Welcome to our pre-election special.

I'm Scott Fund.

You might recognize you Sunday mornings host of this week in Missouri politics.

Let's have a pre-election special.

You know what we should do?

We should talk politics for an hour.

Michael Mahoney, the Kansas City legend, thank you so much for joining us.

Great to be here.

Up and coming, Democrat star Kerry Angle from eastern Jackson County, correct?

That's great for the time.

The Saint Louis legend, Joe Mannies, thank you for making the trip over here to you.

See him.

Well, thanks for asking me.

And Mrs. Columbia, Jennifer Murkowski, thank you so much for the time.

Thanks for having me.

Mike Mahoney, the U.S. Senate race, it feels like we went from one of the most interesting, complex primaries I can remember.

So fun to talk about every week to a U.S. Senate race that maybe isn't that interesting to talk about.

We did.

Yeah, it was one of the hot races in the country during the primary.

Now, when you look at anybody's survey of the races from the Senate, that could determine control of it.

Missouri does not get mentioned whatsoever in that.

And certainly not like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida or anything like that.

The consensus is, is that this is Eric Schmidt to lose and he's not going to lose.

And we're not getting that much attention to the race from the national press and I think Missouri into okay with that.

So many as you've covered a lot of these U.S. Senate races what an interesting primary to observe tell folks about on the ground.

Both these candidates are from Saint Louis cardinals our folks look at in Saint Louis.

Well, I think people are sort of somewhat interested because truly, Bush Valentine, his Democratic opponent, you know, the Bushes should be U.S. are that you know, they're the big name and in certainly in the Saint Louis area.

And so I think people have been watching.

It was somewhat curiosity she's had.

I will say, I think she's had strong TV ads.

I'm not predicting she's going to win.

I mean, it's it's Mitt's to lose.

And chances are Schmidt's got it by a comfortable margin.

But I think people have been impressed with her operation as some of her ads, I think, are better than his.

I think his tend to be so hard hitting.

I'm interested in how.

It feels like they could have also been ran in the primary.

Yes, exactly.

And I think when you're trying to appeal to suburban moderates, especially women, I think some of his ads are not necessarily attractive to women.

He may not care.

And and that's that's fine.

But I think it is interesting to watch how her ads are being received.

She's been hitting the abortion issue hard, which will probably help her with some suburban women.

Again, I mean, I think, like Mike said, the only question is going to be the margin.

But if she keeps it in single digits, so it may help Democrats in the future as they try to figure out how to retool from a party that used to control most of the statewide offices just six, six years ago to being totally out in the wilderness.

And there's virtually nobody even stars coming up the ranks.

So I think I think in some ways I see it as a Democratic test case.

Hey, Joe, it was really interesting over on the Kansas City and western Missouri side of our state because of attorney general was from Greater Saint Louis.

The Bush Ballantine name was established there.

And I don't think people automatically assumed the connection to that.

Abbey Certainly over on the western side of the state.

Trudy Busch Valentine had to start from Ground Zero and build a name I.D.

that Eric Schmidt didn't have to because he went through the primary and was all over TV on that.

So by the time the 4th of August came around, Trudy Busch Valentine had not been in Greater Kansas City area very much at all, and she had to start much further back to familiarize herself herself with the voters over there.

And especially in the late summer, she was still trying to get her stride in terms of that.

So it was a really it was a tale of two cities as far as the dynamics of that campaign.

Kelsey, I was a little surprised she was didn't come out and say, I'm Gussie Bush's daughter, here's some Budweiser and here comes the king right?

I don't think saying I'm royalty, here I am, anoint me is going to work for any politician necessarily.

It's a huge advantage to have the ability to self-fund in any campaign, of course.

And to have name I.D.

is huge, too, but that wouldn't be the persona I'd go with.

But it is interesting.

We almost had ranked choice voting on our ballot this season, and I was thinking on the way here how fundamentally different this race would be had we had that now like Alaska does, because in Alaska they just had a special congressional race where even though 60% of people voted for Republicans, a Democrat won with ranked choice voting.

So it should be interesting going forward for Democrats to see if they try to get that on the ballot again.

It feels to me like Mrs. Bush took this campaign on, made a commitment to the party, and she has done her part financially and hitting the ground to try to keep up, make it work.

Your colleagues have a fighting chance at top of the ticket.

While it may not be a tight race, it's not going to be some 20, 30 point blowout, right?

Right.

Absolutely.

And I want to also note that she came into the race a lot later than all of the other candidates.

She announced and joined the race in March.

And so she she started out.

Set the deadline, right?

Well, it was it was yeah.

It was fairly close.

And so she entered at a disadvantage.

And I think that she is trying to make up for that in ground game and circling the state and visiting a lot of areas that I, I frankly don't see Eric Schmidt visiting.

I don't I don't see him coming out really to the suburban areas that you were you were speaking about.

And I'm seeing a lot of his commercials being more based on trying to assert his strength and his dominance, which I don't think really plays to the suburban mom voters that will definitely be voting.

Jamais, I wanted to ask you, now that we're coming closer to this campaign, there was a Supreme Court ruling that that struck down Roe versus limit in my lifetime.

