Lacy Clay lost his primary challenge last night to newcomer Cori Bush. Good for her. If you want more information about why Clay wasn’t a good fit for the D+28 district he represents, I wrote a short piece about Clay last year
Lacy Clay
by $8 blue check mistermix| 150 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Omnes Omnibus
Lacy Clay is a dude’s name? Okay.
Brachiator
The best headline I saw concerning this election was “Clay Goes Down!”
Congrats to Cori Bush.
I appreciate the link to the earlier post. The comments were also interesting.
Missouri Buckeye
I live in the district.
I’m sorry I didn’t comment on the earlier piece (missed it).
I’ve felt that Clay didn’t do nearly enough and was too cozy with corporate interests. I resisted the “Lazy Clay” name because I didn’t want to feed the stereotype.
Clay’s campaign turned really negative in the last week. They sent out a couple of mailers where Bush’s skin color was darkened.
I’m happy that Bush won. We’ll give her some time and see how she does.
Missouri Buckeye
@Omnes Omnibus: William Lacy Clay.
His father (16-term congressman and one of the founders of the CBC) is William Clay, Lacy uses “Lacy” to distinguish himself.
CarolDuhart2
As I said on Twitter, what we are seeing is the changing of the Guard. The Clay family benefited from being the first wave of black legislators who benefited from the appreciation of representation. There was also a sense that opposition was from the racist white powers that be.
Obama has changed the game in ways not anticipated by them. Even in safe seats represented by minorities, people now expect more than just being a representative who does an occasional good thing for the district. Also, there is a larger pool of potential candidates to make a primary challenge as well. And better ones now that black people can win statewide in a lot of places.
Think a moment about the changes Obama has made in the Democratic Party, more activist, more organized, and a greater discussion of interests.
debbie
@Missouri Buckeye:
He should be drummed out of the Democratic Party for that.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: He is William Lacy Clay.
PsiFighter37
Nothing wrong with this. I do hope that this wave of more progressive legislators in safe D districts going to Congress realize that they are going to have to work with folks representing much more moderate/conservative districts that make up our majority (such as the Max Roses and Abigail Spanbergers of Congress) and do not start deciding that pushing Pelosi & Co. to hold votes on very liberal pieces of legislation (like the Green New Deal) is the be-all, end-all.
Any color, BTW, on what happened in Rashida Tlaib’s primary in Michigan? That seemed like a race that, given the unique circumstances of what transpired in the last election, she had a decent shot of losing.
download my app in the app store mistermix
@PsiFighter37:
She won 66/34 and Pelosi endorsed her. The color is that the squad primary challenges were nothingburger farts in the wind, and the supposed conflict between Pelosi and squad members were overblown for dramatic effect.
CarolDuhart2
@PsiFighter37: I think they will-these people are running to benefit their district, not just to make a name for themselves. Plus someone who’s progressive in Missouri is probably a moderate in California.
Not every one is a spoiled brat progressive like a couple members of the Squad.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PsiFighter37: .Tlaib won by a comfortable margin.
OzarkHillbilly
@PsiFighter37: Tlaib won.
gwangung
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
Any conflict, I think, are the necessary and inherent ones of the Democrats being a coalition of interests.
Marcopolo
So it took me a while but I found the disgusting ad Clay ran against Bush in the final two weeks of the campaign. You can see it here.
I admit that while I voted for Bush, I did not expect her to win. I was thinking she’d get into the mid forties vote-wise. Glad I was wrong. My take on Clay, and keep in mind my mom has lived in the district in the same house for 56 years and been represented by a Clay for 50 of them, was that he like a lot of other long-term incumbents, just took the seat for granted. He did minimal work in the district, lived a lot of the year in DC/Maryland, and though he could parachute in in the last month or two of the primary to win (this sounds a hella lot like Eliot Engel, yes?).
I have no idea how Bush will do in Congress. I think the addition of a relatively poor AA single-mom who has been homeless, evicted 3x, fallen behind on taxes and had her nursing license suspended, gone through having Covid this spring, and has shared a lot of the other day-to-day struggles that a lot of folks in her district experience will be great. And necessary.
She persisted to win this seat. I wish her all the best in going forward and hope she brings that persistence in becoming an outstanding Congresswoman.
Edited to add if you watch that ad, keep in mind that Clay has been funneling $180,000/year to his sister (for legal services supposedly–he is her only client) for a decade or longer. And that if you are poor and running for Congress the FEC has said it is legal for your campaign to pay you for living expenses.
Betty Cracker
Glad you linked to your older post about Clay — I missed it too. As someone who wants the party to move left, I generally agree that it’s a good thing to have more progressive Dems in the safe seats. They’ll have to work with more moderate colleagues, but it changes the conversation, which is a plus.
@CarolDuhart2: I generally loathe political dynasties, but given that so many other paths to power are still foreclosed for women and minorities, it’s not a deal-breaker for me in those cases. You make a good point about the changing of the guard, but progress is slow. Obama, yes. But now Trump. Ugh.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@CarolDuhart2:
Jamaal Bowman provoked much twitter whining by saying something nice about Biden, and the San Francisco area DSA has withdrawn its support of Nancy Pelosi’s primary challenger. Somebody may want to do a welfare check on Ryan Grim and the rest of the Intercept cultists
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT: This is a cluster bomb that’s gonna go off in trump’s head, Jared’s and quite probably Grifterella’s.
and somewhere, Fredo will wonder if they’re ever gonna notice how effective a surrogate he is.
dww44
@Omnes Omnibus: lOL My brother’s first name is Lacy and he always wondered why our parents named him that. Long after he was grown he asked our Mom where the name came from. She said she didn’t know as our Dad chose it, who died when we very young kids.
