Thursday, April 6th, 2006,
by Fred (,
2006 election, Clayton, Creve Coeur, eminent domain, property, Sunset Hills
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Voters expressed their frustration with eminent domain abuse in several local races Tuesday, especially in Sunset Hills, a city devastated by eminent domain-happy aldermen and a corrupt developer.
On Tuesday, in what amounted to a sweeping condemnation of city officials’ handling of the Sunset Manor redevelopment project, more than half of Sunset Hills’ leadership was voted out of office.Next Tuesday, Mayor Jim Hobbs will step down, along with Aldermen John Tipton, John Smith, Robert Brockhaus and A. Ron Kaemmerer. Taking their places will be Mayor-elect John Hunzeker and Aldermen-elect Franklin Hardy, Thomas Hrastich, Lynn Flowers and Frank Gregory.
The challengers ran on a platform that focused on eminent domain abuse and targeted the failed plan for a $184 million shopping center in Sunset Manor.
Every incumbent up for re-election in Sunset Hills was defeated, and all lost handily. Tipton came the closest, and even he only managed 46% of the vote. The others were crushed, led by Kaemmerer, whose 14 years on the council ended with a 27 percentage point loss. The voters were clearly angry, and turned out in droves (37% of registered voters cast ballots, compared to only 15% countywide). Eminent domain was clearly the issue that dragged down incumbents in Sunset Hills:
“I know a lot of people around here just felt like it was time for a change,” said Gary Ketcherside. Ketcherside, whose mother, Esther Hamman, lives in Sunset Manor, was so upset by the city’s handling of the Novus deal that he helped out with the new mayor’s campaign.
“I just hope they do what they said they would do - stop all this talk about commercial development and focus on residential,” he said. “We’ve heard that before, and still they seem to always end up making deals with a developer.”
The fallout from eminent domain abuse was not limited to Sunset Hills, however. Incumbents in Clayton and Creve Coeur faced tough re-election battles due to those cities’ embrace of eminent domain for economic redevelopment purposes.  In Clayton, incumbent Judy Goodman beat attorney Cynthia Holmes by only 67 votes. In Creve Coeur, incumbent Jeff Mitchell lost to anti-eminent domain challenger James Wang by 29 percentage points.
The tide is turning on eminent domain in St. Louis County. Ultimately, voters have to take responsibility and vote out officeholders that are beholden to corrupt developers. Voters must also demand institutional reform - until the structure of local government is changed so that local government does not rely on sales tax revenue from development, the incentive to abuse eminent domain power will be too strong.
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Thursday, March 23rd, 2006,
by Fred (,
2006 election, Missouri, politics, science, Stem Cell Research
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Jo Mannies’ column notes the formation of a new pro-stem cell research PAC, Act to Cure. The new PAC’s board members include David Eagleton, nephew of retired U.S. Sen. and current WashU professor emeritus Thomas F. Eagleton, a Democrat who is honorary co-chairman of the initiative-petition drive; and retired St. Louis lawyer Bernard Frank, who has Parkinson’s disease and is a director of the St. Louis Chapter of the American Parkinson’s Disease Association.
Act to Cure joins two other PACs that have been active on the stem cell research issue, Supporters of Health Research and Treatments (a PAC formed by the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association) and the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce PAC. The latter two have contributed more than $680,000 within the past year to dozens of political groups, candidates and elected officials in both parties from throughout the state. Act to Cure says that it will “focus on educating the public about ‘the voting records of various officeholders’ and the views of this year’s candidates on the stem cell issue.”
This education mission is important because opponents of the initiative continue to misrepresent what the initiative will do. According to the column:
Both PACs have gotten lots of donation requests from candidates, Schlemeier said. And opponents of embryonic stem cell research are starting to pay attention to who gets the checks. “There’s some interesting timing on when people receive money from these groups and change their perspective on the cloning issue,” said Pam Fichter, president of Missouri Right to Life.
The initiative has nothing to do with human cloning, and Missouri Right to Life should know it. In fact, the initiative text specifically states that “[n]o person may clone or attempt to clone a human being” and provides criminal penalties of imprisonment for a period of up to fifteen years and/or by the imposition of a fine of up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars. the Missouri Secretary of State’s official summary of the initiative says that it will “ban human cloning or attempted cloning.”
But it’s a lot easier to fight the initiative by talking about cloning than by opposing something that will (again from the Secretary of State’s impartial summary) “ensure Missouri patients have access to any therapies and cures, and allow Missouri researchers to conduct any research, permitted under federal law.”
I was proud to sign the petition seeking to place the initiative on the November ballot. You can join the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures or call 800-829-4133.
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Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006,
by Fred (,
2006 election, Illinois, Judy Topinka, politics, Rod Blagojevich
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Judy Baar Topinka declared winner of Illinois GOP primary
It appeared late Tuesday that Judy Baar Topinka had survived a blizzard - and four aggressive fellow Republicans - to become the second woman in Illinois history to win a major party nomination for governor.
Although statewide results were incomplete because of voting-machine snafus in Chicago, The Associated press declared Topinka a winner shortly after midnight. Throughout the evening, she had been narrowly but consistently beating dairy magnate Jim Oberweis in a GOP primary that was much closer than polls had predicted.
Topinka, a Chicagoan and social moderate, had enjoyed a sizable lead in pre-election polls over conservative dairy magnate Oberweis, but it appeared that conservative Metro East Republicans were more willing to fight bad weather to get to the polls than were their more moderate Chicago counterparts. In the end, Topinka had enough support upstate to overcome the 2-1 margin Oberweis had in Metro East.
The news appears similar for Topinka’s preferred running mate, DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett, who defeated state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, R-Elgin. Rauschenberger, who aligned himself with gubernatorial hopeful Ron Gidwitz, had sharply criticized Topinka during the campaign. A Topinka/Rauschenberger ticket would have been entertaining but ineffective.
This sets up what is sure to be a hotly contested race for the fall between beleaguered governor Rod Blagojevich and Topinka. Election polls show Blago faring worse against Topinka than against either Oberweis or Gidwitz. The February Rasmussen poll shows the Democrat leading Topinka 42% to 36%, Oberweis 49% to 37%, Gidwitz 47% to 33%, and State Senator Bill Brady 47% to 29%. This is substantially better than in January, when Blago actually trailed Topinka 48% to 37%.
The change from January to February reflects more on Topinka’s tough primary battle than on an improvement by the governor, as more people now view Blagojevich unfavorably (53%) than did in January (49%). Now that Republicans will unite behind Topinka, it is likely that the race is either a dead heat or a slight lead for Topinka.
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