Last week’s announcement by Wes Wagner that he would resign as Jefferson County Clerk halfway through his term marked the end of anything approximating a family dynasty in local politics.
At least on the Democratic side.
For the first time in more than 40 years, there will be no one from Wagner’s family in an elected office in Jefferson County.
Wes Wagner served 10 years as county clerk, which followed three terms in the Missouri House of Representatives.
His dad, Howard, had a 28-year run as circuit clerk. Howard Wagner began his political career in 1978 when he ran for the old County Court, an administrative body that preceded the County Commission, which itself was replaced by the County Council when Jefferson County voters approved charter government in 2008.
When Howard Wagner began his career, it overlapped that of his father-in-law – Wes Wagner’s grandfather – the late William “Bud” Lewis of De Soto, who served seven terms in the Missouri House of Representatives in the days before term limits.
Howard Wagner retired in 2014. With Wes resigning to go into the “private sector,” we are out of Wagners in elective public life, although Wes’s uncle, Tim Lewis, still serves as police chief of Festus, an appointed position.
This development follows the apparent end of the other Democratic dynasty family from Jefferson County, the McKennas. That one, though not continuous, stretched back even further.
Bill McKenna of Crystal City served as a state representative and later state senator from 1982 until 1999. His father served in the House of Representatives in the 1940s.
Bill’s son, Ryan, also served in the House and the Senate before taking a job as head of Missouri Department of Labor under former Gov. Jay Nixon.
Ryan’s cousin, TJ McKenna, served a single term in the House before losing the 2014 race to Republican Becky Ruth of Festus. TJ attempted a comeback in 2016 when he ran for public administrator but lost in the general election to incumbent Republican Steve Farmer.
Of course, there is a First Family on the Republican side. Renee Reuter has been on the County Council since the first elections in 2010 and has served several stints as its chair. In 2014, her husband Mike won a full-time position when he ran for circuit clerk and won.
To complete the circle, and the handoff of the First Family title, he succeeded none other than Howard Wagner.
This shouldn’t have come as a shock to anyone who paid attention to the last several elections. In less than a decade, Jefferson County turned suddenly and almost completely Republican in local races. The county had trended that way for a while in statewide and national races, but conservative Democrats still ran well here – until they didn’t, beginning in 2010.
That was the year the Tea Party rose up. A number of local Democrats survived that year because they had no opposition in the general election.
“If they’d had candidates, we’d have all been gone,” Wes Wagner said the day after the 2010 election. He was one of the survivors, and his comment was prophetic.
After dropping a single county office in 2012, Democrats did much worse in 2014, losing 10 out of 13 local races, though Wes Wagner won a squeaky-close race.
Last November, it was a complete wipeout for Democrats, who didn’t win a single contested race on the county or state level.
The power of the “R” next to a candidate’s name on the ballot was never more apparent than in the judicial races, where long-term incumbent Democratic judges were sent packing in both 2014 and 2016, losing to arguably less-qualified lawyers who didn’t win on their legal experience or their resumes.
They won because they signed up as Republicans. That was not lost on one Democratic judge, Shannon Dougherty, who changed parties shortly after her last election. So far, she is the only incumbent to switch horses.
Wes Wagner’s replacement will be appointed by County Executive Ken Waller, a Republican. The county charter obliges Waller to fill such appointments with a member of the same party of the resigned officeholder, so the Democratic head count in the courthouse will remain the same – seven out of 29 elected offices.
All seven – three judges and four officeholders – are up for re-election in 2018. With Wagner’s resignation, however, the Republicans have one fewer incumbent (and well-known ballot name) to try to unseat.
Barring an enormous turn in public sentiment or a disastrous performance in Washington, D.C., or Jefferson City, it’s hard to expect much of a reversal of recent elections – the red tide is a-rolling.