I was planning on sharing this news with him by pointing out that there are others who have his name. And this guy is a Democrat. My brother is a long time conservative who’s mostly not an idealogue, thanks to his liberal wife, daughter and granddaughter
download my app in the app store mistermix
@CarolDuhart2:
One person’s spoiled brat is another person’s brave and intelligent woman who takes a massive amount of shit from misogynist Republicans every single day. Perhaps you would like to be more specific about who you think is “spoiled” and a “brat”.
taumaturgo
One seat at a time, the once people party is being dragged kicking and screaming from Wall Street to Main street, from elite exclusivity to diversity and from white entitlement prerogative to implicit racism awareness.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
as if on cue…. @taumaturgo:
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I suspect a DougJ sock puppet.
janesays
@Omnes Omnibus: William Lacy Clay, Jr. is his full name. The congressional seat he occupies has been held by him and his father (William Lacy Clay, Sr.) since before we landed on the moon, literally.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
OzarkHilly said this in the comments in the posted link:
I didn’t live in the district but was a student of STL politics during my 22+ years in Central Misery. What everybody else said: took seat for granted, did little-to-nothing for his constituents, etc. So glad to see a female POC take him down.
janesays
@PsiFighter37: Tlaib crushed her opponent by a 2:1 margin last night. It wasn’t even close.
VOR
@download my app in the app store mistermix: Ilhan Omar has a serious primary challenge right now. Her opponent has never held elective office but has a lot of funding and support from establishment Democratic figures. Minnesota’s primary election is next week, August 11th. There will probably be a lot of mail-in votes so don’t expect to know the winner August 12th.
Omar’s district is basically the city of Minneapolis where Republicans do not poll well. For example, Rep. Omar got 78% of the vote in 2018 and Hillary Clinton won the district 74-19 in 2016. So the Dem primary is probably more important than the General election.
janesays
@CarolDuhart2: I don’t know if I would go that far. Missouri-01 is an EXTREMELY safe Democratic district – a literal communist could beat a Republican here. Clinton beat Trump in 77-19 in MO-01 in 2016, a 58 point margin.
download my app in the app store mistermix
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Nice attempt to deflect, but I asked if she could be specific about who’s a spoiled brat in the squad. I don’t see a person like that in the squad, and it’s real cheap shot, IMO.
piratedan
in AZ electoral news (we had a primary yesterday) for those who weren’t on the night shift…
looks like there will need to be some follow up in the Maricopa County sheriff race as the not-so-recently pardoned Sheriff Joe attempted to win his old job back. Extremely tight race on the GOP side with no winner declared (as of yet).
In what looks to be the only potential flippable seat in AZ for the Dems, AZ CD6, the Dem primary went to Hiral Tiperneni, who ran unsuccessfully in CD5 in 2018 but then the districts were redrawn. She’s an ER doc and will attempt to unseat David Shweikert, who was recently indicted for campaign fraud. If we are indeed looking at a blue tsunami in 2020, this seat is gettable, especially so if the corruption angle is played up.
The other AZ CD GOP held seats are held by the triumvirate of Crazy that is Biggs, Lasko and Gosar and those are unlikely to swing, despite the inherent crazy of those legislators, they apparently reflect their districts.
One of the more odious state senators for the GOP went down in a primary yesterday (Sylvia Allen) so I am pleased about that and in extremely local news, the Dems put forth a county attorney candidate that doesn’t come from a prosecutor school of management, so perhaps the lens thru which law enforcement is being performed will change.
janesays
@VOR: Not probably more important, definitely more important. Any seat with a Cook PVI of +25 or more (ie D+25 or R+25) isn’t going to flip, even in the most lopsided wave elections. Omar’s seat will be held by a Democrat for years to come. Same with Clay’s seat.
download my app in the app store mistermix
@VOR:
Whoa, just looked him up. He has millions of dollars, a lot of it from Republicans, behind him.
Barbara
I read an article about this race in which Clay was interviewed. Even from the short snippets — which might have been misleading — he sounded aggrieved that someone was challenging “his” seat.
janesays
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That ad was 100% Rick Wilson – he’s been directly goading Jared for the past few weeks on his Daily Beast podcast with Molly Jong-Fast.
debit
@download my app in the app store mistermix: I live in her district and already sent in my mail in ballot with a vote for her. Everyone I know has also done so.
As I bike around the city, the only places I’m seeing signs for her challenger is in the wealthy areas. Of course signs don’t mean anything. *shrug* All I know is that I have an entire shopping bag full of his expensive glossy mailers and expect another two of three in the mail today.
Yutsano
So…this morning I made the mistake of reading a Hewitt column. I thought it was going to be some invective against the Democratic platform, at least as he envisions it. Instead, it’s almost funny in how hyperbolic it is. And a lot of it even sounds pretty good.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I agree that Clay took the seat for granted and was not very responsive to his constituents. However, I don’t necessarily agree that he was way out of touch. Clay is a moderate. There are lots of moderates in his district. St. Louis is not a progressive city. It has some progressive parts, but overall, it is just not. That is why St. Louis has a moderate mayor. Last mayoral election a progressive ran and lost. My read on Bush is that she is more progressive than most of her constituents. She will need to keep that in mind if she wants to keep her seat.
germy
Some of the comments at mistermix’s original post:
It seems a few readers here were upset that Clay was being primaried. I mean, how dare she? Also, Clay’s challenger was a Black woman, not Glenn Greenwald.
