Category Archives: Primary Elections

Kansas Redux

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Today’s post will be a bit short. I’ve been up most of the night; my knee made sleep difficult. I kept telling it to settle down and quit hurting but it didn’t pay attention. ** Yawn! **

Pat Roberts and his senatorial campaign is back in the news and that news isn’t good. A new poll has been released. In a three-way race between Pat Roberts, Chad Taylor, and Greg Orman, Orman came out on top by one percentage point.

The poll, conducted by SurveyUSA for KSN-TV, showed that if the election were held now with Taylor’s name still on the ballot, Orman would receive 37 percent of the vote, Roberts 36 percent, Taylor 10 percent and a libertarian candidate six percent. — The Daily Caller.

Less than a month ago, that poll was much different. Pat Roberts lead with 37 percent of the vote. Taylor received 32 percent with Orman at the bottom with a measly 20 percent of the overall votes. Roberts remained about the same in both polls but voters fled from Taylor to Orman. One would think, then, that many of Orman’s current supporters are dems and dem-wannabe RINOs.

Roberts’ attacks against Milton Wolf in the Kansas Primary, soured many conservative ‘Pubs. A significant portion of them have indicated they will sit out of the Kansas Senatorial race. The more moderate ‘Pubs are now split between Orman and Roberts. According to the poll above, Orman is winning.

Or is it? Independent candidate Greg Orman is being sued in Federal court for failure to pay royalties.

Boxing firm sued Kansas Senate hopeful Orman

By BILL DRAPER Associated Press, 09/08/2014 6:38 PM, 09/08/2014 6:38 PM

http://www.kansas.com/news/local/qwq5wb/picture1737340/alternates/FREE_960/090614debate_th19.jpgKansas City. Independent U.S. Senate candidate Greg Orman is embroiled in a federal lawsuit in Kansas with an international boxing equipment manufacturer in a dispute over $30 million worth of payments for royalties and merchandise sales the firm claims it will be owed through 2018.

Orman, seeking to unseat three-term Republican Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts in the Nov. 4 election, is one of five defendants in a lawsuit filed by Everlast World’s Boxing Headquarters Corp. The lawsuit alleges Orman and the others are responsible for payments owed to Everlast by now-bankrupt Ringside Inc., of Lenexa, because their new firms are an “alter-ego” of the defunct one.

Orman campaign spokesman Sam Edelen said Monday that the lawsuit is “without merit.” Orman and his fellow defendants asked the court Friday to allow them to file counterclaims alleging a secret agreement between Everlast and another businessman previously involved with Ringside.

The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in October 2015. Everlast accuses the defendants of breaching contracts and infringing upon and diluting its trademark — allegations the defendants dispute in court filings. Everlast seeks to prevent them from selling the company’s products.

Everlast filed the litigation in July 2012 in New York. The case was transferred to Kansas in April 2013 and expanded to include Orman and a Kansas City-area company in which he is involved, Combat Brands.

“They named Greg just because he’s a deep pocket,” said Eric Carter, an Olathe attorney and former state legislator representing Orman and the other defendants.

Scott Ast, a Kansas City, Missouri, attorney representing Everlast, declined to comment.

Orman, 45, also the co-founder of a private equity firm, touts his business experience in his race against the 78-year-old Roberts, who looked vulnerable after a tough GOP primary with a tea party challenger. Orman’s campaign in June called Combat Brands one of his “many successful companies,” and Carter said it has 50 employees.

The race suddenly appeared competitive last week, when the Democratic nominee ended his campaign, possibly giving Orman a better chance against Roberts in a normally safe Republican state. The GOP, fighting to regain a Senate majority, always has counted on Roberts winning re-election.

Everlast claims it had agreements through 2018 with Ringside, which sold boxing and mixed martial arts gear, requiring royalties and the purchase of a minimum amount of Everlast products. The lawsuit says Ringside owes Everlast nearly $1.7 million in royalties for 2012 through 2018, and $28.4 million for merchandise Ringside promised to sell on its website but didn’t.

Everlast contends it terminated its licensing and website agreements with Ringside in June 2012 after it failed to make a royalty payment.

The story continues on the website. It would appear that Orman’s legal issues are only beginning. No one yet knows how this lawsuit will affect his campaign, but you can bet Pat Roberts won’t overlook it.

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Da-Dump!

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Da-Dump? That the sound of someone being tossed under the bus and the wheels pass over the body. Anyone close to DC should be familiar with the sound, it’s happened enough around the White House.

