Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster speaking at Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg.
This is the second and final part of the transcript of the question and answer session at Boys State with Attorney General Chris Koster on Saturday evening:
....Question: ...What kind of strategies do you use whenever you're building a prosecution?
Attorney General Koster: What kind of strategies that, do I use when I'm building a prosecution? Uh, I start, so it's a legal question, are you planning to go to law school?
Question: ...That was one of my plans.
Attorney General Koster: Everybody does it differently. I, uh, learn the case file. Tend to, I want to go see the crime scene. I'll always go walk the crime scene because I always learn something, uh, by walking a crime scene. And then, actually, I start with my closing argument, so I start with the end. Uh, I don't write out the closing argument completely, but I want to know what is the goal, where am I gonna to get to in front of the jury. And so I, I want to know what that story is and how it's gonna be told and how it impacts, uh, the jury in their ability to decide the issue. Then once I have a sense of what that closing argument is, I work my way backward and try and figure out how am I going to provide the jury with the, uh, the information that they need in order to listen to that story I want to tell them. So I, I work my way backwards.
Attorney General Chris Koster on the stage for Missouri Boys State in Hendricks Hall on the campus of the University of Central Missouri on Saturday evening.
After his keynote speech on Saturday evening Attorney General Chris Koster took questions from the Boys State audience:
Attorney General Chris Koster (D): ...Begin over here?
Question: Um, as you mentioned, newspapers are really important to you, uh, but that, but media has really expanded and has become so prevalent in national politics. Um, how much of a role do you think image plays in appointing officials? And, um, do you think this issue of image affects other issues like experience?
Attorney General Koster : How much does image affect elected officials?
Question: How, like, media has become really prevalent.
Attorney General Koster: Right.
Question: So, the image of a candidate, how he come, appears the public has become really important and do you think that, that has affected other issues like experience?
Attorney General Koster: I think that image became important fifty years ago. Do you want me to go back to the, uh, let me get, I'm gonna go to this, this seems to be a little clearer. I think image became important fifty years ago, uh, as soon as the Kennedy Nixon debates took place. Um, maybe a little bit before that when President Eisenhower started holding, uh, televised press conferences. But I think the biggest change, honestly, has to do with the expansion of cable on networks and the prevalence of television cameras, not just filming brief portions of the political day and putting them on the five thirty news, as they did when Walter Cronkite, uh, broadcast the five thirty news. But, the television cameras that now exist immediately outside of every committee room's door, so that as soon as the committee chairman and the ranking member of the committee come out of there they are almost expected to say, uh, divergent and politically polarized things. And those things that they are expected to say has created a culture where politicians tend to fall and the back room camaraderie that used to exist, uh, is no longer there, like when Bob Michael was head of the House or Tip O'Neill was there, uh, back in the seventies. That camaraderie is gone and it's the prevalence, I think, of having the television camera that is stuck in a politician's face all the time that as much as anything has, has created that unfortunate circumstance.
Missouri Attorny General Chris Koster was the keynote speaker on Saturday evening for the opening session of Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg.
Attorney General Chris Koster on the stage in Hendricks Hall at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg.
Attorney General Chris Koster (D): [applause] Good evening, it's an honor to be with all of you, here in this exciting week. I was looking over the list of statewide elected officials who are going to come and speak with you over the next several days - and the list is certainly impressive. Secretary of State Carnahan will be here, Treasurer Clint Zweifel, Governor Jay Nixon and others have all taken time from their schedule to come and spend a few hours with you. Why do we do it? Not just why do we do it, but why do we consider it an honor to do it? Because all of us, the Governor, myself, all the statewide office holders firmly believe that somewhere in this room is a state representative, a state senator, a U.S. Congressman, a United States Senator, a governor. Sitting somewhere in this room. Not a Boys State Governor, a real governor, the kind that lives in Jefferson City. And if we Missourians are lucky, the kind of man who learns early in his life to keep his ego in check, to devote his time to quiet and patient study, who learns how to make prudent and careful decisions, to put others before himself, and to lead with a proper mix of head and heart, and to guide his fellow citizens forward. Somewhere in this room that man is sitting. And while we statewide officials come here for many reasons, one of the reasons we come here is to talk to him...