Ozark’s comment made more sense to me, because he was actually familiar with the incumbent:
download my app in the app store mistermix
@debit: Good for you.
I’m skeptical that any challenge to Omar will succeed. She seems popular in the district, especially with the politically engaged. I’m not too worried about him outspending her, because he needs to. She’s a known entity who gets free media every single day. He has to introduce himself to the district. Since her core supporters aren’t going to flip, he has to persuade voters who probably aren’t inclined to vote in a primary to do so.
That’s why when you see a long-serving Democrat lose a primary challenge, it’s usually not an accident. The core, engaged Democrats think they can do better.
Betty Cracker
Y’all:
Jinchi
@download my app in the app store mistermix: There is definitely a contingent of BJ commentariat who presume bad faith on the more progressive members of the caucus. In my experience, the conservative Democrats are just as likely to throw a wrench into the works. It wasn’t the squad that made a run at Pelosi in 2018.
SiubhanDuinne
GRRRRR ANDREA MITCHELL
Breaking news at the top of her show that Joe Biden will not go to Wisconsin to accept the Dem nomination but will make his acceptance speech remotely, from Delaware.
Mitchell’s first question to her first guest, Nancy Pelosi: “How much will this damage the campaign?”
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
gwangung
@SiubhanDuinne: No damage at all to anyone with an IQ above room temperature.
C’mon, press. Use your noggin; don’t just jerk knees.
opiejeanne
@Yutsano: Steady… steady
Do you need to lie down for a moment?
germy
@SiubhanDuinne:
Andrea Mitchell Greenspan Ayn Rand. Her full name.
download my app in the app store mistermix
@germy: Yeah, I enjoyed the deep amount of wrongness that was exhibited in the comments, most of it aimed at someone who seems like a genuine, decent candidate who would actually put in a day’s work in DC. How dare she try to unseat a guy who gets $13K from Rent-A-Center!
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Clay’s district is not all of St. Louis. It is the northern part that is D+28. So the fact that St Louis has a moderate Democratic mayor probably doesn’t tell us much about Clay’s district. I think the fact that a progressive candidate just unseated him, and will win the general without breaking a sweat, tells us more.
CarolDuhart2
Sorry, everyone, but from the day Tlaib and Omar booed Obama, I’ve had a grudge against them. I’m aware of all of the “neoliberal” namecalling of Dems who can actually win an election outside of a D-50 seat. I wish them well in their seat, but I can live without that sort of thing.
germy
@gwangung: The media wants drama, dammit, and they will have it.
First, they’re throwing fits because Biden hasn’t picked a running mate right this minute!
And now?? He’s not going to Wisconsin!! How can he survive this damage to his campaign?
Meanwhile, Trump stumbles onstage wearing a raincoat and one sock, like Dustin Hoffman at the end of “Lenny” and they’re asking if Joe has taken a cognitive test.
I think the biggest brats are the Beltway Pundits, not the squad members.
opiejeanne
@CarolDuhart2: No need to apologize. also, there was something they said or did more recently that everyone was admiring Ayanna Pressley for not joining in on.
germy
@CarolDuhart2:
When did they boo Obama? I missed that.
I remember when the republican yelled “You lie!” during his SOTU.
CarolDuhart2
And Joe Biden shouldn’t. There is such a thing as a “front porch” campaign, which is within the American tradition.
And at least the Democratic convention should go pretty smoothly. They are at the point where only a couple of tweaks are necessary, like accommodating the running mate. And I bet everyone is relieved at this as well-I mean nobody has to travel for this one, and its saving money to boot.
Marcopolo
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: The moderate mayor of St Louis won the last D primary election over the more progressive candidate by the whopping margin of, checks notes, 879 votes (out of 53K cast) in a very crowded field where she was the only caucasian candidate. There’s a very good chance she loses her re-election in 2021.
But you be you when talking about politics in St Louis.
Frankensteinbeck
@CarolDuhart2:
I’m leaning to ‘there will not be a Republican convention.’ They’re just too incompetent.
germy
@Jinchi:
Yes, they wanted to unseat Pelosi but couldn’t get their act together. And Lacy Clay taking contributions from “Rent-a-Center” makes me suspect he would have thrown a wrench into any attempts to protect his constituents from predators.
download my app in the app store mistermix
@CarolDuhart2:
This never happened. Tlaib booed when Hillary Clinton’s name was mentioned at an Iowa rally for Sanders. She later apologized. Omar did not boo, just sat there, and laughed when Tlaib said “I’ll boo” or something like that.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51345186
Or maybe Fox News reported it and you remember it from there?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
I live in Clay’s district. I think I have a better feel for it than you.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jinchi:
No, but it was members of “the squad” who called Obama a smiling killer (because DRONZE!), who booed Hillary Clinton on stage and on camera, who attributed Biden’s win in SC to the influence of lobbyists, and who can’t seem to persuade their small god that maybe the unhinged Jill Stein surrogate Nina Turner isn’t the best person to send to meetings meant to promote unity and conciliation among Democrats.