It is now being heard elsewhere, Hawaii for instance. In this case it is a long-time democrat pol being thrown under the bus during a primary election. The democrat establishment candidate for US Senator is losing in the primary by 1,600 votes. Two precincts weren’t able to vote due to storms that knocked out power and blocked roads. Those two precincts will vote today, despite an attempt to postpone voting to give her more time to deluge the two precincts with last minute campaigning. The Judge wouldn’t play along.

Da-dump!

DECISION DAY IN HEATED HAWAII VOTE
Pacific Business News: “A Hawaii judge on Thursday rejected a request by U.S. Rep. and Senate candidate Colleen Hanabusa [D-Hawaii] to delay opening the polls on Friday in the areas of the Big Island where voters were unable to vote in the primary election because of Tropical Storm Iselle. Hanabusa, who trails U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz [D-Hawaii] by 1,635 votes in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, had filed for a temporary restraining order Wednesday in the 3rd Circuit Court in Hilo, seeking to stop the state Office of Elections from holding the election Friday for the two precincts in Puna that were unable to vote in Saturday’s primary because of power outages and blocked roads caused by the storm the day before. … 3rd Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura rejected Hanabusa’s argument and ruled that the election should proceed as planned.” Polls close at midnight (ET). — FOXNewsletter, August 15, 2014.

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http://www.rushimg.com/cimages//media/images/obamahillarypix/1290729-1-eng-GB/ObamaHillaryPIX.jpgA number of recent news stories have been circulating this last week with a common theme: the US has no foreign policy. If there is one, it must be, “let’s wait and see what happens?” That lack was covered yesterday on Rush and other news sites. Hillary is jumping in as well trying to distance herself saying that the White House made policy and she was just the powerless front man. No one believes her, either.

Clinton versus Obama on Syria and foreign policy

By: streiff (Diary)  |  August 14th, 2014 at 03:00 PM

The kerfuffle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is all in the news right now. Clinton, who sees her coronation as Democrat presidential candidate for the 2016 as a done deal, is trying to establish some daylight between herself and her former boss on foreign policy. There is a good reason for that. Other than coasting through 2009 with an “I’m not George Bush” strategy (which we’re seeing play out in the long run as a “I’m an incompetent boob”) this administration has had no identifiable foreign policy. For a while it seemed to embrace the feel-good but impractical Responsibility to Protect doctrine. This was abandoned before the first Syrian chemical attack and since that time the administration simply staggered from one crisis to the next failure.

The conflict comes from an interview Clinton gave The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg titled Hillary Clinton: ‘Failure’ to Help Syrian Rebels Led to the Rise of ISIS. It is unusual not because of any insights we gain into what passes for foreign policy in the Age of Obama but we see a secretary of state disavowing herself from the foreign policy she formulated and carried out. The key pull quotes follow:

Well, his former secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, isn’t buying it. In an interview with me earlier this week, she used her sharpest language yet to describe the “failure” that resulted from the decision to keep the U.S. on the sidelines during the first phase of the Syrian uprising.

“The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad—there were Islamists, there were secularists, there was everything in the middle—the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled,” Clinton said.

As she writes in her memoir of her State Department years, Hard Choices, she was an inside-the-administration advocate of doing more to help the Syrian rebellion. Now, her supporters argue, her position has been vindicated by recent events.

…

…At one point, I mentioned the slogan President Obama recently coined to describe his foreign-policy doctrine: “Don’t do stupid shit” (an expression often rendered as “Don’t do stupid stuff” in less-than-private encounters).

This is what Clinton said about Obama’s slogan: “Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle.”

When one looks at the record one is strained to conceive how what Clinton says in the interview actually differs from her actions. In fact, her concern that aiding the Syrian opposition could result in arming al Qaeda was, and is, spot on. In fact, by September 2013 it was being reported that Syrian opposition fighters were rallying to the al Qaeda because the al Qaeda were actually fighting.

The real problem on this is that the only source we have for this disagreement in policy on Syria between Obama and Clinton is that it is based on alleged “behind the scenes” discussions, they are non-falsifiable. The non-falsifiable nature of Clinton’s assertions are further complicated by the fact that both principles and their inner circles are enthusiastic and inveterate liars. All things considered, it is difficult to see how arming any of the opposition groups earlier and more aggressively would have produced a better or different outcome. The other alternative is that Clinton means by “ help build up a credible fighting force” a significant US military presence to bolster our chosen faction. That idea, in the context of Obama facing an election in 2012, is so farfetched as to not merit discussion.

