins, Asks New Registered Voters For More Info
By Antonio D. French
A story in today's Post-Dispatch recounts much of what has already been reported on this and other websites about allegations of fraud, poor management and collusion by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). But reporter Jeremy Kohler's article does add one new piece of information.
"In a twist, [Josephine Perkins, the fired ACORN worker featured in PUB DEF's Oct. 4 exclusive video report] was hired days later as a temporary worker by the city's Republican elections director, Scott Leiendecker, an outspoken ACORN critic," wrote Kohler, putting Perkins' credibility in question and apparently suggesting the Republican-controlled Election Board was rewarding Perkins for publicly alleging that ACORN managers instructed employees to get out the vote for Democrat Claire McCaskill.
The Post did not mention that the job Leiendecker gave Perkins pays just $7.25 an hour (75 cents less than ACORN pays) and lasts only two weeks.
Leiendecker told PUB DEF in a phone interview yesterday that he felt sorry for Perkins, who came to his office last week nearly a month after being fired by an ACORN manager who she and other workers identified as telling them to GOTV for the Democratic candidate. ACORN maintains they fired Perkins for stealing a purse, a charge she vehemently denies.
Leiendecker said he respected her spirit and decades of experience in northside organizing. After also being interviewed by Democratic Director of Elections Mary Wheeler-Jones, Leiendecker said Perkins was offered a temporary job helping the Board prepare for the Nov. 7 election.
In related news, Leiendecker and Jones sent letters last week to hundreds of people that were registered to vote by ACORN workers, asking them to call the Board of Elections to confirm their registration.
This appears to add an additional hurdle to the voter registration process, one that civil rights organizations may soon jump on.
"Due to concerns about a number of the Applications submitted by ACORN, as reported recently in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, we are asking that you contact the Election Board so that we can confirm your voter registration information and complete the registration process," states the letter dated Oct. 24.
The next generation of reporters, bloggers, podcasters, and muckrakers will be in town this weekend as the Associated Collegiate Press holds its National College Media Convention in St. Louis.
Among other things, it will feature student competitions in several different categories. This reporter is proud to have been asked to serve as a judge in the "best podcast" category.
Judging starts at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday at the Adam's Mark Hotel downtown. All of the judges are sure to be blown away by the talent that Generation Y has to offer.
State Auditor candidate Sandra Thomas sat down with PUB DEF for a few minutes this morning to talk about her campaign and her vision for the office.
Thomas, who is a CPA and currently the auditor for Platte County, said she thinks politics has no place in the auditor's office.
"I think it's really important that we have someone that is going to take the politics out of that office," she said. "Someone who wants to do the job for the taxpayers of finding the waste, fraud and abuse in state government."
She focused on her education (Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in accounting) and her experience in Platte County as qualifications for the office.
Yesterday we published our interview with Thomas' Democratic opponent, Susan Montee. Click here to watch it.
Actor Michael J. Fox, whose commercial for U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill has been the subject of much discussion the past few days, discussed with Katie Couric the recent allegations made by radio host Rush Limbaugh and his ongoing battle with Parkinson's disease.
The same day that the home team may win their first World Series in more than twenty years, the mayor, the owners of the Cardinals, and representatives of developer Cordish Company will hold an event this afternoon to formally announce plans to move forward with the new Ballpark Village.
The meeting will be at the Bank of America Plaza, 800 Market Street, in Suite 1750 at 1:00 p.m.
Several Christian and conservative leaders will meet in St. Louis this weekend to hold a rally against Amendement 2, the Stem Cell ballot initiative.
Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, Alan Keyes, Rick Scarborough, and Star Parker will be among the featured speakers at Saturday's "Christians Against Human Cloning" rally at St. Alphonsus "Rock" Church, 1118 N. Grand Blvd., in the center of St. Louis City.
Several pastors and church leaders from the area are expected to attend and will be asked to urge their flocks to vote against the controversial amendment.
Supporters of the bill point to language in the proposal which states "No person may clone or attempt to clone a human being." But opponents say the full text of the amendment places a very narrow definition on what "cloning" actually is, thus leaving open the possibility for cloning as most know it.
Cable news network Fox News has picked up on the controversy surrounding ACORN's GOTV and voter registration campaigns. Reporter Jeff Goldblatt is in Kansas City today reporting on ACORN's troubles there.
His story, to run during the 6:00 hour at 5:30, will feature PUB DEF's video report on allegations made by several St. Louis ACORN workers about being trained to campaign for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill while registering voters on behalf of Proposition B, the proposal to raise the state's minimum wage.
UPDATE: Here's the Fox News report, which also features St. Louis City's Republican Elections Director, Scott Leiendecker...
"Reed’s running for aldermanic president opens up his 6th Ward seat. It was rumored that Reed was ready to hand the job to lobbyist and perennially defeated candidate Patrick Cacchione (who, so long as we’re keeping track of apples and oranges, is a white male). Then here comes Kacie Starr Triplett...
