Pity the poor voter. The refrain of scorecard hawkers at ballgames – “Ya can’t tell the players without a scorecard” – applies increasingly to the Jefferson County voters.Â
The Great Resignation, which in recent times has referred to pandemic job-hoppers, now has hit the county’s Democratic Party, or what’s left of it.
Its near-extinction is the culmination of a really awful terrible decade for the donkey party, which went from dominant to dormant faster than you could say Abraham Lincoln.
It began with the Tea Party rising of 2010, continued with local punishment meted out during the 2012 campaign, headed on the Democratic side by President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. That year, many Republican campaign mailers had a photoshopped picture of the Democratic opponent grinning next to Obama.
By 2014, the rout was on as longtime officer holders – judges even! – and newbies alike were tossed out by the handful if they dared to file as Democrats.
Opining on this page back then, I wondered when those candidates would wake up and smell the tar pots. They had three choices – they could fall on the sword of their principles, retire or reinvent themselves as Republicans.
Door No. 3 it is!
Back then, I thought it was cowardly to take that path. Upon further reflection, and after watching inexperienced, struggling lawyers defeat seasoned and competent judges because they had the wrong initial by their names on the ballot, I have changed my mind.
When it comes to county-level elections, there isn’t a single job that has anything to do with the political stances of the national parties. County auditor, treasurer, county clerk, recorder of deeds, public administrator and collector are office jobs that require office skills and management chops. Hot-button issues such as gun control or abortion have zero to do with those posts.
It’s even less relevant for the judges, who never are going to rule on those issues at the circuit or associate circuit court level in Hillsboro. What the voters should want there – a reasonable person might think – are experience, knowledge of the law, respect and empathy for people going through the stress of a civil trial, even-handedness and a reasonable courtroom demeanor (God complexes need not apply).
Instead, voters went by none of those things, but instead cast ballots according to the letter next to the candidate’s name. And though that current letter is R, for the 50 years preceding the last decade, that letter in Jefferson County was D, and they all won, too, scoundrels and saints alike.
All of this makes for a decent argument that county-level political jobs should be non-partisan, like school boards and city councils. Not surprisingly, the hyper-divisive current mood is pushing for the opposite, with super partisans in the Legislature introducing bills to make such boards R and D choices. This would be bad for town councils, school boards, fire and ambulance districts and others. Imagine running for a special road district board seat or a sewer district seat and having to lay out your position on Roe vs. Wade. So far, none of that foolishness has gained traction in Missouri.
Back behind Door No. 3, we have Republican candidates running in 2022 who used to be Democrats.
Travis Partney, an experienced hand in the Jefferson County Prosecutor’s Office who was appointed an associate circuit judge in 2016 but lost an election bid later that year when he had the wrong letter next to his name, now is running as an R for a circuit judgeship this time.
Two associate circuit judges, Tim Miller and Shannon Dougherty, switched sides and are running unopposed this year. Both have years on the bench and are well-regarded. Had they filed as Democrats, any pipsqueak with a law degree and the $50 filing fee likely would have whipped them.
That would not have benefited the county, just as it did not when a green lawyer who reportedly had never tried a case in court defeated a well-regarded sitting judge a few years back because of the R and D distinction. Then it happened again.
The fact that a single letter could elect an iffy candidate over an experienced, competent jurist should scare us all, especially when it involves a job in which a main responsibility is to make life-altering decisions. Then again, Winston Churchill once said, “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
The D to R transformation is not only happening in the judiciary. Three Republican state representatives – Mary Elizabeth Coleman of Arnold, Shane Roden of Cedar Hill and Dan Shaul of Imperial – are vying for their party’s nomination for an open Missouri Senate seat. A former Democratic state rep, Jeff Roorda of Arnold – who has lost races in recent years for Missouri Senate, county executive and a seat on the County Council, all as a Democrat – now is running for the Senate again, but as a Republican.
With some former Democrats putting on elephant suits, the average voter will actually have to learn something about the candidates instead of relying on the R and D shortcut. Imagine that, informed voters, proving Churchill wrong.
We can dream, can’t we?