The column continues at the website. In essence, Hillary is blaming Obama for the lack of policy while Obama continues to blame, “the previous administration.” Both Hillary and Obama created our current mess, both were/are incompetent, and both are equally culpable. It’s laughable seeing the two trying to throw others; Hillary, in particular, throwing Obama under the bus.

Da-dump!

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In closing, I present this little positive item, off topic, Phyllis Schlafly is 90.

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Hard Times

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Turncoats are having a tough time. Charlie Crist was a ‘Pub once, being elected as Florida’s Governor and Attorney General. He was unsuccessful in his run for the US Senate, being beaten in the primary by the Tea Party candidate, Marco Rubio. After his senate loss, Crist switched parties, first to be independent and finally to the democrats.

He lost again as a democrat. Now, he’s attempting to regain the Governor’s seat, a position he held in past years as a ‘Pub. But his past party shuffling has become an anchor chained to his leg.

CRIST’S CONVERSION COMES BACK TO HAUNT HIM
Charlie Crist’s own words on political bona fides are getting a going-over in the Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat’s bid for Florida’s governor’s mansion. AP: “It sounds like something Republican Gov. Rick Scott would ask of…Crist: ‘How can the people of Florida trust your recent conversion?’ But the words were Crist’s, and the question was asked to Tom Gallagher during the 2006 Republican primary for governor. [Then-Republican] Crist easily won that race in large part because he accused Gallagher of shifting his politics to win the election. ‘Talking about being a conservative after a political lifetime of liberalism just isn’t believable,’ Crist said of Gallagher. [Now] Crist is the leading Democratic candidate for governor and is fielding the same accusations — in reverse — from Florida Republicans and his Democratic primary opponent, Nan Rich. They say Crist can’t be trusted because of his political conversion from Republican to independent to Democrat.” — FOXNewsletter, August 11, 2014, Trib Total Media.

Voters have memories and those same voters will remember the turncoat who betrayed them. That situation applies to another turncoat, Missouri’s Attorney General Chris Koster, who started politics as a conservative republican. Koster won election as Cass County’s Prosecutor in 1994. After ten years as Cass County’s Prosecutor, he ran successfully for state senator in 2004 as a ‘Pub and voted conservatively during his only term.

But the state senate was just a stepping stone. Koster wanted to be Governor. Unfortunately, the ‘Pubs already had a candidate and Koster hadn’t yet paid his dues for the next rung up the political ladder.

Koster found he couldn’t buck the GOP state organization. Instead of building a base and serving another term in the senate, he switched parties and was successful winning election for Attorney General as a democrat. In that conversion, Koster discarded his conservative stance and adopted all of the democrat’s radical politics. In politics, that is known as burning your bridges…sometimes, as Charlie Crist has found, in front of you.

Once again, Koster is aiming for Governor vice current Governor Jay Nixon. But he has hit a stumbling block. No one really trusts a turncoat and democrats fear Koster could betray them like he betrayed the ‘Pubs in 2007.

Steve Kraske: Chris Koster hits his first speed bump on the road to Missouri governor

By STEVE KRASKE, The Kansas City Star, 08/08/2014 3:42 PM, Updated: 08/08/2014 3:42 PM

Chris Koster waited only three months into Gov. Jay Nixon’s second term to announce that he was preparing a run for Missouri governor in 2016.

The two-term attorney general has coasted on a smooth-as-glass highway to the Democratic nomination ever since.

Until now.

In recent days, two longtime party leaders — former lieutenant governor Joe Maxwell and former state senator Joan Bray — have questioned Koster’s bona fides for the state’s highest office.

Their concerns center on recent Koster moves that they say cloud his commitment to the Democratic Party he joined almost exactly seven years ago in a switch that stunned politicos.

That Bray is a liberal serves to highlight the long-standing tensions between Democratic conservatives and progressives in a party increasingly centered in the state’s two biggest cities.

Bray and Maxwell, known for his work on elderly and children’s issues, pointed to Koster’s public support of the controversial “right to farm” amendment that appears to have narrowly passed. Critics, including Maxwell, called the amendment a sellout to corporate and foreign interests.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article1179151.html#storylink=cpy

Their concerns center on recent Koster moves that they say cloud his commitment to the Democratic Party he joined almost exactly seven years ago in a switch that stunned politicos.