CarolDuhart2
@Frankensteinbeck: I’m almost there myself. Stuff like this takes months to even draw up plans for, and that’s the contingency plan. We’ve had a Rose Garden re-election before, and that was Jimmy Carter’s. For a bigger crisis, which involves a great deal of health risks, why not just can the whole pageantry thing, and just let business parts be done by small meetings or zoom? But we wouldn’t even be talking about this with anyone else, because anyone else would have cancelled it with no contested convention. And anyone else would have handled the pandemic better.
What amazes me about this whole “biden basement” thing is that nobody outside of the Fox bubble cares about this. No former rival, no party officer, nor his voters care that he’s not going out there having dangerous and pointless rallies. And has exposed how useless rallies really are.
download my app in the app store mistermix
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
So are you saying that Bush will be beaten in the general because she’s too progressive? Or that she’ll face a primary challenge next time? I’ll buy the latter, but not the former.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Marcopolo: Yes, but the other African American candidates (except French who had almost no votes) were more moderate than Jones and also split the moderate vote. You cannot assume that those votes would have gone to the progressive candidate. In a race between a moderate and progressive, both African American in St. Louis, I don’t believe that progressive would win.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Frankensteinbeck: among other ideas (Gettysburg-because he thinks he’s like Lincoln– or Mt Rushmore, cause he thinks that monumental kitsch worked so well last time), trump wants to use the White House to give his acceptance speech. The latest idea is the South Lawn, I’ve also seen the East Room mentioned, which IIRC is usually reserved for things like the death of Osama bin Laden
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
I’m saying that if she is not responsive to the moderates in her district and gets too far ahead of her skis, she will be challenged by a moderate in two years.
Yutsano
@opiejeanne: I actually am lying down. :P The column is just…so out there. Like Hewitt asked two Republican Senators about the Democratic platform. And then he HAD to throw in guns. It’s just…they’re all starting to lose it I swear.
CarolDuhart2
@germy: Rent-A-Center places are pure evil. They hoodwink people into paying exhorbitant interest for flashy furniture. And of course, if you miss a payment or two, that furniture gets repossessed and sold for practically Salvation Army prices.
Anoniminous
@VOR:
Apparently ~$10 million has been raised, or about the same usual spent on a state-wide Senate race, for the primary. Which is absurd until the fact TPTB REALLY want her gone is added to the analysis.
download my app in the app store mistermix
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
And I’ll predict that said moderate will lose as long as Bush does a decent job representing the district (showing up at town halls, good constituent service, etc) There just isn’t a history of overly progressive Democrats being primaried out of their office. Recent history goes the other way.
A Ghost to Most
@Yutsano:
Never ever read the Fuckwit or Theissen columns in WaPo.
germy
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
I think a progressive who shows up for town halls and does right by her constituents will do better than a moderate who thinks of the seat as his personal, family business (and directs $ to his sister).
download my app in the app store mistermix
@Anoniminous:
If only $1 million of that was spent in neighboring South Dakota, maybe a few people there would be able to name the Senate challenger to useless not-that-popular Republican Mike Rounds, and vote for him in a “throw the bums out” election. Dan Ahlers (Round’s opponent) has only raised $77K this cycle.
germy
@CarolDuhart2:
I remember a few decades ago, a reporter for a local weekly paper here (that paper is long gone) did an expose on a rent-a-center near my town. He went in to ask questions and was almost assaulted. They verbally threatened him and chased him out of the store.
Their business model is basically taking advantage of low income people. There must have been a reason they wanted Clay re-elected. I would be suspicious of any candidate they supported.
Chyron HR
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
I dunno, is Tlaib or Omar the one who goes around screaming “FUCK HILLARY CLINTON”?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
I agree with you, if she does a decent job, especially at being responsive to her constituents. That, more than anything, cost Clay. If you call his office, you never get a human being. He didn’t put the time and care into his district.
To add another point to my agrument that St. Louis is just not that progressive, Megan Green, alderwoman and progressive poster child, also lost her bid for a Missouri Senate seat. She didn’t lose by much, but 1st and 3rd place candidates were more moderate than her. If the moderate votes had not been so split, she would have lost by a wide margin. I should note, that district includes the most progressive part of St. Louis.
janesays
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
Clay’s district is all of St. Louis, if we’re talking about the city proper. St. Louis City used to be split into two different districts, both Democratic strongholds – MO-01 and MO-03. Clay represented majority black north St. Louis and Russ Carnahan represented majority white south St. Louis. 2010 redistricting gerrymandered Carnahan’s district out of existence, and Clay’s district was expanded to include all of St. Louis city.
Most of south and west St. Louis County (which is distinct from the city) is now included in MO-02, and most of north St. Louis county is in Clay’s district.
Jinchi
@CarolDuhart2: For all the media complaining, it’s easy enough to get Joe Biden on the line for an interview. We’re not hearing much about him because they aren’t covering him.
Legitimately enough, they’re busy focusing on the guy who’s been burning down the country.
germy
@Chyron HR:
Do you have a link for that?
I can’t say anything around here without steeplejack demanding a link, so I think it’s a fair question.
Just Chuck
So a dude named Lacy is a Democrat who runs racist ads against his opponent despite himself being black and so voting for Bush was good.
I might be losing my mind here. In fact I smell toast. Oh wait that’s breakfast.
NotMax
@germy
Time was they were known for preying on military families. A store could be found in near proximity of military bases of any decent size.
