Good Governance for the St. Louis Police

"In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." -- Thomas Jefferson

Last November the people of St. Louis voted to return control of the St. Louis Police Department to the city of St. Louis. Jamilah Nasheed and Speaker of the House Steve Tilley introduced HB 71 which would return local control by striking the existing state statute that establishes the Board of Police Commissioners in the city of St. Louis, but leaves intact the Board of Police Commissioners in Kansas City. The five member board which includes the mayor would be replaced by the structure defined in the St. Louis City Charter. Instead of the Police Chief answering to the board of commissioners, the chief would answer to the Police Commissioner who answers to the Director of Public Safety who reports to the Mayor.

This governing structure is inadequate for the city of St. Louis. First, the addition of two layers of beauracracy between the Mayor and Police Chief guarantees that the Mayor will never be held accountable for problems with the police department. Since those bureaucrats serve at the Mayor's discretion, they are easily scapegoated and dismissed in the event of bad press. Second, eliminating the board would politicize the police department. The state controled police board helps to ward off the political influence exerted by the city's aldermen.

Now I want to contrast this with the core argument put forth by the other side:

If one thinks the people of St Louis City can be trusted with their own PD then they should be sufficient oversight. If one believes that the people of St Louis City can't be trusted with oversight of their own PD, then what oversight would work?

I've seen that repeatedly from United for Missouri. They're implying that you must not trust the voters of St. Louis if you do not support HB 71. The irony is that supporters of the bill, like United for Missouri, have repeatedly shown that they do not trust St. Louis voters. First, they did this by circumscribing with statute the police pension fund. Apparently, United for Missouri does not trust the voters of St. Louis and their elected Alderman, like Quincy Troupe, with the pension fund. This past Thursday, an amendment was added to the bill making it a felony for police officers to make arrests at gun shows if the officer is in plain clothes. The purpose is to prevent the sort of stings that anti-gun zealots like Mayor Bloomberg in NYC have tried, but again this amendment demonstrates that supporters of HB 71 do not trust the voters of St. Louis and their duly elected Mayor.

In the previous paragraph I am poking fun at United for Missouri because I know that they do trust the voters of St. Louis; however, they temper that trust with legislation designed to foster good governance. This is an implicit indication on their part that the state does have an obligation to define good public institutions. This principal is also implied in Article 4 Section 4 of the US Constitution which guarantees a republican form of government to the states.

My chief complaint about HB 71 is that it fails to do that. It fails to define a reasonable path to local control and merely removes the board of police commissioners causing control to revert to the city charter (see my recommendation at the end of this post). The resulting mess will take years to sort out (for instance, do the St. Louis Airport Police get folded into the St. Louis city police force). It also creates lengthy bureaucratic hierarchies that prevent elected officials from being held accountable.

Related articles

• St. Louis City's PD in the Balance (24thstate.com)
• City Control and Residency (24thstate.com)
• Missouri House OKs local control for St. Louis police (stltoday.com)

Steve Tilley's Dereliction of Duty

Jamilah Nasheed and Steve Tilley's local control bill, HB 71, was "perfected" Thursday and is scheduled to be voted on next Tuesday. The bill would strike the existing state statute that establishes the five member police board in St. Louis. As a result, control of the police department would revert to the structure specified in the St. Louis city charter.

A little history sheds a lot of light on the issue of Local Control of the St. Louis Police Department and why the pending legislation in Jefferson City is a dereliction of duty on the part of the GOP leadership, and Speaker Tilley in particular.

In 1861, the Confederacy sympathizing Governor of Missouri, Claiborne Jackson, seized control of the police in both St. Louis and Kansas City out of fear that they would be used by the Union. St. Louis and Kansas City both sympathized with the Union. Jackson's power grab was a clear abuse of power and violation of the principals of local governmental control. It needs to be undone, but not in the negligent fashion currently being proposed.

Most municipalities in the Show Me state are part of a county. County government provides a check to balance the police powers of their subordinate municipalities. The problem is an ancient one: who watches the watchmen, who polices the police. A few weeks ago I posted video of Gary Fuhr talking about the role of counties in balancing municipal police powers. In 1876, the people of the city of St. Louis voted to leave the county of St. Louis. St. Louis city is not part of a county; therefore, there is no offsetting check to balance the city's police powers. Tilley's support for Local Control and his parliamentary maneuvers to pass it show a disregard for good governance.