"...if you want the political support of folks old enough to be your father or grandfather, next time talk to them about your candidacy before you quit your day job.
Triplett also may not have a pitch-perfect ear for friends, as she is close friends with an avowedly independent local journalist [Antonio French] who seems to have at least one leg in the Republican Party, if attracting exclusive ads from the Jim Talent campaign are any indication."
St. Louis American editors,
What the hell is wrong with you folks over there?
Have you completely forgotten how to build young people up, so now all you can do is take anonymous shots at us every week? Me, Kacie, Jamilah, Talib, Rodney, Yaphett...
What is you guys' problem over there?
At least be man enough to sign the rubbish you write. I have about as much respect for your editorial board as I do an anonymous blog commenter that jabs politicos on their rumored sexual orientations or the number of "baby mamas" they're supposed to have.
In the absence of any kind of real reporting (have you broken a single story this year?) you've turned a once-great newspaper into a gossip rag, something people pick up just to see which local African-American you spit at this week.
And to editor Chris King in particular ("who, so long as we're keeping track of apples and oranges, is a white male"), how do you feel so comfortable tearing down black people, telling us how we are supposed to think politically, when you hide your own race from your readers? I see everyone else's picture in the your paper but yours.
I don't know what you guys think you're doing over there, but it is not journalism. If it were, you might have mentioned in your latest shot at me for allowing Jim Talent to advertise on my website that he has spent much more money advertising in your paper during this campaign.
The American used to be the tool with which blacks on the bottom of the economic and social ladders told their stories to the world up top. Now it's the tool elites use to tell poor and working-class blacks what to think and who to vote for.
And it's a shame. We sure could use a newspaper we trusted in these times.
A few weeks ago, Susan Montee, the Democratic candidate for State Auditor, sat down with PUB DEF to talk about her "exciting" race to succeed Claire McCaskill.
Montee, who is a CPA and currently the auditor for Buchanan County, said the office of State Auditor is important because it serves as a watchdog for state government.
She said if Republican Gov. Matt Blunt gets an auditor of his same party we will see is a lot of "happy news coming out over the next two years from the Auditor's office telling us about how great the Blunt administration's policies have been."
Tomorrow we are scheduled to interview the Republican candidate for State Auditor, Sandra Thomas, who is also a CPA and currently auditor for Platte County.
Two St. Louis Public School students will take center stage at the next two World Series games as the St. Louis Cardinals take on the Detroit Tigers.
Anthanisha McMiller, a 5th grader at Gateway Elementary will throw out the first pitch at tonight’s tomorrow night's game at Busch stadium, and Donald Buckner, a junior at Gateway High School will throw out the first pitch at Thursday night's Game 5.
Both students were chosen by the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club of America for the positive leadership both in the classroom and at Herbert Hoover. "This is a great honor and we are very proud of Anthanisha and Donald for their hard work and commitment to the Boys & Girls Club," said Superintendent Diana Bourisaw.
"Pony Up": Groups Call on Safe Dems to Put their Money Where their Mouths Are
By Antonio D. French
Two liberal websites are asking their readers to demand their Democratic members of Congress who are all but assured re-election to give some of their campaign money to Democrats in close contests.
MoveOn.org and MyDD.com have identified several dozen "safe" Democrats, including St. Louis Congressman Russ Carnahan, and given their readers specific instructions on how to pressure them to help their fellow Democrats in more competitive races.
One such Democrat in need is U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill who is in a very close contest with incumbent Republican Sen. Jim Talent. Back in August, PUB DEF's camera caught Carnahan using some strong language in telling a group of Dems that Talent needed to be defeated.
"There's a long list of reasons to fire his ass!," he said standing on a chair while rallying the crowd to support McCaskill.
It appears some Dems are still waiting for Carnahan to put his money where his mouth is.
We are expecting a response from Carnahan's campaign shortly. Check back soon.
UPDATE: Representatives of Congressman Carnahan say he has given nearly a quarter million dollars to fellow Democrats through the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and direct contributions since taking office in January 2005.
The campaign sent over the following numbers:
Contributed to DCCC= $100,000 Raised for DCCC= $52,000 Contributions to DCCC targeted races= $12,600 Pending Contributions to DCCC targeted races= $15,500 Raised for other Democratic members of Missouri delegation= $65,000 Grand Total = $245,100
It's not clear from the information provided when those contributions were made or whether MoveOn.org's target number for Carnahan of $60,831 (roughly 30% of his war chest as of 9/30) was met during this campaign cycle.
On Nov. 7, St. Louis City voters will be asked to raise their sales tax by 1/8 percent to pay for the construction and maintenance of two new state-of-the-art recreation centers -- one in north St. Louis and one in south St. Louis -- and to provide a dedicated revenue source for maintaining and upgrading the City's existing recreation facilities.