I never thought I'd see that happen.

I would have expected a bounce, a reverb in Missouri.

I don't see that yet.

Is that because the issue is not that strong or just the gas prices and inflation is dwarfing everything else?

Well, I'll be really curious to see the vote totals to kind of determine that.

I, I suspect that it's play stronger than some people think, especially the younger women.

But it's going to depend if they show up or if they figure it's a lost cause.

One thing that helps Missouri, I mean, Missouri now has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

It's that if you live on the western side of the state, you can go over to Kansas because you know, the vote they had this summer.

If you're on the eastern side of the state, you go over to Illinois.

I mean, there is now like stuff right along the border in Illinois.

So there are ways for women to get the services they need.

But it does create some problems to say if you have a problem, pregnancy or a miscarriage or something, you need it quickly.

And I think that's why Valentine, running this one ad featuring this woman from Springfield, has caused all this this buzz.

So I'm curious to see how it plays out, if it attracts more women to the polls, if it tightens some of the margins, or like you say, if it does, it if it ends up not making that much of a difference, I think that abortion for many women is an economic issue.

And I think that the Democrats have failed to discuss that.

The Democrats tend to flounder around with their messages until near the end, and then they finally figure something out.

The Republicans, for good or bad, tend to decide their messages early and they stick with it and everybody drives it.

And you got to admire that.

So and they've been trying to keep it off of abortion and are trying to play up some of the extreme stuff, I think in part because they want to keep the focus on other things, you know, inflation, crime, although national races, they've kind of managed to marry the gun issue over that because I'm surprised the Democrats didn't flip around, especially after the shooting last week at the school shooting in Saint Louis.

And this state doesn't have a red flag law and here that the young man's family had tried to keep this gun out of his hands.

And so they're blaming the fact that the that the police even came to the house, but they couldn't take the gun because the state doesn't have a red flag.

I'm originally from Indiana, and that happened with a relative.

But the police were able to take the guns.

He had a bunch of them and he.

Joe, I think you're you're on to something here.

And certainly in terms of let's see where the chips fall on election night with the results as it relates to abortion.

And and how are we going to know?

How are you going to know?

These are red.

And I will educate you hard.

There was a poll out the middle of last week from Emerson in the Hill and we gave TV over and over in Kansas City.

That said, the top issue to Missouri voters was the economy support.

No surprise there.

Second issue was a threat to democracy.

The third issue was abortion.

Everything else that was mentioned in that polling, including immigration, the other other issues, nobody got above double digits except those three issues.

Now, everybody that is watching this on the western side of the state knows full well that there was a major battle and you saw it on your TVs over the value them both amendment in Kansas.

And this Kansas effect has certainly had a ripple effect on the midterms.

So in western Missouri, because all these Missouri voters saw these advertising, this advertising campaign, both sides of it.

On the Kansas question, it's there.

And I think that that having being listed as the number three, issue one, I don't think that would have been the case a year ago suggests that you know for some voters and it's I don't think it's it's just women by any stretch of the imagination up for some voters.

You know this is going to register and that's why the Bush Valentine campaign correctly made those appeals.

Jennifer, I've always thought maybe maybe the pro-choice folks didn't energize as much as maybe the pro-life folks.

Now that you've won the curse of politics, when you win, the intensity recedes.

How are you going to be able to say, okay, the abortion issue was too extreme in Missouri?

How are you going to know if that's reflected the polls?

Well, you are going to have some suburban races where you can see what happens with those individual races for state Senate for.

And Wagner's seat, I think, will be interesting to see the vote totals on those.

And I kind of disagree that Republicans have one message and stick with it.

After the Dobbs decision came out, a lot of Republicans were very extreme on the issue, and that was it at that point.

That was when it started to be questionable whether the Republicans could take back the Senate.

We've seen in the tighter races the Republican candidates in Pennsylvania and Ohio's being vocal about being in favor of exceptions and for it to be the state's decision, not the federal government's decision.

So we've been wishy washy.

Well, I think what they did was they tried to move the argument and they've tried to focus, as I said, primarily on economic issues.

And I think Democrats have failed to highlight the connection between the two.

I mean, because if a woman can't control or reproductive future, it really does make a difference on her economic future.

I mean.

Messaging matters, though, because over 50% of people agree that for 12 weeks, no abortion.

So it's not as.

Strong as well.

And it depends on the issue.

But my point is, I think that the Republicans have done a better job of just shifting it because they're not even getting in that big of a debate over 12 versus 15.

Not now.

I think if they take the US House, there will be and or the Senate those those discussions will come on.

Kerry, you're actually knocking on doors for.

What do you hear?

I'm actually really surprised and shocked by the amount of people who bring up reproductive health issues as one of their number one issues.

People that I would never have expected.

Across the demographics, it's something that people care about.

They care about access to birth control.

They're very, very aware that both at the national and the state level, that Republicans have said that they want to restrict access.

And that's something that men care about as well as women.

You know, last summer when the state Senate held the FAA hostage with trying to outlaw IUD access and different kinds of oral contraceptives, you know that the United States Congress, the Republicans all voted against enshrining the right to birth, to birth control.