It is clear that Peter Kinder thinks that there's lots of political hay to be made by getting in on the lawsuits against the Affordable Care Act - a belief that he shares with the AGs of several states, although it's unlikely that such a suit has even the proverbial snowball-in-Hell's chance of success. Sadly for Kinder, in his role as Lieutenant Governor he lacks the authority to file suit on Missouri's behalf. Happily for Missourians, responsible adults, to wit Governor Nixon and AG Chris Koster, have slapped Kinder down and refused to drag the state into this potentially very expensive morass. Indeed, Senator Claire McCaskill has gone so far as to describe some of his assertions as "embarrassingly wrong and irresponsible."
Although no state funds will be forthcoming, Kinder remains resolute - there are a few riled up Tea Partiers out there who need some TLC after all. Consequently, he has announced that he is collecting private donations in order to finance a suit out of his office. To this end, he has set up a Website, "Health Care in Action: Standing up against the infringement on state sovereignty and personal freedoms" - how's that for a particularly tone-deaf non-sequitur?
Perhaps this new variation on Kinder's crusade means that he was stung by criticisms like those of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which ridiculed the potential use of taxpayer dollars in an effort to deny Missourians the benefits of health care reform at a time when the state is engaged in budget cutting so dire that fiduciary bones are being scraped away. Or maybe he doesn't really care whether he raises sufficient funds or not - he's undoubtedly calculating that he'll get lots of fringer street cred out of this little piece of theater no matter what.
Laugh though we may at Kinder's grandstanding, we should not dismiss the harm he and others can do. The rightwing tactic of mounting legal challenges to the new law is potentially harmful to its successful implementation whether or not they have legal merit. As a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes:
Even though attempts to nullify provisions of federal health reform legislation have no legal effect, they should not be ignored. With enactment of the PPACA, substantial efforts are needed to meet tight deadlines for implementation. Legal challenges and campaigns to block the legislation will consume time and resources needed for implementation and may slow implementation until legal challenges are resolved. State provisions that purport to prohibit the individual mandate could be used as a shield by those who refuse to comply with the law. They also may weaken political support for health reform.
Conventional wisdom has it that Kinder is prepping for a run for Governor and that he sees this lawsuit business as a convenient tool to garner attention and establish his fringer bona fides. Still, he'll need more than Tea Partiers to become governor - and if he allows himself to be identified with the political thugs seeking to work over our hard-won health care reform, more people than he thinks may be upset.
Update: Here's Kinder bloviating on the Greta von Susteren show last night (FiredUp!points out that here once again he continues to lie just like a lying liar):
It's one thing for our little enterprise here to call Chris Koster on the carpet for appealing a case that everybody but Big Ag wanted to see left alone. In 2008, a judge ruled that a two mile buffer zone should protect Arrow Rock Historic Village from a hog CAFO. By extension, that ruling would protect other historic sites and state parks. But Koster wants to get that ruling struck down.
Now the two biggest media outlets in the state are criticizing him too. The Kansas City Star ran two editorials (Count 'em: one and two) telling him to lay off. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reprinted the second Star editorial, the one that begins: "Attorney General Chris Koster's latest bid to open up Missouri to more factory farms stinks."
Will Koster think this negative attention stinks? Enough to drop the appeal? I guess we'll see. No wonder so many Democrats still call him Koster the Imposter.
What? Just because Chris Koster introduced a bill in the state senate in 2007 to wipe out what little local control there is over factory farms and just because he is now pursuing an unnecessary appeal to a judicial ruling creating two mile buffer zones around state parks and historic sites--just because of that history, I say, Ken Midkiff doesn't trust our attorney general to take Smithfield money and still enforce a consent judgment against the corporation? You're such a cynic, Ken.
Hampac - Smithfield's political PAC - gave $2,500 to Chris Koster's 2008 campaign to become Missouri's Attorney General. Koster accepted the money even though the State of Missouri has a 1999 Consent Judgment against Premium Standard Farms (PSF), which has been owned by Smithfield since May 2007.Â
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Koster is now Missouri's Attorney General and his office is responsible for ensuring that PSF/Smithfield implements the ongoing dictates of the court-ordered judgment resulting from the 1999 litigation.
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PSF/Smithfield owns and operates eleven mega-hog facilities in northern Missouri subject to the 1999 Consent Judgment. A follow-up state Consent Judgment was entered in 2004, extending the deadline to install operational "Next Generation Technology" until July 2010.
