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Cori Bush and Josh Hawley: Two roads diverged in a state
I’ve always thought that true political talent is rooted in dexterity: the ability to appeal to a wide variety of constituencies without significant internal contradictions. Every politician starts with his or her base. Sometimes that base is ideological. Other times it is, racial, geographic or generational. Candidates with dexterity are not only able to expand […]
Missouri’s GOP gubernatorial primary as a hand of Texas Hold ‘Em, part three: The river
It’s time for the final card in the poker hand that is the Missouri governor’s race. Quick review for poker neophytes: In Texas Hold ‘Em, two cards are dealt face down to each player, while five “community cards” are dealt face up in three rounds – first, a group of three cards (“the flop”), then […]
Missouri’s GOP gubernatorial primary as a hand of Texas Hold ‘Em, part two: The turn
It’s time for the turn card in the poker hand that is the Missouri governor’s race. Quick review for poker neophytes: in Texas Hold ‘Em, two cards are dealt face down to each player, while five “community cards” are dealt face up in three rounds – first, a group of three cards (“the flop”), then […]
What if the Missouri GOP gubernatorial primary were a hand of Texas Hold ‘Em?
During the 2022 election cycle, I decided to combine two of my favorite hobbies – poker and politics. I wrote a series of columns depicting Missouri’s U.S. Senate race as a hand of Texas Hold ‘Em, with the final installment predicting an Eric Schmitt victory. Recently in the Capitol, I was collared by a gubernatorial […]
A Christmas gift guide: What do you get for the Missouri politico who has it all?
Christmas is a special time of year, but it can be difficult for political professionals. While normal people are out shopping to find that perfect gift for their very special someone or touring wondrous Christmas light displays with their children, political pros are often privately occupied with more profane thoughts. “If I can just get […]
Missouri politics proves that sometimes just entering a race makes you a winner
Sometimes, the true outcome of a political campaign isn’t reflected in the final vote count. Jason Kander’s 2016 Senate race is a prime example. Despite Donald Trump winning Missouri by nearly 19 points, Roy Blunt only squeaked out a win with a margin under 3%, thanks in part to a viral advertisement featuring Kander assembling […]
Why I think a scandal-plagued speaker is wise to hire a scandal-scarred former speaker
Even during his reign atop the Missouri political world, former House Speaker Rod Jetton’s life was a looming disaster. He’d lost the discipline of his Southern Baptist upbringing and his Marine training. He was drunk on Southern Comfort and power, and it is not hard to see how both inebriations impaired his judgment. Over a […]
Missouri general elections used to matter. Now primaries reign — and extremists have the edge
For a generation, Missouri politicians who played between the 40-yard lines reigned supreme. From the 1980s through the mid-2010s, in race after race, center-right Republicans like Jack Danforth, Kit Bond and Roy Blunt were elected to the U.S. senate, and John Ashcroft and Matt Blunt captured the governor’s mansion. After Ashcroft veered further right in […]
Debate over minors carrying guns has implications beyond the Missouri House
State Rep. Lane Roberts is not someone most would deem a “RINO,” or Republican In Name Only. The three-term Joplin Republican served as the director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety and as Joplin’s police chief, having previously led police forces in cities throughout Washington and Oregon, where he served as president of the […]
Five things I got wrong in 2022 — and what (if anything) my mistakes mean for 2024
Political prognosticators fill thousands of column inches and hours of airtime making predictions, and love to say “I told you so” when they’re right. It would be helpful if more pundits stepped up to confess – and reckon with – their misfires. In that vein, here are five of my mistaken predictions from the 2022 […]
Has stark polarization between Missouri Republicans and Democrats led to detente?
The year was 1990. St. Louis County Executive H.C. Milford, a Republican and kindly insurance broker who rose to power when his predecessor Gene McNary received a federal appointment, was seeking election to a full term against a hard-charging three-term county prosecutor named George “Buzz” Westfall. Milford, an accidental county executive who was, by all […]
The five silliest things candidates told me during Missouri’s primary season
The American polity is dangerously divided, and people are deadly serious about politics (which isn’t irrational, since policy outcomes are indeed life or death for many). But it helps occasionally to pause and laugh at some of the dumb things candidates of both parties do. Indeed, it is one of our only common threads these […]