Tag Archives: Missouri

Election Night Preview — Part 2 (8 PM to 9 PM EST)

By tmess2 | Published October 28, 2020

As noted in the previous post, by 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, we should have a significant amount of precincts being reported in the two earliest states (Kentucky and Indiana) and should be starting to get some counties reporting votes in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Vermont.  During this hour, the counts in those states should be increasing.  By 9 p.m., we should be seeing either some projection in those states or an indication that the states are too close too call.  We may also be getting an indication in some of those states of how many absentee votes might remain to be counted (which could determine whether it will be possible to make any projection in those states on election night).

While it would be nice if we could get calls in a state like Virginia early in this hour, the bigger question as the hour goes will be the types of swings that we are seeing in these states.   Virginia in 2016 was a leading indicator as we were just not getting strong results compared to 2012.  So as this hour goes along and the networks start looking at the maps of the state, the key thing to pay attention to is how the numbers are comparing to 2016.  Even if the networks aren’t comfortable in calling a state yet, if the results are showing that Trump is underperforming in red parts of a state (i.e. rural counties) and Biden is overperforming in the suburbs, then that is a good sign for the rest of the evening as Trump only one by the slimmest of margins in 2016 and any erosion in his support could prove fatal.

This hour has the most states close.  You have partial closures in Florida (the rest of the state closed an hour earlier), Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota, and Texas.  While a significant part of South Dakota will close an hour later, the polls close for most of the population in Kansas, Michigan, and Texas at 8 p.m. Eastern.  In addition to these states, polls for the entire state close at 8 p.m. Eastern in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Illinois, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. Continue Reading...

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2020 Delegate Math — March 10

By tmess2 | Published March 6, 2020

There is just a little bit of room between Super Tuesday and March 10 for everyone to catch their breath.  Over the past seven days, over half of the candidates have dropped out, and we are left with three candidates (Joe Biden, Tulsi Gabbard, and Bernie Sanders.)

While we are down to three candidates, one word of warning is appropriate.  As we saw on Super Tuesday, some states have no excuse early voting or mail-in ballots.  On Super Tuesday, we saw some significant differences between the early vote count and the “election day” count.  Simply put, people who voted early may have voted for a candidate who was no longer actively running.  It is unclear if any of these candidates will ultimately win a delegate, but some of these candidates did get a significant number of votes in some states.  The extra seven days should lessen this effect, but there could be — depending on the state — a significant number of voters who voted before February 28th, and some of these voters went with one of the five candidates who are no longer running.

There are seven contests which will conclude on March 10.  (I use the term conclude because one of them — Democrats Abroad — is a party-run primary in which the polls are open for almost one week and others allow early voting.)  Besides Democrats Abroad, the other six contests are Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Washington.  While nominally styled as a caucus, North Dakota is a party-run primary.  Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, and Washington are state-run primaries.  (Washington like California relies heavily on mail-in ballots which can cause a delay in getting final results.)  Under the rules of the Democratic Party, all of these contests are binding and delegates will be allocated based on the votes cast for each candidate. Continue Reading...

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Update on Missouri’s Anti-choice laws

By tmess2 | Published July 14, 2019

With so-many Republican-controlled states passing laws designed to make abortion illegal, it’s going to be hard over the next several years to track what is happening with each of these laws as they potentially make their way to the Supreme Court.  (And the moderate conservatives are going to try to avoid this issue as long as they can.)  But I can, at least, track what is happening at the local level.

Missouri passed one of these laws this year — House Bill 126,

First, some brief background on Missouri’s legislative process.  Missouri’ legislature meets in an annual session that runs from early January until mid-May (technically, the session ends at the end of May, but all work on legislation must end by mid-May with the last two weeks for the Speaker/President Pro Tempore to sign the official copies of the bills that pass).   The Governor then has until Mid-July to sign or veto the bills (with an earlier deadline for bills passed early in the session).  The Missouri Constitution generally treats an unsigned bill as if the Governor had signed it.  (In other words, the Governor can’t block a bill by leaving it unsigned.)  Generally speaking, new laws take effect on August 28, but — by a  two-thirds vote in both Houses — the legislature can agree that there is an “emergency” for having it take effect at a different time. Continue Reading...

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2018 Mid-Term Election Preview — Great Plains

By tmess2 | Published October 29, 2018

Like the South (and the northern part of the Rocky Mountain region), this area of the country has been trending Republican, but there are some opportunities for Democratic gains.

Minnesota might be the weirdest state in the country this year.  Democrats are in good shape to hold both U.S. Senate seats that are on the ballot and will probably also win the race for Governor to keep that seat.  Four of the House seats in Minnesota could change hands — two currently held by the Democrats and two currently held by the Republicans.  A significant part of the Second and Third Districts contain the suburbs of the Twin Cities, and Democrats could pick up both seats over Republican incumbents.  The First and Eighth Districts are open seats as the Democratic incumbents tried to run for state office.  Both are mostly rural districts with the Eighth also featuring some declining industry making them good targets for Republican wins.  Thus, in nine days, Minnesota could be anything from 7-1 in favor of the Democrats to 5-3 in favor of the Republicans.