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"We checked the files of the Missouri Ethics Commission, after reviewing Hampac's funding to Missouri campaigns. Smithfield/Hampac brags about its political success in Missouri," stated Ken Midkiff, Chair of the Missouri Clean Water Campaign.Â
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"Accepting this money reeks as unethical. We believe that Attorney General Koster should return this tainted money immediately," concluded Midkiff.
Attorney General Chris Koster (D?) has definitely decided to pursue an appeal that would negate last year's court decision keeping CAFOs at least two miles from historic sites. At issue is whether or not buffer zones around state parks and historic sites will be created by the legal precedent of Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce's ruling in Arrow Rock.
The appeal to negate Joyce's ruling was filed last fall by Governor Matt Blunt's DNR--at the behest of big pork--but the current DNR has dropped its interest in the case, as has our new governor. The fact that both have stated that the attorney general is "on his own" in pursuing the appeal leaves Koster without a client in his lawsuit--except for the unacknowledged one: big ag.
He is persisting, he says, because such buffer zones should not be created by court cases but by the (Republican) legislature. As if that's going to happen. He claims to approve of buffer zones between factory farms and our state's historic sites, waterways, and state parks and yet goes out of his way to eliminate the only practical chance such sites have of protection from CAFOs. Given his history of carrying water for the Farm Bureau, though, his overnice distinction about how they'll be created is disingenuous. Just note that seven big ag organizations have filed briefs as intervenors or "friends of the court" in this case.
Let's hope that his case gets thrown out of court for not having a client.
A large part of the CAFO battle in this state is about who controls where the factory farms can be located. Big Ag wants only the legislature--Republican controlled--to have that power. Environmentalists and many rural residents want local control, on the assumption that the locals shouldn't have to tolerate environmental damage and devalued property. A skirmish in that battle has arisen over the question of whether anybody besides the legislature can create CAFO free buffer zones around historic sites and state parks. The resulting controversy involves both Chris Koster and Jay Nixon.
The controversy began with a fight at the historic village of Arrow Rock near Columbia. The town, which makes most of its income from the tourist trade, went to court in 2007 to prevent a 4800 hog CAFO from being built nearby. In August of last year, Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce ruled that there would be a two mile buffer zone to protect the historic village.
The hog CAFO, as it turned out, wasn't built, so the buffer zone was a moot point, but Matt Blunt's Department of Natural Resources, carrying water for Big Pig, as usual, appealed the decision anyway. The bad actors didn't want a precedent of buffer zones set.
Do two of the biggest Democratic cheeses in the state think of the Sierra Club's Ken Midkiff as a cranky old man? Could be.
But Midkiff is just trying to keep our governor and our attorney general honest.
He's publicly kvetching about Governor Nixon breaking a campaign promise to "protect our state parks and historic sites." Midkiff contends that "environmental groups supported Nixon, a Democrat, in last year's election because they believed Nixon would protect state parks and historic sites."
To understand Midkiff's rebuke, you have to know the backstory. Nixon spoke last September at the historic village of Arrow Rock, which had been threatened with a 4800-head hog CAFO, and insisted that the role of the DNR was to regulate polluters. That would be a refreshing (excuse the pun) change, because under Matt Blunt, the DNR regularly carried water for Big Ag.
Specifically, the DNR challenged a ruling by Judge Patricia Joyce that could have affected the entire state. She had ruled that no CAFO could be built within fifteen miles of Arrow Rock, then later changed the buffer zone to two miles. The intended hog CAFO was not, in fact, built, but the contentious issue of buffer zones remained.
The DNR, under Blunt, filed suit to appeal Joyce's decision, not wanting any precedent for buffer zones created. So far, the DNR, under Nixon, has continued the appeal. Nixon's administration says it is now considering whether to continue its appeal.
What's to consider? The appeal is nothing but Big Ag being a Big Bully. And Midkiff says:
"Apparently, gubernatorial candidate Nixon's statements and Gov. Nixon's actions are two completely different things."