In an interview yesterday, Mayor Francis Slay said the new tax is estimated to generate about $4.37 million annually. Should Proposition P pass, the City would almost immediately issue bonds to pay for building the new rec-plexes (which cost about $19 million each) and upgrading its existing rec centers (about $9.5 million). Expanding the number and scope of recreation programs offered by the City will cost about $700,000 per year, according to Slay.
The southside rec-plex is going to be built in Carondolet Park. The northside location has not been finalized, but O'Fallon Park is the frontrunner after receiving the endorsement of the Aldermanic Black Caucus. Should the tax increase pass, Slay said to look for doors to open on the two facilities in two to three years.
If Prop P fails next Tuesday, Slay said it will have been another "lost opportunity" for the City of St. Louis.
"This is what it's going to take," said Slay. "It's going to take something like this to really do something that makes a difference as far as recreation in the City."
I was a guest yesterday on NPR's "Open Source with Christopher Lydon" discussing the Missouri Senate race, the Stem Cell initiative, and other topics related to the Nov. 7 election.
The other guests were Prof. George Connor, Missouri State University; author Jonathan Frazen ("The Corrections" and "The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History"); and conservative Kansas City blogger Dee Vantuyl of The Chatterbox Chronicles.
At the end of the show, they played a short pre-recorded interview with our friend Steve Patterson of UrbanReviewSTL.com.
Opponents of Amendment 2 have put together a quick response to U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill's powerful television ad featuring actor Michael J. Fox in support of the Stem Cell Initiative.
The Anti-Stem Cell ad features a handful of celebrities including former Rams quarterback Kurt Warner, Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan, and actors Patricia Heaton ("Everybody Loves Raymond") and Jim Caviezel ("The Passion of the Christ").
The ad was paid for by the Life Communications Fund. It appears to have been put together quickly, at times seemingly shot with a consumer camcorder. It is not clear if it is being considered for television at this time or if another version will be shot.
UPDATE: According to the Drudge Report, this ad will air tomorrow during Game 4 of the World Series.
UPDATE 2:This video from a Chicago TV station and this story in USA Today outlines some of the controversy stemming (no pun intended) from Michael J. Fox's ad and comments made in response by conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has started a new Internet ad this week again hitting Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill on her personal finances.
Estimating McCaskill's net worth at between $13 million and $30 million, the GOP sites sources claiming she and her husband, entrepreneur Joseph Shepard, have gone to great lengths to pay little to no federal taxes.
"Claire McCaskill needs help," says a female voice in the commercial. "She's misplaced some of her income."
The ad claims McCaskill owns a $3 million airplane registered in Delaware, a state with no sales or personal property taxes. "She's misplaced some of her income in 150 limited partnerships," says the voiceover.
McCaskill has defended her husband's decision not to release his current tax returns to the media, saying they have released more than enough information on their personal finances and that her husband's "complicated" tax returns would just be used to further distract from the important issues of the campaign.
With just two weeks left before Election Day, the McCaskill campaign will be looking to raise some last-minute moolah at the Moolah tonight.
Ellen R. Malcolm, the founder and president of EMILY's List, a political action committee that supports pro-choice female candidates, will be the special guest at a fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill tonight at the Moolah Theatre and Lounge, 3821 Lindell Blvd, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.
Other guests scheduled to stop by include former Senator Jean Carnahan, former Congressman Richard Gephardt, and St. Louis County Executuve Charlie Dooley.
Tired of passing the time watching videos on YouTube of idiots doing idiotic things? Well the State of Missouri has a new way for you to pass time at work -- look up how many registered sex offenders live in your neighborhood!
Look up offenders by first or last name, Zip Code (44 in our Zip Code, none on our block), city or county (1,005 in St. Louis City, 1030 in St. Louis County, and 323 in St. Charles). See mugshots, a list of their offenses, scars and tattoos -- even info on any cars they own.
Click here to visit the Highway Patrol's updated Sex Offender Information Page.
The first 20 people to email us at editor@pubdef.net will get a pass for two to a special screening of the film "Catch a Fire" Wednesday at the Esquire.
Director Phillip Noyce ("Patriot Games", "Clear and Present Danger", "The Quiet American") has made a powerful and moving film that uses the inspirational story of resistance in 1980s' South Africa to make the point that is so relevent in today's America: One man's terrorist is often another man's freedom fighter. And sometimes tactics used to fight terrorism actually creates more "terrorists".
The film features Oscar-worthy performances by Tim Robbins ("Mystic River") and Derek Luke ("Antwone Fisher"). Here are two PSAs featuring the actors talking about some of the issues in the movie.
I'll be a guest tomorrow on NPR's "Open Source with Christopher Lydon" discussing the Missouri Senate race, the Stem Cell initiative, and other topics related to the Nov. 7 election.