If HB 71 passes and Local Control is returned to the city of St. Louis, control of the police will revert to the structure specified in the St. Louis city charter. Ah, the city charter, ancient hallowed document that's almost a hundred years old. The charter was adopted in 1914. The police were under state control in 1914. Nonetheless, the charter provides that the Police Department be directed by a Police Commissioner who serves at the discretion of the Director of Public Safety an existing position effectively putting two additional layers of appointed, patronage bureaucrats between the elected Mayor and the police chief.

A setup like this was tried once before in KC. It empowered the Pendergast machine and was eventually undone when Missouri's Attorney General stepped in to clean out the corruption. This structure is also similar to the setup in the Windy City. Of course, Chicago has a bit of a reputation for corruption. The patronage system there probably helped misplace the recordings of Rahm Emmanuel.

What is lost if HB 71 passes are the four St. Louis civilians on the police board. Local Control will shield the Mayor from accountability with bureaucracy and remove citizen oversight of the police while adding a plum patronage position for the Mayor to appoint. In short, Jefferson City is trying to cut St. Louis city loose to sink or swim on its own; however, one party machine politics in the city combined with a poor governing structure will ensure that the city stews in its own political juices.

Each successively higher level of government, each larger governmental jurisdiction, has a moral obligation of good governance to its smaller jurisdictional subdivisions. The problem with the pending Local Control legislation is that it abdicates this responsibility. That is why Steve Tilley's support of Local Control is a dereliction of duty. As speaker of the Missouri House, he has a duty to "do no harm", a duty to ensure that the governing structure of the police department has minimal political influence, appropriate civilian oversight, and Mayoral accountability while the police themselves are unhindered by politics in their public safety role.

A Path to Local Control

The St. Louis Tea Party has not come to a consensus on local control for the city; however, I do have an idea of how to get there from here. I'm opposed to the pending legislation because, like Governor Claiborne Jackson's seizure of the police department and the city-county split, I think it's ill conceived and poorly thought out legislation that will have significant negative consequences. My first priority in a return of local control is to define a workable system in advance of removing state control. Here's what I would like to see.

St. Louis county's police force is currently overseen by a police board. I would like to see that board granted jurisdiction over St. Louis city's police department. This provides the check on the city's police power that offsets the check currently provided by the state. Obviously, the St. Louis county board would need to be modified to include city representation. Ideally that would include both St. Louis civilian and Mayoral roles on the county board. Because at least three jurisdictions are involved (St. Louis city, county, and the state of Missouri), this will be a politically hard road to take; however, there is interest in the area for a city-county merger. I see this as a down payment on that merger.

In fact, I believe that a city-county merger will be more successful if it is orchestrated in a piecemeal fashion like this. An incremental approach enables the county and the city to consider the pluses and minuses of each step of the integration.

Chip Wood for St. Louis County Assessor

"Chip" L. K. Wood (R) met with myself and a few other members of the St. Louis Tea Party Thursday evening. Chip has stepped up to run for the office. He has a lifetime of experience as a realtor in the St. Louis area. Mark Reardon interviewed Chip and his opponent Jake Zimmerman (D) Thursday afternoon.

I plan to post video over the weekend.

Why has Missouri House Leadership aligned with the New Black Panthers?

Over the past month, St. Louis Tea Party bloggers have made their case against local control of the city's police department. Bill Hennessy set forth that the US Constitution grants no standing to political divisions smaller than a state. Numerous arguments have been made at 24thState.com ranging from the principled, (Who Polices the Police?) to the pragmatic (St. Louis Police Pension: A Pot of Gold) and everything in between (State Control of the City of St. Louis?).

A vote on the local control bill (HB 71) could come as early as today, 2/17/2011.

The Speaker of the Missouri House, Steve Tilley, has been a leading advocate for local control of the St. Louis Police Department. In his zeal to pass local control, he's gone so far as to appoint an ally of the New Black Panther Party to a House leadership position. As committees were formed, Tilley assigned Jamilah Nasheed (pictured below) to chair Urban Issues. That's the same committee to which he later assigned the Local Control bill. This raises serious questions about Tilley's judgement.

Make no mistake, this is not about Rep. Nasheed who's personal story ranges from tragic to redemptive. If the people of Missouri's 60th house district want her to represent them, so be it. However, that does not mean that a Missouri House dominated by Republicans should place her in a leadership position. Speaker Tilley has demonstrated a lack of judgement and opportunistic leadership in his rush to get the Local Control bill passed.