That Bray is a liberal serves to highlight the long-standing tensions between Democratic conservatives and progressives in a party increasingly centered in the state’s two biggest cities.

Bray and Maxwell, known for his work on elderly and children’s issues, pointed to Koster’s public support of the controversial “right to farm” amendment that appears to have narrowly passed. Critics, including Maxwell, called the amendment a sellout to corporate and foreign interests.

…

Some Democrats are piqued by the $260,000 campaign donation that Koster accepted from GOP kingmaker Rex Sinquefield. And Bray had hoped that Koster would oppose the 3/4-cent sales tax for highways based on the hit the state’s poorest citizens would have taken. Instead, Koster took no position.

“I have questions about where he’s coming from,” Bray said.

Said Maxwell: “Who is the real Chris Koster? These moves are concerning to Democrats who don’t know him that well.”

The complete article can be found at the website. The bottom line is this: no one trusts a turncoat. Seven years as a democrat cannot overcome the fact that Koster was a ‘Pub for the fourteen years  before changing his coat.

Koster’s troubles couldn’t happen to a better person.

The
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article1179151.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article1179151.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article1179151.html#storylink=cpy
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Missouri Constitutional Amendment #3

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Have you heard about the proposed Amendment 3 to the Missouri constitution? Neither had I, but it will appear on the November ballot.

The teacher’s unions are all up in arms. Why? Because the amendment changes the rules for teacher tenure and provides for teacher performance evaluations.

A Missouri Teacher Performance Evaluation, Amendment 3 is on the November 4, 2014 election ballot in the state of Missouri as an initiated constitutional amendment. If approved by voters, this measure would implement teacher performance evaluations that would be used to determine whether a teacher should be dismissed, retained, demoted or promoted. It would also prevent teachers from collectively bargaining over the terms of these evaluations. — Ballotpedia.

This amendment didn’t come through the state legislature, it came through citizen’s initiative, a much more difficult process. But, it was successful and will appear on the November ballot…unless, like the failed attempts by gun-grabbers to block Amendment 5 in June, the unions fabricate a scheme to block Amendment 3, like their failed attempt to block Amendment 5 that passed this last Tuesday. I’m still researching the basis for Amendment 3 but on first look, I’ll support it.

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An idea whose time has come—closed Missouri primaries.

In Missouri, it is always an issue in primaries. The dems tightly control their candidates. In Cass County this year there were NO contested offices on the democrat ticket. That control allowed dems to crossover to tilt the ‘Pub primary choices their way. Whether crossovers had that much impact is a question that, given Missouri’s open primary, we’ll never really know. We do know, from bragging dems, that it has affected  the outcome of elections in the past, the run for Northern Commissioner in the last primary for example.

Some ‘Pubs are calling for closed primaries nation-wide. I agree.

Angry Republican leaders ready to shut door on open primaries

Changes sought after Mississippi Democrats help Thad Cochran beat Chris McDaniel

CHICAGO — Any party that allows its opponents to help pick its candidates in “open” primaries is a PPINO — a “political party in name only” — say many Republican officials at their annual summer meeting.

Republican National Committee members and activists are still seething about reports that longtime Sen. Thad Cochran, Mississippi Republican, enlisted Democrats to help him win his tough primary contest this summer against state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who was backed by the tea party.

They would seem to have an ally in the GOP boss, but the sentiments of the entire party and the prospects for changing state laws are unclear.

At least one committee member plans to press the issue at the RNC meeting, which opened Wednesday.

Currently, 27 states let independents and Democrats help pick Republican candidates for general elections. The reason usually is not the desire of the state GOP but rather that the state legislature has mandated open primaries or requires no party registration.

The article continues here.

The usual excuse for not implementing closed primaries by state legislatures is the cost. Yes, it will cost money. A database will have to be created for voters to declare their party allegiance, processes and procedures to update and maintain the database just be developed and implemented statewide, a network and terminals at each county clerk’s office and, at election time, terminals at every polling station, during primary elections, to insure voters receive the correct ballot for their party.

The legislation creating the closed primary won’t be easy. The legislation must provide time-frames and methodologies for declaring and changing parties and how long, before the primary, will party change-overs be frozen (I’d suggest ninety days.) Voter registration procedures would have to be updated as well.

Regardless of the expense, it is a change whose time has come.

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After Action Report

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With one exception, the primary came out much as I expected. Amendments 1, 5, and 9 passed, number 1 narrowly but the other two with very wide margins. Amendment 7 failed, again with wide margins as did Kansas City’s Street Car issue. The Amendments will be in force as soon as the election results are certified.

