An Interesting Primary For All
Well, the primary elections are over, and the stage is set for November.
Very few surprises out of it all, but we will continue to watch the races for some of our new-comers.
Darryl Lackey easily won election to the central committee, but lost his primary battle for the county council to Joe Cronin, one of Skippy's choices. Now, Cronin will face liberal Cheryl Hibbeler in November.
The interesting thing that happened, though, wasn't that Senator Scott Rupp retained his seat, successfully fending off a primary battle by councilman Joe Brazil, but the surprise was in the margin of victory.
Rupp handily defeated Brazil in what was became a fairly ugly race, 8,849 - 4,501.
A 2-1 margin is hardly worth all the money that was absolutely wasted in this race. Skippy has set up two different political action committees to funnel money into the candidates of his choice - all of the money coming from Adolphus Busch and his clan over at the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance.
One such PAC, riteonpac, is a spinoff of Skippy's website. This PAC raised $39,000 and spent $26,000 on various campaigns, mostly Brazil's. The other PAC is one that he set up in order to funnel money to what he referred to as "smart growth" candidates for various offices. Between the two PACs, a whopping $54,000 was raised through these circles.
A quick search of his other website shows us that out of the seventeen candidates that Skippy backed, a whopping seven were elected. Six, really, because John White was a slam-dunk. By the way, what happened to the endorsement of sheriff candidate Pat Riley? I know it was there at one time!
Meanwhile, speaking of the sheriff's race, incumbent sheriff Tom Neer pulled off a victory over runner-up Doug Saulters with Riley in third. I like all three men, my only concern with Neer is that we'll end up going through this all again in another four years, as he is most likely to retire.
Congressman Todd Akin absolutely destroyed state Rep. Sherman Parker, who chose to vacate his seat to run against Akin. Now, as savvy as Parker is, the only thing I can think of is that he was promised a certain level of fundraising and organization, and it then fell through. Of course, getting arrested the week before the election for having two outstanding warrants doesn't help, either!
On the unfortunate side, a few of Skippy's choices have made it to the Republican Central Committee. Brandy Pederson easily defeated Sandi Lafata, wife of Mark Lafata, to retain her seat, although Mark won re-election.
Among others making it to the central committee from Skippy's camp are: Joan Gettemeyer (O'Fallon Township), Mike Brazil and Peggy Green (Lake St. Louis Township). On the lighter side, Skippy's own wife must be reeling from her two-to-one margin of defeat at the hands of Lisa Adkins. We'll hope that the new committee, without the retiring chairman Tom Kuypers, can mend fences and move forward.
In the one really contested county council race, former St. Charles Councilwoman Nancy Matheny handily defeated St. Peters Alderman Patrick Barclay for nomination to replace Bob Schnur, who lost a squeaker to Michelle McBride for County Collector.
I think, for the most part, that we have a good slate of candidates going into November. Let's just hope we can all stay together long enough to make it that far!
Very few surprises out of it all, but we will continue to watch the races for some of our new-comers.
Darryl Lackey easily won election to the central committee, but lost his primary battle for the county council to Joe Cronin, one of Skippy's choices. Now, Cronin will face liberal Cheryl Hibbeler in November.
The interesting thing that happened, though, wasn't that Senator Scott Rupp retained his seat, successfully fending off a primary battle by councilman Joe Brazil, but the surprise was in the margin of victory.
Rupp handily defeated Brazil in what was became a fairly ugly race, 8,849 - 4,501.
A 2-1 margin is hardly worth all the money that was absolutely wasted in this race. Skippy has set up two different political action committees to funnel money into the candidates of his choice - all of the money coming from Adolphus Busch and his clan over at the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance.
One such PAC, riteonpac, is a spinoff of Skippy's website. This PAC raised $39,000 and spent $26,000 on various campaigns, mostly Brazil's. The other PAC is one that he set up in order to funnel money to what he referred to as "smart growth" candidates for various offices. Between the two PACs, a whopping $54,000 was raised through these circles.
A quick search of his other website shows us that out of the seventeen candidates that Skippy backed, a whopping seven were elected. Six, really, because John White was a slam-dunk. By the way, what happened to the endorsement of sheriff candidate Pat Riley? I know it was there at one time!
Meanwhile, speaking of the sheriff's race, incumbent sheriff Tom Neer pulled off a victory over runner-up Doug Saulters with Riley in third. I like all three men, my only concern with Neer is that we'll end up going through this all again in another four years, as he is most likely to retire.
Congressman Todd Akin absolutely destroyed state Rep. Sherman Parker, who chose to vacate his seat to run against Akin. Now, as savvy as Parker is, the only thing I can think of is that he was promised a certain level of fundraising and organization, and it then fell through. Of course, getting arrested the week before the election for having two outstanding warrants doesn't help, either!
On the unfortunate side, a few of Skippy's choices have made it to the Republican Central Committee. Brandy Pederson easily defeated Sandi Lafata, wife of Mark Lafata, to retain her seat, although Mark won re-election.
Among others making it to the central committee from Skippy's camp are: Joan Gettemeyer (O'Fallon Township), Mike Brazil and Peggy Green (Lake St. Louis Township). On the lighter side, Skippy's own wife must be reeling from her two-to-one margin of defeat at the hands of Lisa Adkins. We'll hope that the new committee, without the retiring chairman Tom Kuypers, can mend fences and move forward.
In the one really contested county council race, former St. Charles Councilwoman Nancy Matheny handily defeated St. Peters Alderman Patrick Barclay for nomination to replace Bob Schnur, who lost a squeaker to Michelle McBride for County Collector.
I think, for the most part, that we have a good slate of candidates going into November. Let's just hope we can all stay together long enough to make it that far!
posted by Administrator at 11:00 AM
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