I read this on a Chad Livengood's (Springfield News-Leader) Twitter post and thought, "Huh?":
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder says there's "rumors" that @JayNixon is forcing universities into Caring for Missourians, though he has no proof. about 15 hours ago from web
Surely, he really didn't say that?:
Kinder says universities pressued [sic]
Nixon's office denies MSU, others forced into health pledges.
Chad Livengood • News-Leader • June 9, 2009
...But Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder asserted Monday that Nixon pressured university leaders into signing the identical form letters, which MSU officials denied was the case.
Kinder, a Republican, admitted his information was based on "rumors" and "third hand reports."
"I have no proof of that or firsthand knowledge," Kinder said. "What I'm seeking is to heighten the profile of this issue and discussion, so that we can have an honest discussion with all the cards on the table..."
Yes, apparently he did say that. Honest discussion? Yeah, right.
As if, given their budgets, any higher education institution in the State of Missouri will turn down money whatever strings are attached?:
...We are in a budget situation in the state of Missouri that, I'm just going on so long, I really apologize, but I'm gonna make one more point...In 2001 general revenue to higher education in the state of Missouri was nine hundred and sixty million dollars. 2001. In 2008. We're now in the 2008 budget cycle, general revenue to higher education in the state of Missouri is nine hundred and thirty six million dollars. A reduction of twenty four million dollars despite the fact that we've gone forward by seven years. We fell back in nominal terms, nominal dollar terms by twenty four million dollars. In real dollar terms, which mean you put, you pump a higher ed inflator through there which is about, I dunno, say eight percent, um, we are seven hundred and twenty five million dollars behind where we were in 2001 in higher education.
The reality is, I mean, we can pretend it's otherwise, but Missouri is the 46th lowest taxing state in the country. We are never going to catch up to the high water mark that Bob Holden hit in 2001. It's just never gonna happen. We can try. And we should try. But it's never gonna happen. I mean, it's, once you fall behind by a billion dollars in a twenty billion dollar budget, we can all pretend it can happen, but it can't happen.
Let me give you one other statistic. Because this is so fascinating, hardly anybody really recognizes this about the state budget. We take in two hundred seventy million dollars more each year then we did the last year. So, know you start to understand the consequences of falling a billion dollars behind. We only take in two hundred seventy million dollars more this year then we did last year. Of that two hundred and seventy million dollars, two hundred and forty million is immediately taken up by mandates. That means inflation in pharmaceuticals, inflation in Medicaid, the heating costs that it keeps, that it takes to warm the Capitol during the winter. Two hundred and forty of the two hundred and seventy is immediately gone. That means in any given year we've got about thirty million dollars in discretionary money to change the course of history with. Now you understand the consequences of falling a billion dollars behind in just the higher education budget, much less the k-12 budget. When you've only got thirty million dollars how can we ever catch up in higher education? Of the thirty million dollars we only, this year in tax credits to wealthy corporations we will give away something like sixty million dollars. So every single penny that did not go to inflation went to big business. Every single penny of it...
[emphasis added]
We covered the Caring for Missouri[ans] press conference with Governor Jay Nixon at the University of Missouri-Kansas City:
The folks at the university were quite happy to get those resources.
As for those commitment letters from the universities to the Governor promising that the funds would be used as intended? Peter Kinder has a problem with that?
Jefferson City, Mo. - Attorney General Chris Koster today released Missouri's 2008 Annual Report on Vehicle Stops. The report includes analysis on more than 1.6 million stops by 639 law enforcement agencies, including racial and ethnic information about drivers who were stopped.
The 2008 report shows that African-Americans continue to be stopped at materially higher rates than either whites or Hispanics.
The report focuses primarily on traffic stop "disparity indexes," which compare the proportion of stops for drivers of a particular race or ethnicity to the proportion of state or local population of that racial or ethnic group. A value of "1" represents no disparity; values over "1" indicate over-representation, while values under "1" indicate under-representation.
Koster said in 2008 the African-American disparity index was 1.59, up slightly from the 2007 rate of 1.58. This increase was the fourth rise in the disparity index for African-American drivers in the past four years. Disparity indexes for African-American drivers in the past five years were 1.34 in 2004, 1.42 in 2005, 1.49 in 2006, 1.58 in 2007 and 1.59 in 2008. In comparison, the disparity index for both whites and Hispanics was .95 in 2008. General statewide trends do not necessarily reflect trends for individual departments, which should be considered on an individual basis.
