JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Two friends have asked me for voting recommendations on next Tuesday’s ballot in Missouri, and that suggests other people out there could use some guidance.

Sadly, The Star no longer does nearly as many pre-election political stories as it used to do — stories that simply introduce the candidates to readers and report the candidates’ positions on various issues.

In the absence of that, many more voters are going to the polls knowing little or nothing about many candidates and having no idea whom to vote for.

This being a liberal blog read mostly by Democrats (but many thanks to you Republicans who stick with me), following is a look at selected, competitive races on the Democratic ballot.

(To see the first three pages of the Democratic ballot in Kansas City, go to the bottom of this post…Also, you should know that when you go to the polls for a Missouri primary election, you are asked which party’s ballot you want.)

Governor

Competing for the Democratic nomination are Nicole Galloway, Jimmie Matthews, Antoin Johnson, Eric Morrison and Robin John Daniel Van Quaethem. (Robin John Daniel may have the longest name to ever appear on a Missouri ballot.)

I say “competing” loosely, because Galloway, the state auditor, is the only serious candidate. Between her political action committee and her personal campaign, she has raised about $3.1 million. However, Gov. Mike Parson, who will be the Republican nominee, has raised more than twice that much, and he will probably win in November by a wide margin.

In the Democratic primary, though, the choice is Galloway, who may well set herself up for another statewide run down the road.

Lieutenant Governor

The candidates are Gregory A. Upchurch of St. Charles and Alissia Canady of Kansas City. Canady is a former City Council member and a former assistant Jackson County prosecutor.

Upchurch has raised less than $1,000, so he’s not a serious candidate. Canady has raised $45,000, enough, probably, to beat Upchurch, but she would face incumbent Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe in the general election. Unless Missouri turns upside down in November, Canady, like Galloway, will finish far back in the general election.

Nevertheless, in this corner, it’s “Go Canady!”

Attorney General

The Democratic candidates are two men in their 30s, Elad Gross, a 32-year-old former assistant attorney general, and Rich Finneran, a 36-year-old former federal prosecutor.

Both men live in the St. Louis area. Gross’ website says at one point, “Elad was born and raised in Missouri. His name is pronounced “El-ahd” and means “God is eternal.”

I agree with him on that…

I know very little about either man, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has endorsed Finneran, who sounds like a friend of the press. The P-D editorial says this about that: “Finneran vows to set new standards of transparency for the attorney general’s office, including publicly posting all responses to Sunshine Law information requests.”

That’s good enough for me, and I recommend a vote for Finneran.

Unfortunately, Finneran, if he wins next Tuesday, will face another powerful Republican in November, incumbent Eric Schmitt, who is decidedly NOT a friend of open government.

State representative, District 25

This is an interesting race. It pits Patty Lewis, a former nurse and former Cerner employee, against Drew Rogers, a lawyer. They are battling to succeed state Rep. Greg Razer, who is running unopposed for state senate in District 9.

There are no Republican candidates in District 25, so the Lewis-Rogers winner will be in Jeff City next January.

The district runs from I-435 on the south to slightly north of the Plaza, between State Line Road and Troost, for the most part.

Lewis got in the race early this year, before Rogers. She called me in February, asking what state issues were important to me and soliciting my support. (She didn’t call me, by the way because I’m a legendary blogger but because I’m on almost every local Democratic candidate’s fund-raising list.) I was sufficiently impressed that I sent her $100 that day.

Lewis has a lot of yard signs up in various parts of the district, while Rogers’ signs are concentrated in the Waldo area, where he lives.

Rogers strikes me as a good candidate, but I think Lewis’ quick jump out of the box is going to tell the story.

Jackson County Sheriff

Sheriff Darryl Forte, who succeeded Sheriff Mike Sharp after Sharp resigned in disgrace in 2018 is running against…former Sheriff Sharp.

I have to admit I was baffled when I saw Sharp-for-sheriff signs along Ward Parkway last month. I had forgotten, to tell you the truth, he had resigned after court documents revealed a pattern of favoritism to a department employee who was also his girlfriend.

From all appearances, Sharp has mounted a fairly strong campaign, but he is strictly bad news. His tendency to put titillation before duty dates all the way back to 2008, when he was a reserve KCPD officer. That year, a former KC Star colleague, Kevin Murphy, wrote a story about Sharp having been part of a group of about 35 KC officers and Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies who shared sexually explicit emails.

In spite of that damaging revelation, Sharp was elected sheriff for the first time that year. He was re-elected in 2012 and again in 2016 and then came the 2018 splashdown in the mud. But now he’s baaack…Agghhhh!

I’m not wild about Forte, who will long be remembered as the chief who retired on short notice and slid out the back door with a half-million-dollar windfall in accrued vacation, sick and comp time.

But Sharp? If he wins, I would be embarrassed to say I was from Jackson County.

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…Finally, don’t forget about Medicaid expansion, Constitutional Amendment No. 2, at the bottom of the ballot.

Vote “yes” as many times as you can…

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Now, here are the first three pages of the Democratic sample ballot…