The show airs live at 6:00 p.m. in many places including New York City, San Francisco, Boston, and Austin, TX -- but not in St. Louis. You can listen online via one of these streams or wait until Wednesday for the link to the podcast.
WARNING: This video contains language which some may find objectionable.
The following video is making its way around the Web. It is basically a compilation of prank calls to various C-SPAN call-in shows -- many of them from fans of shock jock Howard Stern.
In one segment, St. Louis activist and former Congressional candidate Eric Vickers gets a call from a woman in Baltimore who just couldn't contain her physical attraction to him. Pretty funny stuff.
Folks watching Game 2 of the World Series tonight might have seen this new ad from U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill attacking incumbent Sen. Jim Talent for his record of voting with Pres. George W. Bush.
The 30-second ad highlights Talent's record of voting 94% of the time in support of the President's agenda, according to Congressional Quarterly.
Earlier this month, during their "Meet the Press" debate, host Tim Russert asked Talent, "Why shouldn’t voters in Missouri say 'Jim Talent is a rubber stamp for George W. Bush. If I disagree with George W. Bush, goodbye, Talent'?"
"Why don't they ever say in those surveys that the president agreed with me a certain percentage of the time?," joked Talent. "I mean, I’ve been in public life a lot longer when he has. When I went into Congress, I think he was still running the Texas Rangers."
"It's a vivid, well-told film that builds tension even as we guess the likely outcome. "Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?" makes us care about an outsider and want to tap into the kind of political passion and idealism that most people don't think exists anymore..."
"...In one of many tense episodes, Smith battles to salvage the endorsement of an African-American newspaper [The St. Louis American] that realizes that its advantage is to go with the likely winner, not the best candidate."
"Popper's documentary does its work with style and dedication, following Smith and his supporters on the campaign trail, contrasting the views of pundits and journalists with the inside working of the campaign."
Click here to read the full review (scroll down to the middle of the page).
Organizers called tonight's first annual Landmark's Association auction a success.
The auction, which was at the Coronado on Lindell Blvd., featured items ranging from vacation getaways to a scooter that gives more than a 100 miles per gallon to a set of 10 historic postcards featuring current and former St. Louis landmarks (that one was scooped up by yours truly).
Two of the night's more political items were snatched up by two of the event's organizers.
Carolyn Toft, Landmark's director, was the highest bidder at $250 on a "behind the scenes" tour of the State Capitol by State Rep. Tom Villa (D-108). And for $150, auction organizer Marcia Behrendt was the winner of a lunch for four with former Mayor Vince Schoemehl in Grand Center.
So what is Marcia going to talk to Vince about over lunch? "I haven't had time to even think about it," she said.
I was a guest yesterday on "Ascent Perspectives", the podcast of the Center for African American Policy at the University of Denver.
Click here to listen to the interview. And go to BlackPolicy.org to learn more about the CAAP and view a map of current statewide and federal races with African-American candidates.
Two Rivers Greens, the St. Louis branch of the Progressive Party of Missouri, will be hosting "How to Impeach a President", a 90-minute presentation on Oct. 26 at the Carpenter's Branch Library.
The event will feature a video presentation by the Center for Constitutional Rights, followed by discussion led by David Sladky, Progressive candidate for Congress, and Lydia Lewis, Progressive candidate for U.S. Senate.
The Carpenter's Branch Library is located at 3309 S. Grand. The meeting is from 7:00-8:30 p.m.
A new ad featuring actor Michael J. Fox will soon be hitting televisions across the state. The ad, paid for by U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill, again links the upcoming Stem Cell initiative to the heated campaign for U.S. Senate.
"Unfortunately Sen. Jim Talent opposes expanding Stem Cell research," says Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease. "Sen. Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us a chance for hope."
In February, Talent withdrew his support for a bill he co-sponsored to ban all forms of human cloning (including embryonic therapeutic cloning techniques that are seen as crucial to stem cell research), angering many of his pro-life supporters.
Talent has said he personally opposes the current embryonic stem cell ballot initiative, instead favoring research involving adult stem cells.
UPDATE:This video from a Chicago TV station and this story in USA Today outlines some of the controversy stemming (no pun intended) from Michael J. Fox's ad and comments made in response by conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
St. Louis expatriate Margie Newman, a former KETC producer and cheerleader for City living, and KWMU 90.7 FM's Tom Weber will be among the thousands of people running Sunday in the Chicago Marathon.
This is the third marathon for Weber, a Chicago native. He completed both the St. Louis and the Honolulu Marathons back in 2005. He estimates he'll finish the grueling 26.2-mile run in about five and a half hours (If it was us, try 5 and a half days!).
Newman's been chronicling her intense training on her blog, www.MargieNewman.blogspot.com. "I'm definitely excited," she wrote today. "I'm also a little overwhelmed at the concept, but at the same time it's quite simple. I'll go out there and do exactly what I've trained to do for the last six months."