The disparity index for African-Americans was 1.27 in 2000, the first year in which the report was issued. Subsequently, the index remained in a range of 1.33 to 1.36 for three years, before beginning a generally upward trend.
Statewide data indicates that African-American drivers were 67 percent more likely than Hispanic drivers to be stopped in 2008, despite being 15 percent less likely to be arrested following the stop.
"The increasing rates at which African-American drivers are stopped are of concern to all Missourians," Koster said. "While no single factor can provide the entire explanation for these numbers, one goal remains fixed -- application of the law must be colorblind..."
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster (D) was introduced by Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders at the dinner held at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center last night:
Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders: ...We always knew that Chris Koster was an extremely effective politician. And we really knew that was the case when he switched parties and joined the Democratic Party. [applause] We knew how smart and brilliant this man was. [applause] We knew he was a great politician in winning, obviously the race that he ran and the races that he'd run before, but what we're also now discovering about Chris, things that we knew and many of the people in this room know, is that he is a great administrator, a great person, a great leader.
One example. Two thousand nine looks like it's going to be a record year in the State of Missouri for recovery of money on Medicaid and Medicare fraud. [applause] [cheers] Fifty million dollars [applause] that through Chris' leadership is going to be returned.
Mike Sanders and Chris Koster
Now these are all the things that we can talk about, we can read about in the paper, Chris is in the paper. We can see the great things that he is doing in the Attorney General's office, but I wanted to just end with a little brief thing. And that is, in 1996 I left the Jackson County Prosecutor's office, I was a criminal defense attorney, and one of the first, the first case I got hired on was a gentleman who was ultimately wrongly convicted out of Cass County, Missouri. Let me tell you this. The man that I called was this man right here. The thing that amazed me about Chris Koster was when I called him, as a defense attorney/prosecutor you expect an adversarial relationship, what stunned me, what amazed me about Chris Koster was he was as agressive towards finding the truth about that case as anyone that that gentleman could have hired. But for him, but for him a wrongly convicted man could still be in prison today in the State of Missouri. That's a personal story. [applause]
Chris Koster is a man who doesn't just talk the talk. He walks the walk. He's a man of high integrity, high character, a great leader, and your Attorney General, the top law enforcement officer for this State of Missouri, Chris Koster. [applause] [cheers]
Attorney General Chris Koster: Thank you very much.
Thank you to the Jackson County Democratic Party, for all your support. Congratulations Steve [Bough] on hosting another great Truman Days event. And to all of you in this room for the chance, the chance that you have given me to serve. It's good to be back in Kansas City and among friends.
Missouri Democrats had a banner year in two thousand and eight. And we're going to have another banner year in two thousand and ten when we take back this Missouri House of Representatives [applause], when we re-elect Susan Montee [applause], and when we send my friend Robin Carnahan to Washington. [applause]
If you told me ten years ago that I would be here tonight [laughter] speaking at the Truman Days dinner [laughter] I might be a little surprised. [laughter] The path that I took and the path that led me here tonight reaffirms my belief in the openness of a great political party and in the power of change. In November we saw what the power of change could do for this entire nation.
We saw young standing up with the old. We saw the rich standing with the poor. And we saw Americans of every different race and creed standing behind a common desire for change. Right here in Missouri millions stood behind the call for change that was voiced by Jay Nixon and Democrats from St. Joseph to Cape Girardeau. And these Missouri Democrats will not let this state down.
We are seeing the kind of leadership in the first few months of the Obama-Biden administration that is finally reconnecting our government and our people, and our nation to the entire world. In Jefferson City Governor Nixon is offering a true breath of fresh air, honest leadership, and open government. [Dutch Newman: "Yes!] [applause] He's a man of progress. [applause] He's a man of progress and not partisanship. He's as plain spoken as Harry Truman and leads with the same common sense Democrat values. It was an honor to stand on the steps of the state capitol with him last January to be sworn in as Attorney General. Jay Nixon left big shoes to fill. Every day when I walk in that office I sit behind his desk, sixteen years, and I recognize the responsibility that he has left to me. But it is my goal to make him proud.
I happen to think that I have the best job in state government. My job isn't to be a show horse. We've got a lot of talented people in this party to showcase, and in our government. I recognize that I am the low man on the Democratic totem pole. And I tell you tonight that there is no place that I would rather be.
