Jefferson City News Tribune, Nov. 9
Voters vanquish ’walkers’ with dark money:
“The Walking Dead” are inundating the political landscape.
The popular AMC television series focuses on the survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Among the program’s many themes is how humans react in a climate of fear.
The recent election campaign reflects that theme, with candidates and advocates attempting to capitalize on fear of the opposition.
Candidates who emphasize an opponent’s shortcomings rather than their own virtues are nothing new in politics. But attacks abound with no signs of abating.
And spreading fear perpetuates divisiveness in government and is becoming tiresome for voters.
Fear-mongering in elections is most apparent in campaigns funded by what has become known as “dark money,” defined by Wikipedia as “a term that refers to funds used to pay for an election campaign that are not disclosed to voters prior to voting.”
And - as Cole County voters are acutely aware - dark money from the Republican State Leadership Committee, based in Washington, D.C, was funneled to Central Missouri in a failed effort to unseat an incumbent Democratic circuit judge.
A series of direct mail fliers attempted to scare voters from re-electing a candidate who: “sided with radical environmentalists;” ’’has a consistent liberal streak;” and “favored wasting taxpayer dollars.”
Curbing the power of dark money is not unlike the defenses used against “Walking Dead” zombies - called “walkers” - who can be dispatched only by a mortal - or would it be immortal? - injury to the brain.
Among the alternatives:
- Limiting or eliminating dark money, like shooting a walker, has consequences. Just as the sound of gunshots attracts more walkers, so restrictions on campaign contributions are incompatible with constitutional protections of free speech.
- More specific identification of dark money donors, like a blow to a zombie’s head with a blunt or sharp object, is effective. Campaign finance disclosure reports now identify donors who contribute to a pool of money, which then is dispersed. What is not revealed is a direct link between specific donors and specific campaigns.
- Educating voters to recognize and renounce dark money campaigns, like corralling walkers within structures or fences, is both practical and practiced.
As evidenced by the November election, many Cole County voters recognized the dark money campaign was neither fair nor factual. Even the judge’s challenger attempted to distance himself from the negative campaign and some of his supporters deplored it.
We commend Cole County voters for rejecting a climate of fear and for vanquishing it with their votes. They have sent a message that walkers bringing dark money are not welcome here.
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Washington Missourian, Nov. 7
Creating jobs:
Ad after ad in the political campaigns that just closed, candidates said they were for job creation. That’s easier said than done. It resonates well with voters. Or does it?
The problem is job creation is overused and in so many instances with no results. People grow weary of hearing it. Isn’t everybody for job creation?
Most of the job creation in this area has been by our existing industries, many of which have been operating here for many years. Why do they expand here? Quite often it is because of the workforce. Dependable, willing to be trained, gifted with inborn skills, healthy attitudes, all of which results in a solid work ethic.
We recall what an industrial plant owner told us some years ago. “I came here because the people know how to work with their hands and minds,” or something like that.
An educated and trainable workforce is one of the most sought-after attributes by industries. Politicians can provide incentives when they are in government, and in today’s world they certainly help. But government officials are limited in what they can do to instill a work ethic in the people in a community. That quality begins in the home, continues in school and becomes a community attitude.
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St. Joseph News-Press, Nov. 9
Threat to deer persists:
Missouri’s firearm deer season begins Saturday, Nov. 15. This annual experience is an important one for the state’s many hunters, but a disease raises a continuing concern.
Chronic Wasting Disease was first detected in the state in 2010 in captive deer herds in north central Missouri. The disease kills animals and, once it is established in a population, is impossible to eradicate, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation.
The threat to the welfare of wildlife is a worry. But the concern is broader.
Hunting not only is a popular sport for many Missourians, but also it is an economic boost. Several areas in the region are hunting hotspots that attract out-of-town visitors. Businesses such as meat processors, taxidermists, hotels, sporting good stores and others would be affected by smaller deer numbers.
Hunters can, and should, play an important role in protecting the herd. The Department of Conservation has established a containment zone comprised of Adair, Chariton, Linn, Macon, Randolph and Sullivan counties in north central Missouri. Anyone who harvests a deer within the zone should bring samples to a cooperating taxidermist or meat processor to be tested for the disease.
Within this zone, the department urges hunters to harvest young bucks to decrease the threat of disease transmission. Also, deer should not be fed salt or grain to keep animals from congregating.
In other parts of the state, hunters also have responsibilities. It is important to practice proper carcass disposal. Deer carcasses should not be brought into Missouri from out of state.
The rebuilding of the whitetail deer population is one of the greatest conservation success stories. By cooperating and following the necessary guidelines, Missouri hunters can write a new chapter that will protect the herd for another generation.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov. 8
Stadium challenge: Champ or chump or change?:
St. Louis is an NFL city.