Today though, those may have been squeezed out of some locations by a surfeit of payday lenders (another predatory business model against which not enough can be said).
Omnes Omnibus
We all seem to support the idea of “ more and better Democrats” until it gores our respective oxen. The left screams “neoliberal” when we run a moderate on a red to purple area. The centrists scream “spoiler” when a lefty candidate challenges an established moderate in a deep blue district.
Sorry, guys, this is the system working the way we said we wanted.
catclub
“Ali rises”?
catclub
slightly OT: I thought that Trump did pretty well in the Swan interview. He mostly talked over him.
Now what he said was usually wrong. But he said it with conviction.
Jinchi
That’s the way it’s supposed to work. Elections keep politicians focused on the homefront. That’s why I don’t get upset about Democrats in solid-blue districts facing primaries. It’s really hard for an incumbent to lose those races.
gwangung
@Omnes Omnibus: Exactly.
ANYBODY who “shows up for town halls and does right by their constituents” is doing their job, no matter their policies…or at least are doing all the necessary things.
CarolDuhart2
@NotMax: And military families live in short-term housing so they don’t stay long enough to pay off conventional terms for furniture. So they are a specific target.
Recently, I’ve seen fewer of them and fewer flyers. I like to think that a combination of Ebay, Ikea, and online furniture giveaways, plus cheaper furniture overall, has put a dent in the market. Nextdoor practically has pages of second-hand furniture, and even some furniture in the box that people didn’t really want, and it’s either free or deeply discounted.
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: And yet it came off as passive aggressive.
CarolDuhart2
Plus, for all of the China bashing, furniture is cheaper from them than before. I spent $400 for a set of chest of drawers. Yes, I had to spend money to have it assembled, but compared to what something like that used to cost, I got a pretty good deal.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@catclub:
Ali Velshi did an interview with PA voters on MSNBC, and one of the Republicans (who introduced himself as more of a libertarian, business-oriented guy) said that he thought trump was a good manager. This was weekend before last, so in fairness I think we were still slightly below 150K deaths. But he says things with confidence, and a lot of dumb people who think they’re smart think that’s close enough. Strong and wrong, as Bubba said about Dumbya. The woman standing six feet from the libertarian business guy, a middle-aged “suburban” woman, also a Republican, was nodding along as he said trump was a good manager.
janesays
Also, St. Louis City is more progressive than some want to give us credit for. Our local prosecutor is a black woman who ran on going after bad cops and has made herself an enemy of the St. Louis FOP just won her primary by a convincing margin. We voted for Clinton by a 79-16 margin in 2016. Sure, we’re not San Francisco or Manhattan, but we’re more progressive than I think many want to give us credit for. I think part of the confusion lies in the fact that the city of St. Louis is disproportionately small relative to the overall St. Louis metropolitan area. St. Louis city has just over 300,000 people. But the St. Louis metropolitan area (AKA Greater St. Louis) is roughly 2.8 million people. Most people who say they are from St. Louis are actually from one of the 80+ municipalities that surround St. Louis. We have the odd distinction of being one of only two major U.S. cities that is not incorporated into its surrounding county (the other is Baltimore).
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I want to note, here, I didn’t call her a spoiler or say she shouldn’t have run. I just said that she is more progressive than most of her district and, that as a moderate, Clay’s political views were not out of step. The voters have given her an opportunity to prove herself. She will have to govern for all of her district, not just the progressive minority. If she does a good job, she’ll keep her seat. If she doesn’t, she’ll get primaried by a moderate.
Parfigliano
@germy: That seat was the Clay family business
Jim, Foolish Literalist
NPR just played a clip of trump saying “I like this building, I spend a lot of time here, a lot of people didn’t spend so much time here”. I think he’s making the case for violating the Hatch Act (I know, no one cares) by using the White House as a campaign backdrop, and still trying to make the case that Obama golfs too much?
Walker
Clay is the reason that seat is so safe and the reason Missouri lost a D seat in the last redistricting. He voted with the republicans (overriding the governor veto) to gerrymander the districts to keep his seat safe.
JMG
The rationalizations of Trump voters are of no interest. “Good manager” is especially ridiculous, but they’re all covers for the real reason. “I like his cruelty, for I take pleasure in the suffering of those I dislike. Also, his racism makes my white ass feel better.” They know better than to say that, even to themselves, but we can ignore the other stuff. Tens of millions of our fellow citizens are just complete shit, and the sooner we all operate on that basis the better.
Calouste
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I wonder what kind of jobs those people have, because if you have to work for a manager like the shitgibbon (does no work, takes no responsibility), it’s hell. I’ve hated managers I’ve worked for for far less.
janesays
@Marcopolo: To be precise, Krewson was the only white candidate who managed to win more than 3% of the vote in the Democratic primary. The very white perennial gadfly candidate Bill Haas was also on the ballot in 2017.
But the observation that Krewson only won that primary because the black vote got split between three different candidates (Tishaura Jones, Lewis Reed, and Antonio French) is absolutely correct.
Jinchi
That’s Trump’s way of saying that Obama didn’t even realize the White House had a bunker.
debit
@CarolDuhart2: I was very upset when Tlaib booed Clinton and Omar laughed. They are where they are now, in part, thanks to her 30 plus years of work. Also, she defended them when the GOP machine was trying to tear them down. So, yes, VERY upset at the giggling schoolgirl bullshit of that moment.