From left: Jamalah Rogers, Talibdin El Amin, Jamilah Nasheed, and an unidentified member of the New Black Panthers

The St. Louis Police Pension Fund: A Model for the Nation

There's a battle brewing in Jefferson City over "local control" of the St. Louis Police Department. It's a local issue that is always played out at the state level because of the history of St. Louis. In 1861, the state government seized control of the police forces in both St. Louis and Kansas City out of fear that those police would be used by the union against confederate interests.

The fear today comes from St. Louis policemen that worry that their pension will be looted by city hall. Those fears are justified given that city government has tried desperately to cut corners on the firefighters pension and, as the video above illustrates, at least one Alderman has designs on the police pension fund. The city is trying to strong-arm local control through in Jefferson City.

While that battle is being fought, the news story that isn't getting any play is the strength of the St. Louis Police Pension Fund. Day after day we hear about the problems of public employee pensions, but here's an example of a fund that has been run well. The fact that city government is walled off from the pension by the state is a strong argument for leaving the current oversight structure in place.

Soup Line at Claire McCaskill's Office

JD sent in some pictures he took at today's Soup Line protest in front of Claire McCaskill's office in St. Louis. In the picture above, Bill Hennessy is carrying the colors for the group. The Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft, was the point person on this protest. Over at his blog, you can see a picture of him ladling soup for the protesters. The message of today's protest was that Senator Claire McCaskill's efforts to discourage the DNC from choosing St. Louis to host their 2012 convention has cost the city both jobs and tax revenue. Patch Adams and Michelle Moore provided video coverage of today's festivities. Patch's video coverage is on his blog P/Oed Patriot. As always, Michelle covered the event live on both Twitter and UStream.

Related articles

• McCaskill's convention lobbying (politico.com)
• Claire McCaskill: I wanted the Democratic convention in St. Louis (stltoday.com)

Gary Fuhr on Local Control

This past Saturday I caught up with State Rep. Gary Fuhr (R). Fuhr is a former St. Louis city police officer, so I was interested in his perspective on the local control legislation pending in Jefferson City. If you are unfamiliar with this issue, I recommend that you watch the first video below and then the second one. The first video reviews the history, politics, and current events that play into the issue of local control. The second video presents Gary's arguments against local control.

Bill Hennessy to Address The Discussion Club

I was just emailed this press release from the St. Louis Tea Party:

January 4, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bill Hennessy to Address The Discussion Club

St. Louis, MO- St Louis Tea Party Coalition Co-Founder Bill Hennessy has been given the distinction as the next speaker for The Discussion Club. On January 13, 2011, Bill will begin the discussion on the future of the Tea Party at 7pm at the Hilton Frontenac.

Mr Hennessy follows a long line of highly respected rhetorical giants in his appearance at this monthly gathering. The Discussion Club is a non-profit, non-political organization which welcomes members of all walks of life. It’s purpose is to promote discussion to bring about greater understanding on all issues presented. This organization has been running in St. Louis, Missouri for over 50 years.

The evening begins at 6:30pm with an informal mixer, followed by dinner from 7-8pm. At 8 pm, Mr Hennessy will address the attendees on the future both the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition, and the future of the Tea Party Movement. After Hennessy’s initial address, the floor will be open for discussion.

The Hilton Frontenac is located at Highway 40 and Lindbergh Blvd. The cost for the event is $37 per person, which includes dinner.

Interested parties must RSVP for the event no later than January 11, 2010 by calling 314-416-7722. For further information on this event, or to learn more about the St Louis Tea Party Coalition, visit www.stlouisteaparty.com.

###

Holding Roy Blunt to his Promise of Fiscal Responsibility

The St. Louis Tea Party issued the following press release this morning:

Senator-Elect Roy Blunt Faces First Test of His Term

(November 16, 2010) Just two weeks after defeating Robin Carnahan in the Missouri Senatorial race by a whopping 13 point blowout, Senator -Elect Roy Blunt is now posed with but one question: Will he hold true to his word?

On October 4, 2010, then-Candidate Blunt signed onto the Tea Party Treaty, thereby conveying the message that he understands the concerns of his constituents, as well as his duty to them. That being said, it is now time to put his ink-mark where his mouth is. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina has pushed forth a challenge to the GOP for a 2 year moratorium on Earmarks. The ban, which looks to be voted on next Tuesday, is co-sponsored by 15 other Senators and Senator Elects. Blunt is not on that list.