Good luck to both of these athletes. Represent the Lou with pride!
UPDATE:Congratulations, Margie and Tom! They finished! From Margie's blog:
I had a GREAT time on what has got to be the longest moving party anywhere. (That's 26.2 miles, folks.)
I finished in 5:51 (Less than 5:30 if you net out the lengthy-due-to-lines bathroom breaks taken cumulatively by my group).
It was colder than cold, but we dealt. There was no Wall. I was ready to dig deep in the post-20-mile stretch, which is legendarily tough.
Amazingly, the last five miles were actually my strongest and fastest.
I never want to see another drop of Gatorade or PowerGel.
Thanks to Alan Brunettin for this photo of the two at the finish line.
UPDATE 2: Thank goodness our St. Louis runners didn't finish the race the way the actual winner did. Check out this video...
As many of our readers know, Jeff Smith, the soon-to-be state senator from St. Louis' 4th District, was the subject of a documentary film that has continued to grow in national popularity.
Most recently, Smith and the film were featured in Jabari Asim's column in the Washington Post. And now they are the subject of a 6-question interview with Smith in Harper's Magazine.
The film, "Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?", is playing in select theaters across the country now and will be broadcast on the PBS series "Independent Lens" on February 27, 2007.
Former Missouri Governor, U.S. Senator, and U.S Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft recently appeared on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart". Here's the video.
At the end of the interview, when the former Attorney General and Stewart, a New Yorker, make a friendly wager on the Cardinals/Mets series, Ashcroft says if the Mets win, "We'll let you move to St. Louis and you'll think you moved to heaven!"
Jon Stewart in St. Louis? We might be willing to give up the pennant for that.
According to the most recent poll by Zogby International, Republican Sen. Jim Talent has regained some ground on his Democratic challenger, State Auditor Claire McCaskill.
In the latest poll, conducted Oct. 10 through 16 and released yesterday, 50% of likely Missouri voters support Talent. While 47% support McCaskill. That puts the race back within the poll's margin of error (3.1%).
Zogby's Sept. 5 poll showed Talent with 48% and McCaskill at 43%. On Sept. 25, Talent fell one point to 47% and McCaskill jumped to 45%. Libertarian Frank Gilmour has stayed around 2-3%. While Progressive Lydia Lewis hasn't even registered on the survey.
Senators Kit Bond (R-MO) and Carl Levin (D-MI) have added to the number of friendly wagers surrounding the Cardinals' post-season success.
Bond is betting Levin's favorite Detroit Tigers will go fall to the St. Louis Cardinals in their seven-game World Series match-up.
"For some, the Cardinals’ victory was the season’s biggest October surprise," joked Bond. "Missouri might make 2006 the year of the come-back, on the field and off."
At stake for Bond and Levin will be dinners for their respective Washington, D.C. staffs. Bond said that when the Cardinals prevail over the Tigers, his staff will be treated to a dinner of Michigan-made Kowalski Sausages and Black Star Farms wine.
If the Cardinals should fall to the Tigers, Senator Levin's staff will be treated to a dinner of Super Smokers St. Louis Style BBQ and Budweiser.
Alderman Lewis Reed, who told PUB DEF earlier today that he wouldn't be announcing tonight, apparently changed his mind. At a meeting of the 6th Ward Democrats this evening, Reed said he is indeed running for President of the Board of Aldermen.
The ward organization quickly suspended their rules and voted to endorse their alderman and make a $2,000 contribution to his campaign.
Committeeman Patrick Cacchione and former Congressional aide Kacie Starr Triplett also announced their candidacies to replace Reed as alderman. We are told that the ward organization will wait to endorse in this race until possibly after the New Year.
What's it like being an immigrant in St. Louis? That's the subject of an upcoming forum at Washington University.
"The Immigrant Experience: Case Study St. Louis" will be hosted by Washington University's International and Area Studies Program and the Sigma Iota Rho International Studies honorary society on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at 7:30 p.m.
Panelists include Dr. Sunita Parikh of Washington University; Joan Suarez, JD, of the Immigrant Rights Action Task Force; and Dr. Alvaro Briones, a recent immigrant from Nicaragua.
The event will be in the Umrath Lounge, located adjacent to the Mallinckrodt Student Center and Edison Theatre on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.
The Suburban Journals recently published a story about the race currently taking shape to decide who will replace Lewis Reed as alderman of the 6th Ward. The same story, written by reporter Jim Merkel, was published in the Southside Journal and the Northside Journal and on their respective websites.
The Southsideonline version of the story is accompanied by an over-sized headshot of Committeeman and likely aldermanic candidate Patrick Cacchione, but no photo of Kacie Starr Triplett -- to date, the only candidate to have actually announced.