Law enforcement has been my life's work. And I'm proud to serve the people of this state and of this party every day...
The office of Attorney General-elect Chris Koster issued the following press release today:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, December 29, 2008
CONTACT: Rebecca Kirszner...
JUDGE JOSEPH DANDURAND JOINS KOSTER TEAM AS DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL
Cass County, MO - Attorney General-elect Chris Koster announced today that Judge Joe Dandurand will be joining the Attorney General's Office as Deputy Attorney General.
"I have known Joe Dandurand for over a decade, and in that time, I have developed an enormous respect for his intellect and abilities as a jurist," said Koster. "Joe's two decades on the bench make him uniquely qualified to lead and mentor the attorneys in our office."
Dandurand has served 21 years as a trial judge, and now sits on Missouri's Western District Court of Appeals. He is a four-time elected Democratic Judge presiding over Cass and Johnson Counties. Dandurand also spent ten years on the State Judicial Education Committee and now serves as its co-Chair.
"I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have served the residents of Missouri's 17th Judicial Circuit, and more recently the Western District of Missouri, in my capacity as a jurist for the past 22 years," said Dandurand. "The position of Deputy Attorney General of the State of Missouri presents new and exciting challenges. I am now privileged to continue my career in public service by working with the chief law enforcement officer in our great state."
"As a trial judge in Cass County, I have had a front row seat to Chris Koster's work as a Prosecutor. Naturally, in our roles as judge and prosecutor, we have not always agreed on all issues. Through the years, however, we have developed a strong mutual professional and personal respect. It has been a joy to watch Chris develop into a top prosecutor in the state and I look forward to continuing to work with him to promote the administration of justice in Missouri," said Dandurand.
In the past few weeks, Koster has announced a slate of appointments in his office that will make the Attorney General's office one of the most qualified in recent memory. Alongside Deputy Attorney General Dandurand, Judge Ron Holliger, another former judge in the Western District Court of Appeals, will serve as Koster's General Counsel. St. Louis Attorney Robert Kenney, a partner in the firm Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus, will be Koster's Chief of Staff.
###
Joe Dandurand was appointed to the Western District Court of Appeals a little over a year ago. Yeah, he got an enthusiastic "attaboy" from Matt "baby" Blunt:
I drove through inclement weather and icy roads to Jefferson City early today for a late morning interview with Attorney General-elect Chris Koster in his transition office. We spent about twenty minutes in conversation.
Attorney General-elect Chris Koster in his Jefferson City transition office.
[transcription by CC]
...Show Me Progress: You're knee deep in the transition now and this is the first transition in, for Attorney General's office in sixteen years. So, in a sense, this is sort of new ground, isn't it?
Chris Koster: It makes - this transition is more complicated because the, Attorney General Nixon has the opportunity to fill a new government and the people he knows best are the people in the Attorney General's office. So he is filling the government with many of, many folks from the Attorney General's office and that makes this particular transition larger than usual.
SMP: So you're, you're having to fill a lot of staff positions?
Chris Koster: Right, there is, there is a certain attrition that is natural to the office and so there are probably fifteen to twenty positions that are open naturally and don't have anything to do with the, the transition that Governor-elect Nixon is experiencing. And then, on top of that natural attrition there's probably another fifteen, to twenty openings that are directly related to Jay's change in jobs. So, all told, I would say that there's a restructuring and approximately forty open jobs that we're looking at right now...
As far as the races in Missouri, Terrence Jones echoed this blog's disappointment with the Dem showing in state legislative contests (only three seats gained in the House and three seats lost in the Senate). Then he commented on the statewide candidates who won (including his answer to the question in the title of this posting):
Asked why Sam Page lost, Jones had this analysis:
My next posting on Jones' speech to the West County Dems will feature two brief clips: one on redistricting, the other on what we can do to improve our performance in state legislative races in 2010.
Several dozen rural Missourians have been working their fannies off for at least a couple of years to rein in the abuses of CAFOs in our state. And now they're faced with a choice, in the AG race, between what they see as Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle Dum. Mike Gibbons consistently voted to curtail the rights of counties to pass health ordinances regarding CAFOs (in '03, '04, and '05) and Chris Koster sponsored SB364 in the spring of '07, which would have eliminated that last small vestige of local control over CAFOs.