With a fired-up base, burdened by a flailing economy amidst pork-barrel spending, Blunt will have to choose between the will of the people versus business as usual. Stakes are particularly high in this vote, as accountability has now entered into the formula. . .accountability Blunt chose to enter into.

St Louis Tea Party Coalition, along with Jefferson County Tea Party, Franklin County Tea Party and K & N Patriots (St Charles, MO), call Senator-Elect Blunt to task. These four groups are among the most active Tea Party Organizations in the St Louis area, with collectively, thousands of active members, and are signed to the same Treaty Blunt signed onto weeks ago.

Multipe calls made to the Senator-Elect’s office were not returned for comment. Interestingly, his Twitter account, which was highly active during his campaign, has seemingly gone inactive since his election. Despite the hundreds of queries and comments of outrage directed at @RoyBlunt, the message this blatant silence speaks to the constituents: “I lied. I got your vote. I will do what I want. Burn on you.”

Jen Ennenbach

Media Liaison

St. Louis Tea Party Coalition

jen.ennenbach@stlouisteaparty.com

Previous Coverage:

• Video of Roy Blunt signing the St Louis Tea Party Treaty
• The Courage of Roy Blunt by Bill Hennessy
• The Tea Party Treaty at 24thState
• Trust but Verify

Ed Martin Concedes

This morning, Ed Martin (R) called Russ Carnahan (D-MO) to congratulate him on winning last Tuesday's election. Martin has alleged voter fraud in the election; however, today he has acknowledged that to the extent that voter fraud occurred in Missouri's Third Congressional District, it does not account for the 4400 vote margin in the race. With almost 49% of the vote, Russ Carnahan will continue to represent the district.

Martin also updated his website with a post entitled election day review - final report which reads in part:

In the early hours of Wednesday, November 3rd we learned that a slim lead our campaign enjoyed disappeared in a surge of votes. At the time we understood that these votes were coming from as few as three precincts from the city of St. Louis. On its face this sudden end-of-night surge was suspicious. We understood that St. Louis had finished reporting. Mathematically, several thousand votes from a small number of precincts was implausible.

Given the history of St. Louis and the state of Missouri where our Secretary of State has refused to take responsibility for compelling local boards of election to purge voter rolls of ineligible registrants, voter fraud looms large in the mind of voters. A sudden wave of votes is easy to associate with an unscrupulous few who might have a few thousand votes on standby in case an election was close and their candidate needed help.

...

Since Wednesday afternoon we have learned that the votes were not from three to seven precincts in the City, but rather included unreported votes from the northwest precincts of St. Louis County encompassed by Missouri’s Third Congressional district. In light of this new information, the implausibility factor evaporates along with my concerns about voter fraud in that late surge. And, although I have concerns about other incidents and improper conduct on election day, I no longer believe these concerns are sufficient to continue our review of what has occurred or delay agreeing that this election is over.

...

Finally, after asking for input, we have heard from hundreds of citizens about problems with voting or voter registration. These problems are real and far too common – or so it seems. The heart of our republic is a voting system that works fairly, with regularity, and which inspires confidence. I fear that the legion of problems threatens the integrity of our voting system.

Our campaign was about empowering people to get involved in politics to change the course of our nation by stopping one-party rule in Washington. This has been accomplished by other victories even as we came up short. Our campaign also sought to instill confidence in the citizens that their voices and votesmatter. Mishaps and misconduct like we saw last Tuesday threaten this confidence. In the coming weeks and days, I will continue to seek to highlight the importance of protecting our voting system and will ask you to assist me in this effort.

Thank you to all and thanks be to God for the blessing that is the United States of America

Ed, thanks for running and best of luck in your future endeavors!

Highlights from St Louis Veterans Observance

Highlights from Saturday's Veterans Observance at Soldier's Memorial in downtown St. Louis. The video includes the presenting of the colors, national anthem, and excerpts from Mayor Francis Slay's remarks.

Ed Martin Update

While Russ Carnahan (D-MO) has claimed victory in Missouri's Third Congressional District, Ed Martin (R) has yet to concede. The News Tribune reported Thursday: "Republican Ed Martin is demanding an investigation of possible voter fraud after narrowly losing the election for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District to Democratic incumbent Rep. Russ Carnahan."