And on the Northsideversion, there's no photo at all. Hmmmmm.
Pols were busy last night, bouncing between fundraisers for Comptroller Darlene Green and Alderman (and yet unannounced candidate for Aldermanic President) Lewis Reed.
Fatigue and a too long neglected personal life wouldn't allow PUB DEF to photograph the events, but the following details were pieced together from sources in attendance.
Reed's fundraiser was hosted by the Gate District neighborhood organization at the home of its president, Mr. Steve Zeiger. And while Reed made no formal announcement of his future plans, it was clearly understood by all what endeavor the night's donations would be going to.
State Rep. Robin Wright Jones made that very clear when she introduced Reed to the crowd as "the next President of the Board."
Others spotted in the crowd included Aldermen Donna Baringer (16th Ward), Freeman Bosley, Sr. (3rd Ward), Dionne Flowers (2nd Ward), Jennifer Florida (15th Ward), Stephen Gregali (14th Ward), and Mike McMillan (19th Ward). Even former Ald. Kenny Jones came out to support his old colleague.
Committeeman Patrick Cacchione and former Congressional Aide Kacie Starr Triplett, both candidates looking to be the next alderman from the 6th Ward, were also in attendance.
Not too far away, in Forest Park, Comptroller Green was raising some cash of her own.
Spotted in the park's Norman K. Probstein Golf Center were former Mayor Freeman Bosley, Jr., Aldermen Mike McMillan (busy man) and Frank Williamson (26th Ward), soon-to-be State Rep. Jamilah Nasheed (60th District), and Marlene Davis, the frontrunner to be the next alderman from the 19th Ward.
A group of Iraq war veterans have launched an ad campaign against several vulnerable Republicans, including Sen. Jim Talent.
VoteVets.org PAC's ad features Peter Granato, an Army Reservist who reportedly served in Iraq in 2003. In the ad, Granato fires an AK-47 into the type of vest many U.S. troops are wearing in Iraq. Bullets clearly pierce right through the flak jacket. Granato then shoots modern body armor, which stops the bullets.
Granato then points out that Talent voted against an amendment in 2003 to add $1 billion to the budget of the National Guard and Reserves for procurement of such equipment. The ad also says Talent later voted against another amendment which would have appropriated more than $300 million for body armor.
Almost identical ads are being ran against Republican Senators George Allen in Virginia, Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania, and Conrad Burns in Montana.
UPDATE:Rich Chrismer, a spokesman for the Talent campaign, sent over this response:
"Senator Talent has been endorsed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Vietnam Veterans of America gave him the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Association for Service Disabled Veterans gave him their 2006 Patriot Legislator Award. These veteran groups don't endorse or give awards to people who don't support veterans."
The McCaskill campaign has not replied to our requests for comment on this (or any other) story.
Democratic challengers in more than two-dozen House and Senate races are attacking Republicans in Congress for taking pay raises while voting against a minimum wage increase...
In Missouri, challenger Claire McCaskill says in a TV ad that Sen. Jim Talent is the kind of person who "votes 11 times against increasing the minimum wage, but takes six congressional pay raises."
Rich Chrismer, Talent's spokesman, says the senator has "consistently voted against" pay raises and gives "the ones that pass the Congress to charity."
KC Star/Roll Call: Senator McCaskill Would Be Among Nation's Wealthiest
By Antonio D. French
A story in today's Kansas City Star examines how some of U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill's husband's business dealings would create "several potential conflicts of interest" should McCaskill successfully unseat Sen. Jim Talent. Click here to read it.
In the story is an interesting bit that many may not realize. These guys are rich -- really rich.
From the Star: A disclosure report filed with the Senate this year puts McCaskill’s net worth at between $13 million and $30 million, possibly more. Even the low end of that scale would make her one of the Senate’s 10 richest members, according to estimates by Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper.
Republicans have been trying to turn "Mr. McCaskill", businessman Joseph Shepard, into an issue in the final weeks of this campaign, repeatedly demanding Shepard release his tax returns to the media.
"[Jim and Brenda Talent] recognize when you serve in public office you forfeit a certain amount of privacy when it comes to financial information," said Rich Chrismer, a Talent spokesman, in a press release sent out this morning.
According to the Star, the Talents reported a net worth last year of between $300,000 and $1.3 million.
Sen. Jim Talent and State Auditor Claire McCaskill will meet tonight in Kansas City for their fifth and final debate before the Nov. 7 election. But St. Louis voters may not see it at all.
The debate will take place at the University Academy charter school and will be moderated by KMBC-TV's Larry Moore. The panelists are KMBC-TV’s political reporter Michael Mahoney, Kansas City Star political reporter Steve Kraske, KCPT-TV public affairs and the news programming director Nick Haines, KCUR-FM news director Frank Morris and Examiner Independence editorial board editor Jeff Fox.