And that's something that birth control pulls at 90% nationally, like this is something that even people who tout themselves as being pro-life are absolutely in favor of.

You know, the one thing and what was other other than this, a catastrophe for John Fetterman in Pennsylvania was the one remark made by Mehmet Oz.

And there is that these decisions should be made between a family and the woman.

And then he said, local politicians.

That was the only thing that the Democrats could take away from that.

I am pretty sure that was a mistake by others to say it like that, but he said it and he was quite clear about it.

And they're trying to make hay and Pennsylvania with it.

So, I mean, that.

He said come out loud.

I mean, that's that's fine.

That's fine.

But that was different thing is completely false.

Republicans we use birth control.

The Republicans are wanting to make birth control illegal.

And that's like a scare tactic for the state senators.

It's not based, in fact.

Well, some some I mean, hey, I covered Rick Santorum back in the day when he was running for president.

And he made it very clear here and I'm not saying it's good or bad, but I'm just saying, as a reporter, I covered, there are some Republicans who do believe in restricting.

Maybe is their personal beliefs, but not not inflicting that on everyone else.

I don't know.

That.

But there are there are candidates running and no exceptions.

I mean.

Well, there.

Is there are some folks that I think want to keep Medicaid dollars from going into birth control.

And they they've made that basically that amendment on on the Senate floor.

I tend to agree with you, though.

That's not they don't want to outlaw the practice completely in Missouri.

I have not seen that.

But I think.

That the Supreme Court's expressly said that this is not suggesting that this is kind of the.

Hyde Amendment.

It's still there prohibiting federal money to be used for an abortion.

Tell me how you're going to be able to tell on the doors if you are pro-choice, Missouri, and you show up and vote how we're in the state, you going be able to tell that that pro-choice message is inspiring voters and is making is doing a push back?

What what would you need to see?

What would you be pushing to do?

Is there a race around the state that's kind of being fought on this issue?

Where could you look to see?

Well, the issue's resonating or it's not?

I mean, I would I would definitely look at the really contested races probably in the Springfield area.

I think it's probably a good microcosm of the state.

I would also look at more suburban areas like myself up north in Kansas City as well.

I think that you look at the amount of newly registered voters and newly active voters, and I think that we're going to get a lot of a lot of polls coming out of the door about what was most important to people.

But when I tell you that this is a number one issue for folks, that, I mean, I get young men asking me and suspicious of my stance, like, do you support a woman's right to choose?

I had a I had a gentleman I knocked on a door last week, talked to him for a little bit, walked away, knocked a few more houses.

He pulled up in his truck and said, I have one question for you.

And I said, Yeah.

And he said, What's your stance on abortion?

And I, I don't know, like, I don't know what his stance is.

And so I just I give my stance on it that I believe in a woman's right to choose, that I believe that that decision is best made by families and doctors and not by politicians who generally some of us don't know how babies are made.

And we've shown that on the floor of the House a couple of times.

And so it's it's really it is something that's really prevalent and important to voters.

You know, how are you going to be able to tell when this election's over, if this issue has resonated or if it's just not?

Well, I think one way and of course, it's going to be anecdotal is how many young people vote.

I mean, there's been predictions in certain states, you know, that there was a higher registration of new young women.

Now, whether or not they actually turn out and I think that's going to be key in areas of Missouri, where there's a lot of young people, college towns, wherever, although the voter ID things are stricter than they had been.

But I think that's going to be one of the determinations for me as I look at it is is in areas where there are younger populations, was there a stronger turnout?

I mean, older women like me, I mean, obviously there's divisions, you know, but I think that on the abortion issue, which go back 40 and 50 years, I'm old enough, I covered it when it happened.

But but my my point is, I think that's what you need to look at is kind of what the turnout is in some of the suburban areas.

There's a key state Senate race that's going on, Tracy McCrary and her is that and that abortion is kind of underlying underneath that one.

But he's smartly he's got some smart attack ads that have nothing to do with that.

He's focusing on other things.

I'll be curious to see how it plays out there.

I think one of the things you look at, I think, is if you look at races not just in Missouri but elsewhere, where they have highlighted the abortion issue, whether or not whoever the candidate is.

Did they win or did they lose?

We have a congressional race on the Kansas side of the of the Kansas City metro, where abortion is certainly the number two issue.

The Democrat, two term Democrat, running for a third term is pointing out the Republicans opponent's record on abortion and her ties to very conservative politicians with an with a pro-life stance, an aggressive pro-life stance.

And that will be, I predict, on Wednesday morning.

And through the following part of this next week, some place where people will look and say that was an abortion campaign in the in the Kansas third district.

So when they're on election night and you're you hear the Kansas third district come up, that's suburban Kansas City, and that's a race where abortion has been front and center.

Generally, folks call you Republicans.

Why they went on statewide.

You're all people.

They call after this election's over.

You look at the numbers.

How are you going to be able to tell that?

Well, you know, abortion didn't really matter.

There was a ten point U.S. Senate win.

The race was a landslide.

They maintain the supermajorities or both.

But look at this.

How can people tell?

I think that all issues are women's issues and the economy is going to reign in this election.

It's affecting everyone.

It's affecting them quite a lot more, more than I've ever remembered in my lifetime.