At the close of Tuesday evening's election tally, Russ Carnahan was leading his three conservative opponents with almost 49% of the vote (99,016). Ed split the 51% of the voters that sought to return sanity to DC with the Constitution Party's Nick Ivanovich and Libertarian Steven Hedrick. Ed was a close second to Russ having garnered the support of nearly 47% of voters. Still, he trailed Russ by almost 4,500 votes.

That's a lot of votes to make up and Ed acknowledged that Friday morning on Jamie Allman's radio show on 97.1. You can listen to Ed's remarks from the third hour of Jamie's show. Ed comes on at about 3:45 and speaks for about five minutes:



(If the MP3 player above doesn't work, try this direct link.)

Ed's in a difficult position. Obviously, he doesn't want to be the next Al Gore, but as someone who worked to end voter fraud in St. Louis city, Ed feels an obligation to ensure a clean election. He's made three claims about Tuesday's election, but before we get into those claims, it is important to note that Russ Carnahan's sister, Robin Carnahan, is Missouri's Secretary of State. As such, she's ultimately responsible for election oversight and obviously has a conflict of interest in this instance.

Ed's first claim is that the seven-hour outage of the Secretary of State's voter verification system may have allowed ineligible voters to cast ballots. This allegation is supported by statements Jen Ennenbach of the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition made to the Daily Caller:

“We are also calling for an investigation into the Secretary of State’s office because we had an election judge come into the St. Louis Tea Party headquarters just to vent his frustration and let us know what was going on,” Ennenbach told TheDC.

Ennenbach said the election judge, who she wouldn’t name, came to her after having witnessed busloads of mentally handicapped service workers, who are ineligible to vote per their medical condition, cast ballots during the timeframe when the verification system was down.

“The judges could not strike the vote because the verification system was down,” she said.

And there's no dispute about the verification system being down. Missouri.WatchDog.org reported:

A piece of computer hardware failed on Election Day, preventing poll workers across Missouri from being able to access the central electronic database designed to verify voter registration information for part of the day.

One of the load balancers — a piece of computer hardware that manages Internet traffic by determining how requests are sent to servers — is to blame for the problems with the system, said Laura Egerdal, spokesperson for the Missouri Secretary of State.

That's an odd thing to have happen.

Ed's second claim is that it was inappropriate for recently appointed St. Louis City Board of Elections Democratic Chairwoman, Eileen McCann, to hire a security company with close ties to Congressman Carnahan. The only way that I see this as a problem is if they security company was hired to transport ballots. In the audio from Jamie Allman's show above, Ed mentions some politics within the Board of Elections that may be relevant.

Ed's third claim is that a late at night dump from seven city precincts delivered an astounding number of votes for Russ Carnahan; however, Ed has since backed off of this claim. Daily Caller article mentioned earlier also has this:

On Wednesday, Martin’s team originally said a last-minute surge of Democratic votes from seven precincts looked suspicious, especially after he was leading most of the night. Now, though, after further investigation, his team discovered that the Democratic surge was from more than just the seven precincts – and he said that surge looks reasonable.

With that acknowledgement, it's hard for me to see how Ed can claim victory. Nonetheless, voters who have been disenfranchised or whose votes have been diminished by fraudulently cast ballots need someone to stand up for them. That person has to be Ed because the voters lack standing in court.

In addition to those three, other claims have emerged including Ennenbach's claim above that a St. Louis election judge witnessed fraud. On Wednesday, 24thState.com revealed some details about ineligible voters casting ballots in Missouri:

That said, we did identify 31 cases of registered voters who were possibly ineligible. And we know 8 that voted, at least one of which was not eligible to vote and should be taken from the rolls. That was based on just two locations. Because we had no villain, we held off reporting the information until after the election, as our plan was to work with cooperative election authorities rather than making a scandal out of what was really a systemic problem.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this is the indifference shown by Missouri's Secretary of State. As 24thState reported this past Thursday:

Robin Carnahan has stated in federal court that it is not her responsibility to clean the voter rolls, despite the violence done to honest elections during the time Missouri ACORN was active. Well, if Robin won't do it, then the people will do what government can't or won't do.

Conservatives obviously see this as a dereliction of duty on Robin Carnahan's part. I guess Robin could make the argument that she's saving tax payers money by outsourcing her job. It turns out that a MissouriWatchdog.org report has linked the deceased in Kansas and Missouri to active voter lists; however, Robin still hasn't scrubbed the voter roles.