The debate will not be televised live in St. Louis, in Kansas City, or anywhere else. Instead, according to Brad Belote at The KY3 blog, the debate will air tomorrow night in K.C. on both KMBC and KCPT. Tonight, KMBC viewers will be treated to "Dancing with the Stars" instead.
St. Louisan may be able to stream video of the debate from one the television station's websites tomorrow. Maybe.
VIDEO: ACORN Workers Remain Unpaid, Make More GOTV Allegations
By Antonio D. French
PUB DEF EXCLUSIVE
Dozens of ACORN workers were disappointed Tuesday to find that the paychecks they were promised were still not available. And some gave even more details about the organization's GOTV activities which have recently drawn a formal complaint from the state's Republican Party and, according to one source, a visit last week from the FBI.
Marcus Holmes said he has worked for ACORN for more than a month and has yet to be paid. "First they said Friday. Came up here Friday, then they went from Friday to Monday. Monday to Tuesday. Now today, they don't know when its going to be up here," said Holmes, who told us he was in danger of being evicted from his apartment as a result.
Holmes was not alone. More than a dozen angry workers waited outside of ACORN's office on Manchester Street in south St. Louis, frustrated by the continued delays and empty promises. Inside, tensions ran even higher. Police were called after several loud confrontations almost turned physical.
"There's over a hundred-and-something people that haven't been paid," said Timothy Coopwood, an ACORN worker who was fired last week after the organization was hit with allegations of voter registration fraud.
Coopwood repeated claims made last week by other ACORN workers that they were instructed to go door-to-door and ask voters to support Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill.
There is no evidence of a direct link between the McCaskill campaign and ACORN's GOTV efforts. But several ACORN workers told PUB DEF that they were told by ACORN managers that the effort was part of "Project Victory 2006", which is also the name for the Missouri Democratic Party's GOTV campaign.
Josephine Perkins, a 10-year veteran ACORN worker whose allegations of improper and illegal GOTV activities we first reported in an exclusive video report two weeks ago, was also at the office Tuesday picking up her last check from the organization.
Perkins told PUB DEF that FBI agents visited ACORN last week and that afterwards, managers at the organization instructed some employees not to cooperate with their investigation. [We will be following up on this part of the story later this week.]
Perkins and others again named Johanna Sharrard, ACORN's new political field director, as one of those giving instructions to get out the vote for McCaskill along with their efforts on behalf of Proposition B, the proposal to raise the state's minimum wage.
When we attempted to interview Ms. Sharrard again to respond to these allegations, we were asked to leave ACORN's offices. We were told that no one was available to speak to us on the record.
Check back later this week as we continue to investigate this developing story...
THE POST NEEDS ADS -- For the second day in a row, the Post-Dispatch ran a full-page ad pleading with political campaigns to advertise in its pages. "Attention Candidates: We can help you win the vote," read Tuesday's ad on page A7.
TAX RETURNS RETURN -- The GOP continues to try to make Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill's husband an issue in her campaign.
The Missouri Republican Party issued a press release this morning blasting McCaskill and her husband, Joseph Shepard, for refusing to release his tax returns to the media.
"With a family fortune of between $13 million and $30 million amassed through taxpayer-financed tax credits, hundreds of government subsidized real estate partnerships and an offshore tax shelter in Bermuda, McCaskill and Shepard for months have arrogantly refused to release their tax returns even though Sen. Jim Talent and his wife Brenda released theirs long ago," Republicans said in the press release.
On KWMU's "St. Louis on the Air" this morning, McCaskill said they have released more than enough information on their personal finances and that her husband's "complicated" tax returns would just be used to further distract from the important issues of the campaign.
CRACKING OPEN THE PIGGEE BANK -- A telling sign of the trouble Missouri Republicans find themselves in is this little bit from Steve Kraske of the Kansas City Star:
"Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican who has stashed $2.8 million in his political action committee, is spending it. The biggest recipient: Jim Talent, with $450,000."
Just a few weeks on the job and Gov. Matt Blunt's new chief of staff, Ed Martin, is making some changes.
The Governor's Communications Director Spence Jackson has moved to the Department of Economic Development where he will serve as a deputy director.
State Rep. Todd Smith, of Sedalia, resigned today from the State House to replace Chuck Pryor as Director of Legislative Affairs.
Pryor is now the new Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Legislation.
Brian Hauswirth will be the new interim Communications Director. He currently works as the Communications Director for the Missouri Department of Corrections and previously worked at KTRS in St. Louis.
"I am pleased to announce these appointments and believe they will enhance our ongoing mission to bring real and positive change to Missouri state government," Blunt said in a statement released today.
"We are honoring our charge from Missourians to improve service while being responsible stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars and this will continue to be our focus."
The Missouri Supreme Court just issued its voter ID decision. In a 6-1 opinion, the Court affirmed the decision of the trial court striking down the law. Only Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. (cousin to Rush Limbaugh) dissented.