However, I also think Omar is a better bet than a republican funded newcomer to our district. I’m willing to give her another two years and see what she does now that she’s had some time and experience under her belt.
Buckeye
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
It’s entirely possible for Omar to be both someone who takes a massive amount of shit and who also needs to grow up.
Still supporting Tara Reade well after it was obvious that Reade was a habitual liar isn’t a good look. Neither are the continuing questions over finances.
It’s not a surprise that she was primaried.
MagdaInBlack
@Calouste:
They’re probably managers .. =-)
Roger Moore
@Frankensteinbeck:
The last I heard they were trying to shut the media out of it, which only makes sense if they think it’s going to be a fiasco. Why else would they want to shut the media out of an event that’s tailor made to create positive media exposure?
Steeplejack
@germy:
Steeplejack doesn’t like unsourced bullshit or “news” that gives no clue to the source (and possible bias or “angle” thereof). Also, it is polite for a commenter to provide a link rather than expect n number of readers to hunt it down themselves if they want to read further. If you can’t provide a link, you can at least name the source with a little specificity.
In this case, you are perfectly entitled to ask for a link.
Marcopolo
@janesays: My bad for overlooking Haas. He’s run so many times for so many different offices over the last couple of decades that I think I just see a blank spot instead of his name nowadays. Literally our own Lyndon LaRouche or Rocky whatever his last name is. I think the only race he’s won over the years was to the St Louis Public School Board when the actual school oversight power was in the hands of a state appointed oversight board.
janesays
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I live in St. Louis city, and I think you are misremembering the 2017 primary results.
If by “almost no votes” you mean French won nearly 16% of the vote (in a primary where the winner only won 32% of the vote), sure, he won almost no votes. If French wasn’t in the race and his voters all defected to Jones, she’s the current mayor.
The combined Krewson and Reed vote slightly exceeded the combined Jones and French vote, but only just barely – 50.3% to 46.2%. That’s a margin that can be overcome in the right circumstances. If the St. Louis mayoral primary were held yesterday and Reed and Jones were the only two names on the ballot (both African-American, one moderate, one progressive), Jones would have won that contest.
Marcopolo
@Steeplejack: Oh man, when did you start talking about yourself in the third person? Have you recently joined the ranks of royalty & I missed it?
MuckJagger
As someone who once got sucked into a payday predatory loan agreement, any representative who takes money from groups like that (I make no distinction between places like Rent-A-Center and the payday loan companies, both of whom charge ridiculous interest rates) can go piss up a rope.
I will concede it was my own fault: some friends and I had gone to Las Vegas, and I returned happy and broke. I got an email from my sister saying she was taking my mom to Las Vegas, and asked if I wanted to go. I’ve *always* wanted to take my mom to Vegas.
So I borrowed $750 from a payday loan company. Every payday for the next 15 paydays, they siphoned off $250 from my payroll check…of which $50 went to principal. And the balance didn’t change the amount taken; when I had a balance of $100 they still posted $50 to the principal and took $250 from my check.
Granted, I made my own bed; when I took the loan out it was for fun. Folks having to do that to pay their rent because they lost their job or something…different story, IMODO.
janesays
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There’s a good chance he won’t be able to use any part of the White House to deliver his acceptance speech, because of the Hatch Act. Not that he actually cares about silly things like federal campaign laws.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Buckeye: the unwillingness of Sanders and his supporters (including here on this blog, but I’m more thinking about the often smarmily self-righteous Chris Hayes) to address the toxicity of his “revolution” is aggravating. Double-plus aggravating.
Marcopolo
@janesays: Yeah, as much as their is a progressive/moderate divide in St Louis, there is also a racial divide in voting that shouldn’t be overlooked. I think it gets smaller every passing year but it is still there.
Also in terms of the Bush/Clay election I’m not entirely persuaded that the difference in their positions on the political spectrum meant as much as their presence (and relatability to the average voter) in the district. Clay spent a big part of his childhood in DC w/ his dad. As I’ve said earlier, Bush grew up poor. Her life story & lived experience is a much closer fit to the PoC who live in MO-1.
Captain C
@Walker: That’s…unusual…for a U.S. Rep to have a vote in a state legislature.
Frankensteinbeck
@janesays:
The President and Vice President are exempt from the Hatch Act. It’s actually in the wording of the law.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Frankensteinbeck: I did not know that. Wasn’t it the Hatch Act the R’s used to attack Al Gore when he used the wrong credit card to make fund-raising phone calls from the wrong office as Veep?
Geminid
Re “The Squad.” Pressley seems to be a very solid freshman among a number of soIid freshmen representatives. I like Rashida Tlaib. She was a hardworking state representative until she was term limited after six years, and she seems to have picked up where she left off as Congresswoman, which may have accounted for her easy primary win. And while I’ve been skeptical of Ocasio-Cortez, much of that has to do with the way others made such a big deal out her primary win over Crowley. Shifting Overton Windows and all that. She won with17,000 plus votes over Crowley’s 14,000. By contrast, in the Va. 7th district Abigail Spanberger won with 35,000 votes, and the next of four other candidates pulled in 20,000. AOC has grown into the job, especially since she dumped her chief of staff and press secretary last August. They did help get her elected, but they didn’t do her any favors after. But Omar…. the Islamaphobic attacks on her by Trump and others tend to immunize her from legitimate criticism, but I’m bothered by some things about her, including the fact that 40% of the 2 1/5+ million dollars she has raised went to her new husband’s political firm.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@janesays: You are right about misremembering the French totals. I don’t agree that if the candidates had ONLY been Jones and Reed, that Jones would have won. Some of the French voters would have gone to Reed. Most of Krewson votes would have gone to Reed.