And that's that's the counter in the from the Republican in that race.

I just think it's like how people are feeling right now.

Just in terms of I don't mean counter other than for the main thrust of her campaign is an economic response to that abortion and to the abortion campaign.

So I mean, it's happening in lots of races and it is really a fact of one for Republicans all across the country.

We're going to take a quick break and come back and pick this back up.

Talking to pre-election special here on campus.

Thanks for joining us.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to our pre-election special around KMOX from Steve carrying a little from Lee's summit.

Thank you for sticking with us.

Absolutely.

Mike Mahoney Thank you for sticking around.

BET was Joe Madison.

Always appreciate the time.

Thank you very.

Much.

Jennifer Murkowski, star of Radio Lawyering.

All Mrs. Columbus.

Everything Columbia.

Let's talk about these amendments.

I was listening to you on the radio talk about Amendment three.

It's got to do with, I guess, legalizing pot, right?

Good.

Does which I'm in favor of the legalization of recreational marijuana.

But this amendment it's almost 25,000 words long by way of comparison, the entire United States Constitution, including all 27 amendments, there's 4500 words on this is five and a half times as long.

And when we repealed prohibition on alcohol in the United States Constitution, we did it in 15 words.

I think that it's it's intentionally incomprehensible.

It's like so lengthy and I have some problems with it.

I think we should pass recreational marijuana next year with the legislature.

So I'm voting no, even though I've been long time in favor of legalizing marijuana.

I think the legislature would pass recreational possession.

Gets really had to go use in the legislature.

I just have a hard time seeing my stay positive.

Hardy Billington coming to Jeff City and passing legalize pot.

I completely agree.

The dysfunction that we've seen the last few years in the legislature makes me think that even something reasonable, like the legalization of marijuana and having a really strong expungement system isn't something that we could agree on both in the House and the Senate at the time.

You know, to me, I truly have a handful of opinions.

I'm an old German whose elbow operates very well.

So this is really, truly something that doesn't pertain to you.

The pro side would be you could still sell pot and everybody can go buy it without one of these doctors notes.

But it's a little more regulators than folks face.

Right?

Right.

I, I tend to kind of agree with Jennifer that it is it is really, really long.

It is very complicated.

And that's my my biggest concern with it.

However, I do think that the people of Missouri and that this is a really bipartisan across the board issue that people are ready for recreational marijuana.

We're ready to tax it.

We're ready to put that revenue toward good causes like people.

But are there 82 of your colleagues ready?

I wonder about that.

Think so.

It looks to me like the pro argument is, if you like, this medicinal rollout of having it, but having it controlled and not in your face, you're going to like this recreational rollout.

Then you see, folks, I don't really see the pot not saying no pot as if saying no, we want to sell pot more places and less regulated when it comes down to it, it's very easy to get a No.

One.

Missouri, do they get a no?

Well, I'm wondering if it passes, because I think the discussion about how long the amendment is, how confusing it is, are some people who say that there's some there are they're worried about potential unintended consequences and some of the language, I think, that could have an impact, especially in some parts of the state where they're wary about it anyway, because pot now isn't the same pot when I was in college 50 years ago.

And how would you know?

I don I just what people tell me.

Oh, I mean, seriously, but I think it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out, whether or not I think some initially had imagined this as an amendment that might bring out more young voters, might bring out other voters to kind of help turnout elsewhere.

I agree with Mike.

I don't think that's going to happen in part because there seems to be a big split among who's for who's not.

I'm going to be really intrigued by the how much impact that had compared to if you go back.

But several years, at least ten years ago, when the amendment to increase the minimum wage in the state ended up being a driver that helped some Democrats in other races.

I don't think this is going to do anything.

To talk or not to talk.

That is the question of Amendment three.

It's been the question for since 1970.

I think this is the most interesting campaign in the state of Missouri, hands down.

And I think that most people five, six weeks ago and there was there was polling to this effect that this was going to be a blow up, maybe a maybe a landslide, that Missourians were going to legalize recreational pot, I believe, to be the 19th state to do so.

Since then, a number of groups have decided we don't like the way this is structured.

Maybe this ought to not be in the in the state constitution because it would be difficult to change.

Is this the way to do it?

Should the legislature do it?

And just in the middle of this week, the Saint Louis mayor to Sharon Jones came out and said, I'm for legalization, but I'm not for this vehicle.

And in all kinds of things in it, for example, it has employee protections.

If you have a medical marijuana card that you can't be discriminated against by getting hired or fired or changed your job conditions.

So but there are very few exceptions and a lot of focus right now.

I don't think employers are getting sued because.

Oh, it's because I'm a marijuana card carrier.

Okay.

And here's the thing is, I don't think this is a youth vote thing at all.

I think it's I think it is more middle aged and and then slightly older than middle aged Missourians that smoked pot in college, maybe still have smoked pot, have now some of them have have medical marijuana cards.

I think there's a big libertarian streak that that spans the entire state's political spectrum and said, I want to do what I want to do.

I don't think this is any worse than a van having a six pack of beer in my house on a Friday or Saturday night.

I expected to pass, but it's a lot closer than anybody I think thought.