(The backstory on 364 is that these fanny-busting activists stopped that bill cold. They got their network of citizens to put so much pressure on rural senators that the bill was not brought up for a vote because it would obviously have failed.)
Having lost their bid to get Jeff Harris or Margaret Donnelly the AG nomination, the activists are retrenching. They asked each man to explain what position he'd take as AG on the authority of County Commissions to regulate CAFOs.
One of the men responded. The other is stonewalling them. And I've been reading the group's online discussion of how to vote in that race.
Chris Koster agreed to meet with a small group and explain his position. Here's Julie Fisher's summary of what he said:
Watching TV the other night, I saw my first ad for a downballot race, for Michael Gibbons for Attorney General. It was a pretty unremarkable ad (never good news for an advertiser) but one thing stood out precisely because of its absence - Gibbons didn't mention his party identification. I went to Mike's website this morning to see if I could watch the ad again and find that I was mistaken, and sure enough, there is no mention of the Republican Party. Neither is there much mention of the Republican Party on his website. In fact, I had to resort to a Google search to find any, and they were all in the "Newsroom" section.
Why not? Chris Koster announces at the very top of the website that he's a Democrat - why won't Gibbons? The Republican Party holds the legislature and the Governor's Mansion, and their own candidates won't even say what party they belong to?
Robin Carnahan, the Missouri Secretary of State, has certified the results of the Democratic Attorney General primary recount. State Senator Chris Koster is the Democratic nominee:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Jefferson City, Missouri - Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan today announced the certified results from the recounts of the Attorney General Democratic primary election and two State Senate Democratic primaries.
The final results of the Democratic Attorney General primary recount confirmed the victory of State Senator Chris Koster over Representative Margaret Donnelly. The difference between the two candidates after the recount is 829 votes, and the difference before the recount was 780 votes.
Final results of the recount are as follows: Sen. Chris Koster, 118,934 votes; Rep. Margaret Donnelly, 118,105 votes; Rep. Jeff Harris 86,550 votes; and Molly Williams, 23,140 votes....
....The Democratic Attorney General primary recount is the second statewide recount conducted since Secretary Carnahan took office in 2005. In 2006, a recount of the Republican State Auditor primary confirmed the victory of Sandra Thomas over Jack Jackson.
-- 30 --
[emphasis added]
Chris Koster's campaign issued the following press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2008
KOSTER CALLS FOR UNITY; LOOKS FORWARD TO FALL CAMPAIGN
Senator Chris Koster, the Democratic nominee for Attorney General, today issued the following statement regarding the certification of recount results in the Attorney General primary election:
"Throughout a hard-fought primary campaign, Representatives Donnelly and Harris championed issues critical to Missouri's future, ranging from important consumer protections to the prosecution of cyber crimes. I look forward to working with both of them and their supporters to carry those issues and others through the November election and into the Attorney General's Office. It is now time to move forward as one strong, united Democratic ticket led by Missouri's next governor, Jay Nixon, to deliver the change our state's working families so desperately need."
###
Update: Margaret Donnelly's campaign sent out the following e-mail:
Yep, there's not going to be a shortage of Democratic events and candidate visits to Warrensburg and Johnson County this election cycle. It's just one of those places that always seems to be in the center of the action during an election cycle.
The Johnson County Democratic Central Committee and the Johnson County Democratic Club hosted a "grand opening" open house at their campaign headquarters in downtown Warrensburg today. You mix statewide candidates, local candidates, and free food (pot luck!) and you're going to get a crowd of Democrats. Approximately 100 people attended the day's event inside and outside the headquarters building.
The new local field organizer for the Obama campaign in Johnson County introduces himself to attendees.
Jim Jackson, the Democratic candidate in the 121st Legislative District, with a young Democrat.
It is clear that Peter Kinder thinks that there's lots of political hay to be made by getting in on the lawsuits against the Affordable Care Act - a belief that he 
What? Just because Chris Koster introduced a bill in the state senate in 2007 to 
Attorney General Chris Koster (D?) has definitely decided to pursue an appeal that would 
Do two of the biggest Democratic cheeses in the state think of the Sierra Club's Ken Midkiff as a cranky old man? Could be.