In Iowa, all of the districts except the Fourth District (Western Iowa) are designed to be swing districts.  In good years for the Republicans, those seats go Republican.  In good years for the Democrats, those seats go Democratic.  Right now Republicans have a 3-1 edge, but Democrats are favored to take both the First and Third.  Democrats also are favored to win the race for Governor. Continue Reading...

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Voter Fraud and the Missouri Senate Race

By tmess2 | Published August 29, 2017

Earlier this month, the law on voting where you reside appears to have caught an unlikely person in an election law violation — Missouri’s Attorney General — and presumptive Republican Senate candidate — Josh Hawley.  To understand what happened, a little local background is in order.

The main campus of the University of Missouri is in Columbia — thirty miles away from the state capitol in Jefferson City.  Before becoming Attorney General, Hawley was a law professor at the University of Missouri.  Aside from his full time job, like some law professors, Hawley offered his assistance on cases that he thought deserved his assistance.  One of those cases involved aiding the religious owners of Hobby Lobby in their effort to deny birth control coverage to their female employees.  This case gave Hawley connections to ultra-conservative donors in Washington, and also was a selling point as he went around Missouri speaking to local Republicans in rural counties.   These two advantages allowed him to pull an upset last year in the Republican primary over the “establishment” conservative candidate in the Republican primary, and the Trump landslide helped him win the general election.

After the election is where the fun begins.  First, among the changes that flowed from the 2016 election, the new Republican governor appointed the state representative who represented part of Columbia and the surrounding area to an administration positions.  Before becoming Attorney General,  Hawley and his family lived in this district.   The Governor set the special election to fill this seat for this August (one of the available election dates under state law). Continue Reading...

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Election Night 2016 — What to Look For (Part Three)

By tmess2 | Published November 6, 2016

animated flag glitterAs evening turns into night in the Eastern and Central time zones, the pace picks up.  For whatever reason, 8:00 p.m. is a popular time for states in the Eastern time zone to close their polls as is 7:00 p.m. in the Central time zone.  As discussed in part two, lines at the polls means that the networks typically only have enough results to call races if the races are not close.  Most of the states that will be called by 8:00 p.m. are not the races that will decide the election.  Because most of the polls will have been closed for two hours, there is a good chance that the Indiana senate race may be called by 8:00 p.m.  There is some chance that Georgia (an at-risk state that Trump needs to win) or Virginia (an at-risk state that Clinton needs to win) will be called before 8:00 p.m.  Sixteen states will close their polls at 8:00 p.m. as will the polls in part of several other states.  While the results from the early states give some clues about the shape of the race, the shape of the race will become much clearer when the returns from these states start to come in.

8:00 p.m. (EST) — The remainder of the polls close in Florida.  The polls close in Alabama, Connecticut, D.C., Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.  The polls close in the eastern part of Michigan, Kansas, South Dakota, and Texas.  Several of these states should have quick calls for president, but several states are key states for the outcome of this election.  (Assuming that none of the “close” states from early are called by 8:15 p.m., the projected electoral vote should be approximately 76 for Trump and 55 for Clinton.)

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Primary Lessons from Missouri and Kansas

By tmess2 | Published August 14, 2016

mo-sealThe primary votes in Missouri and Kansas reflect some realities of grass-roots campaigning and the current divisions in the Republican party.

On the Missouri side, “outsider” candidates won two of the three open Republican state-wide primaries.  In addition, several pro-labor Republican state representatives faced well-funded opponents after helping to defeat “right to work” legislation.  The results in these districts were mixed, but unless Democrats can win a couple more suburban seats, the risk of more anti-labor legislation remains.  In short, the Missouri Republican party (aided by the lack of any limit on donations making it easy for billionaires to run candidates that take extreme positions) is still sprinting toward the hard right.

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Missouri Primary

By tmess2 | Published July 31, 2016

The state that gave voters Todd Akin in 2012 is back at it again.  Missouri used to have campaign finance limits, but — when the Republicans held the Governor’s mansion between 2005 and 2008 — those limits went away.  (There might be a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall to restore those limits.  In recent years, policy proposals have tended to be constitutional amendments to avoid any legislative attempts to repeal voter-approved legislation such as the original campaign finance limits.)  It is not unusual for one donor (actually one of two or three individuals) to give several hundred thousand dollars in seed money to a candidate.  As a result, the pre-filing period sees a lot of candidates changing races in response to these well-funded candidates.  Outside of the U.S. Senate race, each of the state-wide races (there are five state offices on the ballot) has a competitive primary on at least one side of the ballot.

Republicans like to describe Missouri as a state with two thorns in its sides.  The two thorns being the St. Louis area and the Kansas City area; both of which tend to vote for the “liberal” side of any proposition or race, often overcoming a “conservative” majority in almost all of the remaining counties.  This picture of Missouri tends to be reflected in the two primaries.  On the Democratic side, there is often a battle between St. Louis and Kansas City,  On the Republican side, it is often Springfield against the Kansas City and St. Louis exurbs.  On to the individual races.

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