I look and see the coalition against it and I it looks like they're at the core of it.

There's a lot of folks who didn't get awarded licenses for the system.

They do not like now.

Now they kind of want to tear that system down.

But they would I tend to doubt they would have been against it if they would have got a license.

Right.

Well, here's the other thing about this.

In other places, when legalization of recreational marijuana went on the ballot, the first time in spots where they had medical marijuana, one of the most vociferous opposition groups, why were the medical marijuana people?

Because they saw their business being attacked and threatened this bill, as mayor, Joan said in her statement and others say the same thing.

This feels like this was this was written by the medical marijuana industry of Missouri to protect.

And their lawyers got paid by the word, apparently.

Because, of course, I think that there's probably definitely the industry involved.

But let me ask you this.

If you want if you really want to see pot legal without having to go to the doctor's note, is it not going to be easier to pass Amendment three and change it in the legislature as there was a move already last session than to just tear this down and come up with something new?

Why don't we just have it go on the ballot through the legislature to delete the words making marijuana illegal to begin with?

That seems simpler.

That's what we did with alcohol prohibition.

I think there's too many things in here with licenses and employee protections that are very non libertarian minded and so I'm kind of hoping it fails.

It does give money to public defenders, which I like, the money that they're.

Funding all these conservatives and they don't trust the government.

They never fund the one officer defense.

Right.

The one that you actually can solve by throwing money at it.

If this goes back on the floor of the House and the Senate, what I would recommend the speaker do is in between when they when the representatives and senators are actually speaking to sort of smooth out this debate, little Grateful Dead music.

All right.

Just underneath all the talk, are you.

Suggesting a legislative puff puff pass?

Yes.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Well, since we're talking about pilots talk about the cars make money in Kansas City, Quintin Louis gets elected and makes a promise he's going to maybe change how some of the money is spent on policing.

The police is not a fan, so they go to the legislature now they've a ballot on the amendment on the Constitution where they can now force Kansas City to spend a quarter of the money on cops.

And a quarter of the general fund.

Right now, the Kansas City Police depart, Kansas City, Missouri General Fund is spending 25% of its total budget on the police.

What Mayor Lucas did was he didn't defund the police by any stretch of the imagination.

But what he did, he said, look, we are going to control about $40 million of this so that it is dedicated through the police department to things like crime prevention and community building.

It was not defund the police.

It was trying to get get some control over it and perhaps get some more officers.

He lost that in court.

Okay.

Senator Lukemire from Platte County ran this bill to put the 25% threshold as a piece of legislation.

This is the companion bill that basically circumvents the Handcock amendment and allows this to happen.

And so this the words the Kansas City Police Department don't show up anywhere on the ballot language when you go in to vote.

If you haven't done so already.

But this is about largely the Kansas City Police Department.

Quinton Lucas ran for mayor, talked about he was going to do these types of things right and won that second round pretty handily.

It does seem like.

He lost in court.

But I mean, when he ran for office, when he ran for mayor, he talked about these types of things.

Part of his campaign.

Yeah.

And then he gets elected.

It's almost like I watched some people say, well, I can't leave.

These guys are pro-gun, pro-life.

Well, these Republicans run openly program, program.

They vote that way.

Quinton Lucas said he's going to do this and he won by a good margin.

It c is is it stepping over the line of meddling too much in a city?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think that any time that we're having a statewide vote, I'm I'm just I long for the day where we have a statewide vote on whether or not Cape Girardeau should have an additional tax on their on their water or on their roads.

We don't do that.

We only do that with Kansas City and Saint Louis.

And we're telling the people of Kansas City, we want you to have a $62 million tax that you're not voting on or that you are voting on, but everyone else is voting on as well.

People who are not going to be paying into that.

Well, that's the same thing can happen with local control on Saint Louis cops state.

Everybody voted on that marriage.

You've covered politics long enough.

Now, you remember when the Republicans were local control.

Yes.

That died when John Cawthorn won the majority.

Right, in northwest northeast Missouri.

Correct.

And that's what that's over 20 years ago.

But, yeah, I think that I think people in Saint Louis, at least those who are heavily involved in politics and in criminal justice, are watching to see what happens with this in Kansas City, that whole police issue is in Saint Louis, even though Saint Louis now has local control has been controversial because we have crime spikes in the city of Saint Louis.

There's some who say that we don't have enough police, that the police are overworked.

I mean, and some of them are leaking that, linking that to the fact that Saint Louis has has had local control now for almost 20 years.

I hear you say that about the great interest in Saint Louis and Greater Saint Louis about that.

But I'm guaranteeing here in Moberly, Missouri, they don't have a blue clue, most of them, about what this amendment is about.

Yeah, but I think the Republicans are watching this because there's some Republicans who are in the Saint Louis area who are not happy with local control right now.

I'm not sure Republicans have a blue clue period.

I think the folks in Ashland are going to see back the blue and they're going to do it right.

They may.

And it's unfortunate because principles matter and local control, even if you disagree with what the folks in your different location are doing, I think that we should stick with those principles of like, you know, we have states, we have localities and we should be consistent with that.

So I don't like it when we have a statewide thing to micromanage what a particular city does.