So decreed Gov. Jay Nixon last week when he appointed two civic leaders - former Anheuser-Busch executive David Peacock and attorney Robert Blitz - to lead a 60-day effort to present a stadium proposal to the St. Louis Rams that might convince owner Stan Kroenke to stay in Missouri.
Mr. Nixon is not wrong. While not among the NFL’s biggest markets, St. Louis is the 19th biggest metropolitan area in the United States. It is world-class in culture, in history, in potential. It has two model sports franchises in the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Blues that, particularly in the case of the Cardinals, regularly punch above their weight in terms of attendance.
The more important question - for Mr. Nixon, for taxpayers and for Mr. Kroenke - is this: What kind of NFL city does St. Louis want to be?
Right now, in terms of stadium deals, the Gateway City is more chump than champ.
Forget where the Edward Jones Dome ranks in terms of “top tier” stadiums. It’s nowhere close. But that’s not what matters. When it comes to who is paying for the stadiums that make NFL billionaires richer, a city and state that can’t afford it is carrying nearly the entire load.
A 2012 comparison of stadium deals by the Wall Street Journal puts the St. Louis stadium deal second from the bottom of the league in terms of percentage of private investment.
Taxpayers from the St. Louis region and the entire state of Missouri have been paying (and still are paying) 96 percent of its stadium costs. Only Tampa Bay taxpayers, at 100 percent, have it worse.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers new Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., is about 90 percent financed by private interests, including the team owner and the NFL. A new stadium in Los Angeles, the market being eyed by Mr. Kroenke, is proposed to be 100 percent privately financed. But in Minnesota, the public is in for nearly half the billion-dollar-plus bill for the new Vikings stadium under construction.
If St. Louis is to keep the Rams - and it may be a long shot - the deal will have to look more 49ers than Vikings. Mr. Kroenke and his NFL partners will have to cover nearly all the costs in exchange for keeping nearly all the profits. That’s the new reality in the NFL. Taxpayers have soured on helping billionaires pad profits. Owners want to control additional revenue sources.
That has to be especially true in St. Louis, a community suffering in an ongoing international morality play known as “Ferguson” that centers on the region’s long-term failure to offer equal opportunity to all of its citizens. There’s a righteous need for better schools, housing, jobs and transportation for citizens living in concentrated poverty. Most of them, like 68 percent of the players in the NFL, are African-American.
Every day in St. Louis, in Ferguson, in Dellwood, in Cool Valley and Spanish Lake, young, black children ride buses to schools that are underfunded and nowhere near as good as those in the wealthier suburbs. Some children ride buses for an hour to get to better schools far away, and then come home when it’s dark to communities that lack the support to help them learn.
This is the St. Louis that is fighting to keep a team in a league where billionaires pay millionaires and hundred-thousandaires to play a kids game for the citizenry’s amusement and civic pride.
Yes, there is value in St. Louis being an NFL city, but at what cost?
That is the question that must be asked by Mr. Nixon, by Mr. Kroenke, by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the civic leaders in St. Louis and Missouri who will try to cut a deal.
There may be a deal to be had.
Insiders have been discussing a riverfront stadium north of the Edward Jones Dome. If done right, the project would increase the value of investment going into the Gateway Arch grounds, and better connect the entire riverfront to the city from the new Stan Musial Bridge south. Such a stadium would be built at the entrance to the footprint of the Northside Regeneration project of developer Paul McKee, the city’s best and only major hope of rebuilding the distressed north side of the city.
To that end, it would make sense for the public to invest in redeveloping both the streets and the riverfront. There would be a role for the Missouri Department of Transportation that could even involve getting rid of some of the elevated lanes of Interstate 70 that separate much of downtown from the riverfront. Freeing the publicly owned Edward Jones Dome from its NFL purposes as a full-time convention draw could offer economic benefits.
There are good reasons for Mssrs. Peacock and Blitz to work with city and NFL leaders to pursue serious options to keep St. Louis an NFL city.
Imagine the potential boost to the battered image of the NFL if it chooses to reinvest at the entrance to the city’s north side, setting aside construction jobs for African-Americans, putting its money into local schools and nonprofits, taking the first steps to rebuild a section of the city that has been ignored for decades.
But the challenges are steep. The city and the state will not and should not support a public vote for new money to go to sports stadiums until schools are fully funded. In a state that believes tax-cut fairy dust is a sound economic development policy, that’s a non-starter.
Think about this: Missouri’s schools, according to existing law, are underfunded by about $600 million. Mr. Kroenke’s first ask for a remodeled Edward Jones Dome was for more than $700 million.
When it comes to investing in stadiums or kids, we choose kids. Every single time.
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