Great news!

On the Cass County front, Jeff Cox won against Dave Morris for Presiding Commissioner with nearly 60% of the votes and Stacey Lett won against Meryl Lange for Associate Circuit Court Judge by a larger margin against Lange than did Jeff Cox against Morris. The one disappointment was the loss by Ron Johnson against Ryan Wescoat in a race that can only be called a grudge match.

I was not surprised by any of the above. According to information I’ve been receiving this last week, I was not surprised by any of the outcomes. I was given some raw polling information taken about a week to ten days ago covering the Cox, Johnson and Lett races. The election yesterday confirmed the poll taken a week earlier.

In Jackson County, Jacob Turk will run again against Emmanuel Cleaver winning his primary race with almost 69% of the votes. I’m not sure how many times Turk has run against Cleaver, but he gains more ground every time. Perhaps this time he’ll beat out Cleaver in the Kansas City democrat enclave. Congratulations to Jacob Turk on his primary win.

The Missouri House is now complete. Three new ‘Pub legislators, elected via special election to fill three vacancies, will be sworn in on September 10th just in time for the Veto Override session. Jay Nixon had failed to fill those vacancies leaving the Republican majority weakened. With the three new legislators, the ‘Pubs once again have a veto proof margin in the House.

THE NEXT LEGISLATURE — ‘GOP regains veto-proof majority in Missouri House,’ AP: “Republicans regained a two-thirds majority in the Missouri House on Tuesday heading into a big showdown with Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon over his vetoes of tax breaks, abortion restrictions and other issues. Republicans won two of the three special elections for vacant House seats. That will give them 110 House seats – one more than the two-thirds majority required to override vetoes. Republicans already hold a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Republican Shawn Sisco, of Rolla, won in the 120th District while Republican Tila Hubrecht, of Dexter, won in the 151st District. Democrat Alan Green, of Florissant, was leading in a special election for the 67th District. The special election winners are expected to be sworn into office by Sept. 10, when lawmakers will convene to consider overriding Nixon’s vetoes of 32 bills and 136 budget sections. … The Legislature’s September agenda includes the consideration of veto overrides on a series of bills granting tax breaks to particular businesses, which Nixon contends could bust a hole in the budget. Republican legislative leaders say the measures could help the economy while overturning what they describe as misinterpretations of tax policies by the courts and the Department of Revenue. Nixon said the numerous budget vetoes were needed because of falling state revenues and to guard against the potential for the Legislature to override his vetoes on the tax breaks. Among Nixon’s other high-profile vetoes are bills extending Missouri’s one-day abortion waiting period to 72 hours and allowing specially trained teachers to carry concealed guns in public schools. The special elections were called after incumbents resigned for a variety of reasons. Republican Rep. Jason Smith, of Salem, stepped down from the 120th District seat after winning a special election to Congress in June 2013.” — PoliticMO Newsletter, August 6, 2014 and The Southeast Missourian.

Taken as a whole, the primary was good for republicans.

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Primary Day! Go Vote!

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Today is Primary Day in Kansas and Missouri and probably a few other states, too, but, I’m only interested in these two. I was Facebook chatting with a friend earlier. We were wondering if the turnout would be high or low and whether one would benefit our folks more or less. In the end, we just didn’t know.

It did remind me of the first time I voted. The time was 1956. Adlai Stevenson was running against Dwight Eisenhower. My folks lived in southern Illinois. My mother was a grade school teacher. My father was a coal miner and part-time farmer. A few years later when the near yearly strikes by the UMWA permanently closed most of the coal mines, he became a full time farmer.

Being a miner, he was a member of the UMWA, the United Mine Workers of America. Dad remained a member of the union after the mine, where he worked for thirty years, closed. He wanted to retain his pension and health benefits. If he didn’t continue to pay union dues, he would lose pension and benefits.

Elections in coal country were a bit different from other areas of the country. There were highly organized affairs with the unions firmly in control. On election day, each poll would have a collection of union officials outside. Every union had a representative at every polling station. When union members arrived to vote, they checked with their union representative who, in turn, checked their name off the union roster. Heaven help the union member who didn’t vote or check in with the union before voting. Fines up to $100 was not uncommon.

In Illinois at that time, schools and many businesses closed on election day. Mom and Grandma had voted earlier. Dad had some chores to do. He voted later and I, nine-years old, went with him.