I don't like it when they do with legislation, which they do constantly with these loopholes, even though we have a prohibition against it, against special legislation.

They used to divorce people by bills in the Missouri legislature.

And that's why we enacted that special legislation, prohibition, so that you can't just have a bill that just applies to one specific person or place, but they get around it by the population maneuvers.

And so this is kind of like a constitutional example of special legislation.

But isn't it just about power?

I mean, I came to the Capitol, got a table with Mark Richardson, and he was for local control as a Republican.

And Steve Ga or Jim Crider was against law controls a Democrat.

Now the roles are reversed.

It's whoever's in power is going to use it, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you know the local control and say this is my Kansas City friends.

Although time is not the panacea for the troubles in the Kansas City Police Department or any other police department, for that matter, and exhibit A is Saint Louis.

They have local control.

They still have issues with the police department.

Governor Mark Parson is consistent with this principle.

You did not enact a statewide mandate for mass or say that you can't do one.

He let the local people, wherever they were, decide whether to have a mask, mandate an either.

History is going to view that more and more favorably, that restraint of power.

As time goes on, people reflect back.

I think you're going to find out that Vince Lamping, my presiding commissioner, knew if he made you wear a mask, you're going to burn them and probably riot.

And also to George Jones, do her citizens wanted that to feel safe?

I think the governor cut a very nice local control.

As he should it.

Yeah.

So he should be commended for that.

Has the police department in Saint Louis, if you were if you were if a city person were to ask you, how did this work for Saint Louis?

What do the folks think?

Well, I think it's a mixed bag.

I think you've got some police activists pro police activists, who feel that the fact that it allowed the city to not directly but indirectly reduce the number of police, reduce some of the spending charge.

JONES The current mayor, has some has some philosophical differences with the police department on how things should be run.

But now, with all this attention to some, the crime in the city, which is always been an issue, it's an issue in every city.

But right now it's it's gotten a lot more attention.

And I think so she's dealing with some of this.

And back in the days when there wasn't local control, the mayors could always say, well, I have nothing to do with any of this.

And it was the state senators.

I mean, you know, it's the state senators back in the day who controlled who got promotions, how much money the city got.

I mean, I mean, I can tell you a story of.

The board without your state senator sponsoring you, right?

Correct.

And it wasn't just that if you were a policeman and you wanted to get promoted to sergeant, it really helped if you were at an end with it, with one of the state senators, especially state senator, whose district you lived in.

And at that time there was at least three state senators in the city of Saint Louis.

Now it's reduced because of population.

But my point is, I think it's been a really mixed bag.

And I it'll be interesting to see how many people are watching what happens in Kansas City and what the fallout may.

Be to Kansas.

Talk about the legislature for a moment.

That's Republican.

In that last cycle, 24 state senators run 110 state reps supermajorities in both.

Now, the decision did come after filing close.

There might have been some folks that might have ran if they've been known that.

But with the with redistricting, where I mean, it looks like there's one competitive state Senate race, the Democrats Democrat seat, they're favored, but the climate's making it close.

Where do you think the legislature ends up?

I mean, there's really only one in play.

So they could end Democrats can end up with nine or so ten.

And so it'll be supermajorities.

But it's becoming less and less clear who's a Republican and who's not, because a very young and up and coming person who wants a future in politics in Missouri, you might want to say that you're a Republican at this point.

Right.

So I I think that there are going to be factions within the Republican Party yet again next session.

Gary, tell me, folks have thought for a long time the state might be better off.

Even Republicans would say if there was about 20 more Democrats in the House and three or four more Democrat state senators.

Is this the year there's a step toward that?

I don't know that this is I don't think that any of us are going to have accurate predictions, because everything is just in such flux, like in day to day, depending on what polls you're looking at.

Voters are kind of all over the place.

And we're looking at early voting totals and all of that.

Historically, that's been that's benefited Democrats.

But we don't know what that's going to look like this this particular cycle.

And so I, I would I would agree with Jennifer again that the state Senate is likely to stay at ten.

I think that Tracy McCrary pulls it off.

I think she's an incredibly strong competitor.

I think that the house probably breaks even.

There are about seven seats that Biden won after redistricting and that that we definitely have chances of picking up.

But these are very, very hotly contested races and generally we are outspent.

So my own it seems like the spending factor comes in, but also if Donald Trump was in the White House right now and gas was astronomical and inflation was out of control, it would have been the year with this new map for Democrats to pick up ten seats.

It just feels like Biden in the White House is a heavy yoke to carry.

Oh, absolutely.

It's one of the reasons you don't see him or the vice president campaigning extensively that the dynamic that that I think we're really talking about here is I have covered state legislatures that I regard as coalition government, which meant that there were different factions in democratic the Democratic side of the aisle and the Republican side of the aisle.

I think that's what we got most certainly in the state Senate coming up in this session.

Like we've had the the last couple that that's where the small number of Democrats can perform as the fulcrum sometimes on not on some issues.

And I think that's going to happen.

And it makes for pretty darn interesting political watching inside of a legislature like this, which is really sort of a coalition government.

You might have progressive Democrats and moderate Democrats.

You would have moderate Republicans and very conservative Republicans.