Roger Moore
@CarolDuhart2:
I think Biden was forced into it by circumstances, but he has really made the most of campaigning remotely. And I expect a lot of people who have themselves been forced to stay home by the pandemic can respect that Biden was experiencing the same kinds of problems they were. That the worst thing the Republicans can throw at Biden is that he’s campaigning remotely rather than going out in person shows just how little they have.
Adam Lang
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Of course she will be primaried. All of the new progressives are being primaried, by people with a huge amount of money in the center.
Did you know that essentially every single House member in the country believes that their constituents are more conservative than they actually are? There’ve been a couple of great studies done on the subject. Another one suggests that a huge majority of constituents think that people in their district are to their right, which is a manifestly obvious impossibility, but which would be obvious to the casual observer of American politics.
piratedan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: to be scrupulously fair. Sanders has been out on twitter telling his people that he supports and will be voting for Biden. This is more emphatic than the hand-waving support that was thrown to HRC the last time. Naturally the twitter thread quickly devolved to Biden being a simply more polite version of the Anti-Christ and that they will be voting Green tyvm. How much of that is real people versus trolling facades I will leave to the reader of twitter threads to discern.
Elizabelle
AP story on primary victor Cory Bush, via the LA Times.
Once homeless, now poised for the House: Protest leader ousts veteran Missouri congressman
Cori Bush, a once-homeless woman who led protests following a white police officer’s fatal shooting of a Black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Mo., ousted longtime Rep. William Lacy Clay on Tuesday in Missouri’s Democratic primary, ending a political dynasty that has spanned more than a half-century.
Bush’s victory came in a rematch of 2018, when she failed to capitalize on a national Democratic wave that favored political newcomers such as Bush’s friend, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York.
But this time around, Bush’s supporters said protests over the death of George Floydin police custody in Minneapolis and outrage over racial injustice finally pushed her past Clay, who has served in Congress for 20 years.
…..
Bush became ill while pregnant with her second child in 2001 and had to quit her job at a preschool. When she and her then-husband were evicted from a rental home, the couple, their newborn and 14-month-old son lived out of a Ford Explorer for several months.
Eventually, the couple divorced. Bush earned a nursing degree. She also became a pastor.
Michael Brown’s death in 2014 in Ferguson vaulted her into another role: activist. She became a leader of some of the many protests that followed the fatal police shooting of the unarmed Black 18-year-old. She was back on the streets in 2017 after a white St. Louis officer was acquitted in the shooting death of a Black suspect.
She continues to lead protests.
“She’s being buoyed by this movement, and the movement’s origin is in Ferguson,” Justice Democrats spokesman Waleed Shahid said.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Roger Moore: they’re also trying to hammer the idea that Biden can’t complete a sentence. The Daily Show did a great clip on it that I hope the Biden campaign, and the Lincoln Project, and the Dem PACs, all plagiarize shamelessly. God know the the Oaf gives them ample footage. If I were a rich millionaire, I would make these featuring only The Failsons introducing The Beast’s brain- and denture-slips.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@piratedan: yeah, but he’s also sending Jill Stein surrogate Nina “bowl of shit” Turner and less famous nutcases to what are supposed to be unifying conferences, and AOC put out a bunch of tweets about Biden’s climate stance that were basically, “Look how we made them bend the knee!”
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Marcopolo: The racial divide is real, important, and makes a difference in elections. However, the way it typically has worked is that black voters are more willing to vote for white candidates they agree with (even against black candidates) than white voters are to vote for black candidates they agree with when white candidates are available. This is why in 2017 if the only two choices had been Krewson and Jones, Jones would have been creamed, instead of losing narrowly.
Buckeye
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I just find it funny that apparently it’s only ‘establishment’ Dems that should be primaried, not incumbents that are Sanders supporters.
That’s not the way this works.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Buckeye: and only “Establishment” Dems are supposed to “reach out”, “make room in the tent”….
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Betty Cracker: I started out dubious about primarying from the left, but AOC has been a revelation. Talk about bringing a new perspective to the conversation. Looks like Cori Bush will do the same. More please!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@dww44: There’s a historian of the Tudor period named Lacey Baldwin Smith who I just assumed was a woman until I saw a picture of him on the dust jacket or was referred to as “him” in some article. Quite a surprise. He died in 2013 and was a much respected and admired historian.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Marcopolo:
It seemed rhetorically appropriate/humorous in responding to germy speaking for Steeplejack. Sorry if I strayed above my station.
janesays
Oh, the horror!
janesays
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Jones would not have been creamed if it had been a two person race. That’s insane.
Cacti
I’ve had little regard for Omar since finding out she has a crush on Erdogan, and her “all genocides matter” bullshit on Armenia because it would hurt her favorite dictator’s feelings.
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
One of the things I’m happy about with BLM is that they seem to be doing a good job of progressing from being a community-based protest to a broader political movement that can get people elected to office. That seems like a big contrast to the Occupy movement, which was successful in the short term at getting attention but which didn’t move on to become a bigger political movement.
janesays
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Tried to edit my last comment, ran out of time.