Developing...
From the Court's decision:
"The Missouri Constitution provides a specific provision that enshrines the right to vote among certain enumerated constitutional rights of its citizens... SB 1014's Photo-ID Requirement creates a heavy burden on the right to vote and is not narrowly tailored to meet a compelling state interest, so it falls afoul of the Missouri Constitution's equal protection clause... and of Missourians' specific constitutional protection of the right to vote... For these reasons, the trial court judgment is affirmed."
From Judge Limbaugh's dissenting opinion:
"Although the majority agrees that there is some evidence of voter fraud at the voter registration stage, they discount that evidence as if it had no connection with fraud at the polling place. But why else does voter registration fraud occur if not to vote persons fraudulently registered?"
"And if, as in the DOJ report, there are more voters registered to vote than persons eligible to vote, the requirement to present a photo ID will at least eliminate those who attempt to vote in the place of others and those who attempt to vote more than once."
"It must be said, too, that even if there were no substantial evidence of existing voter impersonation fraud, legislatures are permitted to respond to the potential for such fraud, and they may do so 'with foresight' rather than 'reactively'... In any event, as the Carter-Baker Commission recently concluded, 'there is no doubt that [in-person voter fraud] occurs' and that such fraud 'could offset the outcome of close elections.'"
Click here to read the both opinions in their entirety.
Related Video... At a recent neighborhood meeting in south St. Louis, Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan predicted that the Supreme Court would uphold the lower court's ruling that the law was indeed Unconstitutional.
St. Louis Public Schools will be holding a press conference today announcing former NBA star Anthony Bonner as Executive Director of Community Outreach and new head basketball coach at Vashon High School.
The press conference will be held at 3:00 p.m. at the district's downtown headquarters, 801 North 11th Street.
Earl Wilson Says He's 'Sick and Tired' of Being Taken Advantage Of [Updated]
By Antonio D. French
The head of the Gateway Classic Foundation has a beef with State Sen. Joan Bray (D-St. Louis County) and he's taking his support across the aisle.
Earl Wilson has endorsed Bray's Republican challenger, John Maupin, after being personally offended by Bray's refusal to support his nomination by Gov. Matt Blunt to the Lincoln University Board of Curators earlier this year.
In a press release sent out Friday, Wilson said he was "sick and tired of some Democrats taking advantage of Afro-Americans by not doing anything for them and expecting them to vote for them during election time." Wilson said since Bray didn't support him, he won't be supporting her.
"From this point on, I will support the candidate who is best for the community, whether he or she be a Democrat or Republican," said Wilson.
The 74-year-old founder of the foundation known best for its annual black college football game said he's tired of being disrespected by so-called liberals. "A liberal thinks he or she can kick your butt and still have you support them," he said.
"Not me. Scrutinize each candidate whether they be Democrat or Republican and vote for the individual based on his/her record."
UPDATE: Sen. Bray told PUB DEF this morning that it was at the request of three of her senate colleagues, Senators Rita Days, Maida Coleman, and Yvonne Wilson (all Lincoln alumni), that she supported replacing outgoing curator Pearlie Evans with another female candidate on the overwhelming male board.
"I respected their interest in replacing one good woman with another good woman," said Bray.
She also pointed out that Wilson, a cousin to Congressman Lacy Clay, had already twice before served on Lincoln's board of curators.
"And how does it serve his cousin at all to support a Republican in an overlapping district?" she added.
Blunt Pushed for MOHELA Chief Firing, May Have Violated Law in Doing So
By Antonio D. French
Gov. Matt Blunt wanted MOHELA's executive director fired after criticizing his plan to sell off the agency's assets. And according to a report in yesterday's Columbia Daily Tribune, he quickly got what he wanted.
"In a telephone conference call earlier this year with two members of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority board, Gov. Matt Blunt said he wanted the agency’s executive director replaced," wrote Terry Ganey, former Post-Dispatch reporter and current Tribune staffer.
"The telephone call took place Jan. 24, hours before the board met and fired Executive Director Mike Cummins. But Cummins was not replaced with the man Blunt wanted - Rick Fouts, a former controller at MOHELA."
Ganey got his information from court depositions in Attorney General Jay Nixon's lawsuit against the agency. Click here to read the full story.
According to the Tribune, MOHELA board member James Mauze, a central figure in the firing, said he felt strongly that Cummins should be terminated as executive director for making statements to lawmakers opposing Blunt’s plan to sell MOHELA.
Some Democrats are saying Blunt and Mauze's actions amount to seeking retribution against a whisteblower -- which is illegal. State law clearly states:
"No supervisor or appointing authority of any state agency shall prohibit any employee of the agency from discussing the operations of the agency, either specifically or generally, with any member of the legislature, state auditor, attorney general, or any state official or body charged with investigating such alleged misconduct."