And it leads to interesting discussion and interesting policy surprises.

It felt like there was a real chance for Democrats to come in with this new map, but it feels like national issues are just going to be too heavy of a yield to make very much headway.

Right.

I think that's probably true in the last 30 or 40 years, these legislative races around the country have increasingly becoming big, become tied to the national climate.

And I think in Oklahoma, for example, there's a hot governor's race, Republican incumbent.

But the Democrats have been doing pretty well.

If if if we didn't have races so nationalized, she might really have a shot.

But I think that increasingly part of it's because it's going to stand up.

I don't think there's enough civics taught in schools.

So you have a lot of voters who don't know what their local legislature can do and what it can't.

I don't know the difference between the state Senate and the US Senate.

I mean, if they hear somebody as a senator, they don't really know the difference.

And it's not because they're stupid, it's because, you know, they're busy living their lives and they're not getting some of this key and just key basic information that they need in order to make hard decisions.

I mean, for inflation, for example, United States does have an inflation problem, but it's less than most of the Western world.

I mean, most of the other.

Voters don't care about what's happening in the.

World.

I know they they swiped.

Your car twice on your truck up.

You don't care what's happening in Turkey.

But to be honest, we don't hear any solutions.

We hear about all the problems with the economy, but I don't hear any solutions for inflation other than cutting the corporate tax.

We have one cut we've got to make.

We've got to take a break.

We will be right back with our final segments and predictions out of everyone after this.

Control of Congress hanging in the balance.

President Biden taking on the Trump wing, extreme MAGA Republicans full of anger, violence, hate and division.

Republicans are counting on support from the former president.

You're going to send J.D.

Vance to the US Senate.

Consequential state races.

Wednesday night on PBS, starting with a new episode of Nature The Ocelot.

There rare and in my opinion, they are the most beautiful cat species, followed by a new episode of Nova.

This is one of the most significant technologies to have been created by someone who is still wholly anonymous.

A new episode of Nature.

Followed by a new episode.

Of Nova.

Welcome back.

For our last segment here, we did some predictions.

Kari Angle Let's start with Amendment three to Toga, not to dog.

Does it pass?

I think it's going to be close.

I think it's going to be very, very close.

I think it passes, but it's a squeaker.

Does it pass?

It's going to be tight passes.

TB, the money is on the pro side, right?

Yeah.

That's kind of where I think.

Yeah.

It's, you know, but.

But the, the opposition is closing hard.

What do you think.

I think it's going to be close because frankly, I haven't seen that many ads.

I mean, and I watch TV, it's like they're waiting until the end.

And I'm not sure if that's smart because it's such a complicated issue.

I'll be curious to see if it passes or fails.

If you had to guess, gimme guess, you would have let Roy Blunt off with that.

I would say I think it may fail.

Yeah.

I think it may fail, too.

I think this will be a low turnout election.

And the people that might turn out my vote no on this, that's based on like the radio audiences that I talk to, if they're all against it.

Oh, you should pass.

But it's very easy in this state to get a no and getting a no is I don't know.

I'm kind of like you, but I'm going to say it passes.

But it is very easy.

Missourians start off skeptical and with a no, I.

Couldn't have been written better.

It could have been would have passed.

Don't forget the Grateful Dead soundtrack on the floor there.

So, I mean, if it comes.

To it, can't get you in here, James.

Well, let's talk about the Kansas City police funding or I guess it does not in there, but who wins?

I haven't seen the wording of the initiative, but if it if it says law enforcement funding, I think it passes.

If it doesn't, then I don't think it does.

And I the ballot language mentioned police it'll pass.

Yeah.

I think they may vote red that they'll back the blue on this.

Whatever it says doesn't really matter what do think.

Well yeah.

I mean of course this isn't an issue on that.

Saint Louis I everyone's focused on are a couple of local races.

So I bet the police are playing a role in that.

So be interesting what happens.

I think it'll pass because of the concern that the public has with crime right now.

And we've heard so much about defunding the police.

Of course, get a chance to vote with the police.

They usually do.

Right.

All right.

Let's talk about a campaign, Kasie, that you thought this cycle as well ran.

We're not going to know the results of some of these general election races yet, but a primary race or does a journal exercise have been involved.

In Missouri or.

Whatever.

Nationally?

I think there is smart vitamins, people to keep him as hidden as possible.

Yeah, that looks more.

Like he could end up pulling this off because he was so secretive about the status of his health and he could have withdrawn.

But people might just want to send someone who will vote with their team and so they might not care that he just failed so abysmally at that debate and he might end up winning.

Is going to be somebody that ran a good race this year.

Okay.

I think that, too, Bush found time, actually.

For what?

With what she.

Had.

Yeah.

And millions.

Of dollars.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, but my point is, she was willing to put in her own money.

She's been highlighting the fact that she was a nurse.

Now she's going to lose.

I mean.

I mean, if she if she wins this off, it's going to be like the biggest thing in the country.

But my point is, for what she had compared to the other campaigns I've seen in the state, any of them for anything, I think that she has some of the best ads on TV.

Do you think.

I like the the Lucas Coons primary campaign for the Democratic nomination in the Senate?

He got in, he worked his tail off.