The only reason that St. Louis has only had white mayors for the entire 21st Century is because the black vote has been split in hotly contested primaries (Freeman Bosley, Jr. siphoned away a ton of votes from Clarence Harmon in 2001). Nearly 65% of St. Louis voters cast their ballots for three black candidates in 2017. Any one of those three would have beaten Krewson in a 1-on-1 contest.
Geminid
I sometimes think primary runoffs, like they have in Texas, are a good thing. Some candidates get in with a small plurality, edging out others who might prevail one on one. And incumbents are fairly safe if there is more than one challenger. Jamaal Bowman probably would have lost to Elliot Engel if another challenger hadn’t dropped out and endorsed him. “Jungle primaries,” like they have in California and I think Louisiana, where the top two vote-getters go on to the general regardless of party, might be good. I wonder what California and Cajun jackals think.
Ruckus
@Geminid:
In CA I’m not that great a fan but so far no real issues that I can tell. It can beat a crappy incumbent from remaining forever on the ballet out of momentum, something that has happened over the years. A lot of people want to be politicians, usually decent pay, not bad hours, sometimes you do have to work with people who at the very least should be shoveling cow shit rather than be anywhere near political work.
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hasn’t the challenger been proven to have a hostile work environment?
MisterForkbeard
@janesays: I read this very differently. Basically that they got Biden to elevate and improve his positions, but not that they forced him to against his will.
Having re-read that, I see I agree with you.
Jinchi
I was unsure of the California jungle primary at first, but I’m sold on it now. It guarantees that every elected candidate receives a majority vote in the general election, but also allows for competitive general election contests in highly partisan (D+20 or R+20) districts, which helps to tamp down on extremist candidates.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Tell it, Joe.
Tell.it.
and, stay in the basement.
rikyrah
@SiubhanDuinne:
Stay in the basement, Joe.
STAY. THERE.
Steeplejack
@dww44:
I think it can be the case, more so in the past than now and perhaps more so in the South, that it is a family surname that has been handed down. I have an aunt whose first name is “Barbee,” not as some odd variation of Barbara but because that is an old surname up the family tree. “Lacy” may be something similar.
ruemara
@download my app in the app store mistermix: I do. funny, how saying you’re sad the Democratic Party tent being big enough for you & Biden isn’t a spoiled brat thing. Or sitting at an event booing Hillary Clinton isn’t being a spoiled brat. I could talk about 2 of them with financial irregularities where their campaigns paid their romantic partners. But, yeah, quite a few of “The Squad” I’d send back home packing for their establishment replacements.
AliceBlue
@Roger Moore: I read a diary on DKos about this and made the mistake of reading some of the comments – “Biden’s ignoring Wisconsin just like Hillary!”
James E Powell
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
C’mon, that was uncalled for.
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
This! In fact, the more I think about it, Biden should stay in the basement and also be swaddled in Bader Ginsburg bubble wrap. If he were to catch coronavirus or, God forbid, die from it, all hell would break loose. (I’ll leave the spittle-flecked rants to the alt-history nuts.)
Roger Moore
@Jinchi:
My big worry was that the Republicans would try to get the Democrats to split their vote by getting a ton of “Democratic” candidates on the ballot while putting only 2 Republicans in the primary. The hope would be to get 2 Republicans with 20% of the vote each and 8 Democrats each with less than 20%. In practice, though, the Republicans haven’t been organized enough to pull that kind of shenanigans. Similarly, the Democrats were better than the Republicans at gaming the non-Partisan redistricting commission, though I don’t think either side managed to accomplish a lot.
Just One More Canuck
@download my app in the app store mistermix: so it’s ok that Tlaib booed Hillary, and Omar just laughed about it? Got it
I enjoy your posts as a rule, but the pettiness you show sometimes is hard to take
Geminid
@Ruckus:
@Jinchi: thanks to both of you. In the Va.5th district we had four good primary candidates, but Cameron Webb sailed through with 60+%. But I look at the gerrymandered districts in states south of here, and I wonder if the Freedom Caucus types could survive a jungle primary. In the long run these extremist politicians are running their party into the ground, but in the short term they’ve hurt a lot of people. It doesn’t seem to be so big a problem on the Democratic side. But we’re not as crazy.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Did Velshi correct them and explain why Trump isn’t a “good manager”?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
Well, I can see why you’re offended when someone suggested their behavior was childish
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah:
yeah, but Ryan Grim and Katie Halper assure me his accusers are unstable liars. (Not even snarking)
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I read an interview in The Intercept with Pelosi’s challenger a couple weeks ago. There was a weird fictional introduction, followed by some slow pitch softball questions. He’s a slick talking guy, and I wouldn’t trust him for a second even if he was running against someone besides the Speaker. Whatever Grim et al were doing, it sure as hell wasn’t journalism.
mattH
@Geminid:
One candidate scares the hell out of me regarding the jungle primary system; David Duke.
janesays
@Steeplejack: William Lacy Clay, Jr. goes by the name “Lacy” to differentiate himself from his father, William Lacy Clay, Sr., who goes by the name “Bill”.
Randolf Hurts
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: How do you seriously laugh off the very concerning use of dropping bombs on innocent people via DRONZE? I am a long time lurker and generally refuse to dive into the comments here because of this childish attitude. Calling out our party leaders for doing bad things is a good thing. It’s not a circular firing squad. Whining about progressives for calling out our party leaders for doing bad things is far closer to a circular firing squad. And it makes you sound like an old man yelling at a cloud.