As of yesterday, the people who are trying to buy this election have contributed more than $1.8 million to the Committee for Research, Treatments and Cures.
That means the committee pushing Jackson County Question 1 probably will end up spending more than $2 million trying to ram this ridiculous half-cent-sales-tax increase down the throats of average citizens.
Here’s a list of the latest four- and five-figure contributions:
UMKC Foundation, $96,000
Sprint, $25,000
Barnett Helzberg Jr. Revocable Trust, $25,000
James B. Nutter Co., $17,000
Walter Porter, Olathe, $10,000
Global Prairie, Kansas City, $5,000
Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, $4,450
And here is a list of major contributions that I previously reported, as of Oct. 25:
Civic Council of Greater Kansas City, $700,000
Children’s Mercy Hospital, $100,000
Donald Hall Jr., $100,000
Hallmark Global Services, $100,000
JE Dunn Construction, $100,000
John G. Sherman, chairman and c.e.o of Inergy L.P., $100,000
Robert Kipp, former Crown Center Development president, $50,000
Burns and McDonnell, engineering company, $50,000
St. Luke’s Health System, $40,000
St. Luke’s Foundation, $30,000
KCP&L, $25,000
Mariner Holdings, $25,000
Tom McDonnell, retired DST c.e.o., $25,000
Irvine O. Hockaday Jr., former Hallmark Cards c.e.o., $20,000
Randall O’Donnell, Children’s Mercy CEO, $15,000
William Gautreaux, a top Inergy LP officer (see John Sherman), $10,000
Wagstaff & Cartmell law firm, $10,000
Kansas City Southern Railway, $10,000
Husch Blackwell law firm, $10,000
Dr. L. Patrick James of the KC Area Life Sciences Institute, $10,000
Polsinelli law firm, $10,000
Lockton Companies, $10,000
Tension Envelopes, $10,000
Health Alliance of Mid-America, $10,000
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, $7,500
Kansas City Chiefs, $7,500
Stinson Morrison Hecker law firm, $7,500
**
Today, four days before the election, here are my predictions:
1. Fourteen percent, or 56,672, of the county’s 404,000 registered voters will cast ballots.
2. The total number of “no” votes will be 30,033 (53.1 percent).
3. The total number of “yes” votes will be 26,639 (46.9 percent).
4. The Committee for Research, Treatments and Cures will have spent almost $75 per vote.
**
See stopabadcure.org for much more campaign news and analysis.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Wish I could argue with your turn out #’s but I hope your right in that the No’s carry the day. What a sad sad country we live in when the man on the street isn’t interested enough to vote in his own self interest. Hell of a democracy. What are all those service men fighting & dying for anyway?
Agreed—no matter what the turnout it, I’m sure it will be shamefully low. There’s just no excuse for that. I know so many people who only vote in presidential elections, completely ignorant of the fact that local elections are where your vote matters even more, and those local issues can have a huge impact on our quality of life. I make it a point to educate myself and to vote in every single election, and I have since I was 18 (I’m 35 now). Haven’t missed a single time—and honestly, that ought to be true of more folks. I just can’t understand not caring.
Jimmy, I hope you are right that the “no” votes will carry the day. After we return from walking to the poll, I’ll surely be watching and crossing my fingers.
Jayson,
GREAT POINT! And I expect money will come from the opposition until election day! They have piles of cash for the political causes to burn.
They will burn more. I saw a new TV Halloween for the opposition and the tail end of ad for our side during Letterman.
We will win this and we owe a lot to you – Jim Fitzpatrick and many others.
Are you preaching to the choir? I see responses repeatedly from the same persons. I don’t read any critical views or opposing views.
When the church doors open, I open my mouth…I tend to get the same congregants week after week, but doesn’t every church?