And then Miss Valentine came in very, very late with a great deal of money.

And Coons did a fine job of raising money as well.

But it just didn't happen.

Her legacy, Bush, her dad to go see Bush?

Absolutely.

I understand why Bush beer is, believe me.

You know, I do.

But you know, I think we'll see him again.

Either you might see Chris again, too.

I would agree with that.

I think he's not done running for office.

And I thought the campaign was ran.

Well, I'm not who who who would have done better on election night?

Well, I think Democrats are better off with her holding the ticket a little bit, because.

I think Coons would have carried the battle for the Democrats quite well, quite well.

Better than she would have.

I don't think she he would have had the same sort of money because she she was a self-funded campaign.

But I think he would have been a handful for Eric Schmidt.

Who was a very good person to talk to on the campaign trail.

He knew his stuff, you know, so give me a good campaign.

I have to say.

My good friend Betsy Fogle and the Springfield, 130 feet nice.

She has made six passes of her district, which is insane.

She's made 30,000 attempts to talk to voters and she's raised almost $200,000.

And this is someone who who won by less than 100 votes and is taking it incredibly seriously.

She was out knocking while we were still in session.

I haven't seen anyone working harder and there's no one else who deserves that.

You're calling it now?

I don't I don't have the courage you have.

I would say the calm before the Senate campaign of Travis Fitzwater.

I mean, you take a situation these real races are about geography and money.

He didn't have the most money and he didn't have the geography on his side.

And the guy comes in with a great campaign.

And I'm not going to say stole one, because I think you probably was a it was very credible from the start.

But there's by all logic, he shouldn't have won.

His campaign was outstanding.

And now he is no opponent.

So he's in.

There you go.

All right.

Final prediction here.

US Senate race, Kerry Ingle, give me who's going to win and give you about how much?

Well, it feels like a betrayal to say anything else.

Then my Democratic candidate.

Bye bye bye.

I think she wins it by two.

There you go.

Like the optimism.

Schmidt 11.

Hope.

Probably Schmidt.

But it could be like nine.

You think so?

You're gonna go nine.

Yeah, I think.

I think it might be.

It might benign.

Again, it depends on how much the abortion issue plays.

He wins but it's not it's it's under under under ten.

What number can a pro-choice person say?

See, this issue is resonating.

Single digits feels right to me.

Yeah, I think so.

Because probably without that, it's double some, maybe single digits.

Correct.

And I think she doesn't get enough credit.

She has came in and she has held the water line with the Democrats do not have a deep bench in this state.

The lone statewide candidate lost the governor's race pretty convincingly, frankly.

She came in, I think, and that's that Tracy McCrary race.

To me, the top of the ticket is going to drive turnout.

Right.

And in that in that area and that middle part of St Louis County, that Bush name, people are going to think is a legitimate can win and Democrats will turn out, I think finally Tracy McCrory's the beneficiary.

That could very well help her because hers is running some strong ads.

I mean, I'm not I'm just saying they're attack ads, but they're some they're probably effective if Curry pulls it off.

I think that Valentine's turnout for her in the St Louis area may be one of the reasons.

We think.

I think hers will win that state Senate seat.

Schmidt will win by 18 points.

I was going to try to go, Larry, poison the price is right and go one over.

Mahoney but 18 is aggressive.

I'm going to have I'm still going to price is right Mahoney with 1218 tell me why.

Just the basically who's going to turn out for this.

There's not a lot to drive people on the left except the abortion issue possibly to go out and vote when SCHMIDT so clearly going to win.

I think that's a big factor.

And I mean, that's how much Trump won by in 2016.

And and another another thing, Karen, I think we'll agree on.

Keep your eye on the Jackson County executive race.

Yes.

Okay.

Where required to seek another term?

He's being challenged by a Republican member of the of the legislature who has been working very, very hard and frank has run pretty much a Rose Garden strategy.

But he is a former royal.

He is beloved, but he had a problem with reassessment and the voters might take it out on.

Him at the end of the day, does there justice for 85 done or does Frank Right win?

I'm not sure.

I just think it's going to be close.

And she's a good candidate, right?

Yeah, I better.

She's to get it.

Who wins the St Louis County Executive race?

I think it's going to be close.

Feels like Democrats come up with a page possibly.

If it does come home to page, that helps some of the other Democrats, including McCrory.

But it's going to be close.

Mantovani has some support from some Democrats.

The African-American community has been irked with Page over various things.

He's at odds with the two African-American members of the county council.

So there's a possibility.

I've seen this before.

So if Mantovani can get them energized behind him.

And could, because we.

Are energized and other General Murkowski Joe Mannies my morning Karen well thank you so much I get have much fun it has actually been to hear our pre-election show here on cameo has lots of fun thank you for having us.

Remember Tuesday vote.

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This was the first American foreign policy crisis televised live from start to stop.

It was like being a reporter with a camera crew at the French Revolution.

You've never seen two countries that understood each other so little.

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The day of the Shah Pasha in Rome was a short duration.

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In the history of Special Operations, this was the most complex ever tried.

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You know, in the sixties and seventies, America spent billions supporting a pro-Western Shah.

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And that has affected this ever since.