That's not surprising when you consider Mindy Mazur, Robin Carnahan's campaign manager and former chief of staff. Between those two stints working for Robin Carnahan, Mazur worked for the progressive America Votes where she advocated for, among other things: election day registration, allowing 16 or 17 year olds to pre-register, removing proof of citizenship requirements, removing registration barriers for felons, etc. According to Wikipedia, America Votes has offices in twelve states and the District of Columbia, including Missouri. If you're conspiratorial, you wont be surprised to learn that Robin Carnahan was backed by George Soros's Secretary of State Project in her 2008 campaign. Maybe George was looking for some early dividends on this investment in the form of a Russ Carnahan win.

Perhaps Ed Martin's complaints about voter fraud will amount to nothing. That would be the best outcome. Due to our legal structure he's the only person with standing to bring these complaints and hopefully force greater scrutiny. To those that would nay-say his challenge, I would respectfully point out that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Protesting Voter Fraud in St. Louis

Members of the St. Louis Tea Party (and two Russ Carnahan campaign staffers) assembled outside the St. Louis Board of Elections to protest voter fraud in the 2010 midterm election between Ed Martin and Russ Carnahan. The video above is from that protest.

Later in the day, Ed Martin's campaign held a press conference. I was unable to attend Ed's press conference; however, he issued the following statement:

Too Many Questions

Call for Investigation into 3 Main Questions

(ST. LOUIS, MO.) Nov. 3, 2010 –There are a number of questions surrounding the votes in Missouri’s 3rd district race. The people deserve to have these questions investigated and answered so they are assured our election process is fair and their votes are counted.

The three glaring factors which stand out involve the Secretary of State’s office, the sole decision of a newly appointed Democratic chair at the City Elections Board, and an unprecedented number of votes coming in late from the city.

The Secretary of State first of all is Congressman Carnahan’s sister, Robin Carnahan. She reported having irregularities and computer glitches early in the day. We have heard from countless voters who want those problems scrutinized. Many point out that the Department of Justice pursued, for three years, a case against Missouri for failing to clean up the process. “When filed in 2005, one-third of Missouri counties had more registered voters than voting-age residents. What's more, Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan,… contended that her office had no obligation to ensure individual counties were complying with the federal law mandating a cleanup of their voter rolls.” (Wall Street Journal, John Fund, July 8, 2010)

People also question the motive behind a newly appointed St. Louis City Board of Elections Democratic Chairwoman, Eileen McCann, hiring a security company with close ties to Congressman Carnahan. Special Services was called on by Congressman Carnahan to do security for him as recently as August 26th. Carnahan paid the company $1400 at that time which can be seen in a quick review of his FEC filing.

Then just before midnight seven precincts within the city and county delivered an astounshing late night dump of votes. In such a hotly contested race and with so many voters concerned it only makes sense to make sure in fact every vote counts. Since Missouri’s Secretary of State is in fact Congressman Carnahan’s sister it is suggested she recuse herself from the investigation and appoint an independent investigator to look into these three main points of question.

“The people of this district want to make sure their voices were in fact heard and I pledged to them that I would fight to ensure it happens. We need to make sure the election process was in fact fair and that the numbers are correct. I saw several issues in my time at the St. Louis City Board of Elections and serious issues like this should and need to be addressed,” said Ed Martin.

We have been hearing about voting irregularities from a large number of constituents and are looking into all of these matters. We ask anyone who may have witnessed any sort of questionable acts regarding votes, ballots and the general election that they contact our office.

Stewart's Sanity Rally at the Arch

Well, those are the obligatory crowd shots so no one can argue about the attendance. I think more people attended the Tea Party's 9-12 Rally this year. Gateway Pundit has a crowd shot from DC.

As you can see from the picture below, the attendee at the Stewart Sanity Rally was there to express his concern about an important issue of our time.

Carnahan Plumbs the Depths of Clark's Law

You've probably heard the adage: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." That's known as Hanlon's Razor. There is a similar though profoundly different adage known as Clark's Law (named in honor of Arthur C. Clark): "Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice."

I believe that what we're witnessing with the Russ Carnahan's (D-MO) campaign and the smears from www TheRealEdMartin com is an example of that sufficiently advanced incompetence that is indistinguishable from malice. That's one reason I have not blogged about MissouriRecord's post about Russ Carnahan being in the same sort of legal jeopardy that sent Russ's 2008 primary opponent, Jeff Smith, to prison. I've taken the view that Russ deserves our presumption of innocence not only because that presumption is at the core of our shared American values, but also because his ham-handedness is without equal.