We arrived at the polling station that was set up in the yard of the township headquarters in West City, IL. Dad was recognized by a number of other union members and waved over. The union rep at that polling place was a man whose name I’ve forgotten. I do remember Dad calling him a ‘loud-mouth.’

Dad checked in, had his name checked as voting on the union roster and was given a ballot with all the union-backed candidates already checked off. There were few, if any, items on the ballot unchecked. Dad introduced me to Loud-mouth. I remember he hollered, “Another UMWA vote here!” and pushed a ballot into my hands. He told me to follow my father and put the ballot into the same box as did my Dad. I looked at Dad. He looked down at me and gave a slight nod of his head.

A few steps away were the election judges, both union men. One took my ballot and Dad’s and stuffed them in the ballot box. The other had my Dad sign the voter roster. He asked my name and I gave it. The judge wrote it on the voter roster just below my Dad’s name.

I had just voted in my first election, at age nine. It was the union and Illinois way. In parts of the county today, I’m told the voting practices haven’t changed in the near-sixty years since I first voted.

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Happy Pre-Primary Day, Kansas and Missouri!

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First, for the morning headlines…

Drudge: DOZENS FROM EBOLA-STRUCK COUNTRIES CAUGHT SNEAKING INTO USA

Now that is a disconcerting headline! Local talk-shows Friday and over the weekend were up in arms about Obama bringing two American missionaries with Ebola back to the US to the CDC research center in Atlanta. The Ebola survivor rate is between 10 to 50% depending on the version.

What makes Ebola deadly is its long incubation period, ten days to two weeks, when it masks itself with flu-like symptoms. After that point, organ failure occurs and death quickly follows.

More importantly, there is no vaccine for Ebola. That is one factor in bringing the two Americans home—the hope of developing an Ebola vaccine.

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Jeff Cox, running for re-election for Cass County Presiding Commissioner, received a very favorable write-up from the Kansas City Star. A surprisingly fair report from that liberal, propaganda rag. It contrasted the two candidates—Cox, returning the county to its primary purpose, and paying off the massive debt created by the prior commissioners, and Morris, whose backers are those previous commissioners, Brian Baker and Bill Cook. Morris wants a return to unconstrained spending in the name of economic growth. It’s interesting that Brian Baker, one of the commissioners who supported the failed Broadband and TriGen projects, now works for the company, UAM, the company that failed to deliver those two failed projects. Hmmmm.

Can we say ‘conflict of interest’, Mr. Morris, by your mentors and backers?

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A poll has been released on four of the five proposed constitutional amendments that will appear on tomorrow ballot. One amendment, number 7, was not polled due to ‘conflict of interest.’ It does make one wonder how #7 is doing. From what I’ve heard from the grapevine, the words, “tax increase,” is killing it.

Poll: Remington Research Group surveys ballot measures

August 04, 2014 / by

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Remington Research Group in Kansas City conducted surveys on Tuesday’s ballot measures between July 31-August 2, showing a split between heavily supported and too-close-to-call measures less than 48 hours from election day.

Ballot measurers campaigns have raised millions to reach voters.

Screenshot 2014-08-04 08.15.47Amendment 1, also known as “Right to Farm” holds a lead but the race is too close to call. Supporters of Amendment 1 totaled 48%, with opponents at 40%, and undecided at 12%.

“Amendment 1 is going to be determined by turnout and could go either way,” Titus Bond of Remington Research Group said. “With nothing else at the top of the ballot to drive turnout it will really come down to who is more passionate about this issue. Amendment 1 supporters appear to have lost their message to Amendment 1 opponents but the ballot language may be able drive their campaign to a victory,” said Bond.

The other close race is with Constitutional Amendment 8, which seeks to create a lottery system to benefit veterans is very close with a high number of undecided voters. 41% of voters support Amendment 8, 46% oppose, and 13% are undecided. It has received far less attention than the other two races, but appears to be just as close.

Screenshot 2014-08-04 08.15.58There are two other proposed Constitutional Amendment appearing on Tuesday’s primary election ballot. Constitutional Amendment 5, which directs the state to protect 2nd Amendment gun rights, is cruising towards victory with 60% of voters supporting, 31% opposing, and 9% undecided.

Constitutional Amendment 9, which protects Missourian’s electronic communications from unreasonable searches and seizure is strongly supported by voters according to the survey. 67% of voters support Amendment 9, only 20% oppose it, with 14% undecided.

The demographics of the poll was said to match the turnout for the last four Missouri primaries.

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