Over the past couple of days, 24thState.com detailed the connections between the smear and Russ Carnahan's campaign. The connections are sometimes indirect—laundered, so to speak, through third parties. Some highlights from 24thState include the sock puppetry of Victor Arango and Jeannine Dillon:

An Emmy award-winning journalist and an Edward R Murrow award winning journalist were reduced to leaving fake comments, anonymous diaries, and lame Facebook comments to spread a story. They couldn't use their contacts in media to push the smear, so they attempted to fake it online.

Then there's the timing of certain payments that may have gone to Michael Corwin (proprietor of TheRealEdMartin):

Note that $2000 is what Corwin says he was paid. If Stanford did indeed hire Corwin, and he was paid from the invoice, it seems the 120 day trigger for campaign finance violations was absolutely hit, and it calls into question the verbal statement from Corwin and the Carnahans that "June" or "last spring" was when they parted ways. The Carnahan campaign has to answer this. Did the research they paid for on August 5 concern information that led to the creation of TheRealEdMartin?

And the dubious connections to the Carnahan family blog FiredUpMissouri:

In short, you cannot post a diary at FiredUpMissouri without the express permission of an admin. A new user would have to be approved by Sean Nicholson or another admin to post. The site is tightly controlled.

The cosmopolatino account doesn't show up in the normal sequence. In fact, it doesn't show up at all. And there have been no postings or comments before or after that I could find. It was a single diary from an anonymous individual that spent days sitting in the latest diaries section of FiredUp. That's the perfect place for deniability.

Here's all of 24thState's coverage:

• The Real Ed Martin Campaign Smear: Tracking The Whispers
• Tracking The Money Behind The Russ Carnahan Smear Campaign
• The Whisper Campaign Against Ed Martin: Carnahan Family Blog Involved!
• The Two Suspect Payments In The Russ Carnahan Catholic Attack
• Former Emmy Winning Dateline Producer Exposed: Victor Arango At Center Of Whisper Campaign

Given that Ed Martin has already filed one FEC complaint about Russ's self-dealing on the Crystal Ballroom, another complaint seems inevitable on this smear. That's especially true in light of the timing here:

Notice the date that video was posted: October 19th, 2010. Now notice the timestamps of these posts on Ed Martin's facebook wall from the Carnahan campaign's chief harridan, Teri Powers:

Again. Sloppy. Teri Powers knew about the smear campaign and simply couldn't wait for the video release and her ebullience got the best of her. This is the kind of incompetence that advises and serves Missouri's Third Congressional District in our nation's capital.

And, lest you think this is an isolated case of one bad apple in the well-oiled Carnahan machine, let me remind you of Javonne Spitz's arrest in 2009 and this past summer's firebombing of Carnahan's office by a former employee with a dispute over pay. The inmates are in charge of that asylum and have been for quite some time.

After all of that, my view has not changed since my last post on the smear:

The campaign of desperate Democrat Russ Carnahan has coordinated a smear on Ed Martin. The attack alleges that Ed Martin was complicit in shuffling pedophile priests around St. Louis Catholic Churches while he served at the St. Louis Archdiocese (www.therealedmartin.com). In the video above, Ed Martin, Marie Kenyon, and Rev. Bruce McCoy speak to the allegations. Marie is a life-long Democrat who worked with Ed at the Archdiocese. Marie makes the key point:

What was said about Ed in the video is simply not true. Anyone who knows the Catholic church knows lay employees have no say-so, no responsibility whatsoever in priestly claimants. They just don't.

If the claims of TheRealEdMartin are true, I believe that Ed Martin must step down. If they are false, then the Carnahan campaign must disavow them and apologize. Because Ed and Russ are necessarily biased actors on this very public stage, I would suggest a jury of their peers. Such a jury would consist of candidates and elected office holders in Missouri's Third Congressional District. Do the Aldermen of St. Louis stand by the charge that Ed Martin was complicit in pedophilia? Does Mayor Slay? Do the candidates for the state house stand with Russ or Ed on this?

Why hasn't the local media pressed them on this question?

Addressing Russ Carnahan's Pedophilia Charges

The campaign of desperate Democrat Russ Carnahan has coordinated a smear on Ed Martin. The attack alleges that Ed Martin was complicit in shuffling pedophile priests around St. Louis Catholic Churches while he served at the St. Louis Archdiocese (www.therealedmartin.com). In the video above, Ed Martin, Marie Kenyon, and Rev. Bruce McCoy speak to the allegations. Marie is a life-long Democrat who worked with Ed at the Archdiocese. Marie makes the key point:

What was said about Ed in the video is simply not true. Anyone who knows the Catholic church knows lay employees have no say-so, no responsibility whatsoever in priestly claimants. They just don't.

Ed's campaign has put out two press releases:

• Carnahan Can't Run on His Record: Political Hatchet Man Comes to His Rescue
• Carnahan Admits to Hiring Smear Operative

The real question is: who started the whisper campaign? We know that Corwin was paid by Carnahan, though he alleges that he no longer has ties. One wonders if the Carnahan propaganda organ, FiredUpMissouri, with their post from cosmopolatino coordinated with rotciv over at The Riverfront Times. FiredUpMissouri and RFT should publish the IP addresses to clear the air.

Update: It occurs to me that this is either the sort of thing that Ed Martin should be condemned for (if one thinks Ed's guilty) or the sort of thing that his accusers should be condemned for (if one understands how the Catholic church's hierarchy works and that Ed could not have played a role in priest shuffling). I'd like to ask politicians and candidates, both Republican and Democrat, who are members of the Catholic church in Missouri's Third Congressional District: Do you think Ed Martin was complicit or do you think he was smeared? And, if you think he was smeared, was the Carnahan campaign responsible for the smear?

Welcome! And thanks to Erick Erickson of RedState for the link! The Dems are desperate and they're trying to demoralize us. Don't let them inside your head. Here's a little caffeine for your eyes and ears (watch the videos at the link). If you or someone you know needs a little pick-me-up before hitting the bricks to canvas for a candidate or phonebank, these should help get you going:

• Don't get cocky. Get out there!
• Ed Martin asks: Where'd the Money Go?
• Welcome Home Russ Carnahan!

Jay Cost's Take on Recent Polls

The Weekly Standard's Jay Cost has some thoughts on recent Congressional polling:

In my opinion, there are only two factors that really vary from election to election: how independents break and the strength of each party in the electorate. I think it is too early to get a clear sense of the latter factor, so my focus for now is on the independents, who so far have given no indication that they’ll be supporting the Democrats. All of the generic ballot polls that have come out since last Friday – Newsweek, Rasmussen, Gallup, and now ABC News/WaPo – have produced Republican leads among independents larger than what was seen in 1994, this despite the fact that they vary wildly in terms of their final spreads. If these trends continue, the GOP will take better than 3/5ths of all independents.

Don't get cocky. Get out there! Find a candidate that you like and volunteer on their campaign. If you're in Missouri's Third Congressional District (south St. Louis city down to St. Genevieve), Ed Martin (R) could use your help!

Roy Blunt Signs the Tea Party Treaty

Roy Blunt, Republican candidate for the US Senate from Missouri, visited the St. Louis Tea Party office in south St. Louis city Monday. In this video, he speaks about government jobs vs private sector jobs and the growth of government spending under the Obama administration before then signing the Tea Party Treaty.

St. Louis County Executive Race

In early September, the Lemay, MO, Chamber of Commerce held a political candidate luncheon. The videos above are from that event and feature the two candidates for St. Louis county executive: Bill Corrigan and Charlie Dooley. Based on the videos above, I think the October 14th debate between Corrigan and Dooley will be worth attending!

Previously:

• Lemay Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum

Radical Ideology Exposed at Healthcare-Now National Strategy Conference in St. Louis

Bob McCarty posted some video he shot at at a "Healthcare-Now" conference last November:

If you thought the health care bill recently passed by the House was bad, you’ll shudder at what I captured on video this weekend at the 2009 Healthcare-Now.org National Strategy Conference at the Sheraton Westport Lakeside Chalet in St. Louis.

Though uninvited, I introduced myself as a journalist and gained access to the meeting’s opening session late Saturday afternoon. There, I fully expected to find a room full of people in favor of the latest iteration of government-run health care. Instead, I found more than 100 people voicing widespread opposition to the bill.

Unlike those who oppose government-run health care on strong Constitutional grounds, the conference attendees with whom I spoke said they oppose the bill because, first, it lacks a strong-enough public option component and, second, it does not include coverage to pay for abortions.